As amazing as Tennis is, it is undeniably a sport with a lot of skill disparity. Similar to other racquet sports, learning the fundamentals of the game takes time and patience. As we launch our inaugural season of Tennis, our goal is to educate registrants on the skill level we aim to cater to, and thus avoid large skill discrepancies within our Recreational divisions.
The most appropriate way to determine if the level of competition in our Recreational Leagues is appropriate for your individual skillset would be by referencing the United States Tennis Association’s (USTA) National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP).
As you’ll notice, rating categories range from 1.5 - 7.0, increasing by 0.5 from category to category. In our initial launch we are only offering a Recreational division, and therefore, the ideal player will be in the 1.5 - 3.0 range. If you believe that your ability is above a 3.0, you might find that the level of play is not up to speed with your individual ability. However, we do hope to offer some Recreational Plus or Intermediate divisions further down the road to cater to these skill levels.
Another consideration is that all of our Tennis Leagues are co-ed doubles. So you may be thinking to yourself, “Can one player do all the ‘heavy lifting’, while the other floats?” Our answer to this, is yes, and no. We do not expect that every doubles team will be comprised of two players of identical skill, but do expect that the skill of each player falls in the outlined range above. Having one player significantly higher or lower on the rating scale can have a significant impact on the flow of the match and make the experience less enjoyable for all.
Finally, as with all of our leagues, we expect players to abide by our ‘fun-first, winning-second’ mentality. After all, nobody is headed to Wimbledon quite yet!
Feel free to call the office anytime for additional clarification on the rating program, or any other aspect of our new Tennis League. You can even take “advantage” of our resident Tennis expert, Jason "The IceBorg" Bridger.
