Four Reasons Why Scrapping Mini Orange & Mini Green Ratings Is A Good Idea
On 1 April 2020, the LTA will be scrapping mini tennis ratings at the orange (u9) and green (u10) age groups.
This follows a move a little while ago when mini red ratings were also scrapped by the LTA.
As a tennis parent and coach, I wholly endorse this move! Here’s four reasons why…
ENJOYMENT FIRST: With mini orange and green ratings you move up from 3 to 1* by winning matches – this puts the emphasis of competing on winning – not on developing your game or on enjoyment. At u9 and u10 I think the most important thing is to enjoy playing tennis – not to worry about winning or losing.
PRESSURE: To move from orange 1 to orange 1* - for example - you had to win 20 matches against orange 1 or orange 1* players. Players knew how many wins they had and the pressure built as they got closer to the target. I must get to orange 1*. This pressure wasn’t a healthy bi-product in my opinion. Again, tennis at this age should be about enjoyment and development – not how many wins you can wrack up.
TOURNAMENT WITHDRAWLS: Parents would focus in on a tournament not on its locality or facility but on the rating of the players competing. ‘Oooohhhhh, there’s 8 orange 1* in this tournament’ or ‘Doh, there’s only orange 3 in this tournament’. Players would be withdrawn from tournaments if there wasn’t the right rating mix. Players would chase wins, wins and more wins against players with a particular rating. I’m just not sure that’s the way it should be.
REWARDING WINNING: The rating system was set up to reward winning not getting involved and having fun. Tennis is of course a competitive sport and it is always cool to win. But there’s more to the game than that and at such a tender age it should be about getting involved and enjoying our brilliant sport.
So good work LTA – let’s put the emphasis of competitions on having fun and learning about our brilliant sport – not just about win win winning!
