Spring 2023 MOmentum

2022-23

Board of Directors

President

TomJennings tomtennis101@gmail.com

1st Vice President TimShanahan shanahan93@cox.net

Treasurer Thiago Santos TSantos@genesishealthclub.com

Member at Large Shashank Nautiyal shashankhill@gmail.com

Member at Large Ryan Roeth ryanroeth10s@gmail.com

Member at Large Chris Smith csmithbluehillscc@gmail.com

Member at Large Caitlyn Sagraves caitlynmetseff@gmail.com

Past President Rod Zerni rodzerni@gmail.com

Executive Administrator Angie Koumaris angela.koumaris@uspta.org

VValley iewpoint

USPTA Missouri Valley Pros, Tim, Angie and I have just returned from our Executive Meetings in Orlando and I can say there is a lot to look forward to with the future of the USPTA!

We will be hosting more TE3's locally in the Missouri Valley so keep your eyes out for location and dates for those. If you or someone you know need to finish the certification process the TE3's will be more accessible and easier to locate.

The process to become certified as a USPTA Professional has been simplified and easier to follow. This information is laid out on clearly on the USPTA website so let's encourage our non certified pros to start the process of becoming a Certified Teaching Professional!

Lastly, I'd like to speak for all of the Missouri Valley when we celebrate John Embree's well deserved retirement as CEO of the USPTA. What John has done for the USPTA in his tenure has been tremendous but even on a larger scale what he has done in a career for the industry of tennis is to be celebrated. Enjoy the retirement years John!

Hope all is well for Mo Valley pros as we gear up for the busy summer months!

Head Pickleball Tester Bunny Bruning bunnybfs@aol.com

Tom Jennings

22 USPTA Missouri Valley Award Winners !!!

Paul Lucas Missouri Valley Pro of the Year

Bobby Huppert Star Award

Rod Zerni Kansas Pro of the Year

Mark Milner College Coach of the Year

Ryan Roeth Iowa Pro of the Year

Jan Steenekamp Oklahoma Pro of the Year

Matias Marin RH 91 Facility of the Year

Regis Fox Facility Manager of the Year

Georgi Cravero Elevate Award

Mike Saniuk Nebraska Pro of the Year

Ben Loeb High School Coach of the Year

Remembering Steve Henry of Oklahoma City

Missouri Valley lost a passionate, dedicated, and involved Tennis Professional last month. As the current Missouri Valley USTA President and Director of Tennis at the Oklahoma City Tennis Center, Steve had a large impact on tennis in Oklahoma and the Missouri Valley Division. He was an upstanding USPTA member and advocate for USPTA.

Steve and the Oklahoma City Tennis Center have won numerous USTA and USPTA awards over the years. On the local, division, and national levels. He loved tennis and growing the game. Steve will be greatly missed. Find his full obituary here and also donate to the Steve Henry Memorial Fund here.

The fund In conjunction with the Oklahoma City Community Foundation and the Oklahoma Tennis Foundation, this Scholarship has been created in Steve's honor to help fund college tuition of needing and deserving students in OKC.

MAKING TENNIS FUN!

According to the Physical Activity Council, more than 23.6 million Americans played tennis in 2022, a 33% increase over 2019. This is the highest number of players since the PAC study began in 2007. As a director of racquet sports, I am always thinking about how to attract more players and increase retention rates. Why has pickleball suddenly grown? The obvious answer is that it is fun. Tennis, on the other hand, is equally fun if not more so. The only reason I started playing tennis was because it was 'Fun'. How do we make others fall in love, so 2023 becomes the best year ever? How do we continue this trend of growing Tennis?

Make new and existing players fall in love with the game!

Written by Shashank Nautiyal Director of Racquet Sports Genesis Health Clubs USPTA Elite, UF DORS, PTR, PPR, PPTR, CTPS

I work in a place that used to be a tennis town. Over time this changed. When I was introduced to the community and the club by the National Tennis Director Mike Woody, who is one of the top industry leaders, he helped me understand that by doing fun tennis events, I could bring people back to the sport. At that time, I didn’t realize its importance. I followed his guidance and in three years my club conducted 160+ racquet events. Looking back at it, it was one of the most powerful teachings I ever received. It created a community full of tennis players and made existing and new players fall in love with the sport. This allowed me to introduce new players to existing players, and build a close-knit, supportive tennis family. As a result, the family accepts new players, creates joyful and memorable moments, and shares their success stories with each other.

As teaching professionals, we often talk a lot to convey the basic techniques and fundamentals of racquet sports. Drilling and feeding a lot of balls to students for practice results in boring lessons.

Tips and tricks to make tennis fun

So how do we make tennis fun? Let’s get started. First and foremost, tennis professionals must have an open mindset. With an open mind, the following tips will make tennis instruction more enjoyable for both the player and the pro.

•Creating challenges and competition - The introduction of competition into your session will challenge their current skill level and encourage them to improve. The reason for adding challenges is because it makes us feel like we are a part of something big. In the study conducted by Rodenbaugh et al. (2014), overcoming challenges makes people feel immensely accomplished. In addition to building confidence, mastering a challenge strengthens your ability to handle future challenges. Students experience real success and satisfaction through their own achievements and independent learning.

•Use different plays and activities to keep the interest of the players - Instead of making them run in lines to warm up, play with a racquet and a ball and do touches with a partner while sharing how their day was. This activity will set the tone and a sense of having fun and being listened to. Use your creativity to come up with activities where everyone participates, there are no long lines, and they are engaged in some activity.

• Listen, and let the players guide the lesson - Instead of always having them do what you want, ask the players what they want to do and help them create a structure. It empowers players and makes them feel in charge. This results in an increased learning capacity. This shows that you as a coach value their opinion and help build their trust in you as their coach.

•Insert personal touches - Often we focus on larger groups, which could steer us away from realizing that every individual is important. Some need praise, some need encouragement, while others just want to be heard. Make sure to take laps around the courts with a 15-second rule, where you compliment, encourage, and motivate an individual and move on to the next individual, followed by additional laps where you listen and interact with them.

•Adjusting the tone and communication style during instruction - Try giving feedback in a positive way instead of saying that was wrong. For example, how can we improve this shot? What do you think? Could you try dropping the racquet head more? Avoid being sarcastic, as it could demoralize a player.

•Play with your students - As simple as it sounds, they love playing with us. Playing with them to their level and adding an element of challenge can go a long way to developing a good relationship with your students.

Lastly, why tennis?

According to the Mayo Clinic, in 2018, tennis is the number one sport for adding years to an individual' It adds 9.7 years t person’s life, whereas jogging only adds 3.2 years to life. It also helps recreational, or competitive players burn between 350 to 1200 calories in an hou aerobic capacities, lowering resting heart rate and blood pressure, improving metabolic function, increasing bone density, lowering body fat, improving muscle tone, st increasing reaction times.

As an Official Software Services Provider of the USPTA, RacquetDesk brings together the crucial solutions that racquet sports clubs need. “After an incredible experience as the official sponsor of the USPTA 2022 World Conference, we knew we wanted to continue developing our relationship with the USPTA and its members,” says Alberto Genty, Founder and CEO of RacquetDesk. “We are excited to continue to serve the tennis community and the USPTA and help fulfill its members’ diverse management needs.”

USPTA members can receive a five percent discount off RacquetDesk standard pricing. Proof of USPTA membership is required. Members can schedule a demo with the sales team by clicking here or reach out to the sales team by calling (866) 393-5620 or emailing sales@racquetdesk.com.

ARE YOU CONNECTED?

Connect with other USPTA pros on social media

Official USPTA Missouri Valley page facebook.com/USPTAMissouriValley

Find-a-Pro. Visit USPTA’s free job listing service, Find-a-Pro, at www.find-a-pro.com, to find a job, list a job or find other USPTA Pros near you.

If you would like to place a job listing in the newsletter, please contact Angie at missourivalleydivision@yahoo.com.

Official USPTA page on Facebook facebook.com/USPTA.Official

Official USPTA Twitter @USPTA_Tennis

Official USPTA LinkedIn (Search USPTA)

Official USPTA YouTube Channel youtube.com/user/tennisresources

Official USPTA Instagram instagram.com/USPTA

Official USPTA Google Plus tinyurl.com/usptagplus

USPTA Acquires Multi-Year Endorsement Deal with Dunlop

LAKE NONA, FL, February 2, 2023 — The United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), Inc. is pleased to announce a multi-year endorsement with Dunlop as the Official Tennis Ball of the USPTA. In 1888, John Boyd Dunlop invented and patented the pneumatic tire for racing bicycles that revolutionized the cycle and automotive industry. Once commercial tire production began a year later, the Dunlop brand was officially born. In 1923, Dunlop entered the tennis market with the creation of their first tennis ball factory in England. Their chemical-inflation and vulcanization production process resulted in greater product quality and consistency.

Now celebrating their 100th year, Dunlop is the Official Ball of the Australian Open Grand Slam and is trusted in more than 40 worldwide ATP and WTA professional events and globally recognized as the Official Ball of the ATP Tour. Their notable standards of quality and attention to detail throughout the process of testing and developing ensures the highest levels of performance and consistency for players across all conditions and playing surfaces.

“In searching for a new ball endorsement, we wanted to find a brand that was known for quality, durability, and visible on tour,” said John Embree, USPTA CEO. “Because Dunlop also has a competitive pricing advantage in the marketplace, our members should seriously consider using Dunlop for all activities at their facilities. We are thrilled to add Dunlop to our family of endorsees.”

“Dunlop tennis balls are known for exceptional quality, consistency and durability,” said Kai Nitsche, VP & General Manager of Dunlop Sports Americas. “The USPTA is the global leader in tennis teacher certification and Dunlop is proud to now be the Official Ball. Dunlop is the #1 Ball on the ATP Tour and is chosen by the World's best tennis players, so it’s a perfect partnership for Dunlop to now be trusted by the world's top coaches as well.”

USPTA Signs Endorsement Deal

with SES Lighting

LAKE NONA, FL, February 6, 2023 —

The United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), Inc. is pleased to announce a multi-year endorsement with SES Lighting as the Official Outdoor Lighting System of the USPTA.

SES Lighting is the Master Agent for North America for high output quality lighting fixtures, heavy duty pole structures and lighting control systems. For outdoor tennis facilities, SES Lighting team members are experts in both retrofitting LED systems and new project construction. They use high-quality products that provide successful outcomes in any lighting application. SES provides IES (Illuminating Engineering Society) Certified Lighting Designs and have won BoardRoom Magazine’s Excellence in Achievement in Sports Lighting Award for the last seven consecutive years.

SES Lighting rigorously tests all products in its Golden, Colorado facility to ensure they will stand up to conditions and meet their standards of failure rates below 1%. Their lighting systems are customized to each facility, keeping in mind each locations goals and budget.

SES Lighting provides a turn-key solution that includes project management, product procurement, installation, and lighting engineering. Each court is engineered for the proper fixtures, angles and heights with proper sports lighting design. The brightness, uniformity, and color rendering LED lighting provides is superior to legacy technologies. These parameters allow players to track ball flight and make the sport more enjoyable and competitive.

“We’ve gotten to know the folks at SES through our last couple of World Conference Trade Shows,” said John Embree, USPTA CEO. “They expressed a real interest in working with USPTA professionals, so it made perfect sense for us to put together a partnership. If you’re a USPTA member looking for outdoor lighting, give them a call.”

“We take ownership in every project we complete and function as an ‘Owners Representative’ for our customers,” Nelson Scott, Founding Owner of SES Lighting said. “We only represent high quality products and have a lengthy track record of providing successful outcomes for the tennis community. We strive to exceed our customers’ expectations in everything we do.”

The United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), Inc. is pleased to announce a multi-year endorsement with CourtReserve, as an Official Software Services Provider of the USPTA. This is the first non-exclusive endorsee partnership the USPTA has entered, giving its members a choice to use the provider that fits the needs of their business.

CourtReserve is an all-in-one court reservation & club management platform with a concentrated focus on the racquet sport industry. The web-based software platform is flexible and configurable to setup court scheduling and utilization, along with features like program management, member management, and automated communication.

CourtReserve empowers pros with scheduling tools, a mobile app, online payments and other features to help clubs run with ease and confidence.

“CourtReserve is proud to be an official endorsee of the USPTA and believes strengthening relationships will continue to push tennis and racquet sports forward,” said Ashley Owens, Founder of CourtReserve. “With CourtReserve's dedication to the USPTA divisions over the last five years, we continue to value this organization's educational and teaching aspects. We are excited to work with more USPTA pros for years to come!”

Any USPTA members who email through CourtReserve's website (courtreserve.com), meet them in person, or set up a call with the sales team should mention they heard about CourtReserve through USPTA to receive a five percent discount.

Newsletter of USPTA’s Missouri Valley Division

405-819-6294

email: angela.koumaris@uspta.org

Editor Angie Koumaris

Contributors

Tom Jennings & Shashank Nautiyal

MOmentum is published quarterly by the Missouri Valley Division of the United States Professional TennisAssociation. The opinions expressed in MOmentum are those of the authors and not necessarily those of MOmentum or the USPTAMissouri Valley Division.

Copyright© Missouri Valley Division/United States Professional Tennis Association, Inc. 2015 All rights reserved. Reproduction of any portion of the newsletter is not permitted without written permission from the USPTA Missouri Valley Division.

Advertising information

Ads will be in black and white. Prices are per issue.

Full page $115

2/3 page $100

Half page ..................... $57.50

1/3 page $45

1/4 page ....................... $30

Business card $18.50

Discounts are given for ads whose frequency rate is two or more per calendar year. Contact Angie Koumaris at abtwonder@yahoo.com for a rate card and circulation information.