The November/December issue of Tennis magazine is a special report on the state of the American game. Heavyweight freelancers Doug Robson and Christopher Clarey contribute, and two of the magazine's staff, Christopher Chung and Steve Tignor, also pen articles on the theme. Chung's about "straightening out the collegiate game," and Tignor's about where U.S. dominance went. I just received my issue today, but I've read everything, and there's not much to argue with from my perspective. In addition to the print articles, which are not available online, is a "web extra" roundtable discussion with Eliot Teltscher, Pam Shriver and Jim Courier. The link is here. I disagree with Pam Shriver on college tennis and agree with Jim Courier on the flat world. There's lots of other ideas to chew over and they touch on the "hunger" issue that always rears its head in this conversation.
But for a really strong statement on the issue, you've got this Dale Robertson story in today's Houston Chronicle, that quotes legendary coach John Wilkerson as saying:
Our kids get the money and the fame, and they stop trying to improve," he said. "We don't excel nowhere anymore because we get too much too soon. We're developing a bunch of wussies."
The article is full of that kind of straight talk, which I've found is a prominent characteristic of the best junior development coaches. And if you want to hear Wilkerson's theory on why there are no more serve-and-volley players in tennis, that's there too.
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