Sr Nationals - More Participation Needed
By David Kjeldsen

It’s that time of the year when National Championships are starting. So, it must be time for my annual rant.

First, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am a senior. According to my children I am mighty old. They question whether my elementary school had electricity. They ask incredulously whether I ever watched black and white television? AARP counts me as one of their valued members. Both PaddlePro and the APTA send me information on a myriad of tournaments for players my age.

The above said, I am of the belief that platform tennis has too many National Championship tournaments for seniors for the participation levels that seniors exhibit across the country. I realize that this is contrary to the policies that are currently in place and that many, many folks will disagree with me, especially those few who play in the events.

Please understand that I am not questioning the ability of the players who participate in these events. I applaud their continued participation, their enthusiasm and their athleticism. I am sure that in all cases were I to play any of the senior players, men or women, regardless of age, the warm-ups would be longer than the matches, and I would be competing and losing to “Bye” in the Last Chance.

But it is my feeling that ideally there should be no National Championships if there are no tournaments for the particular player age group in every region of the country. I am willing to accept that this criteria may not be feasible to impose in regions where there are a minimal amount of players, but I would think that if there is going to be a National Championship there should at least be ranking or preliminary events in four out of the seven regions across the country prior to holding a National Championship. Okay, maybe since our sport is so small the magic number is three out of the seven regions? Maybe it is two? One?

According the 2008/2009 APTA schedule of events, the following senior National Championships have only one tournament a year for the particular age category and that is the National Championship itself: Women’s 40+, Women’s 60+, Women’s 70+, Men’s 55+, Men’s 65+, Men’s 70+, and Men’s 145. This season, some of these events had only 16 participants, not teams… 16 players!!

I know there are many, if not the majority, who believe there is no harm in having lots and lots and lots of National Championships. The more age categories there are, the more participation that is encouraged. I on the other hand see events with draws of eight teams as a gathering of friends rather than a National Championship. Heck, many of us have participated in Friday night newcomer platform mixers with more people, less publicity, that didn’t cost as much. I find it hard to call an event where players hail from only a couple of neighboring regions or even a couple of adjoining states “national.” To me at least a couple of participants have to travel a couple of hundred miles to call it a “national” tournament otherwise it’s “local”.

So the question now becomes how does the APTA encourage more play in the senior ranks? The players are there. How does the APTA get them out?

Let me know your thoughts.

what do you think? let me know! info@platformtennisnews.com

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