PTR 10U Certification: My Experience Exemplifies the Problem with 10U in the US. I took the PTR Course / Certification for 10U a couple years ago. I signed up hoping to see innovative stroke and tactical progressions for kids. Unfortunately, I was meet with the standard fare of bump it now, stroke it later, mentality. The idea that technique does not matter initially, that they can learn it later is absurd to me. I of course understand and agree that situations can be different. One may only be doing a short clinic and and hope to peak their interests with a taste of tennis. However, I see ROG as an opportunity to teach proper technique from the outset. It was made perfectly clear by the PTR tester that technique did not matter right now that it could what until later. Thats rather close to a direct quote. I understand that long lines with kids hitting one ball every two minutes is boring, ineffective and disinterests kids from tennis. However, this idea of bump now, stroke later has gone too far in the opposite direction. During the course apparently I had committed a faux pas by openly stating to the effect: cooperative drills are great but feeding was needed to really hone world class strokes. By the look on the PTR testers face one would think I had stumbled upon the code words for shooting his mother in the back. I was rather disappointed with the whole affair. The material presented felt on level with a USTA 10U workshop and I felt my time was wasted. I renewed the 10U Certification one additional year. But I could not justify spending the money on dues when I did not respect it nor thought it held any value.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 06:53:54 +0000