Draper's seven year masterplan

Did anyone else spot Draper's latest tennis initiative on BBC breakfast news this morning? I quote: "It took Sir Alex Ferguson seven years to win anything at Man. Utd. and just look at the number of trophies he's won since."

Great analogy Roger except (as too glaringly obvious to all but you) he was a proven manager who had a game plan and actually knew what he was doing. He ensured their academy was up to the job of producing local talent and imported players like Cantona where necessary. Plus he made sure he had the right coaching staff and support for all his players.

Draper (on the other hand) rehashes old ID talent ideas, has seemingly lost all those expensive coaches and managers he brought in (at considerable cost may I add) and is is now, in all probability relying on three youngsters to bail him out. Of these only Laura Robson could be called an LTA product as Heather Watson definitely isn't and Oliver Golding may well base himself in south west London but is no LTA product either.

Fast forward a couple of years and it'll be Chairman Draper calling it his "ten year great leap forward plan" or something similar. Honestly the guy must think we're all as daft as the LTA was for appointing this joker in the first place.

i don't really think the analogy of football works well for tennis, as Legend has stated before I think they need to promote the game at the grass roots level and let the talent come up organically. You need to have millions of kids playing unstructured for fun regularly to produce a few dozen good juniors, to produce a few good pros, and one or two real champions.

socal1976 this late4st initiative is to find youngsters with raw athletic talent, or so Draper claims. The LTA would then look to channel them into playing lots of tennis rather than other sports although quite how they hope to achieve that was unclear.

The problem with Draper is that he talks a good game but that's all it ever is- talk. He'll be sitting there come Armageddon still talking up our prospects.

I don't know newballs it sounds a lot like Mao or Stalin's five year plans with the same top down emphasis. Just build the courts and let them play for nothing. That is the best way to insure a whole generation of great players. That is sort of what happened in spain due to the building of a huge number of courts for the olympics a few years ago. in the immortal words of kevin costner in Field of Dreams, "build it and they will come".

Roger Draper, see you in the dole queue

When I hear Roger Draper speak I wonder whether he has a hollow for a brain - the wheel's turning but no hamster in sight.

If one examines the high turnover rate of staff at the LTA that is just one indicator of the internal troubles with this organisation.

I'm not a supporter of the LTA or anything, but I never like it when people talk about which players they have 'produced'.

The FA don't 'produce' football players, the clubs and their academies do. UK:Athletics don't 'produce' athletes, again that's down to clubs and individual coaches.

That said, I don't accept that Laura Robson is a LTA 'product' any more that I accept that Heather Watson isn't. LTAD is a lot more personal than being 'produced' by a governing body.

newballs wrote:socal1976 this late4st initiative is to find youngsters with raw athletic talent, or so Draper claims The LTA would then look to channel them into playing lots of tennis rather than other sports although quite how they hope to achieve that was unclear.

Ah, the ancient Roman recipe of taking a Greek, two weeks of training, put a sword in his hand and call him a gladiator. And just like the Gladiatorial fights, they all end up lion fodder, piecemeal.

Flawed plans, flawed administration, flawed business model, flawed ethics and with a bit of luck a floored Draper from a Free Tennis uppercut.

What a Prize Numpty.

The problem with these arguments is that nobody ever seems to have any ideas besides 'compulsory tennis at schools' or 'build courts on every street corner.'

A modern problem in all sports these days is attracting enough youngsters, and of those youngsters attracted, enough of them being physically suitable for an international career.

There's a lot of demand for a kid who has the potential to be tall, strong, and has a high percentage of frast twitch muscle fibres, as well as a natural propensity for sport.

i agree good comment

The reasons I say schools dj is because there is a greater chance the children will come into contact with a tennis racket.

The current system is flawed for how it is trying to encourage and develop youngsters.

Tennis fights cultural issues with it's appeal to youngsters in terms it doesn't offer the 'glamour' football and is seen as a 'middle' class sport too with things such as 'court fees, club membership'

Expectations needs to be 'realistic' most British tennis fans would settle for another male in the top 100. Henman is the last 'true' product of the LTA. Watson and Murray had their development outside of the LTA. While I support them for flying the British flag for tennis, I can't help but feel their success highlights the failures in the LTA.

The LTA never seem to learn from their success's of past and failures.

Saying schools in fine, it would be the ideal place for youngsters to get introduced and involved with tennis.

The problem is that the LTA has no control over what is on the national curriculum and whether tennis is seen as an integral part of PE lessons, and even less control as to whether schools have the correct facilities.

Most schools wouldn't even touch the idea of tennis in the school simply because it's such a logistically difficult sport to teach a large number of kids. Particularly in schools where crowd control is more the order of the day than learning.

I still don't really think that Watson and Murray highlights the failure of the LTA at all. By the time they moved abroad (not for particularly long in Andy's case) they had already developed into good players.

The LTA's role, in my opinion, is to provide an environment in which players like this can be 'produced' and not actually 'produce' the player themselves. So one could argue that it was the LTA that provided this for these players, and once their potential had been identified (by themselves and the people around them, more than anything.) they decided to be proactive in looking for other ways to further their career.

It is difficult, but if tennis got into schools 'recreationally' and schools had a link to tennis clubs, or even membership incentives and discounts if schools provide a certain number of members would offer incentives both ways.

I think if the LTA limited their involvement in 'developmental' stages of a juniors career would then ask the question about the LTA's existance. I think the LTA need to be involved, but need tweaking with the coaching set-up and to develop a program that enables juniors to keep on improving into their developmental years. They can do it, just needs someone with the vision and the know-how of how to take it forward.

Well I do hate to be a party pooper here but you have to work from the top down. Having worked in a large Comprehensive School and Community College I can tell you that the Principle (and he was not alone in his thinking) did not encourage competitive sports. Now I know what you are going to say the same as I did no doubt.. Life is a bliddy competition.. but he did not see it that way and he actively discouraged (other than athletics because he got a grant from the County Council to use our Athletics Track). This is where the initiative has to start and frankly from my angle if you had a Principle like the one I worked for you would have more chance winning a third world war. These are the barriers that have to be broken down and I believe parents have to actively intervene here and bring pressure to bear on the individual schools to encourage our kids from a very young age preferably the Primary Schools

djlovesyou wrote:I'm not a supporter of the LTA or anything, but I never like it when people talk about which players they have 'produced'.

The FA don't 'produce' football players, the clubs and their academies do. UK:Athletics don't 'produce' athletes, again that's down to clubs and individual coaches.

That said, I don't accept that Laura Robson is a LTA 'product' any more that I accept that Heather Watson isn't. LTAD is a lot more personal than being 'produced' by a governing body.

djlovesyou I mentioned LTA product because they seem to believe it is within their remit to produce tennis players.

Noticeably in Spain (which seems eminently more successful in that particular task) the national federation plays second fiddle to the academies.

i was going to say that wel said

It would be ideal to have a few privately owned academies in this country, but it's just not viable.

Who's going to want to pay good money to play tennis in the UK? I suppose we could produce some good indoor players.

dj it would make much more sense to have shall we say 2 to 3 academies competing against each other to produce top players rather than the so-called Roehampton performance set up.

Roehampton is waste of money and space. I have always wanted the system to be more de-centralised to encourage innovation in coaching and like you say NB generate competition.

djlovesyou wrote:The problem with these arguments is that nobody ever seems to have any ideas besides 'compulsory tennis at schools' or 'build courts on every street corner.'

A modern problem in all sports these days is attracting enough youngsters, and of those youngsters attracted, enough of them being physically suitable for an international career.

There's a lot of demand for a kid who has the potential to be tall, strong, and has a high percentage of frast twitch muscle fibres, as well as a natural propensity for sport.

Well, for a start those are two pretty good plans, I don't see a problem with building a lot more courts or making tennis more popular in schools.

I have personally said that the LTA should provide free hired equipment and free recreational courts to the kids, as there are not enough of them and tennis equipment is not exactly cheap when compared to football etc. This would mean more courts being supervised as well as maintained. That will be the true cost to councils and the LTA.

Encouraging kids is quite easy, if you build it they will come.

I only know of one park with good public facilities to play tennis in my area, 4 courts, all hard and there is a little hut where you can hire a racquet and balls and pay for the hour or two. Its not always manned, so there is a P&D machine there as well. Most of the time it is well attended, but only a handful of kids are on it during the weekends and holiday breaks, but thats not too bad considering. Its just that being the only place to play tennis in this way is restricted to one place/area. There should be more courts like that and a concerted effort to advertise them, in shops, local newspapers and schools and social clubs etc.

In contrast, there are three other courts that I know of, all are run down and not maintained at all. One hard court, and two tarmac. There are no nets and only one has any recognisable markings on them.

That is the sad state of tennis in public spaces in this country, its the same story you hear a lot on here and down the local.

Unfortunately until GB gets a Wimbledon Winner tennis will always
be considered an elitist sport in the country.

Football Rules KO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not looking good then is it Yummy.....football is such an easy game to organise and play, anywhere that has an open space and you can play, practice, train to your hearts content, on your own or with any number of people, all ages as well.

I myself learnt to play tennis against a brick wall, day after day, sometimes in Devonshire Park when it was empty (way back in the 60's) but even with a place like that, it was not snobby funnily enough. I ballboy'ed a championship there, but not on Centre court , and used to ballboy for the members for half a crown or a florin when I was around.

How different it is now !

Tennis was much more open to the public/kids then, and courts were more available. The three main parks in Eastbourne had courts, some were clay, some Hard and my local were grass. If you were a kid and showed interest, they let you have a game now and again and encouraged you to take it up.
I was lucky, in that my park was across the road and it had a private club (never was a member) attached to it as well as it being used for tournaments.

Yep, I was a very lucky kid at that age.

Me too Jubba !

I used to hit a ball against our wall for hours !

Didn't do me much good though - The blasted Dog
kept taking them !

Jubbahey wrote:
I ballboy'ed a championship there, but not on Centre court

Aaaw...Jubbs

It would be my worse nightmare, being a ballboy/girl at Wimbledon, on CC.

I'd be chasing the ball all over the place, desperately trying to get hold of it......and on National TV too...oh the shame.

Solerina

Oh.....you were "that" girl were you, I remember the commentators saying how bad that ballgirl was.....Nah, not really, only joking.

CC at wimbledon eh? you lucky thing, if a big bully git hadn't got me thrown off the tournament for being better than him, then I may have got to the CC. Gave some story about me not turning up for a match when he told me to go report to the office, then the admin got hold of me and sacked me.

He later apologised when he found out the truth, and paid me for the whole week.....18 shillings, god that was a fortune in those days.

Jubbahey wrote:Oh.....you were "that" girl were you, I remember the commentators saying how bad that ballgirl was.....Nah, not really, only joking.

CC at wimbledon eh? you lucky thing, if a big bully git hadn't got me thrown off the tournament for being better than him, then I may have got to the CC. Gave some story about me not turning up for a match when he told me to go report to the office, then the admin got hold of me and sacked me.

He later apologised when he found out the truth, and paid me for the whole week.....18 shillings, god that was a fortune in those days.

Lol Jubba!

Jubbahey wrote:CC at wimbledon eh? you lucky thing,

I've never actually been a ballgirl, at Wimbledon ( or anywhere else), it's just something I think about, whenever I watch those kids,

Solerina

Jubbahey, but you're relying on the council to care about the state of tennis in the country.

You you honestly think they do?

The amount of money the LTA has may seem like a lot to you and me, but it certainly doesn't cover the building and upkeep of thousands of municipal courts.

I appreciate the schools thing too, getting kids involved in tennis is much easier in good schools (but those are the sorts of kids who are born losers aren't they, those who can articulate themselves in an adult fashion?) but in most schools, it's a no go area. But I guess it's easy to blame the teachers.

One thing about the LTA is that they get millions every year just from Wimbledon alone. They could help subsidise the building and maintenance of courts with the councils in partnership with them and get help from "Tennis for Free" and "TennisUK".

The government could stump up a bit extra to help along the way and it could all work very well if there was the incentive to do so from the quarters of the LTA.

Schools are between a rock and a hard place.

For starters, they get a certain amount of equipment, but it is not top notch and sadly, the kids don't treat their racquets as if their lives depended on it. I see them knock a ball between them at playtime and even if its with air racquets they are getting some kind of swing together. The rock is the playground as I should think most schools do not have a dedicated court and since the playground is inhabited by up to 300 kids, its a bit difficult for the kids to get a decent game together.

The hard place is the coaching, which the school has to pay for after school hours. As I mentioned elsewhere, half the kids don't really want to be there, half of what's left are just doing it for a bit of fun and the rest are up for it. Out of between 10 -15 kids, that's not much of a coaching session when 3/4 are mucking about.

The schools want to encourage their pupils to have choices in their lives and sport is quite high on the agenda, but Tennis is not as high as Football, Cricket, Rugby, Netball or PE. the real problem is not having a Tennis Court available. This is where Tennis clubs come in, they should provide the link between school and the kids who want to take it further. Some do this, but not enough to provide a nationwide matrix of coaching that is easily sought after to allow parents to give their children a place to grow.

I still subscribe to the idea that if we want to get as many kids playing tennis, it will have to be done down the local park and its has to be free for any kid under the age of 14. I remember Bournemouth having a multitude of clay courts, properly maintained and run by a coach and an assistant. When I was working in Bournemouth, they were one of the first centres to get the "Short" version of tennis. It was free for kids under a certain age and of course they came in droves. That is my enduring memories of kids having fun with a tennis racquet. The pro there said it even got parents involved and some went on to play tennis for the first time in their lives.

But it needs money and lots of it. The LTA have coffers full of the stuff and if they wanted to, they could work in liaison with other bodies and provide a lot of parks with facilities to play tennis.
'If' they wanted to.
Local advertising on courts, sponsorship advertising from sports shops providing equipment, the list is endless if they want the courts to generate money as well as interest, but they need to get off their backsides and do something worthwhile about it.

Of course it doesn't help having local councils close down and sell off the playing fields of England as brown sites for redevelopment.

Someday, everything will be indoors, underground covered in concrete.

They still play a clay ITF 10k in Bournemouth each year. Guessing this is the same place.

"Draper's seven year masterplan"

To make himself a millionaire through his big hefty yearly wage packet for not producing the results he had said would happen at the start of his contract as the LTA Chief Executive or whatever job title he had then.

'Fraid not Dj, there were 8 clay courts there a few years ago, but I just Google Earthed it, in street mode and they are now what looks like astro turf or all weather/sanded green carpet. Three indoor, so it looks like there are still 8 courts altogether but no clay.

Looking at the ITF site, they play at the West Hants Tennis club now.

17 year-old Liam Broady just beat the top junior seed to reach the Wimbledon quarter-final:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/13959080.stm

... and what is his relationship with the LTA? - none:
“The LTA wanted us to fall into line and we won't,” Broady Sr said. “They have made life so awkward for us that I had no alternative but to cut ties with them. I speak to a lot of people in this area who don't even know Liam plays tennis and when I tell them our situation their answer is always the same - that our face and accent don't fit.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article4916388.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jun/21/wimbledon-2011-naomi-broady-lta

Thats a great news cover Nore, thanks for that.

Just goes to show that internal politics and favouritism still lurk in the Old School Tie brigade.

Such a shame that two great British tennis potentials are stricken by red tape paraphernalia. <nods head in dismay>

Hey guys

Overlooked Broady when talked about emerging talent. And, yes, it seems the LTA can take little credit for his achievement.

Beating the top seed is no mean feat particularly given that both Morgan and Goding lost on Tuesday.