| Another Debate Question - Elite Athlete Development in Fencing v. Tennis
The quote below is taken from the usta.com web site with information on player development in the sport of tennis.
Candidates -- please compare and contrast the means of developing elite athletes in the 2 sports in the context of your plans for the next quad.
Is anyone familiar with the organization, administration and structure of the sport of tennis so that they could compare the effectiveness of the national training centers, tournament structures, and national coaching programs for the 2 sports? From my initial impression based on the website, tennis does not appear to have a huge network of national volunteer committees and local volunteer divisions to make policy and administer the sport, but appears to rely on volunteers to grow the sport and employees to administer the sport. Tennis has top international players at the senior level and a professional level of play. Fencing does not. What are your thoughts on this subject?
"Elite Player Development
The USTA Elite Player Development program is designed to actively assist in the development of the next group of top male and female American players. To accomplish this goal, we are committed to working closely with parents, personal coaches and the various private academies in an effort to help produce a multitude of players that will compete on the ATP and WTA tour and ultimately become world class American champions.
Our program assists with the development of players in following ways:
* Bring our best players together to practice and play matches against each other
* Provide direct or supplemental coaching based on the player's developmental unit/need
* Develop a working relationship with personal coaches
* Impress upon the player the importance of physical fitness and off-court training
* Impress upon the player the importance of developing mental toughness
* Provide video analysis to improve technical aspects of the player's game
* Provide speakers on various topics in order to educate players and parents
* Provide play-off opportunities for wild cards
* Assist players with the proper balance of scheduling the appropriate level of tournaments (including exposure to international and pro circuit competition at a younger age.)
The aim of our program is to develop a united national culture among players, personal coaches and our staff, so that American tennis can be the strongest in the world. The Elite Player Development Program is composed of Men's and Women's tennis programs. The Men's Program is directed by Rodney Harmon and the Women's Program is directed by Jean Nachand. The USTA currently has 20 national coaches, ten on the men's side and ten on the women's side. Each of these coaches is responsible for players born in a specific year or a group of professional players. In addition, when these coaches are not traveling to tournaments they work at one of our two USTA training centers (Carson, CA and Boca Raton FL) and train the players who are on-site. The list below details who the national coach contact is for the various age divisions. " | 
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