Fiend At CourtUSTA Sport Science Research 2026: High Performance Player Development By Teresa Merklin on November 2, 2025—Two excerpts:

Playing high-performance junior tennis is expensive and often prohibitively so. Families drop out of the competitive pathway not because their children lack talent or passion, but because they simply can’t afford to stay in the game. Travel, equipment, and coaching costs create barriers that exclude many promising athletes long before their potential can be realized. The USTA needs to explore sustainable, transparent ways to subsidize training and travel that are accessible, fair, and equitable.

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 Elite-level player development doesn’t just happen in academies; It starts with the local coach who spots a spark in a kid at a park court and knows how to nurture it.

Of the three grant categories, I suspect this is the one that will attract the most proposals. Everyone loves the idea of developing the next great American champion. That’s understandable, but it also misses the point. The most impactful research might not be about training elite juniors at all, but rather creating an environment where excellence can grow naturally. That starts with broad participation, access to affordable instruction, and community-level engagement.

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Another Reality

“ For every Serena or Naomi, there are thousands of families who went all in, only to come up empty-handed. It’s a system built on dreams, but powered by delusion.

And yet… that delusion is part of what keeps the junior tennis engine running.”

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Playing high school team tennis is about the only way to inexpensive match experience in the  U.S.  (Tom Parham ).  

The SHOT DOCTORS

https://tomparham.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5840&action=edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sg8qPj4zvCNPhYlKy0mHe9ByIkTA-JHsUAywiW9Jv0E/edit?tab=t.0

NEWSWORTHY  ELON UNIVERSITY

Interesting happenings at Elon:

ELON/QUEENS !  Check it out. 

ELON POLL :  The Elon Poll is doing well. The Elon / NCAA  report is thorough, but sadly exposes NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO DO!

https://www.elon.edu/u/news/elon_departments_cat/elon-university-poll/

George Kirby:  Breathes there a soul so dead that doesn’t know about this former Elon baseball pitcher?

 ( He started the 7th game of the pennant playoffs.  Google George Kirby, click on highlight clip featuring 14 KO outing ).

Coach Cignetti and Indiana University football.   Former Phoenix head coach.  Nuff said.

” I learned to listen to an old man who had been there, even though I didn’t think he knew much .” ( Thomas Linne )

I taught THE CARE OF ATHLETIC INJURIES for twenty years. I had a confrontation with football people in 1968. Spearing, or the helmet to helmet and helmet to knees technique, was killing and maiming football players. ( still a problem ).

I believe I have been presient on several issues because of direct experience. Some serious ( Iraq, sports gambling–see news today, current events ). Probably have written more about International college tennis players than anybody. You can read about that growing like kudzu in college basketball in today’s news also.

Tennis evolution ( see dropshots , drop shot defense, topspin lobs, the circle stinger, match length).

Politics today ? James Carville amonished a mythical Oshkosh Wisconsin couple recently : ” You thought if you voted for Trump he’d get you that new refrigerator. But you f&^$#ed up. It ain’t happening. You made a mistake!”

The NO KINGS protest gave us our slogan ( “We are the leader we have been looking for.”)

Some see mocking him is the ploy. Carville doesn’t self censor much but

“Always remember, if you mud wrestle a pig, the pig likes it.”

From Dylan -IT’S ALRIGHT, MA

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he’s in.

If he can’t stand criticism —-Enough paper cuts may do the job.

“We are are the leader we have been looking for!”

1945

“Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world.

Red and Yellow, Black and White,

they are precious in his sight.

Jesus loves the children of the world.”

2025

Jesus loves most of our children.

Almost all of them are white.

Wetbacks, commies, jews and queer,

we gonna make em disappear.

Jesus love only those who white ?

By Elon University News Bureau, staff

October 9, 2025

The link below is to an article written January 2004. Twenty one years seems a long time for an argument to last, but the truth is this conundrum began at the begining of American college sports. ( 1852–Yale vs Harvard rowing teams )

Winning (money ) vs Education (people ). Bare bones.

How to let wallets rule one and separate the “student/athletes “into their own strata?

What would emerge? No one seems to know.

If the gamblers continue at the current rate they will create pain. If, as suggested , the Government engineers the future, grab your ankles .

https://littlegreenbookoftennis.com/?s=square+peg%2C+round+hole

Has there ever been a picture like it? Eight hundred faces all with the same look (“What a crock of crap!”).

The last couple of weeks have produced a lot of that look:

*Epstein

*Comey Inditement

* The Eulogy ( all GOD’S christian chilluns )

*Bomb Portland

* The AI of Schumer/ Jeffries

*SHUT IT DOWN

• How many pushups can you do ? A draft dodger threatening those leaders?

What IS frightening is what if those 800 are afraid of those two.

“All we have to fear is fear itself!” (FDR)

From today’s NEW YORK TIMES (Adam B. Kushner )

American players are doing better than they have in a generation. Both the men and the women are winning tournaments and crowding the top 20. 

American tennis associations have done a great job of making sure the best kids got access to top coaching during the past 15 years. Tennis is an expensive sport. Few families can afford the costs of elite development. Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, Amanda Anisimova, Coco Gauff — all needed help and got it in various forms. Title IX also means the government must provide the same amount of opportunities for women’s sports as men’s sports, which has built a culture of women’s sports over the last 50 years.

Losing can be hellish. I envisioned Hell as sports losing. Seated in a black, damp room, hell was being forced to repeatedly hear the sound of a second tennis serve hitting the net. Alernately silence is hell , as a 2 foot golf putt is “pulled”.

Lately I have wondered about some issues unrelated to sports. So, at 85 years I googled my symptoms:

“…characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. Common tics are blinking, coughing, throat clearing, sniffing, and facial movements. These are typically preceded by an unwanted urge…”

NOTE: With an impressive list of personal health issues , I am sensitive to sufferers.

The quote above appeared under the definition of Tourette’s Syndrome.

Reflecting on my symptoms, while similar, I realized the problems developed in concert with my attempts to use new technology. Daily, while trying to find a password, add a new skill or remember an old one, I would turn into Mr. Hyde : Angry, screaming, retching. violent unsolicited jerking, blinking and throwing things.

Eventually I realized I was and am experiencing a new syndrome I have decided to define as

“Tech Tics”.

https://wordpress.com/post/littlegreenbookoftennis.com/5870