Chris LewitAn opinion piece that was recently published on Medium
There is a dirty little secret in the cloistered world of competitive junior tennis: Cheating and gamesmanship are rampant—and nobody is doing anything about it.
For many children and parents, their first exposure to the junior tennis circuit is a shock because junior tennis is one of the few sanctioned sports that has the kids referee their own matches and keep their own score.
Many parents report a traumatizing first tournament experience for their little champ, full of tears and frustration. It is a well known fact in the industry that many kids play only one competitive tournament and never return to the circuit.
Interestingly, the US has more than 10 times the number of high school team junior competitors as compared to competitive junior tournament players. Why such a high discrepancy? Because most of the nice kids play high school tennis where the environment is less cutthroat and the cheating and gamesmanship is minimized.
On a Saturday or Sunday morning, you will not find kids on the soccer field keeping their own game score or players on the basketball court calling fouls; but in tennis kids as young as 8 years old do just that. Moreover, parents sit (or pace) on the sideline helplessly and are not allowed to intervene when there are disputes.
It is true that most sanctioned tournaments have roving umpires or umpires that players can request to assist in a dispute resolution; but by that time it is often too late. Savvy players know how to manipulate the system and the referee, or they just resume cheating when the umpire leaves the court after a short time.
The big question is WHY? Why can’t the leaders of the sport in the ITF, USTA, UTR, and other sanctioning bodies put an end to cheating in junior tournaments once and for all?
Some in the business say it would cost too much money to provide the necessary supervision. Others say that kids calling their own lines and scores makes them more mentally tough and independent. “It’s just part of the game,” they insist. “Makes the kids stronger,” they assert. Many say that the responsibility lies with the coaches and parents—not the governing bodies or tournament organizers—to teach better values to the kids so that they can resist the temptation to cheat. It is a societal problem, in their estimation—not a tennis problem. There is also a contingent of Deniers who insist that cheating is not really a big deal or not prevalent enough to warrant concern.
There are, however, many coaches in the tennis community who have become alarmed by the extent and intensity of the cheating, and they have advocated for change. Unfortunately, their cries have consistently fallen on deaf ears—for decades. There is just an incredible institutional inertia on this issue stemming from a culture of rationalizing and excuse making.
It is time to stop cheating in junior tennis once and for all. It is time to stop the excuse making and rationalizing. All stakeholders in the game of tennis have a common goal: to increase the number of kids who love the sport. Very few kids and families want to participate in junior tennis with inherent cheating.
Tennis should be designed and sold as a product that the consumer will be eager to purchase! The institutional leaders and tournament organizers should meet and coordinate to offer—once and for all—events with a NO CHEATING GUARANTEE. The sport—and the kids—deserve this simple promise.
One exciting avenue in the future is that technology may offer the solution to the cheating crisis. Companies like Playsight—and other pioneers—now offer computer scored matches and line calling video review, in case of disputes. These types of technological innovations hold the power to change the landscape of competitive junior tennis and hold the promise to end cheating permanently—within the next couple decades.
Chris Lewit is the author of The Secrets of Spanish Tennis. A former #1 for Cornell University and pro circuit player, he has been a high performance junior coach in New York City for the last 15 years.
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