One of our readers sent us this Facebook Post from Coach Da-Lai Wu in New York:

There have been many recent posts about assistant head pros and staff pros....

I had a club owner who I used to coach 25 hours per week for 5 years except 3 months in the summer, tell me that he interviews 50 people for a position, chooses two or three, hires one, and that person usually gets fired in a month and he starts all over again. Now this guy is an excellent businessman. Came from middle class family that did not have a lot of money and now he owns four tennis clubs and two or three other businesses in recreation--and he's an immigrant who came here at 8 years old! I responded that I could not understand that and I never ever had a problem with a pro. He immediately got my grill and said, "that's because you only hire players that you coached or coach! You have a built-in system where they know exactly everything that's expected and they have total loyalty to you and not to the dollar! That's not a fair comparison!" I never thought of that but that's the reason why all the programming that I've ever had has never had a problem. My players would never want to disappoint me. Even if they took mass transit they would be at the club a half hour early. And I always made sure no matter how old they were, even recent high school grads who were rising freshman and had not played varsity college tennis yet, that they were paid market rates or better. In 1999, my guys at my country club were getting paid $30 per hour just for hitting lessons! In my community program where I specifically took a cut and only charged 33% of my normal rates to run the whole program, all five of my pros were getting paid $35 per hour and that Rose to $40 per hour between 1999 and 2009. I actually had a complaint from the president of the US PTA in my section, that I was paying my guys too much and that staff and assistant head pros from other country clubs were complaining to their tennis directors and head pros wanting to be paid more.

Obviously I'm going to pay guys that I was coaching and who paid me tens of thousands of dollars, very well. My system is that you pay me as a junior. I pay college players and pros to be your practice partners. When you become a college player, I coach you for free and you never pay me a dime! I ask you for a favor to hit with the kid, you get paid, but if I ask you better hit! Why? Because I made sure that that was done for you. When I coach college teams, I get professional players or players from other colleges to practice with my number one and number two players. Thus, when I tell my number one or number two to play with number five, six, seven, eight.. they better just go and do it without blinking an eye because they can't complain that they, as a better player, has to play with a weaker player when I consistently get better players for them to practice with. Take all those players and put them in a country club and they know your system. You now have a staff where you can never go wrong!

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Da-Lai Wu

September 1, 2022

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Rich,

Sometimes Tim Russell should substitute common sense for his Ph.D.  It sounds like he is advocating for a ban on foreign players or a limit on the number of foreign players on each team.  You cannot limit the number of foreign players because USTA player development does not produce enough American juniors to fill all the D1, D2, D3, Juco, etc positions. In many cases, coaches recruit foreign players because they see a college degree in the U.S. as a way to get ahead in life. Diversity in the form of foreign students is what college is about.

if you look at the top college players in the U.S. none of them are top-ranked players.  Peyton Stearns, Texas, is ranked 350ish in WTA.  She is a fabulous player.

Look at Vania King's Linked In account - she claims to be an elite athlete.  She lives in LA and has nonprofit helping tennis players in Uganda.

Are these players elite players - https://www.usta.com/en/home/stay-current/national/usta-names-2022-collegiate-summer-team.html. They are the top college players and the only ones capable of being in the top 54.  In fact, they are more like top 10 - nobody else matters.

I cannot speak specifically to what the USTA, NCAA, and USOPC are up to.  I don't know how many players, American or foreign, would be at a disadvantage by not being called an ELITE player.    Who are some of the foreign players who have received preferential treatment over American players?  Who were the American players who were not treated fairly?  I am sure you are correct, I just don't see how the disadvantage exists.  

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The Commish

Everywhere, USA

Pronouns: They/Them

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