Category Archives: General

Due to the lack of enrollment over the past 8 months the DMTA will cease operating at the Rhodes Jordan facility and operate out of the Mountain Park facility 4 days a week beginning June 1, 2008.  We would like to thank all those players that have attended the DMTA @ RJ over the last 3 years and hope they’ll transfer with us or at least keep in touch with the DMTA Family.
Until Next Time,
Bigdog

With the turning of a new year comes alot of inevitable things: New Years resoultions, trying to get rid of any weight that you gained over the holidays, getting prepared for the upcoming tax deadline to mention some of the obvious. One that has eluded the industry until now were the rates of the DMTA! The fees of the DMTA have been the same since 1995 but everything else has risen steadily over time. The new academy rates will be effective on February 1, 2008. Please check the academy DRILLS page for the new rates. To check on the new lesson and team coaching rates please go to the CONTACT page. The lesson & Team coaching rates are effective January 1, 2008. We at the DMTA don’t like price increases, and appreciate your patronage, but when everything else has risen over the last 13 years this is the first increase we”ve had!!

Until Next Time,

Bigdog

After watching the academy players for the last 8 – 12 weeks the Bigdog has decided to go back to the demanded work ethic that has made the DMTA one of the most respected academies in the southeast! A player can’t expect to earn anyone else’s respect if they haven’t put in the time and focused effort that it takes! Some players are gifted and can ride that talent for a while, but it will run out unless there is a solid work ethic to continue the players progress! The DMTA has never and will never be a farm because so much is expected from the players! These high demands will always weed out the weak and those that aren’t focused on who they are or where they’re going!! The current players can expect to be held responsible for any negative behavior and all the off court work that will be assigned in the immediate future!! The drill regimen will be the first and foremost change that the players will have to adjust to! Station training will be brought back and the players that have P.E. in school that adds some physical training will especially need to hang on tight!! All in all this will ensure that all the DMTA players will again this year as in the past be a strong presence at the Qualifier and at larger tournaments!! Even with the current players in the DMTA there should be 7-9 players in the top 40 in the state, and with 1-3 players in the top 300 in the nation in their age divisions! Stay Tuned!! Bigdog

OK, my silence is now over!! I’ve played tennis for a couple of years, started back when the balls came in a metal can to be honest, and to my readers the current point system for tournament players needs some serious adjusting!!! That’s to put it mildly!! I thought it might be only a mix up in the senior competition, who cares about those “old” guys playing, but as time has come to pass it is a wide spread problem. I’ll probably get banned from any cup teams in the future, but honesty has and will always be my policy, so here goes!!  How can a player play in a national tournament and receive less points for winning a main draw match then playing a district championship and winning the same rounds? In the senior division I played in the National 45 Hard-court championships last year and won 6 rounds. I received 15 points per round that counted towards my state ranking, were-as another player stayed home and played far inferior competition and received 20 points per round!! Well up until last week I thought this was a senior exclusive problem, but to my amazement no so! I had one of my junior players play in a category 2 national event where the top 64 entries from around the US got accepted and he won 2 main draw matches and 1 consolation match which was real good, but much to my amazement when the state rankings were updated he barley got any credit, on his state ranking, for playing lights out tennis against a top national field!! Other local players got more credit for playing and winning the same or less matches against inferior opponents!! It then became clear to me what was happening as my wife asked me this question – how can a player from Ga be ranked 31 in the south and there be only 6 Ga players ranked above him in the same rankings, but be ranked 12 in the state? It’s because of a couple of things!! Money and political correctness! The USTA can’t have a national player, like in the above case, that plays mostly sectional(southern) and national events, but not the state events, also be ranked at the top in their state, because this would take money out of their pocket and tell the local players that YOU’RE NOT AS GOOD!!!  The local players would come back with an excuse that they can’t travel to the upper level events because of the cost or time. Well welcome to the place called planet earth!!! If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen!!! If you don’t want to travel to the bigger tournaments then be satisfied with a sub-par ranking, below the BETTER PLAYERS!!! I’m tired of the USTA gouging all the players for more money and having a terrible ranking system that is afraid of taking responsibility and telling players that you’re not as good so work harder!! The USTA sets up their ranking system so that a player can be #1 in the state but lose to the #3 national player 6-0,6-1 from the same state and still be 40 points ahead of the national player in the state rankings!! I guess a head to head win isn’t worth anything any more! Well if you want a true feeling for where a junior player stands, especially in their graduating class go to this web site: www.tennisrecruiting.com ! Where a head to head win still counts!! College coaches go here because a win still has merit!! Oh yea, the people that run this web site also run a software company called tennisinformation which was where thw USTA got their idea for their inferior tournament running software back about 10 or so years ago!!! The USTA decided that they could develop their own software so they could make more money from us tournament players! Have you noticed how the $35 junior entry fees are now $38.15!! 3 dollars here and there add up to a ton of money at the end of the year!!! This was a one year increase!! Oh well enough griping about the USTA, their a monopoly and until someone stands up to them won’t nothing change! Still waiting on John McEnroe to weigh in on this and other USTA matters! Until next time, Bigdog

Hi All,
Welcome to our new website!! I’ll be posting pictures, video and making comments here quite often, so add this address to your favorites so you can come here and add your comments often! First on the list of topics is the fact that Roger Federer has about doubled the #2 player in the world and with 10 Grand Slam titles is certain, baring injuries, to pass Pete with 14 in the next couple of years! How many grand slam titles do you think Roger will end up with? It was also good for Serena to take the entire womens field and let them all know that they need to work harder on their second serves!! Wow, serves around the 70 mph range just didn’t and won’t get it! I hope the rest of the women took notice and start working now or Serena will walk to the French Open title also!! Until next time, Bigdog