The Richmond Tennis Association has a rich history of providing support to Richmond’s top juniors, helping them succeed on the mid-Atlantic and national stage. The RTA is investing resources to invite Richmond’s strongest players to participate in a new program called Richmond Elite Development.
Players in year-long team sports such as soccer have long benefited from the built-in support of a team structure. Richmond Elite Development aims to combine the inner-team benefits of a structured team with the individual-centric nature of competitive tennis, helping strong players become even stronger.
“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” ~ Arthur Ashe
Richmond Elite Development will materially support Richmond’s top 16 boys and 16 girls with college tennis aspirations to help them achieve and develop greater tennis potential through higher ratings and overall readiness.
This program is a collaboration between the RTA and area’s pros, clubs, collegiate coaches, and recent Division I players. Helping players create their pathway to college tennis is a central goal of this program.
Richmond Elite Development is a 9-month program filled with challenging play, events, sports psychology, mentoring from college players, and more. Similar to college tennis, the play events will be coached match-play, but without the stress of results affecting ratings and rankings.
Richmond Elite Development is not an academy and does not replace individual coaching or high-performance clinics. Richmond Elite Development is an additional layer of opportunity for players to train with others within a .5 UTR rating while building camaraderie with others who have collegiate tennis aspirations.
Each academic year, players will be invited to participate at no cost to them. Supplemental opportunities may require an out-of-pocket cost but these will be elective and not required.
Acceptance into the program commits a player to attend a majority of the sessions and maintain a USTA tournament schedule in order to realize the rating and ranking gains that college coaches screen for. Strong, positive player character is required—players will be suspended or dismissed for lack of attendance, commitment to themselves or others, or lack of respectful play or sportsmanship on and off the court.
Invitation criteria was vetted with area pros and coaches and features stair-step rating thresholds by academic grade that represent a potential pathway to high-level college tennis
The RTA may invite a player via pro/coach nomination, and if the player does not have a reliable rating.
Q: Where and when will the monthly play events be held?
Events will be held at various locations around Richmond, including hard and clay courts. A schedule of the events will be presented at the first event. The events will most likely occur on a weekend morning or afternoon.
Q: How is a player identified and invited to this program?
Individual ratings (UTR, WTN, national USTA ranking, and recruiting stars) were used. All data is considered, but individual UTR is used as the primary metric. The RTA did its best to identify as many Richmond players as possible and include them for consideration. A Richmond player may contact Maria Sorkin to be considered for the program.
Q: What if you can’t attend a session?
Sometimes life or a tournament may get in the way. The program tries to select weekends with consultation from Mid-Atlantic USTA staff to avoid national and regional high-level tournaments. Commitment to this program is important to its success. To stay in the program, players must attend a majority of events and communicate in advance if they aren’t able to attend.
Q: What should players and parents expect on the first event day?
Approximately two hours of coached and mentored team competition will be played among matched UTR competitors. Richmond Elite Development water bottle will be given out, and everything will be provided. At the start of play, parents will be asked to participate in a 45-60 minute session on expectations for the sessions ahead.
Supporting and promoting the sport of tennis among adults and juniors in the Richmond area.
Supporting and promoting the sport of tennis among adults and juniors in the Richmond area.