Rankings can be especially discouraging for young players. Here’s why: rankings tell you only whether you are above or below another person, not how close or far apart you are from those players competitively, and this is more important to understand for your development.If you rank 6 players, it appears that the #6 is close to the #5, that #5 is close to #4, and so on. But when you find out that #1 is Rafa, #2 Novak, #3 Roger, and #4 Del Potro, and that you and I might be #5 and #6, we see that rankings don’t give us a realistic picture of how competitive we are with the players above us, or below us. So when you were a junior player, Josh, when you had a great ranking, it was motivating for you to be that high, but when you tell a young player that he is ranked 10,282 in his state, it can be pretty discouraging. This is often why kids drop out… And worse, when this ranking is based on points per round rankings, it encourages me (or my parents or coaches), it encourages me to hunt for the easiest points for the least amount of risk. This happens on the ITF Junior Tours, on the men’s and women’s pro tours, and in most federation-sanctioned events, including the USTA’s. Players have an incentive to chase “easier” points. Any system like this will always favor those with the deepest pockets. Asking players to chase points simply does not encourage healthy behavior, especially in younger players, who often develop overuse injuries as a result of playing too many events. Moreover, experts in youth sports development have confirmed that rankings, for all but the best, discourage participation and risk-taking. UTR Ratings, on the other hand, tell us where we stand relative to the players around us, based on our actual performance against real players. It’s more motivating. Tell a young player, “Look, you are doing great. You’ve already made it up to Level 7 and based on your recent results, your rating is moving toward a Level 8. Here are three things you could improve on to move up to a Level 8.” (Ed Note - Check out University of Pennsylvania Men's Tennis Head Coach Dave Geatz's article on “How to Improve Your UTR”). It’s a huge motivator when you can help a young player understand that by improving say, his conditioning, or her backhand down the line, it means they are improving, and passing not just the kid ahead of them, but many other players around that level. How much more motivating is it to think about your development from this perspective? UTR’s goal is to help you find more matches within 1.0 of your rating, to help you optimize your development. What is so cool about UTR is that the odds of playing a competitive match go up 200% or 300% when you are playing someone within 1.0 of you, up or down. Sadly, most tournaments seeded according to points per round rankings often result in a much lower percentage of competitive matches for everyone. UTR’s algorithm is set up so that players can improve their rating by playing both up and down. Sadly, there seems to be a misconception among a small group of players that their rating can only go down when they play someone with a lower UTR, which results in some withdrawals that hurt not only the opponent, but the player himself in ways he, or his parents, or coaches, may not realize. Getting a higher grade at the expense of learning is not a great strategy for improvement! As any college coach knows, allowing a player to avoid “down” matches will make that player a less resilient competitor. Playing “up” requires one set of emotional “muscles” while playing down requires another (less pressure overall). While you have to manage that nervousness: “What if I lose?” Playing up helps you learn to manage that “heart in your throat” response, the “do I belong here” feeling. But there’s also less at risk for you. If that’s all you experience, you’ll never learn how to “seal the deal.” Playing up only develops one set of muscles, but doesn’t make a complete competitor. There is an entirely different kind of pressure when you play down. How do you bring your best when the other person is not asking for your best? It’s a different kind of emotional challenge. Imagine going to the weight room and saying well, I just want to develop my right leg (playing up), but not my left leg (playing down). You can’t move unless both legs have been developed fully.
Playing up only develops one set of muscles, but doesn’t make a complete competitor.And, tennis is based on respect for the game and for one’s opponent. Leaving someone high and dry in a tournament is not sportsmanlike, and will kill good competition over time. You can see that zero matches would be played in a system in which players