When Words Collide, Sentences Form

(Tennis) Kids These Days

Well, this post is going to make me seem at least 2x, cancel that and make it 3x, my age. But, oh well.

So tonight I spent 7.5 hours as a roving umpire for a 12-18 year old boys tennis tournament. (No, you non-tennis people, 12 year olds didn't play 18 year olds...it's 14 & under, 16 & under, 18 & under.) I decided either that I am incredibly unhip or am thinking like an old fogey when it comes to the clothes kids wear when they play tennis these days.

When I was a junior tennis player, we wore tennis clothes to play tennis. Our skirts matched our shirts, or we wore dresses. The guys' shirts matched their shorts. And we all had warm-up suits with matching jackets and pants. Here was the scene at the tourney tonight:

Every single boy was wearing size XL clothes. But here's the really funny part...no matter what size the body, the clothes were all the same size. A kid that should be wearing small or medium clothes wore XL. A kid that should wear XL wore XL. It was so strange. It's not like the kid that should wear XL wore XXL or XXXL to get the same effect. So I have a theory. Either there are lots of stores out there that are completely out of XL clothing, or there is 1 store that ONLY sells XL clothes.

Also, it's a good thing they started making basketball shorts with pockets, cause that's what the kids seem to be wearing these days. And random t-shirts or cut-off sleeve t-shirts that have nothing to do with tennis. There was even a kid wearing cargo khaki shorts. THOSE AREN'T MEANT FOR TENNIS! Oh, and nothing matched.

And for warm-up pants...you know, the stuff you wear over your shorts cause it's freaking cold outside on your way to the match...some of the kids were wearing jeans over their shorts! Or baggy cargo khaki pants. Oh, for 20 pairs of XL nylon warm-up pants from Nike to give to these kids.

When I was working the boys & girls state HS tourneys, I learned that the state high school association in MN has very a strict uniform policy for high school tennis players. (FL has one, too, but it's no where near as strict as MN.) But because of this uniform policy, the kids were all wearing tennis clothes. Or at least they weren't wearing basketball uniforms with pockets. We didn't have a uniform policy in the NY state high school federation. We could wear whatever we wanted. But we usually wore tennis clothes! At least I always did. The "non-tennis players" on the team at least just wore coordinating shorts and t-shirts. Am I pathetic that I think that MN has it right for tennis and there should be a dress code for USTA juniors, too?? "Way back in the olden days" when I played, you could tell the juniors playing in the tourney apart from the juniors just there hitting or watching because they looked the part. Now, I can't figure out who is a player, who is a friend, or who is there for the 3-on-3 pick-up games.

Part of the problem rests with the clothing suppliers because it's nearly impossible to find a warm-up suit these days. You can find "cute" pants and "cute" jackets, but not warm-up suits! Like where you buy the pants and jacket together and they charge you one price! You can't even find an individual jacket and an individual pair of pants that match to create a warm-up suit. Let alone find real tennis clothes, or sneakers, now.

And I don't buy the excuse that it's expensive to buy "tennis clothes" - you should see the cars that these kids drove up in or were dropped off in. Their families can afford Lexi and Hummeri and thousands of hours of private tennis lessons. They can afford to buy matching clothes. Lord knows they have enough that doesn't match!

God, how sad this dissertation is. Am I really only 27??? Zoinks, I am 15 years older than many of the kids in the tourney tonight. All of these kids grew up playing under the "new" rules of tennis. They have never known having a change-over after the first game of every set and kids 16 and under have always been mandated to take a 10-minute rest after the second set if they split sets. And they have always gotten a changeover after the end of a set, no matter if it was an odd or even game. Oh wow. Scary. They have it sooo easy :)

posted by Steph @ 10:11 PM