We are now on day 2...day 4....wait maybe day 9 of quarantine? Actually it really feels like it has been day 275 since each day over the last week has now been meshed into one giant blur. In all seriousness, this is a very uncertain time not just in our state or our country, but all over the world. I hope everyone has been staying safe and continues to take best practice and healthy measures. Today, I want to try and provide a little spark into our now "boring" lives and bring some content as best I can. I tweeted last week to get suggestions on things that I could write about. I got some great suggestions and the first one I decided to start with is kind of a mixture and somewhat more informational. Today we are looking at things players can do while SOCIAL DISTANCING at home. This includes some recommendations (really all players should do these things) that can help you all get a jump start on the next stage of your life post high school. As I say at the end, feel free to shoot me any questions you may have or general things if you want to talk tennis!
Claim your profile on Tennisrecruiting.net
TRNs mission is to enable junior tennis players to compete at their college of choice and to provide the premier online experience for amateur junior tennis. Since the early 2000s, TRN has done just that. This site allows junior players to update their profiles with graduation year, high school, contact information and other achievements for college coaches to view. TRN is used by college coaches all over the country and serves as the primary place for coaches to find contact information for junior players. In addition, players can see which coaches have viewed their individual profiles.
TRN utilizes a rankings system by graduation year, and these rankings are posted weekly. Junior players can see how they rank compared to the rest of their graduation class across the country. This allows college coaches to quickly find qualified recruits for a particular recruiting year. Because TRN is the first place college coaches are looking to find contact information of junior players during their recruiting process, Iowa High School players......
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO
Sign up and claim your free profile if you have not
Update your graduation year and contact information (email, phone, address, high school etc)
Update other information as applicable (photo, academics, achievements, etc.)
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Claim your profile on Universal Tennis Rating
UTR is a newer tennis platform that has burst onto the scenes over the last couple of years. UTR is a global tennis player rating system intended to produce an objective, consistent, and accurate index of players skill in the game of tennis. All players are rated on a single 16 point scale, without regard to age, gender, nationality or locale of a given match.
Unlike TRN which uses a rankings system, UTR provides one scale for everyone as a rating. For example, a top mens college player who has a UTR of 13, is pretty much the same level as the #75 professional women's player with a UTR of 13. This utilization of ratings gives players, coaches and any tennis fan the ability to see how an individual players stacks up to the rest of the world.
Again - Iowa High School players.....
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO
Sign up and claim your free profile if you have not
Update your age and graduation year, and where you are from
Update other applicable information (photo, any other bio information)
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Contact 5 College Coaches
This is more for Junior and Seniors, but Freshman and Sophomores it is never too early to start looking around! While we are all enclosed at our homes, I challenge all of you high school players to take some time to look at some schools. You don't have to know exactly what you want to do right at this moment, but shopping around and exploring will provide you with more information that make peak your interest.
As you are exploring different schools, the main part of this challenge is to email 5 college coaches at schools you have some interest in. These point of contacts can be a chance for you to ask initial questions and learn more about that coach, their program and school.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO
Explore schools
Email 5 coaches at schools you are initially interested in
Even though we are not out on the courts getting prepared for the season right now, we can keep our tennis enthusiasm up by doing all three of these things! As always, if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a twitter message or email me. More than happy to help answer questions or just talk tennis.
More articles to come this week!
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