Specifically, the e-mail notes that year-end ratings should be published in the first few days of December, but if you want to get your rating sent to you via e-mail early on November 29th, they will do so if you take one of three Safe Sport training courses by November 11th.
The three courses are:
- Parent’s Guide to Misconduct in Sport
- Abuse Prevention for Adult Athletes
- SafeSport for Volunteers
I will admit I've been aware of Safe Sport and have always thought it was largely applicable primarily to juniors, so found it interesting the USTA was seemingly sending this to all USTA League players (those that care about their year-end level) as it wouldn't really be applicable to this audience.
I did take the 2nd and 3rd course above to see what the content was, and indeed they are both very much focused on juniors or youth/collegiate teams and scenarios related to that. Certainly what is covered can apply to any sporting situation and USTA League does have teams, but none of the content addressed those sorts of scenarios.
The cynical part of me thinks the USTA has Safe Sport training metrics they need to meet and is looking to boost the numbers by using the perk of getting your year-end rating early. There is nothing wrong with that, and some USTA League players have kids playing sports or interact with high school or college teams, but those metrics will need to be looked at with a lens knowing they were perhaps artificially boosted with members the training doesn't really apply to.
Am I being too cynical?
It is also interesting that the USTA apparently will have the ratings ready by 11/29 but it choosing to hold on to them and not publish for four days. This is perhaps by design, wanting to wait until the work week to publish and have staff available to deal with the influx of questions and complaints, but if a lot of people take the Safe Sport training and get their rating e-mailed to them early, it is really no different than just publishing the ratings on TennisLink on 11/29.
In fact, it could cause more confusion as players get an e-mail with their new rating and then go to TennisLink and still see their old rating. It all seems a little odd.
And to be honest, it really would be a service to league players to just publish a little earlier as some leagues start immediately in January and have registration deadlines in early December which really puts a crunch on captains to figure out who can captain which team and figure out rosters. The four extra days could really help.
What do you think?
I've never heard of Safe Sport until a few days ago. I don't see an issue with the USTA trying to meet a quota if that's actually what they're trying to do though I don't know why them meeting a quota is even necessary for anything. But you might be right, and if you are, it's just another seemingly harmless bribe that actually seems like a good thing as this training is meant for good.
ReplyDeleteI want to say November 29 isn't actually that early if any relative to other years and 4 days difference shouldn't be a big deal, unless you have early-start leagues going on where your team only has 2-3 matches left in the regular season after November 29-December 3 range, then it certainly would be a big deal if that team needs to add additional players to counter bumped-up players. Many leagues are starting well before ratings usually come out at the end of November/start of December. These are the leagues with by far the biggest issues of keeping players at the correct ratings for advancing teams. The USTA probably have the ratings figured out well before they publish them each year I'd imagine.
But, it does seem odd that some players will get their ratings 4 days before others. I have my doubts that the USTA will actually show players their ratings 4 days early if they complete this training though.
Agree it is a harmless bribe, and the training is a good thing regardless. It is just very curious the two are linked.
ReplyDeleteThe timing issue is for areas like mine where we have to have team forms in and minimum numbers of players registered less than a week after ratings are published, so an extra four days would really help.
Agree that it is curious the two are linked.
DeleteYes, a few more days right before certain deadlines would help. But, I'd think and hope teams would have this figured out and certainly the minimum number of players on the roster already registered and confirmed before ratings. Maybe your area doesn't, but my area allows teams to withdraw after submitting their team forms after seeing the new published ratings, as long as it's done before coordinators finalize and publish schedules.
Really, everyone should be able to see their ratings on November 29, and the others would get their ratings on November 25 if they complete a training.
Kevin do you still do player reports? Do you have an email so I may contact you?
ReplyDeleteOh I found it. Sent you an email :)
DeleteAgreed that in the PNW even a few extra days is nice for teams, though this year it is the 40+ captains that have to deal with potentially losing players who are bumped and not me for 18+ (18-39 coed has slightly less of an issue since it is based on combined ratings). But to be helpful to the captains, all their players would have had to do SafeSport and let them know on Nov 29. I don’t really see why USTA takes so long in general after all Nationals are complete.
ReplyDelete