 Hello and welcome. My name is Philipp Halfner and I'm the Director of Exercise and Sports Science at the IWAPH and I'm also the author of Advanced Concepts of Strengths and Conditioning for Tennis. In today's episode I will explain why UST President Joe Bogosin is wrong about the reasons for the decline of US tennis. Bogosin basically states three reasons. One, technological advancements. Two, too much domestic competition for talents. And three, too much competition outside of the US. Now that doesn't really sound convincing, does it? So let's take a closer look at what Joe Bogosin was saying about the decline of US tennis. According to Joe Bogosin, who is Chairman of the Board and President of the USDA, the USDA's mission is to promote and develop the growth of tennis with focusing on promoting and developing the growth of people through tennis. When asked about the explanation of why there was a recent decline in US dominance in tennis, while other countries, especially European countries, have caught up in recent years, his responses were basically like this. First, the professional game has changed significantly with advanced technology, especially with strengths. The game is now largely played from the backcourt and it's not as easy for American players who learn to serve and volley to compete. Second, in other countries, tennis is one of the most popular sports right behind soccer. In the US, the best athletes have a wide variety of other sports they can choose to take up. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has opened up in ways we never thought possible and tennis has caught on like wildfire in countries that never used to exist. As Tom and Friedman has said, it has indeed been a fled world. But one could argue that John McGoason's answers to the problem are inadequate because his conclusions are incorrect. So let's dissect his first answer in more detail. The professional game has changed significantly with advanced technology, especially with strengths. True. The game is now largely played in the backcourt. True. He concludes, therefore it is not as easy for American players who learn to serve and volley to complete. Wrong. But first of all, I don't even know who he's talking about. American players serve and volley. He must be still thinking maybe about Pete Sampras, who was fairly successful in it. But doesn't style of play have to do with coaching with me, you know, your tennis coaches, what kind of strokes they actually taught you, meaning stroke production? Can you hit a slice? Can you do one handed backhand? Are you comfortable volley? Do you have a good serve? Do you have a decent second serve? Can you kick? Can you slice? All those things. Then how about fitness, mental toughness? All those things are variables that will determine how successful you're going to be on the tour. So it would have been a better approach to actually talk about how to improve the quality of USDA coaching or the overall program the USDA offers to its high performance players. Now, the second reason, in other countries, tennis is one of the most popular sports right behind soccer. True, such as in Europe. In the US, the best athletes have a wide variety of other sports they can choose to take up. True, conclusion, popularity of tennis is higher outside the US and competition with other sports is higher within the US, which implies that more and more people play tennis outside the US than inside the US. The problem with that conclusion is that he's comparing apples with oranges. In America, we have about 300 million population and 27 million of them, you know, basically play tennis on a regular basis. So we're talking about roughly 9% of the population in America is playing tennis on a regular basis. Now, if you take countries like Germany, for example, have a population of roughly 81 million and we have about 5 million people overall playing tennis, all of which one million plays on a regular basis, then we're talking about 1.2% of the population. So, in other words, even if tennis only ranks 6th in the population in America, when it comes to quantity, meaning how many people are playing, it's still a very large amount of number compared to, let's say, with Germany where tennis is ranked number 2 in popularity, but only 1.2% of the population actually playing the sport. And the third and final reason, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has opened up in ways we never thought possible. True, tennis has caught on like wildfire in countries that never used to exist, maybe. Conclusion, more competition has led to a decline, to a decline of US tennis. Well, competition in sports is usually a good thing because it helps people to excel, people have to work harder and they, you know, go after each other and that's how everybody involved gets better. And it's kind of a late excuse for a market leader, if you look at it like that, like the US used to be in tennis in the 90s and actually in 2000 as well in dominating the sport and now they're always suddenly complaining about, well, it's too much competition and that's the reason why, you know, we can't keep up with the success we used to have. And countries like Germany where people are playing, at least there were, you know, tons of people playing, a lot of kids were playing, everybody wanted to be a stepping off a boys' pickup, but now, you know, there are many, many, many good tennis players in Germany, female and male, but nobody really is able to win a grand slam. So the number of people that are actually going out to the sport has dropped considerably. The infrastructure that people in America have available at the USDA, at Division I universities, I mean, now, you know, we're talking about 20 courts, hot courts, clay courts, hot through courts, grass courts in some instances, even then you have registered, you know, dieticians available for the athletes, your athletic trainers, your strengths and conditioning coaches, your tennis coaches, when you have anything that anybody could want in order, you know, to be able to be successful running tracks, anything. And yet people are not able to produce successful athletes in U.S. tennis. And so I would think it might have to do with the quality of the coaching involved. There have to be quality people involved at the highest level of the game. And I don't think that there is really the case. Well, that's it again for today's episode. As usual, opinions differ. What's your point of view? Let us know below in the comment section. A brand new episode will be available next Sunday. So make sure you don't miss it and subscribe. In the meantime, I recommend you watch some of the previous episodes. You should really watch them all. If you like what you saw, tell your friends. I'm sure they will appreciate it. I'm Philipp Halfmann. Thank you for watching and auf Wiedersehen! Music by Dan O at danosongs.com