In the Trenches: Bring the FUN

Grow our great sport and retain as many players as we can!

Author

Susan Nardi
September 25, 2024

The results are straightforward. The #1 reason people start playing tennis is that it’s fun. The #1 reason people quit play is, it’s not fun anymore. Clearly fun is vital to the success of our sport. But what is fun? What are the KPI (key performance indicators) of fun?

Dr. Amanda Visek, a George Washington University professor, is the sports scientist/researcher who has created FUN MAPS. The FUN MAPS gives a blueprint on how to optimize a youth’s positive sports experience from childhood through adolescence. In the past, her research has focused on team sports. The USTA provided funding for Dr. Visek to do research and create a FUN MAP on tennis. The 2-page document below is chock-full of information on the 120 fun statements that participants in 11 “clusters” identified. As a coach in the trenches (7 school blacktop tennis programs in the public parks) I want to focus on the top 4 clusters and the one element that separates tennis, the individual sport, from the results of team sports.

Use the links to download the 2-part report “Final report_Identifying determinants of what makes tennis fun to inform USTA research-based programming”

Final Report Part1.pdf1.20 MB • PDF File

Final Report Part2.pdf1.33 MB • PDF File

The 3rd column on the first page has the 11 clusters on it. The top 4 clusters are:

1. Match Play
2. Positive Coaching
3. Working Hard & Learning
4. Developing Mental Strength

The questions to ask yourself when you are running your lessons/programs are:

1. Are you setting up match play?
2. Are you, as the coach providing more than the “good job/good shot” comment, as well as providing feedback that is encouraging and enhances the players’ performance?
3. Have you taught your players how to manage mistakes?


Every practice session should always have a match component to it. Tennis is first and foremost a game, and children love games! Instead of exclusively drilling how to hit the “perfect” stroke, kids need to put skills learned into practice. Teaching them how to apply techniques during game-based play combines both of these elements to maximize their enjoyment.


As coaches, we all need to improve our communication skills. We need to make sure our language is clear and concise as well as including lots of visual cues to enhance learning.


Lastly, we need to train our players and their parents that tennis players make mistakes.

Learning how to handle those mistakes will develop optimal technical skills and create more elements of mental strength. This is one cluster that team sports had missing on their fun maps that tennis (individual sport) has on theirs.

Let’s study this data from Dr. Visek and use it not only to grow our great sport but to retain as many players as we can by creating an environment where they have fun playing the game.

Susan F. Nardi
President & Fun Engineer
Rhino Crash Sports Group, Inc. 
Website: https://playtennis.usta.com/RhinoCrashSportsGroup

2021 Positive Coaching Alliance National Double-Goal Coach
https://youtu.be/XgjTJ7WRuic

Susan Nardi

Susan Nardi

Susan Nardi is a certified tennis professional specializing in creating and expanding innovative development programs for juniors 10 and under as well as developing high performance players. She creates development programs that ignite children’s passion for the sport and also giving them a solid foundation in playing the game.

Her company, Mommy, Daddy and Me Tennis, has produced dynamic videos and delivers staff training to help clubs in training their staff to delivery this successful curriculum.

Susan played college tennis at Elon College (NC) and Radford University (VA). She was an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, Cal Tech and Irvine Valley Community College.

She coached at the Van der Meer World Training Center on Hilton Head Island, SC work with high performance players. Coach Nardi was the head coach Capistrano Valley High school where numerous players went on to play college tennis on scholarship. She is the only female to be the head coach of the All Army Tennis Team.