Hello dear readers, friends, and racket sports enthusiasts. Welcome to the new edition of Racket Business but to begin with there’s two special messages from Rich.

“Firstly, it’s congratulations to the Boys In Blue! Living in Los Angeles makes me especially proud that our LA Dodgers won the World Series 2024. The whole town is celebrating.

“Secondly, I hope you don’t mind the length of the LETTERS section in Publisher’s Notes this month. My October article Spotlight OTF Gender Bias Against Women In Tennis has stirred a lot of emotions and we received heated rebuttals from the OTF side. If I was wrong, I sincerely apologize to the OTF but the person who made the accusations comes with very good credentials so I decided to run it. In this month’s LETTERS, I posted both sides’ standpoints and hope we can move on from here.”

Also in this issue we’ve let Rod Heckelman loose for his pearls of wisdom from a couple of big questions on his mind… “Is there a way to save that once-great atmosphere and at the same time recreate that level of personal service offered by the independent pro shop?” and “Still scratching your head about which way to go with your club coach…Independent contractor or employee?”

Our ever-popular coach mentor Steve Whelan eulogises on why coaches should be left to do their job instead of having their work interfered with by those pesky parents!

In similar vein, Floridian Academy owner Tamer El Sawy feels the question of how to choose your coach warranted sone thought. And he should know, being a former ATP Pro, a coach, an academy entrepreneur and now a tennis parent.

We’re delighted to include a European influence to this month’s issue as we welcome a fascinating interview from the man at the helm of the hugely succesful Ljubicic Tennis Academy, based on a tiny but stunning island just off the coast of Croatia.

Which, alongside Rich’s usual ‘from the coal face’ reporting, all goes to make for a newsletter that will no doubt elicit more conversation and debate than we could possibly cover ourselves, but that’s the whole point of Racket Business isn’t it? To get you lot thinking and scheming!

Simply click or tap the articles below to read them in full on RacketBusiness.com

Rich & Tim

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