Decades may have passed since your stint at tennis camp or your last doubles debacle, but across the U.S., tennis is gaining ground as a recreational sport in a way it hasn't in quite some time. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association's most recent participation study, participation in tennis between 2000 and 2005 grew by 12.2 percent. Not only did it achieve the highest growth rate of all 114 traditional sports tracked, but participation in golf, the sport stalwart for meeting groups, grew only 2.4 percent over the same period.
Fortunately for planners, you don't have to know anything about the game to coordinate a successful, memorable eventalthough you should consider hitting the court, too.
Tennis 101
"It's very simple [to organize]. It's no more complicated than one or two phone calls to a pro to give him a list of the players," says Veronica Scrimshaw, who plans meetings for NPA, The Worldwide Recruiting Network, in Grand Rapids, MI. Scrimshaw's attendees include a small but devoted group of tennis players who like to play in a round-robin or mixed-doubles tournament at NPA's annual meeting.
Tennis professionals agree that for the planner, a tennis activity can be a hassle-free addition to the meeting agenda. For a basic event, a planner need only call the tennis director with "a ballpark idea of how many people will play," says Karen Brandner, director of tennis at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO. Tennis pros are adept at working with planners who are unfamiliar with the sport, so they know what questions to ask to determine the skill level of attendees and the setup that will suit the group best.
Most pros opt for a round-robin tournament, which allows all players to compete against one another. "It's a great equalizer and you have a chance to mix with a lot of people," Brandner explains. It's also easy to add or remove players from the activity; "groups must be divisible by four, so if you have, say, 18 people, we'll throw two of our pros into the mix as well," says Tim DiDonato, director of tennis at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island of Hawaii. DiDonato runs Kohala Tennis, which is based at Waikoloa Village, but he also partners with the Fairmont Orchid Hawaii, Mauna Lani Resort, Kukio Resort, Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort and Spa, and Hilton Grand Vacations Club.
It's important to know the personality of players before setting up a tennis event. For particularly competitive groups, Brandner says, "We keep things moving and keep everything very structured and fair. Other groups are more laid-back and want more of a fun experience," she says. If planners have avid players among their attendees, tennis clubs can easily set up a traditional, serious activity for those individualswith or without tennis pros. "Sometimes you'll hear, 'Well, we have a couple of ringers in our group.' No problem; we have a couple of ringers on our staff," quips DiDonato.
Everybody Wins
For the most part, tennis pros recommend striving for a fun, social event over an aggressive competition, to make beginner and intermediate players comfortable and keep competitive players from becoming mean-spirited and confrontational. Because the sport is based on one-on-one or two-on-two competition, social round-robins keep emotions in check and attendees from feeling that they are being singled out or bullied, which would defeat the purpose of the activity. "We don't want to intimidate them. The competitive environment is what turned a lot of people off from these corporate outings, so we try to minimize that," says Brandner. "Our goal is to make it a social event," adds DiDonato. "I have people stay and watch after their match is over. We'll have beer for the spectators, maybe do the wave, so it's fun for them to stay." Prizes help too. "Make sure that everybody gets a prize," recommends Howard Moore, program director at the Saddlebrook International Tennis Center in Tampa, FL. Most planners give each player a T-shirt or baseball-style hat and opt for a gift certificate to the pro shop for winners.
"In a run-of-the-mill, organized tennis activity, people worry, 'I don't know who I'm going to be paired with' or 'I haven't played since last summer; I don't know how good I'm going to be,' " says Moore, who advocates incorporating something unexpected into a tennis eventbe it a clinic, some carnival-style games, or a noncompetitive "cardio tennis" activity that involves music and a lot of running around, but "you don't have to be particularly good at hitting the ball.
"What you're doing with the guests for an hour and a half or two hours is saying, 'You've just gotten out of meetings and instead of going to the gym and walking on a StairMaster, by golly we're going to get you outside on the courts where everyone can bond, sweat, and have a good time, and then we're going to go have dinner together,' " says Moore.
Group clinics can accommodate a range of ability levels, and for neophytes an introduction-to-tennis clinic is an easy, nonthreatening way for attendees to get a feel for the game. To accommodate beginners and travelers, many tennis clubs will rent tennis shoes in addition to rackets and balls. As Brandner says, "Most travelers throw in one pair of [athletic] shoes, and if you do that you're going to throw in your running shoes," which, she says, do not provide good support for tennis, and are bad for the courts.
Put Down Your Putter
"Everyone was playing golf for a while, and now people are realizing that tennis is a really good cardio workout in a shorter time," says Brandner. "The whole [tennis] outing can be two to three hours, as opposed to golf, which can take five to six hoursand it's cheaper, too."
"Golf is harder for us to doit's getting really expensive to play," says Scrimshaw, who estimates that golf costs her an average of $100 per player, while tennis runs about $20 per person, which includes prizes and beverage service. "For golf, you often have to go off-property, so you have to coordinate transportation, and there's more to worry about," she says, adding that when planners use an all-inclusive resort, tennis is often a part of the complimentary amenities, while golf is an additional cost. Scrimshaw continues to offer golf to attendees, and her golfers outnumber her tennis players, with some overlap, so "I try not to do tennis at the same time as a golf event."
Money Changes Everything
Of course, if you have more than $20 or $30 to spend per player, there are a myriad of ways to turn a tennis activity into a tennis event. "We can get pros to come in or bring in local college players, which mixes it up a little and gives the amateurs a chance to play with some really good players. It's a little bit more expensive, but players really enjoy that," says Brandner. Groups with a bigger budget also enjoy bringing in a celebrity pro like Chris Evert to run a clinic for attendees, play with each participant, and pose for photos. Celebrity appearances are usually coordinated by the planner, not by the tennis staff.
"We've had some groups that will block off one or two [in-house] pros for the entire day as a service for their group," which allows attendees to schedule private lessons at their leisure, and is a popular option for incentive groups, says Jonathan Barth, head tennis professional at Kiawah Island Golf Resort's West Beach Tennis Club.
Brandner's staff also coordinates mini-camps for groups that condense into three hours what is usually taught during a three-day program. Participants are led through the progression of the game in a noncompetitive environment, and a four-to-one ratio of attendees to pros allows for beginner, intermediate, and expert courts so that all participants are challenged equally.
For guests looking to add a bit of English flair to their event, Saddlebrook will coordinate a "Strawberries and Cream" round-robin event using its two grass courts. The tournament mimics the feel of Wimbledon, and planners can incorporate a courtside table with strawberries and cream, water, mimosas, and other treats. "You get that Wimbledon experience," says Moore. "A lot of people have never played on grass, so it's a totally new experience for everyone."
Tennis pros attribute the renewed interest in the sport to the popularity of American tennis stars like Andy Roddick, more televised tournaments such as the six-week U.S. Open Series that precedes the U.S. Open, and an increase in league play across the country. Regardless of what piqued their interest, the fact that more people play and watch tennis makes the sport a perfect option for meeting groups looking to incorporate an unexpected activity. Ready or notit's time to dig out your wooden racket and Izod collection and give the "sport of a lifetime" another chance.
Originally published January 01, 2008
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