USTA Excellence Teams
Determination, Commitment, Success.

Request for Proposal

Overview

Over the past three years, Excellence Teams have been piloted in two cities on either coast. Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, MD, and Youth Tennis San Diego in San Diego, CA were the two NJTLs to test and prove the concept. Having seen the results of this pilot initiative the USTA is ready to expand the concept to include four total chapters. The grant program will be managed by a cross-functional team of USTA Player Development, USTA, and USTA Serves staff, with funding provided by USTA Serves. Find a summary of the pilot initiative here: http://www.usta.com/Youth-Tennis/National-Junior-Tennis-Learning/tennis_njtl_provides_yearround_opportunity/ .

The following Request for Proposal (RFP) seeks well-established, youth-serving, tennis and education organizations who already have player development programming or who want to add player development programming. Grantees must secure a current or former touring professional to ‘adopt’ and provide matching funds to the USTA grant of $25,000. Once this commitment is met, the grantee must raise $50,000 to match the first two sources of funds, creating a $100,000 project budget per year for two years.

Details

Grantees will form a team of 12 total players ages 9-12, equal boys and girls. These twelve players will come from existing programming. A ‘feeder system’ of four more ‘alternates’ ages 8-9 years old will be selected to work out with the team and participate in activities, as a result of a community wide “tryout,” making the total number of team members 16. Inclusion in Excellence Teams should be based solely on characteristics which are the hardest to judge and will be the most important as youth develop into ranked players: determination, character, intellect, athletic ability. A battery of physical and tennis tests will be used, as well as periodic video uploading of players and team training methodologies to ensure adherence to approved training techniques. Family income must not be a limiting factor, and there is a strong diversity and inclusion expectation to the local team makeup. Individualized development paths will be expected for each participant including a sectional and national tournament schedule. On-time academic progress will be required and should be built into local programming plans. Last, as the overall concept of Excellence Teams highlights, giving back to the greater community will be required of teams and must be built into programming and proposals.

Successful organizations will have a history of demonstrated commitment to low income and underserved youth with high quality on-court and educational programming. Participants of selected organizations will have the opportunity to compete in sectional and national tournaments, regional and national workouts and camps, train with the nation’s top coaches, and work toward a college scholarship and degree. A sense of respect, gratitude, and a commitment to giving back to others will be instilled as coaches and administrators focus a large amount of resources on a small and dedicated support team of players and coaches.

There will be a Bidder’s Conference Call for all interested organizations on Thursday, May 26th at 2pm ET. Please join by calling in to 800.704.1867 and use the code 25477#.

Proposals are due by 10am Monday, June 20th 2011.

Please apply online at the following link:

https://www.GrantRequest.com/SID_527?SA=SNA&FID=35075

USTA Excellence Teams:
Determination, Commitment, Success.

Proposal Requirements

In paragraph form, describe your plans to address each of the following requirements. Please review the Excellence Team Pilot Summary which can be found here:

http://www.usta.com/Youth-Tennis/National-Junior-Tennis-Learning/tennis_njtl_provides_yearround_opportunity/

1.  Statement of purpose—how does developing an excellence team fit into your organization’s mission and strategic plan.

2.  Touring professional—level of support and involvement, training, namesake?

3.  Community-wide outreach and team selection—how will this be done, what tests used?

4.  QuickStart training and play format—discuss your use of equipment, courts, by age group

5.  Coaching—provide names and credentials of relevant coaches and their employee status

6.  Educational programming, resources, guidance, tracking, etc.

7.  Organization sustainability—the plan to make this project and the organization sustainable after USTA support ends. Provide the organization’s most recent 990.

8.  Programming plans—dosage, integration or non-integration of team with larger program

9.  Video upload of proposed team members playing tennis. See the video upload instructions at the end of this document.

10.  Community Service—what activities will the team do to give back to the community?

11.  Budget for year 1 and 2 (including staff, academic component, equipment, travel and training costs)

12.  Letters of support—from relevant community partners, Section staff, Board President, etc.

The actual online application can be found here:

https://www.GrantRequest.com/SID_527?SA=SNA&FID=35075

Please direct questions to Dan Limbago, USTA/NJTL Manager, at ;

Ph: 914.696.7038.

USTA Excellence Teams:
Determination, Commitment, Success.

Proposed Timeline 2011-2012

May 18 Targeted dissemination of RFP to likely candidates

https://www.GrantRequest.com/SID_527?SA=SNA&FID=35075

May 26 Bidder’s Conference Call for interested candidates

2 pm ET -- 800.704.1867 and 25477

June 20 Proposals due to USTA

July 15 Grantee notification and programming begins. First installment of first year grant

distributed.

Fall 2011 Local team workouts, RTC camps, Excellence Team Exchange

Winter 2012 Local team workouts, RTC camps, tournaments. Mid-year report due including video uploading of practice, individual youth. Second installment of first year grant distributed.

Spring 2012 Local team workouts, RTC camps, tournaments

July 15, 2012 Year 1 report due, second year grant triggered

Summer 2012 Local team workouts, RTC camps, tournaments, Excellence Team Exchange

Fall 2012 Local team workouts, RTC camps, tournaments

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HIGH PERFORMANCE PLAYER - TALENT IDENTIFICATION


VIDEO AND UPLOAD PROTOCOLS

In order to have your player footage considered, please follow these protocols EXACTLY :

FILMING

Intro and Strokes (filmed from side view)
Introduction (Name and where they are from) 1 clip
3 x Serves 1 clip
3 x Forehands 1 clip
3 x Backhands 1 clip
3 x FH Volleys 1 clip
3 x BH Volleys 1 clip
3 x Overheads 1 clip

Drills (filmed from back view)
Crosscourt Forehands - 30 seconds 1 clip
Crosscourt Backhands - 30 seconds 1 clip

Play (filmed from back view)
6 x Serve Points 1 clip
6 x Return Points 1 clip

Total # of clips per player 11 clips

UPLOAD PROCESS

Once you have filmed all players and completed the Player Information form, you will need to upload the content.

1. Create a folder on your desktop named by the HP Camp and Date, eg "HP JTCC 28FEB2011"

2. Copy the footage from the camera and the Player Information forms to this folder.

3. Zip the folder by right-clicking on the folder and selecting "Send to Compressed (zipped) folder"

4. Upload the footage, by clicking on http://dropbox.yousendit.com/WarrenPretorius5710991 , browse
for the zipped folder and click Send.

FILMING TIPS

On the live ball drills and point play, make sure that there is as little "dead time" as possible.

Use a tripod and a hard drive camera (Mini DV tape cameras take too long to import, and the resultant file will also take much longer to upload)

Set the shutter speed on the camera as high as what lighting conditions will allow. For indoor filming, minimum should be 1/500, while for outdoors minimum should be 1/2000.

When filming strokes, set up a "production line" method - film each kid doing and intro (one clip for each kid), then film all hitting serves, and so on. This saves time in setting camera up, and also means that players don't have to stand around for too long.

When filming strokes, position camera at 90 degrees to the plane of the stroke (side view). Make sure that the sun is behind you.

For live ball drills and point play, a fence mount with a wide-angle lens for the camera is ideal. Otherwise, film from behind the player (on a tripod), and use as little panning as possible.

SUPPORT

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact , 435-714-0883, or Dave Ramos, , 914-282-7285

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