In the past couple of years, I've been hearing good things about a Prince program that has U.S. academies competing against each other in challenge matches to determine the best PPI academy. (One of its unique features that I am excited to see gaining traction is on-court coaching. For complete details on the program, which is headed by Ken Merritt at Prince, click here). This year, the prize wasn't just bragging rights among U.S. academies, but an expense-paid trip to Rome to compete for the world championship. TBarM in Dallas had earned the U.S. berth back in March (click here for details), but IMG/Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy had so wanted to be in the international competition that they paid their own way to join the academies from Great Britain, Spain, Russia and Italy. It paid off for them, as NBTA came home from Italy with the first place trophy,
Dave Licker, the TBarM junior high performance coach, was kind enough to supply me with these photos and answer some of my questions about the experience via email.
Q. How did your team do?
A. We started out playing IMG NBTA right off the bat on day 1. My guys were not as ready to get up for the match and we lost 8-4. The next round we defeated Spain 12-0. I think my guys were po'd they'd lost the day before so came out playing. Next round, we defeated England 10-2, then finished off Italy 10-2. NBTA won the rest of their matches as well so came out champions with us finishing 2nd, spain 3rd, england 4th, and italy 5th.
Q. With so much success by the two U.S. academies, I have to ask, what was the surface?
A. The surface was red clay. Even though we trained on green clay for a month leading up to the event, the red clay on the heavier balls had an impact on our performance. All my guys did really well getting used to the surface. I thought after the 1st day we just got better and better.
Q. Why do you think the U.S. teams did so well?
A. Because the PPI program really just started in other countries and Kenny Merritt has done a great job spearheading this program in the US. The level of competition is getting better in the US PPIs every year.
Q.Who were the outstanding performers for you and for the other academies, especially NBTA? A. NBTA always brings a strong team and we are really having a great rivaly with them now. We are tied 2-2 since Sept. 07. Italy had a great B18s player who got sick and didn't play the last day and the English team had a very good B16 player.
Q. What were the non-competitive highlights of the trip?
A. We got to go to the qualies of the Italian Open which was a lot of fun for a day. We saw some good matches as well as watched Roddick, Federer and Blake practice.
Q. Did the players have an opportunity to sightsee?
A.We went sightseeing a lot. I loved how the kids had to walk all over to get where they wanted to go. In the US we are always taking cars even to go 3 miles. We walked everywhere and took public transportation to go to places far from the academy.
Q. Any culture shock?
A. Not much culture shock except we are all pizza-and-pasta-ed out, ha, ha.
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