Welcome to 2014! 

We have the busiest courts right around the New Year for a few months.  Generally, December, January and February are our strongest months for indoor tennis.  This means that players that want to be assured of specific court times are booking them in advance and everyone else is booking their day-of reservations at 5am (at least the player that drew the short straw that week!).

Please read through some club updates and info below to help everyone during this busy time.

Additionally, I've added some notes on members that have been recognized recently for their part in the tennis community.

 

Sincerely,

Kevin McClure,
Director of Tennis
Sport Fit Bowie

 

Recently, I've had a few members contact me because of their concerns about players that don't leave the court promptly when their time is up.  Most of our members don't feel that they should have to ask players to leave the court.

Makes sense, right?

Apparently, not to everyone and quite a few players "hang-out" on the court talking, joking, changing their shoes, putting warm-ups on, etc.  This type of activity is normal, just not on someone else's court and someone else's time.  Please plan on leaving the court promptly when your court time is up.  If you'd like to relax and talk, joke and change - please do it at the end of your own court time.

Even if the players are just warming up or talking at the net. Sometimes they are either waiting for the previous players to clear or are distracted by the presence of others.

Please await your court time

When preparing to take your court, please await your court time outside of the court structure and not behind the curtains.  When your time arrives and you are ready to enter the court, please wait until the point ends.  Players that are on the court should not ask to finish the game, finishing the point was enough and everyone knows when the court time is coming to an end and should be prepared to vacate the courts promptly.

Returning ball to another court

Even if you do not immediately return the ball, please insure that the other court is not in the middle of a point and is expecting the ball.  Many times I've seen the players returning the ball with disregard because they didn't like being disrupted during their point.  In most cases, the ball crossed over without intent and should be returned with timing and accuracy for safety.

Ball Machine or Ball Basket Usage

 
When you use the ball machine or hit a basket of serves, most times balls will get behind the curtains.  Since I know that the pros and their students are very aware of collecting balls behind the curtains, I'd like to ask the ball machine users to insure that they too collect balls that get behind the curtains.  It makes everyone else's life easier when they have to find their ball behind the curtain and distinguish it from the other dozen balls left there.

All balls used for league play should be returned to the front desk.  These balls are used for our clinics and drills and their return is the only reason that we are able to supply tennis balls for the leagues.
I supply the leagues with approximately 4 cases of balls per week and should be overflowing with great balls in my carts.  However, at this point, I am getting about half to two thirds of the balls returned.  Please insure that someone is assigned to return the balls.  LEAVING THEM ON THE COURT IS NOT THE SAME AS RETURNING THEM TO THE FRONT DESK.

 
Amounts past due

Please heed the information supplied by Kevin and the league coordinators.  Generally, the league coordinators will let you know what fees are due, when they are due and if they are past due.  It is not the responsibility of the league coordinator to collect from the players, so please take on this responsibility individually to insure that you have paid.  There are some individuals that did not pay the full amounts in September and those amounts will be added to their current amounts due.  The front desk has summary sheets for payments made online or at the club and even your individual account summary if you would like to look it over prior to payment.  Any discrepancies should be brought to Kevin's attention and not taken out on front desk staff.  Kevin will look over the account payments and get back to you with the required information. 

The current system of paying at the time of registration has worked far better and left less to be collected.  If you had difficulty registering and/or a staff member had to manually put your registration in without payment, you may have received a confirmation email stating that your credit card was charged.  In this situation, the staff member has had to tell the system that you paid, even if you haven't.  Since we are not able to take payments by telephone, this leaves the amount still due. 

Let us know if something is strange, right away

If you were not able to complete the purchase portion of the registration online, you are most likely not registered and not showing up on our roster.  If you did not complete the purchase portion and put in your credit card information, then you are not registered - no matter what your system is telling you.  So, please let the club know right away if you feel that something went wrong.

Registration Deadlines

Our system of registration with member priority has been in place for at least 12 years and it has been online since 2009 (10 sessions). 

The registration dates and process are sent out by email (be sure to get on our tennis email list if you are not currently), placed on our website, and is on our Facebook page.  League coordinators often also send out notes to their previous players and subs about the dates and rules.

So, each current player should be familiar with the process and able to make plans to register during their protected times of registration.  If you will be out of town, you may leave a check with your name on it with a friend or league coordinator that you trust to get you registered.  Or, even easier, with a computer or smartphone you can register online from anywhere in the world by logging into your profile at http://www.MySportFit.com (insure that this is properly setup before going on safari).

Sport Fit Bowie is a comprehensive fitness facility that offers Tennis, Swimming, Basketball, Racquetball, Group Exercise, Personal Training, Nutritional and Weight Loss programs, Cardio Equipment and Free Weights.  It also offers Massage and Shiatsu.  Visit our site at http://www.SportFitClubs.com/bowie