By Ryan Bauman

During the last weekend of February I had the distinct pleasure of representing both Ferris State University's PTM and the TennisWire Network at the United States Professional Tennis Association Midwest Conference held in Columbus, Ohio.  The USPTA had sponsored several speakers for the event including Tom Gullikson, USPTA Master Professional Bob Love, and tennisdrills.tv creator Jorge Capestany.  There were booths and representatives for several businesses, ranging from the large sporting goods manufacturers such as Wilson and HEAD to small businesses offering tennis club management solutions.

It was my first USPTA conference and it was a lot of fun.  It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, though.  All of the speakers were more than willing to talk with attendees after presentations, and several of the speakers knew each other and helped each other during presentations.  This definitely exceeded my expectations of the conference.

I was really impressed with some of the information we were getting from the presentations.  One presentation I really enjoyed was the VOTSA video analysis presentation.  Through VOTSA, coaches can record information and upload it to the VOTSA servers and then two to four days later a fully analyzed video package is e-mailed back to the coach and the student.  A very interesting idea, and I'd like to see it work out.

The presentation on biomechanics was particularly interesting because this semester I'm enrolled in an anatomy class at Ferris State.  I was able to apply a lot of the information from class to the presentation, allowing me to grasp a good understanding of everything discussed.

One presentation that was not well attended yet offered a lot of information and potential for business owners was the social networking and Internet marketing presentation.  Advertising and marketing has changed the way businesses communicate with their customers.  Tennis and country clubs need to learn and embrace these changes to stay ahead of the game and stay successful.  Having a background in digital media and currently getting a business degree, I thought that this presentation was right up my alley, and I learned some new, interesting tips and ideas to try out when I get a full-time job in the tennis industry after I graduate.

Most of the presentations were interesting and useful, but some felt more like a sales pitch than a presentation for knowledge.  I went in with the thought that the booths were for sales and the presentations were for ideas, but sometimes the two blended. I felt like the presentations that were more sales-like could be replaced by those that are strictly to share knowledge and new ideas.

The second day of the conference also included high school coaches from Ohio who may not be USPTA-certified. For this mixed crowd, some of the presentations included some of the same info from the day before.  I suppose this is to be expected because half of the attendees were not present the day before, and some of them may not continually search for new tennis knowledge if they're coaching high school. 

Overall it was a fun, new experience. I learned a lot of new things and other things I already had some knowledge of and were simply reinforced. I'm taking the USPTA P1 certification in April and I'll definitely go to regional and national conferences once my schedule clears up after graduating.