Originally, I was going to do a blog with a theme of national senior tournaments that talks about issues and information about national senior tournaments, what it takes to get a national ranking, what kind of people play, etc.  But apparently you can't create blogs, just blog entries, so rather than focus on a theme, I'll just post random stuff as I think of it or come across it.

This is the first entry letting you know some of what's coming.  I'm serving on the USTA Adult/Senior Competition Committee this year.  So I'll probably post some of the issues that might be of interest that I come across as part of the committee.

What does the committee do?  Well, this is my first year (of a two year term) on the committee, so I guess I'll find out more soon, but basically the committee oversees all the national senior tournaments and helps them to run smoothly.

I'm on the Circuit Chair subcommittee, and I may be the Circuit Chair for the Men's 50 division.  What does a circuit chair do?  A circuit chair is primarily responsible for being a resource to the national tournaments.  My primary role will be to recommend seeds to the tournaments (I seed the women's open singles, women's open doubles, and mixed open doubles in NorCal, so I'm somewhat familiar with the process), and to serve as a resource to the tournament director and referee.

National committees are composed of people all throughout the United States and its territories, so we usually meet by teleconference, but there are two times a year when the committees try to get together in person, at the USTA Annual Meeting in March and the Semi-annual meeting in September (during the US Open).  Hundreds of people from all the national committees get together in one location for these meetings.