The amount of young tennis players from Spain that decide to move to the United States to study and play collegiate tennis is madly increasing. But, what are the reason behind that? Why young talents find the US a place to continue their careers? How do the universities “steal” all this talent from the rest of the world?
Most important reasons behind this flight of talent:
1. American universities pay for student-athletes education.
The American institutions are currently providing scholarships that can reach to cover the whole education expenses to their student-athletes.
This is an important reason why families find the US a place for their children to study. In comparison, it is usually cheaper for the student-athletes to study abroad in the US that it would be to study in their hometown.
2.The chance to combine tennis and studies at a high level.
This is the key why young players decide to move to America. The American college system success to provide to their student-athletes everything they need in order to combine a high level of sport and studies.
Unfortunately, the Spanish educational system is too far away from the level of organization, coordination, understanding, mindset, and willingness to help that currently exists in every American university in relation with their athletes that study at their institutions.
3.The facilities that they get in the US
One of the things that shock the athletes when they first get to the US is the amount of money that the universities in the US put into sports. Everything that players have to pay for while being in Spain is covered by the universities.
Grips, strings, clothes, shoes, rackets, balls, food, hotels, travel expenses… Every single little thing that could be thought of is covered by the coaches through the university budget. Brands such as Wilson and Solinco make massive investments in American college tennis providing strings and tennis material to the teams.
4.The passion behind every collegiate team from American society
Playing a sport in an American university gives you the chance to represent the values of that institution. That is something that the American society appreciate, and deeply respect. The cities where the universities are located grew up supporting and cheering for their scholar teams.
That is something that is usually tough to get outside the US. No matter what sport you play, the stands are always going to be filled by people that care about the team that you are representing, and that give the players an extra boost of emotion and passion that is tough to describe if you have never felt it before.
5.The example of professional players that went through the college experience
Young players are starting to realize that going through college is a good way to get four years of solid practices while studying. Seeing players that played college before making it to the pro tour is getting common nowadays. Young tennis players see on John Isner, Cameron Norrie or Jennifer Brady examples of how going through college is not a waste of time if you still want to make it to the tour after studying in the US.
The flight of national talent leaving to the US in order to pursue a bachelor degree while competing at a really high level is something that is currently happening, and it tends to increase in a crazy way within the next couple of years. But after this post, it is easier to understand why for the young tennis players the US is usually the easiest way to continue their sport and academic career.
