I recently wrote a post about my injury laden 2014 spring season and my decision to switch over to playing with my left (non-dominant) hand. One of the things that you may be interested in knowing is just what the USTA has to say about changing up the hand that you play with. My level of play has dropped drastically. Does that mean that my NTRP rating will change or does it stay the same? Are there any rules against changing hands mid-season? What about mid-point? All good questions.

As it turns out, the USTA does not care whether you strike the ball with your left hand, your right hand, or both. You are free to play with whichever hand you wish to at any time. That is why player listings in TennisLink don't list a hand dominance. If you wanted to, you could switch hands on every serve depending on which serve would give you the greatest advantage. You could even go so far as to switch hands for every ball strike if you wanted to. I wouldn't advise being quite that aggressive with the switching, of course, but switching it up every few serves might not be a bad idea when you want to catch your opponent off guard. Don't do it too much, though. There's a reason that none of the pros do it during match play.

So, the USTA's "hands off" (pun intended) approach to player handedness is a good thing, right? Yeah, maybe. But, then again, maybe not. You see, for folks that are equally gifted with both hands, this rule is perfect. This rule gives them great flexibility in how they play. They can hit with two forehands or two backhands. They can gain the leftie service advantage whenever they want it. They also gain an extra foot's worth of court coverage on their backhand side which is a very sneaky cool and unexpected advantage to have.

But what about the rest of us? How does it affect us? Well, being a member of the 99% of the population that isn't ambidextrous, I can tell you that this approach doesn't work out so good for us. Those of us who are clearly dominant on only one side and find ourselves needing to switch hands due to injury are in trouble. Our level of play is going to drop drastically and for heaven only knows how long. Can we appeal our rating or get a temporary NTRP rating reduction? No. Not unless the injury is drastic and substantial. USTA rules state that an injury appeal will only be granted if a "permanent, disabling illness or injury" has occurred, and not in any other case. The process is an extremely involved process requiring a very thorough medical write-up by your attending physician detailing the permanent nature of the injury and any other limitations or considerations. As long as there is even a sliver of a chance that you will get better, you will have to keep your current ranking. That means that our only choice is to eschew USTA play entirely or find a team at our level that is routinely having to default courts and volunteer to be their "dead man playing." After enough 6-0, 6-0 drubbings, your rating will eventually come down. Depending on how highly you are ranked, though, and when during the season the injury occurred, it could take several years for it to get down to where it should be. This does keep the "mildly" unscrupulous from being able to easily game the system, but the "totally" unscrupulous will do it anyway.

So, this begs the question, is there a better way? Is there some way that the system could work that would be more fair for those of us who want to keep playing despite a game changing (although not technically permanent) injury? Well, let's take a look at how another US recreational sports league handles this kind of thing - the USBC. The United States Bowling Congress is the USTA of bowling (the standard 10 pin variety) here in the US. They govern the rules of play, coaching certifications, and recreational, school and professional bowling leagues here in the states. According to the rules of the USBC, you have to indicate the hand that you will be bowling with when your handicap is being calculated. In bowling, your handicap is inversely analogous but similar in function to your NTRP rating. This means that you are able to get a different handicap (or rating) for each hand. So, you can actually play in multiple leagues with different hands and have a completely different rating for each. That sounds like a pretty good system to me. And it really should sound like a good system to the USTA.

A hand-specific NTRP would open up twice as many league play opportunities for most of us and could potentially increase USTA league registration fees significantly, as well. Think about doubling participation with just one minor rule change. That's definitely a win, win USTA! I'm sure the 1% of the population that is ambidextrous wouldn't be very happy with a system like this but does it really make sense for us to define our rules to fit the needs of such a tiny minority? Not hardly. Of course, since when has "making sense" been a criteria in most people's decision making processes?

So, USTA, if you're reading this, 2015 is the year to implement hand-specific NTRP ratings. More money for you, more participation for us, and a whole lot less of an advantage to the 1%. Come on, USTA, make that change!