Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Beach Tennis and Baggyball
Beach Tennis? But, of course. Kinda like beach volleyball, because it's played on beach volleyball court. Even more like badminton, except you play it with tennis racquets and ball. Apparently, Beach Tennis started in Latin America and vicinity. Like on the lovely but, synchronistically unfortunate island of ill-repute, Aruba.If you're over 16 (apparently, something untoward happens when you reach level 5 that makes it inappropriate for the younger set), you can even play it online (uses arrow keys and space bar).
One visit to the Beach Tennis websites, especially the highly polished Beach Tennis USA site, makes you realize how seriously some people are taking this patently junkyardly sport - serious enough to do what is necessary to earn a write-up in USA Today.
Which leaves us with this question: what makes a junkyard-like sport get transformed into a "serious" one? Clearly, Beach Tennis was born out of a spirit of playfulness - the same kind of rule transforming playfulness that gave birth to Baggyball. What makes Beach Tennis a "real" sport, and Baggyball remain Junkyard?
My guess: it's all about how much it gets played. Which is all about how much fun it is for how many people. Until, finally, it gets to be all about money. And that's about all.
Press of Intrest
By Gijs de Rooij
Aruba’s latest export product: Beach Tennis.
A coming of age story of an authentic Aruban sport.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Aruba indicates that Aruba is currently exporting the following products: semi-finished petroleum products, plastic bags, soaps/disinfectants, printed textiles, refined sugar and rice products. Since the beach, the sun and the sea are still no easy-to-carry products for any kind of export, Aruba’s trade is off-balance. But let’s not despair. Four years ago a great game was combined with the pleasures of the beach. It was a weekend of sun-splash, fun and tennis. Right on the ocean, on Moomba Beach, tennis got sandy for the first time. The first beach tennis tournament of Aruba immediately became a big hit. The melting pot of sand, rackets, tennis balls, volleyball-nets, nationalities, pro’s, beginners, beer, music, sun, sea, sweat and tennis made it crystal clear: this event had potential. But who could have imagined, only three years later, beach tennis to be Aruba’s latest export product? To quote McEnroe: “You cannot be serious.” Well, here’s a true story on how fun things got out of hand, in a fun way.
In the beginning
When tennis pro’s Sjoerd de Vries and Jochem Ros were watching the Sydney 2000 Olympics, they were witnessing an amazing new Olympic sport: beach volleyball. Probably that same afternoon they decided to turn it into an even more exciting game. Sjoerd had already played in some fun beach tennis games back in Holland. He was determined to introduce this new and most of all fun beach sport on Aruba. And so it happened. After they successfully organized the first beach tennis event in June 2002, they repeated this success formula twice a year in 2003, and in 2004. The event definitively set a new landmark in beach sports. Among the contestants of last year’s tournament was Mark Altheim, an American real estate planner. Although he didn’t make it to the finals he was hooked on beach tennis. As a businessman he was completely convinced this sport would do awesome back in the States. Mark returned at the November edition. He came, he saw and he videotaped it all. A professional camera team shot three days of footage and back in New York produced a three-minute promotional DVD.
Rollercoaster
Mark’s intentions were serious from the start. He was the one going to introduce beach tennis in The States and make it big. By the end of 2004 Sjoerd and Mark had founded Beach Tennis USA: the National Beach Tennis Association. Shortly after they had produced the promotional DVD, they were asking themselves: “Where are we taking this thing, where do we start?” A couple of phone calls later Mark had arranged a meeting with the Vice President, Mr. Wolff of ESPN, one of the biggest sports channels in the world. It’s all about connections. Sjoerd and Mark stepped through the door and got into a rollercoaster session of sports marketing. ESPN sincerely encouraged them to make this thing happen. Then they started their own rollercoaster. Within no time Beach Tennis USA was a brand name, a marketing product. Event Entertainment, a recognized leader in partnership and event marketing was contracted to realize the calendar of events for the months to come. This train was set in motion and no one was gonna stop it. Mark had a budget of around 200.000 dollars, but that of course has to be earned back. With the well-designed presentation and sponsor packages Mark and Event Entertainment started to pave the road to their ultimate goal of that season. Tennis balls, beach balls, a mascot named Mr. Fuzzy, coloring books, flyers, leaflets, DVD’s, banners, vehicles and small zeppelins were only a part of the range of marketing products. But the slogan on the sponsor presentation maps revealed their plans: “All roads lead to the First National Beach Tennis Championship Tournament, August 2005.” Presented as the hottest game in town it started to be demonstrated all around the East coast: from Miami Beach to Long Island, New York. In addition to the official Beach Tennis Exhibition and Pro Tournament circuits, endorsed by the NBTA a mobile Beach Tennis Vehicle is visiting local beaches from Florida to Massachusetts this summer. With demonstrations of tennis playing models from official model agencies, the competition with the babes of beach volleyball has started.
Mark and his team have made it possible for sponsors to choose from a wide range of possibilities to interact with the energetic beach going community. He is branding a new product and has effectively determined the different marketing aspects of beach tennis. Tennis is big business in the U.S. Overall consumer spending on tennis equipment and tennis activities exceeds 16 billion dollars annually. And more then 20 million registered people in the U.S. alone play tennis. But beach tennis shouldn’t only appeal to tennis players. Volleyball players, badminton devotees, natural athletes, children, teens and beach lovers; they’re all sure to catch the buzz. Beach tennis combines sport, competition and recreation, all in the most beautiful environment imaginable: Myrtle Beach, Nikki Beach, Jones Beach, Virginia Beach. But not only the most popular beaches at the East coast are getting a taste of beach tennis, next year beach tennis will also start invading the West coast starting in January in San Diego.
Straight aces
Dateline May 21st 2005. America’s most widely spread newspaper, the USA Today reports: “New ‘fun’ sport of beach tennis pushes off with summer tour”. And continues: “If Pete Sampras decides to make a comeback, he could leave his sneakers home. Beach tennis – a sport combining tennis, badminton, and beach volleyball – makes its official American debut Saturday at the Charleston Maritime Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the Beach Tennis USA Tour.” “This was it”, explained Sjoerd, “Everything we had been working for the last four months was built up to the starting gun at Charleston Maritime Festival. For the first time we could test the success or failure of Beach Tennis in the U.S. Of course I was nervous, it all flashed through my mind: the first tournament on Aruba, Mark’s enthusiasm, the National Beach Tennis Association of the U.S., Mr. Wolff of ESPN and finally the first actual demonstration of beach tennis on U.S. sand.” And Charleston hit it off with straight aces. Eight thousand dollars worth of beach sand was ordered to prepare the courts; hundreds of festival visitors saw and played the game and everywhere you looked the logo of Beach Tennis USA was catching the eye. But the summer tour did not really start until Myrtle Beach in the beginning of June. This beach is visited by tens of thousands beach lovers every day. And the Tennis Channel was filming the Pro’s playing beach tennis, with a crowd of 1500 spectators. Meanwhile Marc had been interviewed by ESPN and had promoted beach tennis on two regional talk shows. And Aruba was mentioned at every single event.
Earning back $ 200.000
Investments made to promote beach tennis in the U.S. are to be earned back through sponsorships and TV-rights. The money to be made on this enterprise also should be derived from the same sources. To obtain sponsorships and gain the interest of TV-companies, beach tennis should be marketed as a brand. And all the rules applying for branding now apply for beach tennis. It is a product ready for consumers. When Mark came to Aruba and saw the game for the first time, he saw the potential and not only in the game itself. Mark didn’t need much to valuate the setting, the ambiance and fun and action of the game itself. Sea, sun and sand created the setting, beach-loving people enjoyed the setting and created the ambiance and in this setting and ambiance a fun game was played. The essence of the brand’s benefits was crystal clear. It is obvious what the current and potential customer is being promised when stepping into the world of beach tennis. And besides, the alliance with tennis, volleyball and badminton makes beach tennis easy to understand. Mark had his mind set on branding. Beach Tennis Aruba had to be branded to Beach Tennis USA. So Mark and Sjoerd figured out the brand blueprint. One: the disciplined action and process required creating, planning, designing and building brands. And two: to figure out the character and structure of the brand’s representations. To tell the truth Mark and Sjoerd did not have to figure out a complex brand strategy. It was more like stating the obvious; it only should be made appealing for potential sponsors. And that’s why since January 2005 a full operational team of fifteen people has been working day and night. Planning and structuring the most effective way of introducing and promoting beach tennis in the USA: through a summer tour along the East Coast.
Meanwhile in the rest of the world
While in the States beach tennis has pushed off its summer tour, Aruba, Curacao, Spain, Holland and Argentina are performing great on the main stage of international beach tennis. This summer, associates of Sjoerd are introducing the sport at beaches in Holland, Spain and Argentina. But the Aruba sand is still hot. At the end of May Price Waterhouse Coopers organized a corporate incentive day for their employees. By the end of that sunny day at the beach, most accountants had hung their lap tops high up in the palm trees and played beach tennis as if their lives depended on it. And they loved it. Two weeks later the first tournament was held in Curacao and generated enthusiastic players to come to Aruba at the end of that month. For the fourth consecutive year Sjoerd and Jochem organized the event where it all started, Aruba. But bigger and more professional then ever. Ten courts were stretched out on the beautiful sand of Eagle Beach. With coverage of several Dutch magazines and a demonstration at the famous foot volley tournament at Moomba Beach with four former Dutch ATP-tennis players going crazy with the game, the event had taken itself to the next level.
The end: it all comes back to Aruba
And there we are, besides semi-finished petroleum products, plastic bags, soaps/ disinfectants, printed textiles, refined sugar and rice products, Aruba’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry can definitely embrace a new export product. And it all comes back where it started. After the first official National Beach Tennis Championships in Long Beach New York in August 2005, Aruba will host the first official World Championship Beach Tennis. Aruba will be the stage and host for enthusiastic tennis players coming from all over the world. Beach volleyball has proven to be an Olympic game. Why not beach tennis?
I got Chesty's spam comment in my blog too. Now that I see he's done the same here, I've deleted it from mine.
richi.
Thanks Richi. I deleted Chesty's comment as well. And thanks Gijs for the extensively informative articles.
Serves up for beach tennis
BY JENNIFER MALONEY
STAFF WRITER
Scott Lannan almost didn't stop.
One Saturday a few weeks ago, his cable technician didn't show up. Annoyed, he grabbed his bike to blow off steam near his Long Beach home. When he spotted a handful of beachgoers playing tennis in the sand, he nearly rode right by.
But after playing for just 30 minutes, Lannan knew he had found his new favorite sport.
Beach tennis -- a combination of tennis, badminton and beach volleyball -- has arrived in Long Beach, which will host the first U.S. Beach Tennis Open on Labor Day weekend.
Until then, the curious can try their hand from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the beach volleyball courts near Riverside Boulevard on Long Beach.
Those who pick up rackets are finding it hard to put them down.
"Right away, I knew I'd be doing this all day Sunday," said Lannan, 29, who has taught tennis in Pennsylvania. "I love the idea of just being able to dive."
Lannan has been swinging in the sand every weekend since. This weekend, he coached amateurs Esther Pereira, 27, of Woodside, and Janina Rodriguez, 29, of Astoria. Neither had played tennis before their first game of beach tennis. Now they, too, plan to play every weekend.
Players filled the Long Beach courts this weekend, where Lannan played with Rodriguez, Pereira and Raphael Benavides, 35, of Forest Park. Professionals and amateurs shrieked and laughed, jumping and diving in the sand in swimsuits.
"I got it!" Rodriguez yelled, running toward Lannan.
"No, you don't!" Lannan laughed, falling in the sand as she collided with him.
Fans of the sport say beach tennis is easy to play and requires little equipment. Players use tennis rackets, tennis balls and a volleyball net lowered to 6 feet, 2 inches. Each team has two players and scores when its opponents let the ball hit the sand.
Beach tennis began in Brazil and is most popular in Aruba, where international tournaments have attracted players from around the world.
This year, organizers brought the sport to the U.S., with a tour stopping in East Coast beaches from South Carolina to Long Island.
The best part of beach tennis, they agreed, is its proximity to the ocean. Covered in sand and drenched in sweat, players can trot to the water and dive in.
One drawback is the overshot balls that must be fetched from beneath the boardwalk.
But Lannan, who ducked often under the wooden slats, didn't seem to mind.
"I dream about this stuff," he said of the game. "I'm not kidding."
Serve's Up for Beach Tennis
New Game Capitalizes on Growing American Interest in Alternative Sports
By CRISTINA REYNA
LONG BEACH, N.Y., Sept. 6, 2006 — Should Andre Agassi decide to forgo retirement, he only need look toward the shore.
Beyond the traditional tennis court lies a sandy alternative.
Marry traditional tennis and beach volleyball, and you get beach tennis — a burgeoning sport among sports lovers and nonathletes alike.
Beach tennis has taken shape in the United States over the last 18 months, capitalizing on the growing interest in alternative sports.
In this hybrid game, players volley back and forth on a regulation beach volleyball court, hitting a tennis ball over a net with tennis racquets. Points are scored when an opponent hits the ball outside the lines or the ball hits the sand.
Marc Altheim, commissioner of Beach Tennis USA, first discovered the game in Aruba and brought it to America with the help of friends equally passionate about the sport's possibilities in the United States.
"This is more friendly for the American community," Altheim said. "We're taking the rules of tennis and really putting a different spin on it so it's not as serious."
Beach Tennis USA launched its second national tour this year, culminating Monday in Long Beach, N.Y., with the U.S. Beach Tennis Open.
Twenty-five men and women's teams competed in the championship tournament before Chris Henderson and Phil Whitesell of Charleston, S.C., took out Alex and Henrique Concado of Virginia Beach, Va., Monday, securing the national title for a second year in a row.
Beach Tennis: A Bastard Sport?
Tennis purists argue the hybrid sport bastardizes the traditional game, but beach tennis players are quick to debunk that notion.
"Beach volleyball was considered very different as well, and look where that's come," said Melissa Gibson, who, along with husband Bill, is launching a grass-roots movement to form beach tennis teams across the country. "We can see that this is going to be a really big sport on the horizon," she said.
Altheim welcomes such scrutiny of the sport he helped popularize.
"Without tennis, we wouldn't have beach tennis," he said. "Sixty [percent] to 70 percent of us are tennis players, and the other 30 [percent] to 40 percent play volleyball."
Beach tennis player Erik Oberhammer is a tennis pro from Myrtle Beach, S.C., who married his wife on a beach tennis court on June 4, 2005 — his 40th birthday.
"We need to get away from that 'country-club mentality,'" Oberhammer said. "I look forward to the day when [the U.S. Tennis Association] will embrace us."
Birth of a Lifestyle
Beach tennis players speak a common language, all describing the new sport as fun, energetic and especially loud.
"The music's playing," Altheim said. "The crowd's cheering. We're like the X Games of tennis."
He characterized the atmosphere as simply "a lifestyle."
"We're not trying to reinvent the game," said Murphy Jensen, the 1993 French Open doubles champion and tournament master of ceremonies. "Any successful industry goes against the grain."
Take, for example, the scantily clad "Beach Tennis Babes," who take center court between play to pump up the crowd, or the very loud commentators on the microphone midgame.
Take Scott E. "Bananas" Lannan, who is known for donning attention-getting costumes during play in an attempt to raise awareness for epilepsy. The Long Island native took to the court Monday, for example, wearing a Santa Claus hat and red-and-white-striped knee socks, and has appeared in prior competitions as a leprechaun, Cupid and even Mother Earth.
The idiosyncrasies of the game expose a stark contrast from traditional tennis' quiet courts.
"I love [the music] because it feels more like a party," said Fabiana Rezak, two-time U.S. Beach Tennis Open champion in the women's division. Rezak, originally from Argentina, and her beach tennis partner, Nadia Johnston, originally of Australia, are now Long Beach locals.
Serving Up the Future
The biggest challenge for beach tennis is getting the American beach-goer to add a racquet to his beach bag, according to commissioner Altheim.
A real estate developer by day, Altheim envisions a future, indoor version of the game — entertaining the notion of bringing sand indoors.
Even the Olympic Games are an option.
"People chuckle when I say it, but why not?" Altheim said. "Not in the next eight years, but we think that we can."
As the new pro sport continues to invade U.S. beaches from coast to coast, Jensen is sure of one thing.
"This is something I can guarantee you Andre Agassi will be a part of," he said.