‘Managing change’ in British tennis 1990—2006: Unintended outcomes of LTA talent development policies

Abstract

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) initiated several policies aimed at developing talent in British tennis, chief of which was the transformation of traditional tennis club cultures to make them more open, accessible and performance-oriented. The 1990s also witnessed other changes that influenced the LTA’s overall position: a shift in emphasis from mass to elite-level provision within wider British sport policy, the introduction of new investment opportunities through the National Lottery, the rise of New Labour, a change in LTA leadership and a swell in LTA investment drawn from Wimbledon profits. This article draws upon Norbert Elias’s Game Models theoretical framework to: i) examine some of the talent development policies introduced by the LTA from the early 1990s onwards; ii) analyse the gradual shifting power relations throughout the late 20th century between the LTA and its affiliated tennis clubs, which came to influence the former’s ability to implement policy; iii) uncover problems that the LTA encountered in delivering policy objectives in tennis clubs; and, iv) analyse the overall unintended and undesired outcomes of these policies for the LTA itself, and for British tennis clubs, coaches and players.