JACKIE BOHANNON
Guest Columunist
tennis@lbknews.com
For those unfamiliar with ratings the NTRP classifies players by their tennis playing abilities.
A 1.5-2.0 is a beginner, and a 7.0 is a touring pro. Therefore a 3.5 is your average tennis player, a strong intermediate, who can for the most part play and fit in with anyone at the club. A 4.5 is an advanced recreational player. They are usually your best players at the club.
Typically teaching pros start at 5.0 and higher, so your 4.5 players are usually your top echelon of recreational players.
As you improve up the ratings it increasingly becomes more difficult to get to the next level. That is because the details of the game start to become more minute.
To answer your question, the difference between a 3.5 and a 4.5 is everything. The 4.5 is more well-rounded. The 3.5 may have one or two aspects of their game that are perhaps stronger than the 4.5 but t