By 
For parents and “aspiring” professional players, it is difficult to understand that a sport as competitive as tennis seeks the limits of the maximum capacity of human efficiency. They also fail to realize that the decision for a career in high-performance sports, especially tennis, represents a persistent incision in a young person’s way of life. Therefore, they lack the global vision to evaluate the future restrictions in the development of the young person as well as in occupational education or work situations. In many cases, they also do not foresee the considerable economic expenses, the demands on their own assets (parents) or that finding sponsors and funds from tennis associations is very difficult or extremely restricted. Therefore, in the training of coaching and selection of talents, not only from a sporting point of view, but especially for ethical reasons, coaches and teachers must demand a lot from players in all areas.
A special feature of development in tennis is the tennis-typical early entry into high-level competition already in children from 9 to 12 years of age. That is why the new ambitious generation is already training in situations that are usually very high performance and normally in areas where only the physically mature elders would be.
The need for such an early start grows in dimension even more because tennis in recent years has taken a remarkable growth development and is demonstrated by the high number of active players and the high level of professionalism in the ATP and WTA tennis circuits. .
As a teacher and coach, I have often been confronted with parents who have high expectations but are clueless about the harsh realities of high-level competitive tennis.
The dilemma I face is often; “I am going to tell this father that unfortunately his son does not meet the high athletic, coordinative, mental or competitive standards of a future professional”, or… “I should shut up and tell myself, this man is an adult, he should know better and offer his “lame” son 5 times a week training plus conditioning and the jobs to get paid $20,000 or $50,000 a year… and in 3 or 4 years daddy comes along and asks; “Why is my son It doesn’t improve and so-and-so who started 3 months ago has already overshadowed it?!?”
Although I am always as diplomatic as possible, I choose the first option and try to persuade the father to go easy on the child; give it more time to develop, keep weekly training to one or two sessions a week, and have a wait-and-see attitude.
Some parents have come to me with 17 and 18 year olds (not even ATP rated) and when I try to talk them out of “professional” 5 hour a day training, they tell me; “But Marat Safin or Roger Federer only started to be successful at 21 or 22 years old!”
Trying to be nice I say, “well, Safin at 17 in 1997 – Won his first Challenger title and at 18 in 1998 – Finished in the Top 50 Qualified and reached 4th Rd at Roland Garros and the US Open! !”
“Roger Federer at age fourteen, became the Swiss junior champion for all age groups. At age 17, in 1998, Federer’s last year on the junior tours; he won the Wimbledon Juniors title and the prestigious Orange End of Year Bowl Ended the year as the ITF World Junior Tennis Champion, No. 1 Joined the ATP tour in early July 1998. In 1999, the youngest player (18 years old, 4 months) to finish in the Top 100!
Some of these parents are offended or think I’m “unprofessional” (how dare they say MY SON isn’t going to be a champion!) and look for the next “famous” or “infamous” teacher to sing the song for them. What I Want to Hear Others stay, ask more questions, take my advice, and often check with me about their child’s progress. I feel very comfortable with these types of people, they want to see their children improve, but they also understand that I am losing a lot of money by giving them an honest evaluation. Therefore, we strike a balance between high expectations and reality. On the other hand, for my part, I am more than willing to do whatever I can to help your children be the best they can be.
In many cases, if the youngster has reasonable qualities, but not enough for an ATP or WTA career, I often suggest that the second best option is to improve their tennis and conditioning between the ages of 15 and 17 and then apply for a tennis scholarship at a United States University. This is usually the best compromise with an excellent prospect of a diploma for a successful future professional life and a continuation in the sport of tennis.
Surely many of you are asking yourself the same questions, either with your personal tennis, that of your children or as a teacher / coach.
To help teachers, parents, and players make informed decisions, I’ve put together a few links that show how most of the players we see in the top 100 (if you want to make a living from tennis, you need to be in the Top 100!) WTA or ATP did it.
(Copy and paste the following links into your browser)
http://www.tenniscruz.com/ITF_Junior_World_Champions.htm
http://www.tenniscruz.com/Junior_Grand_Slam_Champions.htm
http://www.tenniscruz.com/Tennis_Grand_Slam_Finalists.htm
[http://www.atptennis.com/5/en/rankings/entrysystem/]
[http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/2/rankings/singles_numeric.asp]
Carefully compare the WTA or ATP rankings to the junior careers of tennis players and you’ll find that, with very few exceptions (Pete Sampras, for example), nearly every player in the top 100 was the best of his or her junior year or between. the top five in the ITF world rankings or was a winner of the Junior French Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open or the Orange Bowl.
Most of the players are precocious in their development and many times they are the N#1 in their countries and some of them win the National 14 at 12 years old, 16 at 14 years old and 18 at 16 years old. There are exceptions, Pete Sampras is one of them, but you have to keep in mind that as a junior, Pete Sampras kind of flies under the radar, because he played his entire junior career an age group or two ahead of his age and was competing with the likes. . by Michael Chang, Andre Agassi, David Wheaton and Jim Courier!
Another exception is sisters William, Venus and Serena, two excellent athletes who developed without a junior record, but at a young age regularly beat mediocre practice partners and played their first WTA tournaments at age 14!
If you want to freak out, think of Martina Hingis at age 12 who won the Adult Swiss Women’s National Championship and at age 13 she won the French Open (Roland Garros) at 18!
Not all the top players are junior super talents like Pete Sampras, Roger Federer or Martina Hingis, but they are pretty close!
There is a place for everyone in tennis, good or bad players, everyone loves the game. The important thing is to help young boys and girls to the best of their ability without setting up false expectations in their minds and ultimately avoiding major disappointments that ultimately lead many to abandon tennis altogether.
It is better to develop 3 or 4 happy young tennis players for life, than 10 “would-be champions” who sooner or later will leave the game disillusioned!
Happy 2007!
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