I would like to thank everyone for his or her comments to Steve Smith’s guest post, both here and on ZooTennis. If you know if the post was linked elsewhere and have seen further comment, I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a heads-up.
I’m pleased I ran the post. It sparked a response from several coaches and a couple of parents that had some great ideas and insight.
I learned:
- Parents have to take more responsibility for who coaches their kid and to have realistic expectations.
- Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor was a tennis player built in under 10,000 hours.
- Parents have to realize that tennis coaches can only work with what they get from us. If our kid is lazy and petulant and won’t work on the things you are teaching them, then we can’t expect miracles.
- Parents have to realize that before we jump ship, we better take a long hard look at what our expectations are and whether or not we are expecting coaches to deliver a shortcut to success.
All of these points are extremely valid and things well within the parent’s control. We need to take responsibility for them. We HAVE to take responsibility for them.
But here’s where I got lost.
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Between the holidays, a busy work schedule and being ill, I’ve be out of touch too long. I have a few guest articles that were written for me that I’d like to share with you. But as usual, I’ve been learning, learning, learning about being a tennis mom, so over the next couple weeks I’ll be switching between the guest posts and my own thoughts.
To get this blog back up and running, I’m going to start today with a guest post from Tennissmith‘s Steve Smith. Just prior to the holidays, I asked Steve a question. Why do I see kids changing coaches so often? It was what I call musical coach season and several players in our area were switching coaches, shopping for a new one, or being recruited by another. Since Coach Dad has worked exclusively with our daughter since she was 6, I couldn’t wrap my head around all the action I was seeing. Sure Lauren has a footwork/conditioning coach and has hitting partners from time to time, but they all form part of a larger team, all working to help her become the best player she can be. It works for us.
Steve agreed to weigh in on the subject. I can’t say his reply surprised me, but it may some of you. Steve ran the first two-year college degree program for tennis pro-managers at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas. Steve is a teacher’s teacher, a strong advocate of teaching fundamentals that are supported by scientific rationale, skills development and consistent coaching. It’s a philosophy that has worked well for players like Texas A&M’s Austin Krajicek and for teachers like Coach Dad.
Here is his response to me.
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