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.
How do I know whether or not the coach I am hiring is competent or not? How can I evaluate what progress my child should be making if I don’t KNOW what progress my child should be making? How do I know what a forehand should look like technically? How do I know when my child should start playing at the net? How do I know if my child is a baseliner, serve and volleyer or an all-court player? Why does the coach label my child a baseliner, serve and volleyer or all-court player? Is it because of her height or weight, or is it because of her extreme grips that she doesn’t come to the net?
Please don’t tell me to make sure my kid’s coach is USPTA, USPTR, Tennis Canada (fill in the national sporting federation) certified. If certification takes ONE DAY as Steve Smith mentioned, or a couple weekends as I know it does to be a club level instructor at Tennis Canada, as a parent how can I completely trust that the 18-year-old (no offence to 18 year-olds) coach on court with my six-year-old has a clue how to effectively begin the lifelong development process with my child? Is a day or two weekends enough? Is the coach on the next court giving out the same core information, technical & tactical? Or at the next level? Is certification the same as education?
Please don’t tell me that at the beginning, the main thing is that it be fun. I want it RIGHT. If it’s fun, well that’s just an awesome BONUS. Learning front crawl, back crawl, breaststroke isn’t all that much fun, my kids both swam, I know. But they sure spent an awful lot of time on stroke production. Over and over, back and forth, they learned efficient technique so they didn’t drown. And they loved it not because they got to chase a plastic dolphin across the pool or stay alive, they loved it, because they kept getting better and better at the same strokes. Good enough to try out for swim team.
Please don’t tell me that playing tennis baseball, or “jail” on the court makes it so much more entertaining for my child. If I wanted them to play baseball or go to jail, I’d be at the park or we’d be pulling family B&E’s. I signed them up for tennis. By all means, if you feel you have to, make it fun. But please, make sure you are teaching them how to hold and swing the racquet efficiently. I don’t want to hear in five years that now we can forgot all those beginner strokes and work on real strokes, or worse that we have to completely undo and reprogram her strokes.
As a matter of fact, I’d prefer that you would explain things like grips and efficient strokes to my child and then to me (in a workshop with other parents is fine) from the get-go. When it comes to an eastern-forehand or a semi-western or western grip, is tennis that individual a sport that our kids should be holding the racquet any which way the want when they begin? Does it matter?
Who can tell me? The USTA? Tennis Canada, your country federation? I have no doubt running a national sporting federation is tough, tough work. I know. I work in politics. We ask LOTS of questions and we measure success by a win/loss record when it’s time to renew your funding.
But please take the time to teach parents how to become educated tennis consumers. Please worry less about your latest marketing campaign or recruiting kids who display early athleticism (and sending all the others home), and more about developing all our children. I promise, we’ll give you tons of support if you do. We need your help. We still know not what we do.
I have 2 daughters that play tennis. They are 12 and 9. My 12 year old is a good player but really needs more training. I am worried that maybe we waited a little late for her and now we will never get her up to competitive speed. We are on track with my 9 year old. She is playing competitively and having some success. I was wondering if anyone can give me an ideal on just how much tennis on a weekly basis they should be playing. I’m trying to set up an intensive training program for them now, but I really need some guidance on what is best. The coach is telling me that she really needs to work with them at least 3hrs/day. Are group lessons better than private lessons?
Nicole,
I am also a tennis parent who agrees that as parents we need to learn more about the game to ensure our juniors are getting the proper instruction, coaching and mentoring.
My daughter had a coach for 6 years who taught her a lot about proper technique. However, she got to a point that she wasn’t progressing. Her coach was tough and demanding. Some kids respond to this but she would often come off the court feeling like she was a horrible player and depressed. The balance between pushing a player to exceed but still giving them confidence and encouragement is so very important. Each player responds to instruction differently. One parent told me their child loved to be yelled at because it made them mad and they would push themselves harder.
Due to financial reasons my daughter stopped private lessons with her long-term coach. She has a new coach who is demanding but also encouraging. She loves practice again and has regained a lot of confidence. I wish I had listened to my gut instincts earlier. How do you know you have the right coach? In addition to teaching proper technique make sure the coach’s teaching style meshes with your child’s. Not every great coach can teach every child.
Great Points by all.
As a 20+ year Teaching professional in CA, I think that there is a difference between games that are fun (and instructive, situational, technical or tactical) and games like Jail, jungle tennis, and sharks and minnows.
It completely amazes me how many 10-11 year olds that have been in programs for years( 2-3 years on average) that have zero stroke production. Many of those players have been in lesson programs at tennis clubs, country clubs, academies and tennis centers.
So it can be at any facility…..usually I ask them simple questions like what grips they use and how to produce certain shots (with topspin/under spin etc), and then some footwork questions. I am baffled that they do not know much, and then the next question is how many times a week are they have been in lessons.
The response is 2-3 times week in a group lesson for a few years….hmmmn
So now I or other pros have the fun job of retrofitting their strokes, or completely start from scratch.
Sometimes, it is enlightening and exciting for some kids because they are learning something for the first time and are seeing results!
For others they have had soooo much fun playing games like jail etc.
that working on strokes is really like WORK… and they become discouraged.
My recommendation to any parent that has a young child and they may want them to play tennis please read the following:
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
Talent is Overrated (what really separates world-class performance from everybody else) by Geoff Colvin
These are great reads and much like coaches like Macci, Lansdorp and Steve Smith, the technique of hitting is very important and repetition is critical.
And for most kids that has to start early on… much like swimming, golf, piano, chess etc. 10,000 hour rule
There are other factors of course, time/$$$/dedication.
Many parents need the road map and are really doing trial and error and it does not help many coaches are just to lazy or lack knowledge to share this with their students and parents.
Is there a Christian tennis Mum? I’m not mean to promot religin, just wonder how do you help or teach your child deal with cheating in junior tournorment.
nicole, thank you for the link to the NYT article – very interesting and very eye-opening!
Thanks Sanda, I appreciate the comments. When my daughter started it was in a group program as well. I have nothing against games or fun, but what I would like to see is technical skills development thrown into that mix. Instead of grabbing a tennis racquet like a baseball bat in tennis baseball, our kids were taught to hold their racquets on the forehand side with the eastern forehand grip and the eastern backhand grip on the backhand side. The rationale I was given for this was that the eastern-forehand/backhand grip was the grip that required the least amount of adjustments in relation to all phases of play, all zones of the court, all surfaces, all spins and all strokes on one side. Getting that little hand into an efficient position everytime, even in game play, would go a long way in reinforcing efficient habits.
What I have seen in those games is that the coaches keep their eyes on the score and there is little or no correction done on something so simple as how to hold the racquet efficiently. I have no problem with games, personally I don’t care if they are there or not, but if they are, then I would like to see the introduction to efficient technique incorporated.
Great article on the build-up of myelin from Daniel Coyle (The Talent Code) here. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/sports/playmagazine/04play-talent.html
Thanks again for your comments!
I guess I am puzzled by your assertion that we as parents have to make sure that the kids are taught the “right” way from the get go – when my son started to play tennis he went to a clinic with other 6 year olds where it was fun – they learned a lot of things and they played “jail” and other games – he loved tennis and had the desire to play more so I got him private lessons and he has developed into a good competive junior – most of the other kids in the clinic play recreationally and my son no longer plays with them but I don’t begrudge starting him in a fun program – now that he has the passion and desire to play on a competitive level, I found a different program . The vast majority of kids who learn tennis don’t learn to become the number 1 junior in the country, they learn tennis to have fun.
Great points – as a non tennis playing tennis mom of a fairly competitive junior player in the South I’ve learned that it’s my responsibility to learn what makes a good stroke, what types of players and plays are there and when I don’t understand I ask questions- lots of them- I’m also an educator so questioning is part of my nature as well. I tell the coaches in advance I’ve got questions but it’s for my child’s benefit- the only way I can help them improve outside of their lessons is if I know what I’m looking for. We’ve been lucky to work with really good coaches and shortly after starting tennis, my son found a coach who was passionate about teaching and a stickler for proper stroke production.
I also learn by reading- ZooTennis, instructional tennis books, we’ve memorized Brad Gilbert’s “Winning Ugly” at our house, we watch tennis instructional video’s and subscribe to different things put out by Fuzzy Yellow Balls and also Essential Tennis. And again, I ask questions, lots and lots of questions but I also share what I have learned with other parents – which is also another oddity I’ve found in junior tennis, many parents don’t want to share resources.
We’re now moving into the whole world of looking at colleges and the possibility of playing college tennis- yet another adventure.
one thing we see a lot of in atlanta is the traveling coach who teaches lessons at multiple neighborhood tennis courts. that’s how my son started playing tennis. these traveling coaches aren’t in it to develop players; they’re in it to teach very basic tennis skills that will allow the kid to play recreational tennis at a mediocre level. but, i only learned that fact after spending lots of money and time. where i grew up, if you took tennis lessons, you were going to learn how to play tennis . . . the proper way to play tennis. it was only after my son asked to start competing in tournaments (at age 9) that i realized that his neighborhood coach was not the right coach for him. thankfully, we ended up at an academy with the right coach, and that’s where my son has trained ever since. but, the right coach had to undo four years of learning and re-teach the basics, including proper attitude and work ethic. what a waste!
so, yes, the onus is on us parents, but we definitely need guidance from our federations when we’re in the marketplace for the right coach.