Professional tennis. Kids dream about it. Parents wonder if their child may have the right stuff. Junior coaches scout for the next Roger, Rafa, Venus, Serena and Andy. But as well all know, the road to the top is a very long, winding and difficult one.
If your children are already playing tennis and together you’ve decided its time to embark upon a more competitive path, then you’ve come to the right place.
I’m a Montreal-based Tennis Mom, a career sportswriter and publicist, with a 11-year-old daughter who dreams of life on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. In this blog I share the things I’ve been learning about competitive junior tennis and raising a competitive junior tennis player.
I’ve noticed that sports like hockey, baseball and football generally have some type of lettering system; B, A, double-A, triple-A to help a parent gauge their childrens’ progress through the sport. But in tennis we’re not quite that lucky. Combined with the fact that every country has its own unique competition system in place, knowing what to do at which stage of development and even what choices are available to consider, can be somewhat daunting, if not downright confusing.
Should your child play ITF events, national events or both? Which tournaments will get your child noticed? How much does it cost to take a child on the road? How do we balance school work and training? How can my child get a college scholarship? What special nutritional needs should I be aware of?
These are just some of the many subjects I’ll tackle at The Tennis Mom along with much more. Over the coming months I’ll be profiling other tennis parents, providing tournament info and ratings and hopefully be in a position to share a deal or two on hotels, travel, equipment and more.
If you have a specific question, please don’t hesitate to ask. I also welcome feedback, comments and even polite, constructive criticism! I hope you’ll enjoy your time at The Tennis Mom and that we’ll get get to know each other much better.
Soccer Moms and Soccer Dads have banded together over the years and have become a sought-after demographic by advertisers, political parties and media. It’s time we Tennis Moms, Tennis Parents took our rightful place!
So let’s connect and exchange notes, we’ve got nothing to lose and our children deserve every advantage we can give them. I look forward to meeting all of you. Please feel free to contact me at nicole@thetennismom.com at any time.
