To The Parents

Welcome to the Tennis Life.

To explain it all to you here in print would make Apple's terms and conditions blush

But if I may put your mind at ease, you're in the right place at the right time. For in the history of our great sport, learning tennis has never been easier.

Today, according to the USPTA, there are 15,000 certified teaching professionals. Back when we learned, there may have been fifteen. There were no academies, junior rackets, graduated learning or YouTube to make learning our incredibly complex game a little easier. But that said, having so many options can be a problem itself, for how does one know which path to take?

As we embark on this journey, we must ask what are reasonable expectations on what to get out of all this, that all sacred ROI. (return on investment)

Having achievement goals are important. When young, talk of rankings, titles, a college scholarship or even a professional career is perfectly normal. And let's get one thing clear. The tennis rankings don't lie. A player always knows where they stand in tennis. And if you're one of the best in America, you're likely one of the best in the world which means you are in the company of future champions and future greatness. And though it may seem delusional, to start thinking about a professional career at such a young age, to come of age with all the talent to make it and not be prepared would be criminally irresponsible. So we need to be preparing for the future right from the start.

Which shines a light on the American Player Development System as a whole.  Does America produce so many accomplished players because of its system or in spite of it?

For our experience as coaches has shown us something important, that too much competition early in one's tennis can be counter-productive to development, with many taking on water early, so by the time they're ready to break out, they arrive stillborn, their competitive pilot lights a mere flicker of what they need be.

So we're going to go about this differently, for you can't fix tomorrow's problems with yesterday's mistakes.

As career tennis people we conclude that too much competition early in one's career is highly stressful and counter-productive to proper development, with the ability to manage said stress coming later in adolescence, not early..

Its our experience that throwing young kids into the rigors of a full tournament schedule does more harm than good. There will be plenty of time to get the match count up. I have yet to meet a single player who  didn't reach their goals in tennis because they didn't play enough tournaments ( I wished I had played those two L-5s when I was 12 said no tennis player ever) but I know a lot of players who didn't see their dreams through because of burnout, having played too much when they weren't emotionally ready

So our concurrent goal here is to not just get the kids physically and mentally prepared for the tennis journey but also prepare them emotionally for all the rigors the tennis life can dole out, for as you will soon see through our presentations, those demands are aplenty. 

For here's the tricky part.

Kids often aren't capable of explaining to you what they're feeling. They lack the language to put their emotions into thoughts... 

Wouldn't it be nice..."Hey Mom, my stress cortisol levels are running a little high today, I might need to sit this one out."

In an ideal world, there would be an all-encompassing test we could administer at the onset of training to measure the important fields of stress reactivity, emotional regulation, optimism/pessimism, self-confidence/belief, and on and on, all fields just as important to athletic success and well-being as a big serve and blazing speed.

Some Ancestry DNA 23 thing. See your roots.  A couple of huge forehands on your Dad's side, A little bit of trouble with the toss on your Mom's. But your grandparents were clutch under pressure so we got that going for us!!

Maybe our Academy will be the first of its kind to do stem cell research. I have a sweaty Novak wristband from years back, that DNA has to be worth something!!

All joking aside, intense stress creates diamonds, but it also causes earthquakes. Both are right, so we must proceed with caution..

So what can we as coaches promise you?

That your child will learn how to put the best of themselves into an activity they have passion for, and that they will do and become the absolute best THEY can be. If we have 50 kids in our program and everyone's dream is to become top 10, you can see the dilemma in promised outcomes

But most importantly, we aim to develop in your child through the tennis development process an unshakable foundation for life, that no matter what happens, when they've hit their last ball, they will be able to take all the lessons learned here and apply them to life's subsequent challenges, be they education, career, family and relationships or God forbid, Pickleball

And why am I explaining all this to you? 

As parents, you have one of the prized seats in your child's Player's Box.

Everyone has to know their roles

Whether you know it or not, right from the start you are managing a potential professional tennis career.. 

Now I don't know about you, but my parents didn't major in sports management either.

So all we ask of you is to be willing to learn and grow.

For I need not tell you. Tennis is hard. Parenting is harder. Tennis parenting can be a whole other level.

For one important reason. Parental Identification is real

From the Journals

"All parents identify with their children and want them to do well. Unfortunately, in some cases, the degree of identification becomes excessive, and the child becomes an extension of the parent’s ego. When parents over-identify with their child’s sports performance, they begin to define their self-worth in terms of their son’s or daughter’s successes or failures. Some parents thus become “winners” or “losers” through their children, and the pressure placed on the children can become extreme. The child must succeed, or the parent’s self-image is threatened. When parental love and approval become conditional on how well their children perform, sports can become exceedingly stressful."

And how can we in the Coaching world help?

The Development Paradox. Elite coaching will not make a player great, but a player can't become great without elite coaching.

As for us coaches, we're not miracle workers. I would love for all of our students to play like professionals right from the start. And here in the year 2024, if there was a way to make that happen, we would know it by now.  So DNA plays a role here. Without it, we could roll the entire Tennis Hall Of Fame to coach your child and it still wouldn't matter.

So we promise we're going to control what we can control. 

And we wish this were as simple as a list of Do this and Don't do that, but our experience also shows it is not. The junior tennis development process is one of management and troubleshooting and problem solving, where we all must remain flexible and nimble throughout to achieve our desired results.

But it takes a village, a team if you will. If we all work hard at this together, we will get the most out of your child and hopefully guide them toward seeing their dreams through.