In the online magazine Slate there is an article about what is needed to create the next great American tennis player (Article Here). I do some consulting for a tennis academy so I’ll add my thoughts.
From the article: American men have now failed to take the title in 22 straight Grand Slam tournaments, extending the longest dry spell in U.S. tennis history. This stretch of futility, coupled with a dearth of young talent on the women’s side, prompted the United States Tennis Association to overhaul its player development system last year, introducing a host of initiatives such as regional residential training centers, a new roster of national coaches to scout and train prospects, and an increased budget (upward of $100 million over the next 10 years). The plan is comprehensive and ambitious, intended to produce the next Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and Venus Williams. Unfortunately for the USTA, national organizations with comprehensive mission statements don’t produce tennis champions. Crazy tennis parents do.
This is an interesting observation and one that isn’t too far off. I think its fair to say that in every sport there are some overbearing parents and tennis is full of them. From my own experience of working with youth tennis players there is no shortage of intense parents. In some rare cases parents do make a huge difference in the outcome of the youth athlete (the article names a handful of tennis examples) but relatively it is an extremely small number compared to how many youths play sports. The part that stick out to me is the setup of these sports.
For example, in tennis parents have a lot of control. They spend a ton of money if their kids are even somewhat serious about the sport. Since the spend so much money they feel entitled. The entitlement stretches from court preference to how the coaches coach. This is a big difference from other expensive sports. Take a sport like hockey where parents also spend a lot of money on equipment, ice time, and camps. The difference is that hockey players, in most areas, have a limited selection of teams to choose from. If they don’t like the coach or the setup they have two choices, quit or deal with it. In the tennis academy I work at if you do not like your coach you have a multitude of choices. With so many choices who is driving the talent development? Is it the coaches (experts) or the parents (wannabe experts)?
Many other sports have ways to allow talented individuals to play on teams or go to camps to get better instruction and face better competition. That structure builds talent purposefully, there are various levels that help talent grow in progressions. Each stage of development should lead into the next stage. But in tennis, if you’re very good you have to move to Florida and pay an exorbitant amount of money to train at one of those academies. There is almost nothing on the smaller scale, there is little building of talent. If you rank high enough you can play against better talent but not necessarily train with better talent. While tennis is the focus of the article it should be noted that this is happening in other sports too. Other single sports, like golf, face a similar issue. ESPN.com has article about the lack of Americans winning a major golf tournament (besides Tiger Woods & Phil Mickelson).
The training structure needs to be changed for improvement to be seen. The USTA needs to focus on providing situations were the kids are getting great coaching, good competition, fair evaluations, and the parents have minimal choices. The focus needs to be on building the kid’s internal motivations and talents simultaneously, not just getting their or their parent’s way. If the kids are passionate about the sport, have good coaching, and a chance to play against good talent they have a better chance than any overbearing parent.
For more information about mental performance as well as overall athletic performance enhancement check out our websites. The links are on the right of the homepage.
