My job is to prepare students to be successful in their post athletic career, using what they learned while pursuing athletics at a high level.
Over the course of 40 years of coaching I’ve been lucky to be exposed to the top level of junior tennis training and competition. I’ve traveled to ITF (International Tennis Federation) tournaments, USTA L1 Nationals like the Nats and the Zoo and SoCalamazoo. I don’t think it has become any easier to be a top level competitor in tennis. It is hard, damn hard to be the best at anything. In order to be successful at a high level, competitors have to get good at doing hard things. Gutting it out and continuing to compete even when you body starts to cramp; handling pugnacious opponents who push your buttons and make you want to punch them in the nose; getting an hour break before your next match after completing a grueling 3 hour, 3 setter; are all ways competitors learn to adapt to the challenges competition throws at them.
It is incredibly difficult to be a high-level, successful athlete. The volume and intensity of physical training, tennis training and mental training that are required for a player to reach high level of success are prohibitive.
As parents and coaches we often times try to make the path easier for our students/children. THAT IS A MISTAKE. Just like you have to go the gym and suffer through the challenge and pain and suffering of strength training for your muscles to get stronger, so too mature emotional/physiological muscles must be worked so that they get stronger and can handle progressively more stress.
By doing hard things, we get better at handling hard things.
Competitive tennis, by it’s very nature and composition is one of the hardest sports. Think about this, each weekend, thousands of kids play in tournaments, in each age/sex division, only one player comes home a winner, the rest go home having lost. This happens weekend after weekend. During the course of a junior tennis career, a junior tennis player could lose 100s of tennis matches. The resiliency required to continue in the sport is one of the things that employers look for in potential employees. The resiliency learned as a junior tennis player lasts long after the last tournament has been played.
So my advice is this, DON’T MAKE IT EASY. Whenever you feel the urge to help your junior tennis player by making the path easier to walk, DON’T.
DON’T COMMISERATE AFTER LOSES
MAKE THEM SEEK OUT THEIR COACH AFTER LOSING TO DEBRIEF, DON’T LET THEM OUT OF THAT HARD CONVERSATION
DON’T CARRY THEIR BAG
DON’T FILL THEIR WATER JUG
DON’T FILL OUT THEIR TOURNAMENT ENTRIES
DON’T LET THEM SLEEP IN BECAUSE THEY STAYED UP LATE STUDYING
DON’T LET THEM MISS PRACTICE BECAUSE THEY ARE SORE
DON’T EXEMPT THEM FROM ANY TRAINING BECAUSE THEY COMPLAIN ABOUT IT
BASICALLY, DON’T DO ANYTHING THAT LETS THEM OFF THE HOOK, THEIR NEXT OPPONENT WON’T.
By: Jack Newman
CEO Austin Tennis Academy
