age to start Jr. tournaments

[kmoranon]

Growing up in So Calif., tennis here is very competitive. What is a good age to start a kid into open Jr. tournaments. In the past ,I have not push kids or parents to start Jr. tennis tournaments. Being around Jr. tournaments more, I am starting to re-think my opinion. I see a lot of kids who start competitive Jr. tennis at around 8 years old... and once they get going ,what is good amount of tournament to play a year.?
One boy I teach did not play any competitive tournaments until the 14s and under,but he's doing quite well .. Sometimes I feel that I did not push hard enough to get him into the tournament scene and that the experience he missed out is hurting him.. I see the other kids carry themselves on the court very professional like when it comes to line calls and how to handle those cheaters... whereas my students is a bit passive..
Also, this past season,he had a bit of a burn out... with high school tennis and the week end tennis tournaments that we do,it was too much... how do handle that burnt out... I had him not touch the racket for a week and had him swim and run to stay fit... we have to really sit down and plot out a workable plan for next year... any suggestions ?

[airforce1]

My 2 cents would be to hold off of tourneys, as far as chasing rankings and points, till 14s for boys if you can, but this would require great effort to take matchplay to a much higher level.
Younger they can play odd events for experience, jr matchplay, and matchplay with adult matchups.

I would repeat that this would greatly increase the prep role of the instructor or parent, (for matchplay and such) but in a big club, it should be pretty easy to pull off.