Parental Tennis Blunders

[johnyandell]

Let's hear your thoughts on Frank Giampaolo's article on "Parental Tennis Blunders."

[charlieinneedham]

Tremendous insight.

Great advice.

If the book is as good as the article, it should be under the tree of every tennis parent.

Heck, if the book is as good as the article, it should be given to every parent before they leave the hospital with their newborn.
These are life lessons, not just tennis life lessons.

[bottle]

I don't think tennis books should have the word "Bible" in their title.

[stotty]

A knowledgeable article. I like the part about developing self-reliance.

From my standpoint as a coach, I feel there is often an even easier way to kickstart the self reliance process:

Many performance children have parents who are present for "everything" they do...the "ever-present parents" I call them. Every lesson, every squad, every hit, every match...they are there...it's annoying... gets on your nerves... it's undesirable for two reasons:

1. It often inhibits good coaching.
2. The child becomes dependent on their parents being around for everything they do in tennis. During matches these children are constantly looking toward their parents for reassurance.

Tennis is a solitary game and learning self-reliance and independence is critical to player development. Tim Henman had great parents...very supportive...but stayed out of the way...never assumed a knowledge of the game...important that...nothing worse than parents who end up preaching a knowledge of a game they've never played...or if they have, not to any level.

Weening parents away from their children's tennis is a good starting point towards developing self-reliance for the student. Allowing children to play a few tournaments on their own and have lessons without their parents constantly spectating is a good first step towards establishing self-reliance in young tennis players.

[jryle1]

Excellent article, and I agree, it should be under the christmas tree of a lot of tennis parents. I know exactly who I'd be giving this book to for christmas, and I can't count them all on one hand.

[2728]

Tennis parent education

Thanks for the kind words. While tennis parent education is still in its infancy here in the United States, other countries are well ahead of the curve. I've been working with coaches in other countries since 1999 and it's no wonder they seem to be producing more champions.
Frank Giampaolo
The Tennis Parents Bible

[andres]

A Sucessful New Year to Tennisplayer.net!


I feel that this topic - parents and the kid's behavior on court - is,
strangely enough, the most relevant point of discussion about tennis
for many tennis fans although for many others it might not make much
sense. It's kind of unbelievable that it took such a long time to adress a problem of such importance, but it's good news that somebody has been able to hit the headlines with exactly just that as well as found enough understanding from the publishers.


For some tennis players, what they can actually do on court is
determined by what they've been through for the last 24 hours or more
as well as what they are probably facing the following 24 hours.
Behavior on court reflects all this without much margin for error, if
you know what you are looking for. Basically, it boils down to whether
the kid is able to relax and work on his game or he just struggles
there to get emotionally balanced for the rest of the day. It all
happens naturally and the kid really can't help himself in the latter
case, so I feel that it would be an enormous chance (a duty) for the
coach to step in and correct the situation which involves contacting
the kid's parents to really find out what's wrong. Actually,
contacting the kid's grandparents might be a much better idea because
such parents are often not really, probably not even passively
co-operating as the situation on court doesn't change. So that's a
really complicated task which takes a lot of time and effort, but this
way the kid is actually given maybe his only chance to find his own
way. Thanks to tennis.


I had such a coach for a very short time who was really willing to
find things out, but because of a major car accident at our tennis
club we didn't get past the few coaching sessions at some of the very
first tournaments that I took part in. Other coaches said that they
don't understand the problem that was obviously blocking my progress.


Wishing the Tennisplayer.net team success in pursuing excellence in
this New Territory


Andres Sulling

[frankgiampaolo]

Frank Giampaolo up-date

Thanks...
Both John and I are passonate about this topic. We'll do our best to provide the latest research ! Please help spread the word about : The Tennis Parent's Bible.
FG

[bottle]

Swiss Cheese

I would have liked this article better if when the father told his kids to take on the secretarial work of arranging accommodations and logistics, the kids had tied the father to a netpost the way Ivan Lendl's parents did him when he was a boy.

The kids could then fire their shock and awe forehands at the netpost, which would help develop the murderous impulse so essential to tournaments and life.

[stotty]

Frank's book

I wonder what Frank thinks about and recommends for parents who are ever-present. It's irritating for coaches when the parents are breathing down your neck every session you give.

Plus, I'm in the UK...can I get a hard copy of Frank's book over here? I haven't been able to find a copy yet? Can I order a book to be shipped over?

[johnyandell]

Maybe Frank can chime in on the first question. The book is an ebook available as a pdf file. Here's the link if you want to get one.

http://thetennisparentsbible.com/?hop=tplayer