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**damir** · 03-21-2014, 09:37 AM

I think that we all agree that it is extremely difficult to bring a child to professional tennis.

I think that we all agree too that when is measured one's tennis career - ultimate measure is how high one was ranked (ATP/WTA - how many tournaments at this level one won) and for how long.All the rest are sweet memories (junior tournaments one won,which ones, and at what age).

In other words, what it counts is if one accomplished what was planned or not - to become professional tennis player (it is in my opinion of lesser importance when one accomplished).

So, the parents who have ambition for their child to become professional tennis player have to decide between these two models.

**damir** · 03-22-2014, 12:53 AM

Before I state advantages and disadvantages of each model I must state another well known fact,"To become tennis professional is detrimental to one's phisical and mental health".

By physical I mean not just injuries which may stop one's tennis career, but increased wear and tear of different body parts which one feels sooner or later.

In mental aspect may happen that a person does not develop one's personality - that a person does not become adult, but stays in lower mental developmental phase.

Besides, tennis as individual sport develops extremely egocentric personality (the better player the more pronounced).

All so far mentioned is valid reason to observe the model of bringing a child to professional tennis which will on one hand enable main goal (to become professional tennis player), and on the other will decrease negative aspects of being professional tennis player to acceptable level.

**damir** · 03-23-2014, 06:54 AM

To reach anything in any field which is way above average causes full commitment and devotion to this thing, and negligence to some degree to some other important parts which a person should develop to become well rounded person.

There is no professional tennis player who did not have to pay this privilege of being professional tennis player by being denied of some mental aspects of human development(there is no professional tennis player who was not abused on a path to become professional tennis player whether physically,mentally or both)

In my opinion,although there is no way to avoid negative effects completely, it is necessary to make everything possible that bad side effects of becoming tennis profesional are as small as possible.Why?Because there is life after tennis career, and only well balanced - mature person will be able to enjoy the rest of one's life in a proper way.

For some, a life after tennis career become nightmare because they were coached just tennis, and as such in situations outside tennis courts do not feel comfortable.

**stotty** · 03-23-2014, 08:24 AM

I am not entirely sure what you are getting at in your post. Speed up versus progressive? If you mean developing a world-class tennis player from childhood means covering a lot of ground quickly, you're probably right. There is a lot to learn and fit in!

I honestly think being a world-class player shouldn't be a goal for a child as 99 percent will never make it. Better to enjoy the game and have reachable short term goals.

Many of the young players on the tour are very well-rounded people...amazingly so. I don't think a young tennis player has to miss out on anything if the parents have their heads screwed on properly. Well-roundedness of children mainly comes from the parents anyway. My feeling is that young players can have friends, a good education, and play tennis. They can have the whole lot.

I imagine there is little quantitive analysis on this kind of thing. If there is, I have never come across it.

**damir** · 03-24-2014, 12:22 AM

Originally posted by licensedcoach View Post

I am not entirely sure what you are getting at in your post. Speed up versus progressive? If you mean developing a world-class tennis player from childhood means covering a lot of ground quickly, you're probably right. There is a lot to learn and fit in!

I am trying to say that:

1.It is close to impossible to become world class player so parents be aware
2.Even if one becomes world class payer, reaching it will have harmful effects physically and mentally.
3.Time is limited so everything has to fit in in this limited time, but still in my opinion there are basically two approaches:1)Rear a child as a future star from day one (all is concentrated on tennis), and 2)Step by step approach - where tennis takes over ones life as one is biologically and mentally prepared to endure

**don_budge** · 03-24-2014, 12:31 AM

damir...interesting stuff

Fascinating view...please continue! Just take your time and develop this as your thoughts come to you. It's very cool so far and it addresses one of the central core issues that tennis faced with as a sport...and as a business. Children. We cannot allow children to become the grist for the meat grinder.

**damir** · 03-24-2014, 06:03 AM

Originally posted by licensedcoach View Post

I honestly think being a world-class player shouldn't be a goal for a child as 99 percent will never make it. Better to enjoy the game and have reachable short term goals.

I again agree with you that becoming professional tennis player is almost beyond the reach and as such very risky and uncertain goal which most of the people should not try to reach.

On the other hand , if one in spite of very negative odds still pursue this goal, one should be informed as much as possible (leave as little as possible to chance)because when one starts to "travel" one wants to travel in the same direction (does not want to go over same stuff all over again).

Good example is that Hungarian chess master father of three daughters.

One must be aware of both processes (teaching and managing) so that one can keep always one step ahead.

Such individual is completely devoted to the cause, and this individual must be aware that on this path will be lonely for long time, and will confront, and must be able to control self doubts very often.

This is world for itself (the ones who understand what is all about do not want to enter) where tennis institutions are welcome as provider of support (moral,material,logistics), but they are (if they do their job) in best case loyal spectators because they operate at totally different level related to the level necessary to become professional tennis player (good comparison would be job 24/7 compared to ordinary job 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

**damir** · 03-24-2014, 10:18 AM

As I was trying to achieve this almost unachievable goal I have had many questions realated to different aspects of coaching tennis (about the process of managing whole process I was not even aware).I was wondering because I thought that I know a lot about tennis, but was not aware that the more one knows the more questions one has.

From that time as I have grown in experience, I became aware that it normal that the more one knows the more questions one has.

Another, very difficult thing to manage is uncertainty - how planned and implemented will manifest in the future.

Why is such uncertainty?On one hand there is no one in tennis who has close to comprehensive picture of al the processes and details which participate in production of professional tennis player.By reading www.tennisplayer.net I read different opinions on the same subject (even John at one place said that many things are still unknown, and he considers virtue to change one's opinion about certain matter in light of additional scientific facts).

I agree with John, but what about tennis player who spent hours and hours doing things which at the end will not enable one to become professional tennis player.

I would like to illustrate with example

ne of the two of highest authority in tennis in my country wrote the book in 1978. where he predicted that everything shows that there is tendency in tennis that one universal grip will be used for all the strokes.He was as far as possible off the base, but the problem was that he taught what he preached so his players even before beginning had not chance to become proffesional tennis players.

What am trying to say?I am trying to say that one as tennis coach of a child (whose parents have ambition to become professional tennis player)has to decide and implement sound fundamentals (here is this uncertainty I am talking about because one does not know how will turn out till many year later).

So, sound fundamentals are must (details are correctable), and this requires a lot of knowledge,responsibility and courage.

**tennis_chiro** · 03-24-2014, 11:33 PM

Damir,
you are asking a lot of very good questions, questions that are not addressed nearly enough. Unfortunately, there are not many easy, simple answers. But I will give you one very simple answer to part of the question.

That part of the question is, is it alright to let my child pursue tennis as his/her raison d'être, as the primary objective in his/her life. There is only one good reason to allow that to happen, only one… and that has to be that they play the game because they love it. For the love of it. And never for the possible financial rewards.

Certainly, there are many people who have changed their lives by hitting a tennis ball. Many great champions of the past started as ball boys in clubs they could never afford to have been members of. Others were children of staff at some tennis facilities. Gonzales made it at what today would be considered an impossibly late age with little financial assistance until he was a force that could no longer be overlooked. I won't say that is impossible, but it is almost impossible today.

To become a successful tennis playing professional today, you have to have all kinds of things going for you. False fundamentals will no longer be tolerated at the highest levels of the game. You used to be able to hide a weakness with some particular strength. Player's weaknesses today are only relative weaknesses. You better have some decent coaching along the way.

To become a successful tennis playing professional today, you have to have thousands and thousands of quality hours of practice on the court. Court time, balls, strings, rackets and shoes are the least of it; you have to have quality practice partners.

To become a successful tennis playing professional today, you have to get hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of tournament matches under your belt against appropriate and challenging competition to even have a chance to compete with pro players. That means travel and accommodation.

To become a successful tennis playing professional today, you have to have a certain amount of talent and the indomitable will to forge that talent into a formidable level of skill. I've heard Gary Vitti, trainer for the Lakers, say that talent is highly overrated. You have to have a certain minimum, but it's the willingness to go the extra mile and work harder than anyone else that separates the great from the also-rans.

Those are just some of the things that are necessary to become a playing tennis professional, someone who earns a living playing for prize money. There is a lot more, but let's just take those things. That's a tremendous amount of resources that are going to be dedicated to this goal. I was a wannabe so I don't really know the rewards that come from actually making it. I think it must be unbelievable. But as a financial objective, it's a bad bet.

Take a look some time at a Futures event and you will see a half dozen players who have invested themselves and crossed off all the boxes I have laid out and much more; they look like world beaters against the other Futures players and it seems that, surely, they should make it, but many of them never rise above 500. As coaches, we look at players and think we can spot a sure thing, but there are very few, if any, sure things. I've seen dozens of "sure thing" 16 year olds, who never even made it to 500 in the pro ranks. They hadn't put in 10,000 hours. They had actually put in more like 20,000 hours. They were great athletes. But they didn't make it. If they did it because they loved the game, they may walk away with some unfulfilled dreams, but they will take away some great lessons of life; no, … many great lessons for life. And a game they can enjoy playing and being a part of for their entire life.

But it they did it for a return on investment, they have totally and utterly failed. If they have completely sacrificed their chance to develop other skills and other means to make a living in their career after chasing the dream, they are bankrupt. They did not go on that quest so they could end up feeding balls at a tennis academy somewhere in the sun. On the other hand, if they love the game that much and they love imparting their hard-earned knowledge to others, there is nothing wrong with becoming a teaching pro. But if they did it for the financial reward, they will hate their time feeding those balls. The best tennis teaching professionals are the ones that you know are doing it because they chose to, not because they couldn't do anything else; you know the good ones would be successful at whatever they tried, they just happen to love tennis. Unfortunatly, there are plenty out there who can hit the ball, but couldn't do anything else.

To even allow a kid to forsake the rest of his development for tennis may seem like dedicated focus to some, but to me, it is out and out child abuse. I've been listening to Ender's Game on my iPhone.

(Note: I listen to audiobooks on my elliptical and commuting to work and sometimes it's great books like Gladwell's David and Goliath, but lately I've been listening to a lot of escapist drivel. I can't explain why, but I love books written for 12 year-olds. The kids all know Ender Wiggins better than they know Andrew Wiggins, the potential number one overall pick in the next NBA draft. And please, no one tell me the end; I'm still listening. Great fun.)

It probably takes a lot more to develop a world class tennis player than it does to create an indomitable star fleet commander. (Yeah, I know it's a fantasy.) But we are not trying to save the human race from the "buggers";

(even in Ender's Game, it seems wrong to strip a child of his entire childhood for the sake of developing a killer instinct and an unbelievable sense of self-reliance; I'm not at the end of the story yet, but I think the parts of Ender that fight against his training regimen and the system, that link him to his own commanders that he has trained … those are the things that will enable him to succeed in the end; we'll see. don_budge, you would like the way Ender fights the system with his mind!)

Sure, the good kid has to give up a lot to be a competitor at the elite level; miss out on a few dates and some parties; but it is not necessary to stop his music lessons or sacrifice his entire education. The biggest and most vital muscle for a great tennis player is the one between his ears; it runs all the rest and everything you do to develop its potential pays big dividends…on and off the court. If at 16 or 17, the player is the number one or two junior in the world, you can limit the diversions from the primary task even further. But don't do anything to retard the growth of that biggest muscle. (Strongly suggest that all of you check out braininabag.com). Even if he is 1 or 2 in the world, if it is just because he is really well trained, physically gifted and competitively advanced against his peers, it won't mean a thing if he doesn't do it for love. Agassi is the counter example to that according to his description of his relationship with tennis in his early career, but in the end, he showed he truly loved the game. (And notice how dedicated he is to education!) The conventional education can be completed a little later. But to make those kinds of decisions about essential priorities in the life of a pre-adolescent child (as is often the case) is simple child abuse. The adults at the table have to see that the kid eats the main course before they get to have desert.

continued below

**tennis_chiro** · 03-24-2014, 11:34 PM

continued from above

No Damir. I think there is another question you have to ask. That is, how can you be a world class father and do the absolute best possible for your child? If you have the financial means to provide all the training your child can handle and all the advantages that can make an elite tennis career a realistic possibility, wonderful. The game will pay back tremendous dividends. But that does not mean that you should allow your child to sacrifice their development in other areas. It's your responsibility to see that they are exposed to all the wonderful things he/she can become and help them find a passion for what is the right thing for them. And if they do not love it, they will have no chance, none. You can certainly make them hate the game when they are young, but you cannot make them love it. You can expose them to it and give them a chance to fall in love with it, but if you try to force feed it, well, the analogy is clear enough.

And if you don't have tremendous financial resources, you still have the most important resource you can give your child, support. It doesn't take a lot of money for a father to take his son/daughter out and get him started on the road to becoming a tennis player. It is a love affair many fathers have shared very successfully with their sons/daughters. There are so many tremendous resources available to pursue this journey. You are blogging on one of the very best. Oh how I wish I had had this resource when I started playing tennis with my dad when I was 14! Perhaps even more when I was a wannabe tennis pro surviving by teaching tennis between tournaments in my 20's. I would have known what to practice. And yes, acing the geometry test and building the muscle between the ears will be just as important in developing the mind of a champion as hitting another ace in practice; not to mention developing coordination using 4 limbs to play the piano or expanding your cortical hemispheres learning another language or your creativity by learning to draw (gawd, I love to watch people sketch). Yes, a better individual is a better tennis player.

But if you are planning on developing a tennis player with the specific goal of making a return on your investment because of the money your child can earn in their professional playing career, even if you are only thinking in terms of money they will make for themselves and a career they will have and enjoy, you are doomed to failure. I guarantee you the failure rate on that paradigm is upwards of 99%. And even among those that do succeed, we see so much disfunction in that parental relationship. Your odds are so much better if you just take the time and effort each of you is going to put into it and go work somewhere for minimum wage and put that money aside. At the end of your 10,000 hours of work (and it is probably at least 15,000 hours when you consider the hours for you and your wife as well as your child and his/her siblings, maybe more like 20,000), you'll have saved at least 10 times the average amount of money made by anyone who embarks on this journey with financial reward as the incentive. I wasn't average, but my entry fees surpassed my prize money way before we started to talk about travel and accommodation and coaching. 10,000 hours at just minimum wage and you'd have enough for a nice financial stake to get started in life or maybe pay for a decent college education; maybe not a good private college, but there are still plenty of good state schools. Now if we start to talk about the $15,000 to $25,000 a year a lot of parents are paying for their child's tennis development, indeed, you could keep Harvard as an option.

On the other hand, play the game for love. If your child loves the game, feed that love with more opportunity for growth. There is no need to sacrifice essential facets of your child's growth and development. If he/she decides they want to go on that journey with you to become a tennis player, I envy you that trip. BTW, there may be no crying in baseball (thankyou, Tom Hanks), but there is plenty of sorrow on the road to tennis greatness. You have to learn to deal with disappointment. Or as Wawrinka says, Fail Better. Be sure to check some of the articles here on this site like Jim Loehr's and Barry Buss's to give you an entirely different perspective on coaching and junior development.

I don't know what got into me that I had to make this long diatribe; it must be shock from the unexpected $2,000 kick in the teeth I got today when I went to the dentist and I found out I had to have root canal work done and then got the bill; the actual root canal was almost painless, writing the check was absolutely crushing. But if you read this far, congratulations for hanging in there; you have great powers of concentration, focus and stick-to-itiveness. You must be a good tennis player!!

don

**tennis_chiro** · 03-25-2014, 09:45 PM

Just trying to give posts 10 and 11 another chance!

I was hoping for a few comments.

don

**don_budge** · 03-25-2014, 11:33 PM

damir...the voice

Originally posted by tennis_chiro View Post

Just trying to give posts 10 and 11 another chance!

I was hoping for a few comments.

don

I was hoping to hear damir out...he seems new and a fresh voice. He seemed to be on to some really fundamental questions that he was trying to answer himself. The process was fascinating to read.

Your posts were great...as usual. Sorry about your teeth...you and bottle have taken a couple of hits.

damir...continue. please.

**damir** · 03-26-2014, 12:37 AM

Originally posted by licensedcoach View Post

Many of the young players on the tour are very well-rounded people...amazingly so. I don't think a young tennis player has to miss out on anything if the parents have their heads screwed on properly. Well-roundedness of children mainly comes from the parents anyway. My feeling is that young players can have friends, a good education, and play tennis. They can have the whole lot.

I totally disagree with above statement.It is not possible to have all (in my language there is saying."It is not possible to have money and the sheeps at the same time")Professional tennis takes a lot to give in rare circumstances even more (but mental and physical side effects are unavoidable).And this statement just speaks about those who make it;what about huge number of disillisuned young people who worked hard 15-20 years and did not make it(they did not developed as human beings - low self-esteem,no education)

Tennis players who play regularly WTA/ATP tournaments are among fews who made it (and between them there are well roundedd people what is really not possible to know before they end tennis career and start living "normal" life)

My intention by starting this topic was to seek agreement on certain facts related to tennis:

1.It is extremely difficult to succeed and become professional tennis player
(just look around how many tennis courts there are, and it is difficult to see quality tennis player)
2.Chances that one makes are extremely small and even then there are bad side effects.
3.In my opinion it is irrational decision to pursue tennis playing career as profession for normal family (exception are really rich families which on one hand will not feel financial loss, and on the other have mechanism to include such young man back to normal life )

From comments is obvious that some people do not share my opinion.

My intention was to present facts acquired from first hand experience, and after that give two possibble path to take to become professional tennis player (to go to a college, and then turn pro is not really a path, but exception).

By explaining these two possible path (for ones who against better judgment try to make a professional tennis player out of one's child) I will state disadvantages and advantage of each path.

It is up parents to decide (parents,family,child are the really ones who are involved and who will feel "pain or glory" - all the rest are just observers between them there are the ones who will earn no matter whether project fails or succeeds)

**stotty** · 03-26-2014, 03:51 AM

Shoot the parents...

A study done over here in the UK found organisation a key factor as to whether young athletes succeeded or failed....how organised families were...with their time and decision making.

You can practice a sport every day and do well at school. My sister was a national level swimmer and managed to be a straight 'A' student at the same time. She left Loughborough university with a 1st in Hispanic studies. In the end she lacked enough ability to be an international swimmer. It had nothing to do with not training enough. One of her friends trained the same amount of time and made it.

My father and mother were extremely well organised people during our childhood. Organisation is a big factor. An easy-going happy-go-lucky family might be up against it...though I am sure they would have lots of fun.

Where I live, universities often select candidates who are involved in a sport over candidates who aren't because they consider they will likely be more rounded people. Sport, especially tennis, is a rich education in itself.

I know Tim Henman did well at school and achieved good high school grades. But at 16 he took the decision to go for broke and make it as a tennis player with the intention of going back to school at 23 if he didn't make it. He succeeded as a tennis player and decided not to go back to education. So, yes, Tim is the other side of the coin.

I think another factor is how easy kids find education. Brighter children can certainly balance multiple activities. Children who find studies difficult may find it in turn find it difficult to do both sport and tennis successfully. At this point the parents must decide what's best.

Th bottom line is there is more than one way to do it and some routes don't involve complete sacrifice.

I love your thread. I am not trying to throw a spanner in the works. I am just stating what I know from experience in my locality. Without detailed national and international research, we all of us can only ever take our "local experience" as a guide.

I also recognise some parents are irresponsible and misguided. We have a few failed tennis players local to me whose parents sacrificed their children's education because they thought they had to for their children to succeed. Now those children are going to struggle in life to get a decent job.

Take nothing I say the wrong way, Damir. I like you already....and your thread.

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