Slow but Sure When Developing Tennis Players

There is advice for tennis parents who want their kids to become tour professionals as soon as possible. Parents and tennis players need to remember that the real success in tennis is not how kids play at ages 6-14.

Times when 12-year-old tennis players won Junior Grand Slam (Martina Hingis), 16-year-old Olympic Games (Jennifer Capriati) and 17-year-old Grand Slams (Michael Chang, Maria Sharapova and Boris Becker), that times are gone forever. Today average age to reach the top 100 is 25-26 years old for men and 23-24 for women.

Developing tennis players: Parents and tennis players need to remember that the real success in tennis is not how kids play at ages 6-14.

The very big problem for many good junior tennis players is overtraining. When I look at advertisements of many tennis academies and see offered schedules like 25 hours a week plus tournaments on weekends, I feel no good. When we came to America, my kid began to attend a summer camp at a tennis academy. I was very surprised that kids played on the courts for six hours a day.

Then I knew better the system of work of many academies and understood that in many cases that extensive schedule is developed for high price determination only. It is easier to charge a parent $800-1200 a week if a business (tennis academy) provides 25 hours of training a week. But wait, for that money you can have 12 hours or more of private lessons with a very good tennis coach. And the result will be much better. In many cases, 12 hours of individual training with a coach is more valuable than 25 hours of playing in a group.

My advice for tennis parents: Before sending your kid for six hours a day for training, take a racquet in your hand and go to the court to play for six hours.

Quality over quantity. Periodization. Player development plan. Tennis parents and players have to learn what all these definitions mean. There are foundations of modern periodized principles.

In common words, periodization includes periods of intensity training, competition, and rest. It is very important to understand that rest is a part of the whole training cycle. It helps to prevent the injury, burnout and fatigue that lead to impaired performance.

In your next meeting with a tennis coach of your kid, ask the coach about a development plan with periodization for a player for one one-year period.

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