The First Thing Young Tennis Players Must Be Taught When Playing Against a Better Player

The comment below was made by Scott on the article “Want to Know the Biggest Mistake in Modern Day Coaching?”  I found the comment very interesting and decided to publish it as a new post.

The first thing young tennis players must be taught is when playing against a better tennis player there is little to no pressure felt by them because the expectations are not felt as much because they are suppose to lose.

So when enabled mentally and physically to rip the ball with no pressure of course they’re going to play higher to their opponents level; making them appear better than they are. And the one that most tennis parents can’t understand is when they are the better player and suppose to win, ALL the pressure is now on them.

So what do many tennis players do when confronted with win or you under achieving? They play tight, not to lose, engulfed in the thought process of letting someone down, perhaps a parent(s), coach or friend-Pier Pressure; they all amount to the same: paralysis by over analysis.

This gives way to negative self-talk, such as, “what will everyone think of me if I lose to this lower level player?” And a plethora of such-like stinking thinking. But that’s where the player has their priorities out of order, completely! Most likely because they receive the wrong guidance in junior tennis.

Many parents and tennis coaches are too much ‘result oriented’ now instead of ‘developmental oriented’ now and let’s wait and see what your work ethic amounts too; how your natural ability develops in areas such as speed, agility, racket-head speed and how their mental approach develops such as coach ability, passion from the heart, willingness to embrace pressure and leave it all out on the court, etc.

In order to do this my colleagues have come up with the concept that in practice, Orange Bowl, pressure on – pressure off; the 3 most important measuring sticks since nobody can predict the future, especially with INJURIES, even to the most gifted athlete in the world.

With no crystal ball we coaches are responsible for educating the parents but instilling the truth in each player and that’s YOU CAN ONLY CONTROL “THE CONTROLLABLES” and that starts with the acronym ACE. Every tennis player is capable of controlling their ATTITUDE. Attitude equals Altitude. Attitude is not how you act, it’s how you react. Examples include Positive Self Talk.

If a player hits 2 consecutive forehand unforced errors in the net, a Positive Reaction ( self talk ) such as, “that’s OK Maria, let’s aim that ball higher when 4 feet behind the baseline from the rally zone and You’ll make those NEXT TIME!” Or her Attitude can be negative, as in, “OMG Maria, your forehand is horrible today.

The first 2 points of the match and you have no feel, no control, your forehand stinks!” Which of these Controllables gives Maria a chance to make some adjustments while settling into the beginning of the match and therefore understands the power of the mind. She doesn’t have to understand it, but her attitude is solely up to her and usually developed through repetitions in practice. CONCENTRATION can be controlled.

Are you out there thinking about the school dance tonight, twirling your tennis racket like its a baton, daydreaming? Or did you visualize yourself for 20 minutes using the power of positive thinking watching yourself play flawlessly in this match. Are you more concerned with the action on the court next to you or are you concentrating on your game plan, how your winning your points and compartmentalizing them so you know how to win the key points. Concentration must be practiced by strengthening your attention span. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can waltz thru practice and then Turn It On for a match.

Whatever you practice the most is what you get better at, so, if you practice sloppy habits you’re developing sloppy muscle memory. The most important to me is EFFORT as the 3rd controllable. Effort requires you trying your hardest to have a good Attitude. Effort is required for concentrating and staying focused. But when a tennis player stops trying, starts tanking, they must be pulled off the court because it only gets worse.

If you tolerate your child behaving with a bad attitude, wasting time, making a mockery of herself and those working with her, she doesn’t deserve to play if she’s NOT GOING TO TRY! If she’s trying with a good attitude and simply can’t handle the pressure which is most cases then when they finish you commend their effort, comment on how they acted professionally sand concentrated.

Do not be result oriented because if they know if they try their hardest they improved and got better that day. It will take the pressure off them and they will learn to play hard every match winning and losing but understand a tennis player must face that losing is a big part of tennis because out of 128 only 1 wins and that player lost last week.

So commend attitude, concentration and effort over winning and losing and over time they will gain that Chris Evert mentality where she says, “I taught myself to be mentally tough and win.” I hope this helps!

I got sick to my stomach reading a blog where one tennis coach happens to mention running a girl through some hand-eye coordination tests to assess her ability at age 12 and another coach nearly crucified him for sharing an opinion.

You want to know what’s wrong with Jr. Tennis? Well, I’ll let the egomaniacs bark at the moon; as to my philosophy, I’m about coming to the table with Solutions. Not problems. But because on this very site the same thing happened to me, I’ll share one problem with American tennis: The coaches!!! Their inflatable egos that trash others because they think they know more. 

So 50% of the introverted, but super knowledgeable coaches are silenced so the type A opinionated know it all dominates the forum. Me? I know very little about tennis and admit it. Why? Because the more I learn the more I realize how little I actually knew, especially in 5 year increments.

I am nothing but a servant to the people. I am a sponge that reads 5 hours a day; not all on tennis but topics of interest; topics that are life and death, make my family rich or poor, understand how the economics of America work and how to be prepared if the dollar collapses n need.

And this boy and girl who cannot face the tiniest bit of adversity and her mother asking for help is why I’m writing at 4-5am on a Friday night. Not because I have a big ego but because I’m compelled to help. I made a comment last week; I have no idea about what but the response I received from a fellow coach only strengthens my opinion that most coaches have egos too big to learn or even have enough professional courtesy to foster more dialogue.

Disagreeing must be thought of as Embracing Debate and brainstorming a positive procedure without an inevitable dig or stab in the back. Until then, until debating your belief is thought upon as an opportunity to expound your concept and be challenged in a good way that makes you weigh both sides with an OPEN MIND, these forums are useless.

I remarked and someone reacted by saying, “well I hate to burst your bubble there but this way is better.” GREAT! I learned something. That’s what this forum is for but why conclude, since you’ve never shaken my hand and looked me in the eye that I have a bubble to burst. You have the wrong egotistical pro. Just because I shared a thought?

I know maybe 5% the knowledge of Dr Loehr, Pat Etcheberry, Nicky B., Nick Saviano, Harold Solomon and Pat McEnroe, just to name a few, there’s a thousand more. But Attitude can’t be preached and not practiced because these juniors study your tone of voice, body language and the way you react to problems.

As my mentor Gabe Jaramillo tells his staff repeatedly, “I don’t want to hear problems, I want to hear and be a part of the solution. Come to me with solutions” because that challenges you to stretch yourselves like you ask your students to do; don’t give me lip service, show me you can demonstrate leadership qualities. If you will just do that the possibilities are endless.

So why don’t tennis coaches come up with some answers and solutions.? Commenting about the powers that be must be the problem because no changes have been made may indeed have tremendous validity but Ask me about American Junior Tennis and I’m not gonna SLAM the powers that be; I’m gonna show you how to change the powers that be, meaning have them removed.

You think they’re permanent? Nothing’s permanent except us growing older and passing away, our life is but a vapor, like a mist that appears and quickly vanishes. I like the powers that be, as friends; but we are missing the Elephant in the Room. We can’t even be professionally polite when disagreeing. And you want to change American tennis by listing the problems?

Allow me one last time to reference the tennis coach who said to another coach who had performed a hand eye test on a 12 year old whose mother quit her job, was driving 4-6 hours a day and costing her $100,000/year because $1,000/week to train = $52,000 and quit her $48,000/year job because she thought, or I’m sure was told by a dishonest pro that she could make money playing pro tennis. That’s a net gain after all travel, coaching, hotels, training for 5-10 more years which is equal to $500,000 – 1 million dollars just to put in the necessary 10 years or 10,000 hours of average training to become Pro Status.

So he tosses her some wide balls inside the service box and asks her to use a continental grip to do the normal hand eye coordination and agility drill/test. Out of 20 balls, the girl can’t reach 10, hits 5 that bounce twice before they hit the net and knock the other 5 over the fence. So 1 equaling beginner and 10 equaling making every shot with balance, displaying touch with droppers and control with depth. The girl scores a 1.

What do most American tennis coaches say?: “hey, not bad at all; with 4-5 hours of repetition and taking more lessons and spending more cash, I’m in no place to burst your dream of playing pro. So keep working hard and you just never know.” Really? You just set that girl up for failure until she comes across a coach that has the fortitude to be openly honest and say, “you know what, I believe you could possibly play D-2, D-3 college tennis one day, wouldn’t that be awesome?”

And now you’ve given back the girl, the mother, the money and the unrealistic expectation an attainable goal, not by playing God, but by using your common sense in seeing she had no hand eye coordination and was unable to move. But that she’ll be top 100 WTA? After expenses and taxes she better be top 65-70 to net a dime.

But don’t forget the million you spent to say you were there. If every pro would conjure up 1 or 2 solutions and openly share them; then you’re building a platform for adding and tweaking those ideas up into a plan. I call it A Business Model. And there is great power in #’s.

Do you think 100,000 tennis pros can shake up the establishment? I do. Working together, not being condescending, will double or triple your input. Encourage debate, it’s called freedom of speech. And just because you disagree with someone, try to empathize and not fight by insulting someone’s Harvard intellect.

We are all working on the same team and for the same goal. To grow the sport of tennis and share a sport for a lifetime for those that want to hit and giggle, increase overall health, develop relationships and bring American tennis back to the top.

Yes, there’s cheaper sports with more popularity but so what? We have country tennis clubs in FL leasing courts to 3-4 Academy’s after school. Parents will do anything for their children. But in my opinion it starts with a new plan, but also honesty to parents and building relationships with your students.

Last comment. The gentleman calling his fellow pro out on the test, you could be right just as well, and may be. Pete Sampras was 14 when he had no idea how to hit a 1-hander. Some top pros began at 13 years old. I just know there’s 3 sides to every story: yours, his and the truth.

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