A paradoxical strategy to acquiring success for your child’s tennis. After all, isn’t it the coach’s job to help your child to be the best player he/ she can be?
The answer is, it depends. It depends on the strategy how you manage the team. In my opinion, this is how the hierarchy to the success of your child’s tennis journey looks like:
1. Parents
2. Coach
3. Player (our child)
4. Results
Results, positively or negatively, are a tease to building confidence and to developing a growth mindset. It is a myth to think confidence depends on just by having positive results. If that was true, there should be no problem for the number one ranked junior in the world to transition onto the pro tour. I can tell you for certain that is not the case.
On the contrary, it is shortsighted to judge the future of success based on the negative results that have not come into fruition early on. And these same individuals through their perseverance of hard work made great strides when the physical and maturity aligned together.
Yet, I see parents spending way too much of their time going from one program to another or mix and match coaches and programs because their player is not producing the results that they’re expecting. A misplaced of energy and focus.
Players are responsible for their own growth: mental, emotional, physical, and tennis skills. They should be made accountable for their tennis journey. They need to learn to go through all the unpleasantries of obstacles and pain in order to come out ahead at the end of the fight. However, the player is only as good as what they are taught and learned from the coach.
The coach understandably is the expert who has the expertise in tennis development. They are the tennis doctor. They prescribe drills and plans as they see fit to help the player reach their goal.
But what good is it to enroll your player in a program and working with a coach if you don’t trust them? You are the one who hired them, right? Then, you must take the leadership role just as a business manager would.
You cannot possibly run a successful business if you have to do everything yourself: a one man/ woman show. You need helpers. The coaches are your helpers. They are your helpers in helping your child to be the best version of him/ herself.
When coaches feel they are well taken care of and that you care about their well being and that you have their back. Let me tell you. There is nothing this coach will not do for your child.
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” Anthony Robbins
Good luck this week.
Yours Truly…
See other strategies here to the 5 Simple Strategies To Get The Most Out of A Coach:
Strategy #1 – Player Accountability
Strategy #2 – Training Environment
Strategy #3 – Attitude Is A Skill
