Homeschool for competitive tennis player in a non academy environment

[KevinB9986]

How things have changed. Billie Jean King didn't start playing tennis until 12. Parents are driving the competitive thing in all sports. I can see where in certain sports like tennis that your kid won't be competitive unless he/she plays for hours a day in the future at a younger and younger age. From what I hear home school kids have more energy and time to train. Are sports going to turn into a drop out of school or home school thing to compete?

[BSPE84]

Originally Posted by coaching32yrs

I know one of the players. He/she did 3 years of traditional high school. Had a high GPA and high SATs. For his/her senior year tennis trained full time and went to Laural Springs. Ivy coaches are good with that. Big advantage to traditional schooled blue chipper with 3.5 GPA and 1900 on SATs over 4 years at Laurel Springs with similar GPA and SATs.

My traditionally-schooled daughter is a high level ballet dancer who was just accepted to Princeton based on academic merits. Another child at her school who is relatively average academically speaking also was accepted, but as a distinguished water polo player. So I would suspect that athletes may follow a different path in their admissions office.

I would be curious to know what your athlete is studying. I believe it would be quite difficult to do a technical major like engineering at Princeton and be able to practice tennis at a high level concurrently.

[coaching32yrs]

Originally Posted by BSPE84

My traditionally-schooled daughter is a high level ballet dancer who was just accepted to Princeton based on academic merits. Another child at her school who is relatively average academically speaking also was accepted, but as a distinguished water polo player. So I would suspect that athletes may follow a different path in their admissions office.

I would be curious to know what your athlete is studying. I believe it would be quite difficult to do a technical major like engineering at Princeton and be able to practice tennis at a high level concurrently.

Very difficult to go pre-med or major in engineering at Princeton or any Ivy and play tennis. Tennis has a fall and spring season so player is almost always in season. Practices can run up to 20 hours a week, more likely 15. Plus matches.

[Chemist]

Originally Posted by coaching32yrs

Very difficult to go pre-med or major in engineering at Princeton or any Ivy and play tennis. Tennis has a fall and spring season so player is almost always in season. Practices can run up to 20 hours a week, more likely 15. Plus matches.

8 players on Columbia men's tennis team have declared majors: 4 in economics, 1 in political science, 1 in chemical engineering, 1 in biophysics, and 1 in neuroscience & behavior. I agree its not easy to study pre-med or engineering in any top schools while spending 20 or more hrs a week in tennis training or competition. Yet, a few kids in Columbia and I am sure in other Ivy as well seem to be able to manage the demanding majors. I had a chance to talk to former Ivy coach recently. He said he never use the 20 hr maximum. However, many players especially those playing the top positions had actually spent more than 20 hrs on and off the court voluntarily. Student athletes can request additional "individuals" or spend more time on fitness. On Yale's men's tennis team, 10 of 12 players were named "ITA Scholar Athlete" (GPA>3.5) this year.
http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRa...mic-Awards.htm

[matchplay]

Originally Posted by coaching32yrs

Very difficult to go pre-med or major in engineering at Princeton or any Ivy and play tennis. Tennis has a fall and spring season so player is almost always in season. Practices can run up to 20 hours a week, more likely 15. Plus matches.

these are the schools that you can do it all.
these are the best students, that actually understand the reality of what they are in school for, so do most of the coaches at schools like Stanford, Harvard, Yale and other elite institutions.
your statement is accurate with schools such as SC, UVA, Duke & a few others that are certainly fine top notch schools, but have a slightly different take on what the kids the recruit major in

[sureshs]

There are plenty of 4.0 and above GPA holders in high school tennis teams

[tball2day]

Originally Posted by sureshs

There are plenty of 4.0 and above GPA holders in high school tennis teams

Of course there are, tennis players tend to be good students on average (there are exceptions of course). But not sure what the point is since there is no comparison between the demands of high school tennis and college tennis and most HS players don't go on to play in college.

[superfittennis]

I have personally coached kids who were home schooled and have gone to Harvard,Brown, etc. I think that it may come down to standardized test scores and level of tennis. The players who went to Harvard and Brown surely had the option of a professional tennis career if they chose to pursue that.

[andromeda]

Originally Posted by sureshs

Math can be managed. It is the science courses with labs (regular and AP) which are very difficult/impossible to duplicate at home. For the regular courses, I guess the labs can be done with one of the home-schooling science kits. But for an AP science course, teacher's guidance in the lab becomes very important and the lab itself is subject to College Board guidelines for it to be accredited.

My son is doing AP Biology this year and the content and labs are way, way above what I studied a generation ago. I have no clue what is going on.

My son has been homeschooled since day one, long before we knew he'd pick up a racquet. It was a personal choice for our family and I'm glad we've done it up to now. He is currently in 8th grade and is taking 3 classes at a homeschool co-op that is run by former teachers who have credentials who have chosen to homeschool their own kids for whatever reason. He is currently taking a science class with labs(thank goodness I don't have to do labs at home, LOL), a project based American History class, and a writing class. The rest of his stuff we do at home and I help him with organization for his classes which only meet once a week.

Through this co-op he gets socialized with all kinds of kids, one of his friends from class is a high level soccer player and homeschooling fits their travel schedule as well. He also gets test practice, note taking skills, presentation skills, working with others on labs and other projects in class, etc. He even has had study groups meet at our house to work on projects and presentations and I think this is a nice addition to his homeschooling experience.

As for tennis, we don't have the funds to take him to a high level. I am just glad he found a sport that he is good at and where he feels he can grow his character and athleticism. He works with his coach once a week for 1.5 hours on technique, strategy, etc and then he hits with another pro from our club once a week for an hour. Other than that, he's just doing match play with friends. We don't participate in any clinics or other junior programs because of the expense. He is now playing in the boys 14s winter nationals and still has a year left in the 14s so I think he's done well despite not having a consistent tennis schedule and clinics.

And, as for school stuff, he has a cognitive birth problem that has affected him in ways with his learning. He may not even go to college. I have him working with a math tutor and a reading instructor, but his cognitive memory is not progressing as the doctor would like(he sees a neuropsychologist and a neurologist). Anyway, he also has ADHD and Tourette's Syndrome and other co-morbid conditions that sometimes hinder his progress both academically and with tennis. For me, I just want him to be happy and healthy and to love whatever sport he is participating in. One of his friends just passed away last month from leukemia and it's a reminder to us that life is about more than sports or even than academics. I watched my friend bury her son and it reminded me that all I want is for my kid to be healthy, to have good friends, and to just enjoy being a kid. Pretty soon he'll be a grown up and I want him to look back on his childhood and be grateful for the opportunities he had and for the friendships he's made. Hope this helps.

[TCF]

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