Not Enough Hours In The Day!!

[db10s]

I'm 14, I get picked up at 3:00, go home, get changed, etc... And play from 4-6 and spend an hour in the gym. I miss one class, so I take one online course.

[BMC9670]

Originally Posted by crosbydog

I have resigned myself to the fact that my 11 y.o. won't make big improvements until school is out for the summer. She is routinely up until 11 pm doing homework

Something is really wrong with this picture. Is she playing hours of tennis and then homework?

If she plays tennis first, try switching it to encourage concentration - if she completes her HW she can play tennis. Too many kids will do the fun thing first and then belabor and procrastinate with the homework.

[Tree_All_Day]

hey guys..

when I was younger I would have the same problem.. I would be crunched on time but hit for an hour or two each day until late middle school.

What made my dad really keep my attention on tennis was that he always reminded me of how much potential I had. Tell them that if they work hard than the sky is the limit. That pushed me to become a really good player.

Keep in mind that once you get into highschool, a lot of times you can get out at 12:30 ... I am a junior and since freshman year I have had a 0 period and went to school from 6:45 - 12:30 and went to a tennis academy and could play for 3+ hours, leaving plenty of time to hang out and do homework.

Another way to make it not sound like a chore for your kids is instead of telling them.. "ok time to play tennis" ... ask them on the days you play with them "do you want to go play tennis" as if its up to them. after a year or two of saying "yes" to "do you want to play tennis" they will think that they are the reason they are playing which will develop a true love for the sport.

[Chemist]

Originally Posted by Tree_All_Day

hey guys..

when I was younger I would have the same problem.. I would be crunched on time but hit for an hour or two each day until late middle school.

What made my dad really keep my attention on tennis was that he always reminded me of how much potential I had. Tell them that if they work hard than the sky is the limit. That pushed me to become a really good player.

Keep in mind that once you get into highschool, a lot of times you can get out at 12:30 ... I am a junior and since freshman year I have had a 0 period and went to school from 6:45 - 12:30 and went to a tennis academy and could play for 3+ hours, leaving plenty of time to hang out and do homework.

Another way to make it not sound like a chore for your kids is instead of telling them.. "ok time to play tennis" ... ask them on the days you play with them "do you want to go play tennis" as if its up to them. after a year or two of saying "yes" to "do you want to play tennis" they will think that they are the reason they are playing which will develop a true love for the sport.

Nice to hear some feedback from juniors. Very good suggestion too!

GA - I dare to propose that you send your 11 yr old daughter to live with TCF's family in the spring break. She will get to hang out with two Eastern EU girls and TCF's 8 yr old; trust me she will develop a true love of tennis after they hit 10 hrs of tennis everyday! After that she will want to train more and she will want to beat her little brother (on tennis court) every day

[rptennis]

Originally Posted by ga tennis

I am getting frustrated!!! My daughter goes to public school and doesnt get home till after 4;00. When she gets home she is usually tired from a long day at school. All of her tennis friends are homeschooled. She usually practices around an hour and a half a day and tournaments on the weekend. Im just concerned that with her going to regular school she is not getting enough time on the court. I wanna put her with her academy full time but cant afford it. So my question to you guys is do you think an hour and a half is enough for a girl that just turned 11????

GA Tennis

It's true that there is no real blue print on this. For me, it comes down to what goal your family and your daughter have for tennis. From my experience, the only way for my daughter to become the best tennis player she can be, 2 hours a day was not near enough. My daughter stopped regular schooling at age 14 and focus on tennis training full time. Simply put, she had too much work to do on her overall game and we could not do it in a two hours window everyday. As an example, her forehand took us over one hour daily to work on the fundamentals and it took probably a good two years before she could use it consistently in tournament play. To add to this, my daughter played a full time traveling schedule since she was 14 so regular schooling was out of the picture. Again, this works for us because my daughter bought into the process and this is not recommended for everyone. My son was trained the same way and he quit tennis cold turkey when he turned 15. He attended regular school.

Her tennis schedule for the past 5 years has been up at 7am, footwork, roadwork and strength conditioning from 8am to 11am. Lunch and online schoolwork from 11 to 2pm. We hit the courts from 2pm to 6pm. This is the normal schedule the weeks without tournaments and we did this without fail.

On another note, if you don't have a good coach to work on the fundamentals properly, a full time schedule is no more than time wasted for your daughter. I have seen full time tennis academies that look more like summer camps for kids to have fun than a serious tennis training program.

Good luck!

[crosbydog]

[quote=BMC9670;7111356]Something is really wrong with this picture. Is she playing hours of tennis and then homework?

If she plays tennis first ....

Nope. Because of her homework load she rarely gets to play during the week except for one private, then 1-3 day tournaments on the weekend . She is doing advanced science and math classes. Last night it was 4 pages of Algebra problems, 6 pages of history questions and a speech to memorize. I was planning on having her take a few AP classes in high school. Now I think one is enough.

On a side note she is demoing the Wilson Steam 99S tomorrow. Maybe it's added spin will make up for lack of practice time

[crosbydog]

Originally Posted by Chemist

Nice to hear some feedback from juniors. Very good suggestion too!

GA - I dare to propose that you send your 11 yr old daughter to live with TCF's family in the spring break. She will get to hang out with two Eastern EU girls and TCF's 8 yr old; trust me she will develop a true love of tennis after they hit 10 hrs of tennis everyday! After that she will want to train more and she will want to beat her little brother (on tennis court) every day

Hey TCF - how many spare bedrooms do you have? I'll send my daughter down too!

[TCF]

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[Pro_Tour_630]

I know how bad you want to send your kid there and sacrifice but I would advise not to for now. Even the director kid with all the training and all the genes and surroundings may not be like the other two 10 year olds but then again she was injured, I could be wrong, please correct me. The other two girls that I saw are on a different level in terms of intensity and focus. It has to come from inside. The kid is either athletic or not. They either eat/sleep/drink tennis or not. Even if you surround your kid with the best players that are motivated and driven, if your kid is a little less motivated they are not all of the sudden going to be obsessed by tennis. My 10 year old boy has been training since age two in tennis to please me. His younger brother who is 7 is training harder just to be better than his older brother. He is training for himself, a goal has been set by himself. He hits against the wall for three hours on his own, jogs around the house for a long time, does push ups sit ups jumps rope, etc..... . I asked him what are you doing?!?!!? he said I am going to be better than my brother I am going to be the best player in the world. This poor kid has been neglected on the sidelines picking up our balls yearning to play tennis, I must admit I did not give him that much attention at first. Now he is on the court and I can not get him off the courts, big difference in tennis development.

I am sure your girl and my boy will come around and be passionate and intense about tennis like you and I. How does she feel about homeschooling and training there full time right now? Ask her that question, ask your wife that question. Maybe you can say, ok let us try this for one year and see what happens but then you might lose the house and your job if all of you get uprooted. I hate to see a breakup in the family for tennis. In our area we had two kids who tried homeschooling in an academy in FL for one year. The father stayed behind to work and keep the house while the mother went down with the kids. They all came back a year later and said it was not worth it.

You are a great player (you can beat that 150 ranked player who took a set off of Agassi) just hit with her for now and keep your mouth shut,,,,,,,,, easier said than done. when she is 12 or 13, you have to make big decisions and accept either she is going all in or not, if not then it is not the end of the world, she will be fine.

[TCF]

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[ga tennis]

THANKS PRO TOUR. She wants to be there bad but we just cant make it happen. Im just gonna take it day by day. If its meant to be it will be. I just want her to be in that environment everyday.

[Pro_Tour_630]

Originally Posted by TCF

Awesome post Protour. Very cool how the younger guy is now on a mission!

yeah he is on a mission, funny I do not want that mission for him, he is gifted in school and will get an academic scholarship like his cousins, I never even read to the kid at all, he never spoke until he was 5. he is the type of kid that studies for 1/2 hour and aces everything like my niece whom I taught. life is always the opposite. You try hard and want the best for your kids but in the end your plans may not be what you set them out to be.

Originally Posted by ga tennis

THANKS PRO TOUR. She wants to be there bad but we just cant make it happen. Im just gonna take it day by day. If its meant to be it will be. I just want her to be in that environment everyday.

if she wants to be there and your wife is ok with it and somehow you can keep the house and get a job there while your wife works, then go for it and take a chance and see what happens. You are three hours away and can always go home every other weekend. But you need $3000 a month plus expenses, I wish I can give it to you, I really do. But somehow some sacrifices are needed. Take out a loan on the house for 30K and see what happens. Aren't there some rich relative you can persuade to try on this project. Worst case you lose the 30K, heck we all have bought 30K cars that lost all value in 5 years. I have a rich brother whom you met that is going to finance my project. He said even if it fails he is willing to do it because it will be off our backs and we will never say what if's. TCf has some $ on the side for the fitness center he sold, he is going to tap into that for sure. And when it is all gone either he has a champion or not. We will see. But for sure it is going to one hell of ride which he is going to enjoy every minute. If his plan fails he will have a business for his daughter to run for sure and that is the best plan IMO.

[Soianka]

Originally Posted by Pro_Tour_630

yeah he is on a mission, funny I do not want that mission for him, he is gifted in school and will get an academic scholarship like his cousins, I never even read to the kid at all, he never spoke until he was 5. he is the type of kid that studies for 1/2 hour and aces everything like my niece whom I taught. life is always the opposite. You try hard and want the best for your kids but in the end your plans may not be what you set them out to be.


if she wants to be there and your wife is ok with it and somehow you can keep the house and get a job there while your wife works, then go for it and take a chance and see what happens. You are three hours away and can always go home every other weekend. But you need $3000 a month plus expenses, I wish I can give it to you, I really do. But somehow some sacrifices are needed. Take out a loan on the house for 30K and see what happens. Aren't there some rich relative you can persuade to try on this project. Worst case you lose the 30K, heck we all have bought 30K cars that lost all value in 5 years. I have a rich brother whom you met that is going to finance my project. He said even if it fails he is willing to do it because it will be off our backs and we will never say what if's. TCf has some $ on the side for the fitness center he sold, he is going to tap into that for sure. And when it is all gone either he has a champion or not. We will see. But for sure it is going to one hell of ride which he is going to enjoy every minute. If his plan fails he will have a business for his daughter to run for sure and that is the best plan IMO.

I don't know about taking out a loan and all of that, but there's got to be a way to make it work with the academy and GA Tennis' daughter that is affordable.

I would think there is something that can be worked out between GA Tennis and the head coach because GA Tennis has a lot to bargain with also being a tennis coach and being a certified teacher.

Perhaps the academy would hire him as a coach and this could offset his daughter's tuition or perhaps they could work something out with GA Tennis running and designing a homeschool program for the academy (assuming they don't already have one) given his teaching background...and that too should be able to offset his daughter's tuition.

I just don't see how any academy would turn down a dedicated student and a dedicated dad who has a lot to offer them.

[Pro_Tour_630]

^^^^not gonna happen we already discussed the barter issue, that will be ideal, just like harrison father, there is not enough money, someone has to pay, it cost money to run an academy. GA need to find a job that makes $3000 a month in the new area, easier said than done, I know it is hard but those are the facts.

[hhollines]

Originally Posted by ga tennis

THANKS PRO TOUR. She wants to be there bad but we just cant make it happen. Im just gonna take it day by day. If its meant to be it will be. I just want her to be in that environment everyday.

GA, I hope we meet one day as I think we (and our daughters) have a lot in common. We live in a weaker section and it's really hard (just yesterday, I couldn't get an indoor court so, on her OWN, she did 1 hr. of shadow strokes and footwork in our basement. . .

I so wish she could be in a better tennis environment but that's easier said than done. We have a son and jobs, family, etc. and hell no I'm not just moving for tennis alone and hope to figure it out.

I'm taking the LOVE she has for tennis, the LOVE for school (she is straight A's/Dean's List student), and the LOVE to be a regular kid, and continuing to slowly build on "all" those aspect and let the chips fall where they may. In tennis, she is a grinder (not power player), incredibly consistent, fundamentally sound, mentally tough and very athletic. I'll take those traits to build on any day. She started tennis late and will peak late, and I'm cool with that.

Hang in there . . . we can all encourage and support each other. It's hard but all that means, is continue pushing, trial and error, listening, probing and adjusting. No one has the blue print and no one has all the answers . . . I meet way to many "so called experts" who haven't done much better than any of us and that includes the academies

[JLyon]

I welcomed the tennis break after school, was a good way to relieve the stress of the school day, school 8-3, HS practice 3:15-5:00, then go to job for few hrs then go home and do homework.
I always saw the tennis as a stress reliever from taking 3-4 AP courses each year

[TCF]

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[Soianka]

Originally Posted by TCF

Something though does not make sense to me. GA has helped spread the word about the academy. He has a long term plan for his daughter who he describes as super athletic, and building a game to have a chance at the very top of tennis.

She is now 11 I think GA said. On the cusp of the age where she would start winning big things and shining even more light on the academy, in addition to what GA already does.

Why wouldn't the man who runs this academy give him 2-3 years of a low cost ride? If what GA sees is accurate, in 2-3 years she will be winning OB 16s, Herr's, ITFs and bringing tons of attention to the coach.

How many other students could he possible have with that promise, in addition to a dad who played high level tennis himself, who have worked hard to promote how great the academy is?

Seems to me the proper business decision would be do whatever it takes to foster GA and his girl. Every academy has a few kids they support, who would be more deserving than the talented kid of one of your biggest supporters?

Yes, absolutely!!!

[Soianka]

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[Soianka]

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