Number of tournaments/matches

[BMC9670]

Originally Posted by mom10s

My child, also 10, is top 50 in section and plays roughly 1-2 tournaments a month and has been doing this for 2 years. Total time on court for a week is 10-11 hours using a combination of clinics, a private, practice matches and tournaments.

Tournaments have been invaluable to teach mental toughness - dealing with cheaters, crazy parents, mean kids, tough playing conditions, tight rest periods, bad officials, bad scheduling etc. This is very tough to replicate in practice. Have grown tremendously by dealing with all of these situations.

Have been to most of the higher level tournaments in the section to expose my child to the environment surrounding the higher level events. Focusing on the process of developing and view playing in tournaments as part of the development process in my opinion.

Good to hear. Very much the same for us, except my son is not ranked and he wouldn't even be aware of trying to quality for a higher level tournament at this point. I'm more concerned with finding him competitive matches where he can learn all of the valuable things you point out. I've been able to find it without going to a heavy tournament schedule or worrying about points just yet.

[hhollines]

The problem is there is no one size fits all nor is there a playbook, whether 10 yrs. old or 18 yrs. old. Some kids thrive playing tournaments every week, others like my daughter play less tournaments (12-15 yearly), a lot of practice matches (6-8 per month) and adhere more to a periodization approach to tennis (just like elite runners) . . . space out the tournaments, train to peak at the next upcoming tournament, then back off, recoup physically and mentally, and then get back to it.

But, our approach, was developed from understanding our daughter (how she ticks, what works for her, what makes her smile, what makes her love the sport, how her brain works, how she receives information, etc.), and this type of evaluation can generally only be done by the parents/relatives or maybe a coach if it's a coach that truly knows the kid, travels with the kid, and is in the trenches but that's generally the parents.

It's an incredibly delicate balancing act . . . week after week, month after month, year and year . . .

[TCF]

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