If you want to make your kid a champion

[isilra]

How would you train your kid ? I mean what would you teach him/her first, which methods you would follow ?

I love this game passionately but sadly i met this game when i was 20. If i have a son one day, for sure i will give him a tennis racquet when he turns 4. If he also share my passion, i would like to give him the best i can. I believe i have the knowledge about this game and it's technique more than most teaching pros but i have no idea how to teach tennis to somebody with full potential.

Maybe this sounds foolish but i want to know something about coaching. Wonder your opinions too, thanks.

PS: I would make the same with my daughter too, just didn't want to write him/her in every sentence lol.

[luvforty]

stop wanting.

[luvforty]

I personally know 2 dads who are exactly like you.... and here is what happened...

both dad A and dad B loves tennis.... LOVES tennis, but both are 3.0-3.5 hacks.... so they worked hard to live their dreams thru their kids.... (both are girls in this instance).

dad A took daughter to court every day since she was 8, for like 4 years, then they went to tournaments etc, eventually to ITF tournaments... she did OK, ended up playing D1 tennis for a GOOD school.

dad B started daughter right around 6, tons of practice, private lessons, tournaments.... eventually to ITF tournaments, she did better than OK, ended up playing D1 tennis for a VERY GOOD school.

worth it? maybe, maybe not.

but I find it interesting that the hacker dads are the ones who push the hardest.

to succeed in this thing, you need a crazy dad and a robot kid.... and you better hope it's a girl.

[TheCheese]

Just focus on making it fun for him. Don't pressure him to play or train or anything like that.

You can't make him love the game and if you force him to play he'll never enjoy it. The only way you can make him a champion is if he happens to be extremely passionate about it all by himself.

[dominikk1985]

the most important Point:

Chose the right mom. good mechanics and Training do help but in the end you will only get as far as your natural athleticsm allows you.

a lack of technique will Limit you too, for the top you Need both.

[boramiNYC]

the kid needs to be a serious person about skills and be able to thinks straight and clearly. and most important, wanting to compete and win. all on his own. and be lucky and thankful.

[tyu1314]

At the park i play, i often see a 2.0guy training his two daughters, both around age 8 . I can tell he cant play, the type that cant even hit frying pan serve, and all he does is screaming "hit the ball in" "why you hit it out" "thats a good shot"" "Thats bad" . He scream at them everytime they miss or fault, and he never teach them any technique.

[luvforty]

my examples of dad A and dad B, both are upper middle class people who have money to burn on tennis.

I have certainly seen a couple of parents who are 3.0 and also have no money... well, I just feel so bad for the kids, because s/he is going nowhere.

[jgmellor]

Originally Posted by isilra

How would you train your kid ? I mean what would you teach him/her first, which methods you would follow ?

Teach him proper throwing mechanics and sign him up for soccer.

[10s talk]

Originally Posted by luvforty

my examples of dad A and dad B, both are upper middle class people who have money to burn on tennis.

I have certainly seen a couple of parents who are 3.0 and also have no money... well, I just feel so bad for the kids, because s/he is going nowhere.

not every great player grew up with money

[JW10S]

Originally Posted by isilra

I believe i have the knowledge about this game and it's technique more than most teaching pros
.

This is where most parents fail. I went back and read some of your posts--you don't know anywhere near what you think you do. Certainly not enough to make your kid a good player, let alone a champion. The best thing to do is find a good pro who has developed some good players. You haven't--why would you want to experiment on your kid?

[slowfox]

Have the kids playing other sports in addition to tennis. If they naturally gravitate more towards tennis, or perhaps just show talent for athletics in general, then that's a good start.

Actually, I don't know anything for sure to answer your question as I have not developed anyone into a champion. So I guess I dunno...

[1980]

Originally Posted by 10s talk

not every great player grew up with money

It would be interesting to see some sort of statistic on that.

[luvforty]

nowadays when rich daddy pours $60k a year for junior to get trained at tennis academies.... poor kids have no chance.

zero.

[t135]

Champions are born, not made.

[Ronaldo]

Originally Posted by t135

Champions are born, not made.

Start at 4 months

[isilra]

Originally Posted by TheCheese

Just focus on making it fun for him. Don't pressure him to play or train or anything like that.

You can't make him love the game and if you force him to play he'll never enjoy it. The only way you can make him a champion is if he happens to be extremely passionate about it all by himself.

I'm an architect and i hate my job, really. This was maybe the lastest thing i wanted to do in my life but my father forced me to study architecture for my own sake!, so i know how it feels to do something that you don't enjoy. I will never allow my kids to feel this. As i told before, i would want them to be a champion only if they share the same passion with me. If they don't, there is nothing to do.

Originally Posted by luvforty

I personally know 2 dads who are exactly like you.... and here is what happened...

both dad A and dad B loves tennis.... LOVES tennis, but both are 3.0-3.5 hacks.... so they worked hard to live their dreams thru their kids.... (both are girls in this instance).

dad A took daughter to court every day since she was 8, for like 4 years, then they went to tournaments etc, eventually to ITF tournaments... she did OK, ended up playing D1 tennis for a GOOD school.

dad B started daughter right around 6, tons of practice, private lessons, tournaments.... eventually to ITF tournaments, she did better than OK, ended up playing D1 tennis for a VERY GOOD school.

worth it? maybe, maybe not.

but I find it interesting that the hacker dads are the ones who push the hardest.

to succeed in this thing, you need a crazy dad and a robot kid.... and you better hope it's a girl.

If they take my genetics, a robot kid will not be possible. I played soccer for long years and damn, i always hated training and always escaped whenever i had the chance to escape. I had the talent but didn't have the robotic thing that wakes me up at 8 o'clock in the morning everyday, so i failed.

Originally Posted by JW10S

This is where most parents fail. I went back and read some of your posts--you don't know anywhere near what you think you do. Certainly not enough to make your kid a good player, let alone a champion. The best thing to do is find a good pro who has developed some good players. You haven't--why would you want to experiment on your kid?

Djokovic still claims that he uses his wrist consciously in his strokes but videos shows that the wrist movement is unconscious. Djokovic might be arguably the best player in the world now but i'm pretty sure there are many people in this forum that knows djokovic's stroke mechanisms better than him. We all write here, spend our times because we are the people that willing to improve and learn. Most teaching pros are teaching pros just because they are better players than you, not because they know it better than you. I mean how many of teaching pros can know the difference between an ATP and WTA stroke better than Tricky ? Or how many of them can analyse Federer's slingshot better than him ? I'm pretty sure %99 of them don't even realize ATP and WTA games are different, they have no idea what a backswing pronation about. How many of tennis instruction videos that you have seen on youtube tells you about the kinetic chain or SSC ? They tell the same things over and over, take the ball in front, finish with a WW followthrough, lock the wrist back etc. because most of them doesn't have a clue about what makes a forehand modern and the most important, they don't feel the need to improve.

Ofc if i find a coach like Bollettieri, i would love him to coach my kid because i know even he teaches something old, i know he has the knowledge to compare the old/new and decide which is better. But you can't do that if you don't know both old and new. Most teaching pros lacks that skill i think. That's why i would want to teach my kid myself than the instructor in my club.

Well i started to feel like a daddy, have no idea even why i started this thread. I don't have a marriage plan in next 10 years, i don't plan to have kids in 15 years, god what's wrong with me ?

[bhupaes]

^^^ Ha ha! You floored me, man! And I was thinking you were married, henpecked, kids in school, wife on your case about not spending enough time with her, pretty girl at work getting on your mind, and so on!

Well, take it from an old hand... enjoy life and tennis while you are on your own! There's enough time in life to worry about other stuff - you don't have to do it now!!

[VeeSe]

Originally Posted by isilra

Djokovic still claims that he uses his wrist consciously in his strokes but videos shows that the wrist movement is unconscious. Djokovic might be arguably the best player in the world now but i'm pretty sure there are many people in this forum that knows djokovic's stroke mechanisms better than him. We all write here, spend our times because we are the people that willing to improve and learn. Most teaching pros are teaching pros just because they are better players than you, not because they know it better than you. I mean how many of teaching pros can know the difference between an ATP and WTA stroke better than Tricky ? Or how many of them can analyse Federer's slingshot better than him ? I'm pretty sure %99 of them don't even realize ATP and WTA games are different, they have no idea what a backswing pronation about. How many of tennis instruction videos that you have seen on youtube tells you about the kinetic chain or SSC ? They tell the same things over and over, take the ball in front, finish with a WW followthrough, lock the wrist back etc. because most of them doesn't have a clue about what makes a forehand modern and the most important, they don't feel the need to improve.

I don't think you need to know any of that to teach well, and if you do (which doesn't hurt unless you don't know what to filter out), you certainly should not be pushing it via super technical terms on kids. It's not important to teach kinetic chain, SSC, and that kind of stuff. Maybe some simpler things like a WW finish, but all that other crap is not necessary to throw out there. I grew up playing as a kid, going to group lessons at a tennis facility, and they didn't teach kinetic chain, SSC, WW finish, locking the wrist back, pronation, and didn't mention the pro game at all, much less the difference between ATP and WTA styles. By the time I was done, I was using the kinetic chain, was hitting WW finish on the forehand, and didn't need any specific focus on those things to get me there besides basic guidance as far as takeback early, turn sideways, turn forewards again as you swing up and through, and be balanced while following through. Kids do what feels natural, and many of these things just happen as long as they are shown the basics from a young age. I'm pretty sure trying to introduce something like SSC as a concept would have been a disaster.

[isilra]

Originally Posted by bhupaes

^^^ Ha ha! You floored me, man! And I was thinking you were married, henpecked, kids in school, wife on your case about not spending enough time with her, pretty girl at work getting on your mind, and so on!

Well, take it from an old hand... enjoy life and tennis while you are on your own! There's enough time in life to worry about other stuff - you don't have to do it now!!

Yea that was also what i thought when i read my post again, that's why i feel weird now. Maybe i should concentrate more on finding some hot girls to give me possible future champions first, sounds better now