Raising a Champion

Znak

Znak

Hall of Fame
Thought this was fascinating to watch — former WTA player Julia Efremova raising her children to be competitive tennis players. She was also recently featured on the Functional Tennis Podcast. I can't tell if I'm impressed by what it takes at such a young age to become great, or terrified for this child and the pressures put on her. Is the mother is channelling some of her lost dreams onto her kids?

Either way interesting watch.

Podcast link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/30mwAcKf0uSPylbO0psD0F?si=ZlEhiGR0SHOQJ55NtN5D2w

 
atatu

atatu

Legend
I just watched a few minutes, pretty interesting. This reminds me a little of the way Alexandra Stevenson's mom chronicled her upbringing/training over a period of years through tennis magazines. Although she had a pro career, she never really developed into the player some expected. I guess the advantage Julia's daughter has is her mom was a pro, whereas Alexandra's mom was a journalist. On the other hand, her dad was Dr. J. Maybe this girl will be another Seb Korda.
 
King_olaf_the_hairy

King_olaf_the_hairy

Semi-Pro
atatu said:
I just watched a few minutes, pretty interesting. This reminds me a little of the way Alexandra Stevenson's mom chronicled her upbringing/training over a period of years through tennis magazines. Although she had a pro career, she never really developed into the player some expected. I guess the advantage Julia's daughter has is her mom was a pro, whereas Alexandra's mom was a journalist. On the other hand, her dad was Dr. J. Maybe this girl will be another Seb Korda.
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Whaaaaa?! I did not know that. I remember her run to the Wimbledon semis as a qualifier too. Every day's a school day.


Znak said:
Thought this was fascinating to watch — former WTA player Julia Efremova raising her children to be competitive tennis players. She was also recently featured on the Functional Tennis Podcast. I can't tell if I'm impressed by what it takes at such a young age to become great, or terrified for this child and the pressures put on her. Is the mother is channelling some of her lost dreams onto her kids?

Either way interesting watch.
Click to expand...

Not a new thing, sadly. The list of nutjob parents goes back as far as I've been following tennis, so most likely before then too. Tomic, Dokic, Capriati, Pierce, Agassi. There's a few parents who seemed to be normal human beings (Hingis, Seles, Evert) but were still obviously instrumental in their kids' success. And for every one of these players, there's a thousand more who don't make it so you never hear about them.
 
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Mustard

Mustard

Bionic Poster
Monica Seles was dragging her father out to practice in the mornings, basically the opposite of the stereotypical tennis parents.
 
LeftyMagic

LeftyMagic

Rookie
this is common place in lots of sports. admittedly i skipped thru some of the video, but I’m pretty sure that young girl was playing older competition (the opponent was surely twice her size) - my usual barometer for parents who are pushing their kids hard. it either works out or the kid burns out….i guess its personal preference on how you parent/coach a young athlete.

when the mom said “they will be professional tennis players” i’d seen enough.
 
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