No but neither were the rest of the players they were competing against.
want USTA support ? it's who you know not how good your kid is
- Thread starter dannythomas
- Start date
Yes, he is another one. He had Zina and Lori come out of his program.
If there were more centers like that around the country, we would invariably see more US champions on the horizon.
Little ones should know that things like lessons, tournament and travel cost money just like cars, groceries, books toys. And mom and dad have to work to provide these things. Hopefully they will understand and learn gratitude and also develop a strong work ethic along the way. I don't want to go into parenting 101. That said I do not believe that their effort on the athletic field should ever be tied to that fact that mom and dad spent money, etc. I believe that puts undo presure on them and is distracting to performance. 100% effort, sportsmanship and a good attitude should be ingrained in athletics, school, work, etc. because its a good personal characteristic that will lead to positive outcomes in with sporting endeavors and in life experiences.
dannythomas
Professional
GA Tennis you should not worry about this at all. Your Dad is absolutely right. It's a maturity issue 8 and 9 kids cannot be intense all the time. Well a few of them can but they are rare and it does not mean they will end up being better than the kids who have their days when they just switch off. As long as they can bring it out some of the time and as long as they are happy to keep working and keep learning the intensity will come out as they get older.
When your daughter works with Rick you will see that he will push hard for that intensity. My 9 year old gets it from him all the time !
As far as tournaments are concerned I am not saying my way is the right way as every case is different. But my advice is not to get too hung up about the results / rankings at her age. Play tournaments because she wants to and if she doesn't want to that's ok too. Or play the odd one here and there . She has to want to do it.
When are you guys coming down ?
not sure yet when we are coming.
GATennisMom
New User
This I think says alot - http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennisworld/2010/05/its-macademic.html. I am interested to see all this play out!
It was nice to meet you guys last weekend.
WARPWOODIE
Rookie
Obviously, It seems there would be a conflict of interest if Patrick endorses John's academy.
TennisCoachFLA
Banned
The funny thing is the wrong McEnroe is in charge. Pat Mac tries to be political and keep everything under his control and hand pick select kids and only let certain coaches and facilities have the money and go for only kids who grow up playing just tennis.
John Mac says to get as many people involved as possible, spread the junior development money around, and .....wait for it....try to make tennis cool again and attract better athletes and promote cross training with sports like soccer like the Euro kids grow up doing.
Hmmm.....sounds like John Mac is on the same page as many of us on this board.
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McEnroe also announced that the Academy will hold open tryouts this July for young persons interested in attending the McEnroe Academy starting in September. One boy and one girl between the ages of 8 and 16 will be selected by McEnroe to receive a full scholarship for a year of training at the McEnroe Academy. The tryouts will be held on July 14 for boys and on July 19 for girls, beginning at 8:30am each day, at SPORTIME at Randall’s Island, One Randall’s Island, Manhattan. The tryouts will last the entire day for those who progress to the final rounds, and all finalists will be invited to watch McEnroe’s New York Sportimes World TeamTennis team play on the evening of their respective try-out dates. Each day’s winner will receive his/her scholarship award from McEnroe at half time of that evening’s televised match.
Interesting online comment after the McEnroe article, apparently by someone (perhaps formerly) living in Spain:
I tend to agree from afar that tennis is not the first choice of the best athletes in ANY country. Certainly in Spain, when Nadal grew up, many more kids dreamed of playing soccer in La Liga than of being tennis players. Spain had no more than one top player per decade for much of my life.
I think one thing that changed was that the strings and rackets changed so that the clay court style of play is now really the mainstream style of play. During most of my life, the clay-courters were considered specialists. They learned how to construct points a certain way, and it was effective on clay but not so much on grass. We also used to have indoor carpet tournaments that were well suited to serve and volley tennis. You did not get the ball blasted at you or past you when you came to the net.
I agree with the advantages that have been cited for red clay: point construction, patience, concentration, angles, drop shots and a variety of other tactics, stamina. That stuff just was not going to dominate on grass against the players of the early 1970s and 1960s and earlier.
The red clay suddenly became more relevant when the technology of the sport changed. The Europeans and South Americans got lucky in that respect, while the Americans and Australians faded from the scene. If we refuse to face the fact that times have changed, we will pay the price.
I am sure that coaches from red clay countries are doing some great things in their teaching methods, but I think the bigger factor is that the times changed in such a way as to suit what they had already been doing for ages.
I tend to agree from afar that tennis is not the first choice of the best athletes in ANY country. Certainly in Spain, when Nadal grew up, many more kids dreamed of playing soccer in La Liga than of being tennis players. Spain had no more than one top player per decade for much of my life.
I think one thing that changed was that the strings and rackets changed so that the clay court style of play is now really the mainstream style of play. During most of my life, the clay-courters were considered specialists. They learned how to construct points a certain way, and it was effective on clay but not so much on grass. We also used to have indoor carpet tournaments that were well suited to serve and volley tennis. You did not get the ball blasted at you or past you when you came to the net.
I agree with the advantages that have been cited for red clay: point construction, patience, concentration, angles, drop shots and a variety of other tactics, stamina. That stuff just was not going to dominate on grass against the players of the early 1970s and 1960s and earlier.
The red clay suddenly became more relevant when the technology of the sport changed. The Europeans and South Americans got lucky in that respect, while the Americans and Australians faded from the scene. If we refuse to face the fact that times have changed, we will pay the price.
I am sure that coaches from red clay countries are doing some great things in their teaching methods, but I think the bigger factor is that the times changed in such a way as to suit what they had already been doing for ages.
Obviously, It seems there would be a conflict of interest if Patrick endorses John's academy.
None at all we know John knows how and what it takes to produce a champion from start to finish. Macci, Bolli, Lansdorp and many more mentioned don't even know how to do that. Before you all go off on me remember working with someone for a period of time say 1 or 2 years don't count just contributes.
Unless your T. Nadal or Mrs. Hingis or others like them, these are the real experts and would be in Macs category
dannythomas
Professional
It is not a question of not knowing how to.Macci and Lansdorp choose to be full time present in ther Academies. They do not go on the road with their players. So what tends to happen is that when they turn pro they look for another coach to do that. But if you speak to any of the players who used to work with either one of them they all acknowledge the important role these guys played in their development. They know what they are talking about.
John Mcenroe has not produced any champions yet so he cannot at this stage be compared to either Macci or Lansdorp. If you want to compare them to the likes of Gilbert , Cahill or Rashid that would be a more valid comparison.
dannythomas
Professional
One other point on the Mcenroe Academy. Is Johnny Mac really going to give up his extensive existing commitments to the Senior Tour and TV commentary to focus on his Academy ? If not the kids there won't see him too much.
chalkflewup
Hall of Fame
I don't care who you stick in there, NY is not going to provide the ideal environment/surface needed to produce the elite tennis players.
Your right they played and important role (part) not the whole way . Johnny Mac has been down the whole road he has all the info from beginning to end so that will make him a great coach! All the rest are nothing more then a stop along the way.
Do you have any more information about this?? I would love to take my daughter,i know she wouldnt get a scholarship but it would be a great experience...
Great players dont always translate to great coaches.This is true in any sport.
dannythomas
Professional
very true . Mcenroe's great rival Connors being a good example.
I agree with you I'm practicing my "trigger words" in this chat. please ga tennis take no offense to my fun on here playing with all the experts on here who think they know it all , BTW hows your daughter doing?
TennisCoachFLA
Banned
Very true. MY point about the McEnroes is their approach and attitude.
Pat Mac has an elitist attitude, lets handpick a few tennis lifer kids and we will make them champs. Pay big money to a few select coaches. Put a few high performance facilities around.
John Mac says lets grow the base, include many kids with all sports backgrounds, encourage them to cross train, spread the junior development money out to support facilities all over the country.
So its not that I think John will be a great coach, its that I like his ideas better than his brothers.
http://www.sportimeny.com/gallery/sportimeFiles/2731_Summer_Camp_Package.pdf
Note that they list daily rates
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Sure he will do it for $900 a week in his academy.
TennisCoachFLA
Banned
I am not talking about his academy and what they will charge. I am talking about his overall ideas for the USTA junior development program and how to spend the money.
Since he was iced out of the USTA system, he had to go with a traditional academy approach.
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