The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible NOW available through most on-line retailers! Click Here to Order
Regardless of the comfort level, accelerated growth demands to abort ineffective strokes, strategies or tactics and systematically re-tooling them. Change is mandatory for growth. Following is a common developmental blunder.
Overlooking the Pain Principle
Remember the old saying? “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.” Players hit common walls in their development. One of those walls is resisting change.
If your child view’s change, as more painful than losing, they’ll continue down the same losing path. It’s so painful for some to change a flawed grip, stroke or stance, that they’d rather accept the pain of losing than deal with changing.
Great things begin to happen when the pain of losing starts to be more powerful than the pain of changing. Once they accept the fact that a change has to be made, they are on their way to the next level. This is where great parenting comes in.
“For some, a comfortable old – bad habit is less painful than the temporary pain of fixing it.”
