The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible NOW available through most online retailers! Click Here to Order
The following post is the foreword to The Tennis Parent’s Bible by Tennis Great Johan Kriek.
By 2 Time ATP Grand Slam Champion: Johan Kriek
Many may hear the name Johan Kriek and recognize me as a top-ranking tennis professional. What they may not realize is the hard work and dedication achieving ATP Tour level status required. I earned an ATP ranking of top 7 and won 2 Grand Slam titles during my approximately twenty-five years of competing in high-level professional tennis, amongst the likes of Connors, Borg, and McEnroe, but my incredible career came with great sacrifice and heartache. Firsthand knowledge of the benefits of supportive tennis parents makes me a perfect fit to foreword Frank Giampaolo’s second edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible.
As a kid growing up in a rural community in South Africa, my mom, Ria, drove me to all my junior tournaments, while my dad and siblings stayed home on the farm. My parent’s played recreational tennis and understood a little about the game but never in their wildest dreams could they have known what was to come. My mom was always positive and constantly reinforcing belief. She did a lot of things right without even knowing it …But looking back that was not enough.
I have been in the junior tennis development business for a number of years now, and I have pretty much seen it all. Parenting is difficult enough in this modern age but parenting AND having a budding tennis star is altogether a tougher challenge. Frank is spot on with bringing to light the extreme importance of the parent’s role in the tennis journey. More often than I would like to admit, parents uneducated about the developmental process unknowingly cause “train wrecks” in their budding tennis players.
Parental education with respect to junior tennis development is a vital component to future success, whether it be college education or shooting for the pros. It is a tough journey with many more “downs than ups” as losing is a huge part of the development of a tennis junior. It is vitally important, in my humble opinion; that parents “arm” themselves with the knowledge found in “The Tennis Parent’s Bible” to better facilitate the growth and happiness of their children. Parent education is quite possibly one of, if not the most neglected part of junior athletic development.
Mastering the game of tennis is a process that demands technical, mental, and emotional skills throughout a child’s development. The parents need to understand that competency requires in-depth knowledge. The highly competitive individuals that are not trained the appropriate mental and emotional IQ face incredible anguish for which they have no way of dealing.
Many parents hope (pretty much what my mom did) that their children will eventually “grow up and mature.” But this is not the right way to go about it. I was, and because I was a type A Plus personality, I flew off the handle a lot. This poor behavior came to bite me hard during my career. Suffice to say I succeeded despite myself. If I had better training as a youngster on how to deal with my emotions in a better way, I would have been a much better and happier competitor.
Frank Giampaolo is a rare guy to have addressed these issues by writing a number of books on developing athletes. I highly recommend this second edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible to any tennis coach or parent. Believe me, even if you think you are an “expert” tennis coach or parent, you need to read this book.
