The Psychology of Tennis Parenting
The Pain of Changing
Improving stems from changing; to some junior athletes, change is more painful than losing. That’s correct. The pain of making needed changes is more agonizing than losing tennis matches. Use the dieting industry as an example. We know that exercise and eating healthy are the answer, but that agony is more painful than not fitting into our skinny jeans. So, we don’t change.
For some, change only happens when the athlete is tired of not getting the results, they are capable of reaching. When that pain is greater than the pain of hard work, they’ll choose the hard work because it’s less painful. If improving is of the utmost importance, I suggest a quarterly reboot. Here’s how:
Solution: To maximize potential, routinely take your athlete out of the tournament cycle for a couple of weeks every quarter. This scheduled time off will kick start the freedom change demands for improvement. After all, if they don’t continually improve, their results will disappear.
Opponents around the globe are training with sports science efficiency. If your athlete wants better results, they must become better athletes. This desire takes a parent who can organize the athlete’s enhancement schedule and an athlete mature enough to focus on making the changes required. You first have to develop a better competitive athlete to achieve those better results.
