The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Question: Should parents be discouraged or encouraged to watch practice?
Frank: I encourage the parents to be involved in the learning process. There’s so much “GOOD” that comes from positive entourage synergy. However, there are two situations in which I will speak privately with the parents and explain to them that their presence during the practice session may be stunting the growth they seek.
The first situation is if the child has told me that their efforts are constantly being overly criticized by their parents or if the parents are so outcome driven, the athlete feels immense added pressure to perform perfectly or else. Athletes and their parents should seek excellence …not perfection.
“Stress and fear are not optimal learning environments. Maximizing potential comes with the freedom of making mistakes.”
Players need to experiment and try things “their own way.” Junior athletes have often confided in me that when their primary tennis parent is in attendance, they’re later bombarded for hours with a laundry list of additional failures that need to be fixed. The player begins to feel hopeless – believing that they will never be good enough.
The second situation in which a parental discussion is in order involves overly protective, mildly obsessed parents. In today’s world, they are commonly called “Helicopter” parents. The nickname comes from their neurotic hovering on and around the court every session as they attempt to dominate the coach-athlete relationship. (If you suspect that you or your spouse may be a bit of a helicopter parent, the next question is for you.)
Parents, if your child feels additional stress from your presents, it’s in everyone’s best interest to take the time to get educated in the process of raising athletic royalty. If you’re interested, I have a detailed book on the topic actually called: Raising Athletic Royalty: Insights to Inspire for a Lifetime. It’s everything you didn’t even know…you needed to know.
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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