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Today I went to a well-known tennis website and read an article about some talented children, "so called wunderkind" in ages ranging from 5 years to 9 years old and watched each video presentation.
The children I watched are listed below:
"JAN SILVA
Age: 6
Home: Thiverval-Grignon, France
Coach: Patrick Mouratoglou
TRISTAN BOYER
Age: 6
Home: Altadena, California
Coach: Robert Lansdorp
ZACHARY SVAJDA
Age: 5
Home: Pacific Beach, California
Coach: Matt Hanlin
GREER GLODJO
Age: 7
Home: Bradenton, Florida
Coach: Nick Bollettieri
SONYA KENIN
Age: 9
Home: Pembroke Pines, Florida
Coach: Rick Macci
As a tennis instructor myself, nothing surprises me any longer, I have seen them all and from all walks of life doing identical stuff.
What struck me though, is that as tennis becomes bigger and bigger and the dollar signs at ATP and WTA level are showing everywhere, it seems as though people lose perspective of what a child really is? There is so much exaggeration on everything about the kids, their talents and their lives, which leads to
a residual impression that coaches, parents, the media, greedy agents and agencies, allow a bubble, that is bigger then the Childs destiny itself, to be created around these children and no one seems to care for possible immediate and future consequences.
Another aspect was, what is in a 5, 6 or 9 years old mind, when he sees himself/herself surrounded by 2, 3, 5 or 6 adult tennis instructors on a single tennis court...and the whole world on the side lines watching, parents, instructors, agents, onlookers and the lavish praise that goes with the territory?
What will the scars of failure do to such a child after this huge bubble bursts? What kind of person will he/she be even if he/she succeeds when everything surrounding for the last ten years of his/her life is ONLY about ME, MYSELF and ME!
Than the rest of the family. After some parents sold their houses, quit their jobs, moved to a famous tennis academy, put all of their eggs in one basket, their Childs talent...how nice will they be to that child when performance does not match expectations? After a totally unrealistic "modus vivendi", how are they, the parents, going to pick-up the pieces? While this dream is on going, all attention is dedicated to the "prodigy", what part of the deal does little brother or little sister get? Secondary attention?
Once the experiment fails, will the parents say; Oh...we could not help but give our child all chances!...the Coaches, well there were some things missing, we saw it at the beginning, but, we had to try our best!...the greedy agents, middle men and agencies, hey, we are the good guys, we were not after the future money!.. we just offered the best environment possible and living conditions for the child and the whole family. In fact we lost money!
Finally, how about the child and his mental an physical welfare? When the pressure mounts as performing and winning starts to count and results do not match expectations, are things going to change? How is the child of yore face all the accolades he once heard, if today he is not able to come true with winning results? How many do really care about the past child? How many children have failed as young adults until now and nobody mentions or cares to report! Is it that a Childs' life and future can be taken so lightly that in the end we all will only care if he succeeds?...and ignore/forget all, if they fail?
Shouldn't our societies in the 21 century have proper checks and balances, in other words, the safeguards to protect young children from this sort of situation and rule against some very dubious and questionable motivations behind decisions taken by adults on behalf of an unprotected child? I certainly think so!
Yep, too many questions! Very few answers.
My opinion is that no matter what the child "wants", under no circumstances should parents leave their work lives (jobs) to take talented children 5, 6 or 9 years old to any "guru" academy. If they live and work in the area that's fine, as long as it does not become an obsession!
A talented child in his early years can and should develop in a natural environment, with family, school friends, be exposed to many other sports at an early age, find the value of true friendship and camaraderie at school, learn social, family and group values. The tennis can take second fiddle to such experiences, a child must be given the space and time to be developed gradually and integrated in a wholesome social environment and have a family life that in later years will be of major importance for a balanced individual to emerge. Sacrifices may be needed to achieve the necessary balance, but your child is worth it!
There is no right age to put the "screw" on a specially talented individual, but in my experience 12 years old do not need the amounts of training that these 5, 6 or 9 years old are being subject to. True prodigies do not need boring repetition training like the ones I assisted to on each web tape presentation, they need creativity, fun, games and experimenting. They need the freedom to elect their choices and to create instead of being stymied regimented by adult individuals, who think they know best, but in the end will just reflect their own limitations on the child’s future game! Further more because of the natural human development, the events of puberty and maturity (mental and physical), all that theory of hitting thousands of balls at ages 5, 6 or 9 years old (or any age for that matter!) is absolutely hogwash!
Why?
Because the "gurus" fail to tell you, explain or understand that, super talents, "Wunderkinder", virtuosos, wonder kids:
- Are well co-ordinated from birth! Yes, dear friend, in spite of all gurus pretending to better your children’s co-ordinations with special exercises, if it's not there at birth, there is nothing that will make them better. If they're there at birth they will look like a million bucks, co-ordination exercises or not!
- Do not need to be told how to hit a tennis ball, they will do it with ease and naturally!
- Are like a video recorder, what they see they can reproduce at will without instruction!
- Are athletic are fast have great reactivity from birth/genetic. Very little can be done to better what they already have and that will naturally develop in time anyway. The most gifted individuals will have a reaction time of 0.08 second (perhaps one in every million individuals) and will run the 100 meter dash easily under 11 seconds.
- Have an acute tactical sense and inner gamemanship, you do not need to teach them how to win. They know how to!
- Are steady and do not miss because they have excellent co-ordinations and mental powers. Not because they hit millions of balls! The "gurus" condition them and parents that its a must, but it is not! These kids need 1/100 of what the co-ordination morons need! Yes, only co-ordination morons need endless hours on tennis courts to very little benefit. Super talents need match play, games, tournament play, competition.
- Will serve with ease and the least you teach them the more natural, fast and fluid their serves will be. They have the throwing motion and precision gene of our hunting ancestors.
- Are accurate as radar on target, guided by the hunters eye, the ball will land accurately right on the spot.
- Are unshakecable in their determination to win or achieve their goals. They do not need motivational speeches or psychologists, they know the way!
- Are cool collect and calm under pressure (they execute well under pressure). They know how to control their emotions or to use them to their advantage to win!
The list is endless, virtuosos need very little coaching, take Roger Federer as an example, his most successful streak was without a Coach! Positive guidance, an adequate level of training, starting at age 12 progressively increased until professional tennis level is the best way to insure a diamond to shine in the tennis scene for a very, very long time. Pete Sampras and Roger Federer are good examples of that.
Besides what I have said above referring to hitting millions of tennis balls, any physician with half a lobe in his brain can tell you, how detrimental it can be for children at such young age:
- First to be playing on hard cement courts! Hours daily! (not to mention all possible sorts of zany conditioning exercises!)
- Second, the possibility of developing large muscle/mass structures that will stun growth!
- Third great damage and erosion to cartilage in the knees, shoulder, wrists, elbows (tennis elbow) and especially at the hip level where these youngsters could be condemned to hip-replacement by the young age of 40!
- Fourth, Possible development of severe scoliosis (the famous S curved spine)
- Fifth a total unbalance in the skeletal development due to the one sided use of the tennis racket.
- Sixth a horde of other ailments and disorders, not to mention possible manic obsession with tennis and oder mental problems!
Could I be exaggerating?
This is a fantastic and curious debate, many of you may be tempted do give it a try with your "prodigy". Some psychologists are out there reading this, many
doctors, scientists, tennis fans, tennis instructors, tennis coaches, people from all walks of life, please engage in this blog, tell us who you are, give us
your feedback, insights, opinions your expertise.
This could one day help parents, coaches, instructors make the right decisions for a child, that could even be a child a grand child or even a great-grand
child of yours in the future.
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Comment by wda65 on 2008-05-25 10:58:28
Hi,
I agree with your arguments for not starting serious tennis training before the age of 12.
However, nowadays with the use of softballs, smaller rackets and smaller courts the strain will be much lesser then in the past.
If the child has the talent, he or she will long to play and that is a fact. Group training for 2 hours and private training for 3 hours a week, with the emphasis on the co-ordination, movement and playing game-situations is not overdoing it in my opinion (7-9 years). In these 'golden years' the child has to accumulate the experience and the abilities to make every shot (also specialty shots). All his/her shots (10-12 years) grooved in on the big court with lot of competition.(7 hours/week) His/her game type (=temperament+swot) should be refined at this age (12-14 years with 10 hours/week)
The speed and power of execution should now be addressed 14-18 years . (15 +hours/week)
Love to receive your comments!
Walter D'Amico
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Comment by Saspcruz on 2008-05-25 10:57:48
Advise to parent,
Please, do not even mention my "stature", it is hard to find the really good coaches that are not just looking for your money and I could be one of the bad ones.
As a rule of thumb if anyone suggests to you to send your son at 12 to their tennis Academy, just do not trust. If anyone tells you for your son to stop school and just play tennis, just do not do it.
Your son needs 3 more years of well rounded development within the school system, playing multi-sports (athletics, soccer, volleyball, basketball, cricket, swimming, Australian football you name it, is all fine!). He is now in a crucial stage of his development, where poli-sports, will strengthen him, better his coordinations, hone his tactical skills, improve his spatial awareness and make him a better athlete in a varied athletic environment.
At school holidays take him where ever you wish and it does not have to be any "guru", for 2, 3, 4, 6 weeks (whatever you can afford) for training and tournaments. Make sure you don't get him stuck in a "All day Drill camp". Practice in the morning, matches in the afternoon should be the schedule. Very important is that he plays a tournament every weekend in that period.
Do not trust grip changers and all the corrections, unless the stroke is really bad, otherwise if it is working do not fix it! Rogers grips are not the best (the gurus would have messed up Roger if they ever had a hand at it!), so let your son develop as naturally as possible.
Tennis: Should You Trust Your Coach 100% in your tennis development??
http://tenniscruz.com/content/view/55/49/
Remember do not over use the ball machine in your eagerness to help your son. André Agassi in fact hated his father for that! I sat many times with André, Phil his brother and even his father, I know the story inside out. A ball machine can be a real torture for a creative individual!
Also talented individuals need freedom to create and develop. Be patient, take your time give your son plenty of space to grow and let him prove himself in tournament play and not in grueling, non creative, repetitive routines that only stymie a young person and future athlete.
The best father I ever met was Sam Sampras, he stuck for his sons best interests, talked and had lunches and dinners for about 2 weeks with me and once he was satisfied that he could trust what I was telling him. He shook hands with me, thanked me for my patience and "Sergio, I trust your advise 100% and Pete will go and train at the NBTA with Jim you and Joe Brandi". That is how Joe Brandi got to be Petes coach.
From then on apart from his wife sending us self baked cake in Christmas and some chocolates in Easter, I never saw Sam in a tournament or ever heard a complaint. He new how to give space to his son.
Unlike what is in this article about other parents and "gurus"
http://tenniscruz.com/mos/Frontpage/Itemid,1/limit,6/limitstart,12/
One thing that you have to understand and always keep in mind:
- In the end everything is about results, performance and winning at the tournaments.
- If your son is not among the top 3 Australians in the 14 to 18s (it will be an up hill battle and very likely a losing one)
"ommitted" managed to make the last 16 in a 128 draw finally losing to a 6 foot tall 12 year old ranked No. 9" (this should help put things into perspective)
- If your son is not ranked among the Top 3 ITF players at 16 and under (up hill battle and very likely a losing one)
- If your son does not have an ATP ranking by 17/18 (up hill battle and very likely a losing one)
If you look at the prize money breakdown, under the top fifty, players are just struggling, they are not surviving from their prize money but rather from the government help each country provides (which can be scant) and some idealist (rosy eyed) national sponsors.
Do not put all your eggs in the basket of tennis, give your son an education.
All the best
Sergio
PS- Do not trust anyone! The only Coach I know was truly honest was Mr. Harry Hopman, he told it like it was and offered you the best training there was, leaving it up to you to make it in the competition.
Deservingly he made money out of the business of tennis, but I never heard him telling any outrageous thing like getting 12 years old out of school or for parents to sell their houses and bring unproven kids to his tennis camps. Never, and I was close to Mr. Hopman.
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Comment by GUEST on 2008-05-25 11:04:23
Walter,
That's is not the point, of course kids can play and should play at younger ages, we all agree, it is fun!
The problem is when greed and lack of common sense of all parties involved, rules a child life that has not much to say but do what the adults are telling him to do.
Best regards
Sergio |
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