Mastering The Role Of A Parent In Tennis
Being a successful athlete is not something that just happens by itself. In order to achieve a level of greatness, a young raw talent has to be blossomed, guided, and be given the opportunities and circumstances needed to succeed. The part the parents play in the youngster’s athletic participation, and the influence they have on their junior careers can be crucial for the right development of a young athlete. Furthermore, the parental behavior during the years of development is one of the biggest factors in the psychology of an upcoming successful player. Most of these opinions also come from the coaches themselves, since they are able to experience the “journeys” of a junior tennis player, and the parent-child relationship during those periods. In order to provide the right leadership and guidance towards success, there are three aspects a parent must focus on: having the right level of involvement, displaying positive behavior, and eliminating negative conduct.
First and foremost, a parent must put the right amount of dedication in the youngster’s career. To assess the coaches’ perspective on the parental involvement, members of the USA Tennis Competition Training Center were asked to complete a questionnaire about parental issues in tennis. “These 250 participants were judged to be excellent sources of information because of their involvement in coaching junior tennis in about 100 Tennis Competition Training Centers located throughout the United States” (BJSM, 2010). The coaches, based on their opinion and experience, on a scale of 1-5, rated how important is parental involvement in a junior tennis player’s career. The questionnaire results gave an average grade of 4.61, which means that according to the members, parental involvement is extremely important in the development of a young tennis player. Furthermore, many top players reported to have parents highly involved in their career, who showed them the essential value needed to be successful. Some of the examples of these players are: Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Novak Djokovic, Bernard Tomic etc. Moreover, the parents that are most dedicated often provide two vital qualities for their children’s development: being the source of useful experiences, and being the interpreters of those experiences. (Fredericks and Eccles, 2001).
Secondly, displaying positive behavior is one of the critical elements in flourishing a young talent. Using the same method...
