Tennis parents need to understand sports psychology too! Tennis parents of junior
tournament players can get in the way of the mental training process sometimes. Don’t
get me wrong, tennis parents have the best intentions for their juniors and really want to
help.
However, tennis parents’ high expectations for their kids can make kids feel too much
pressure. For example, parents might impart their own expectations on their kids, in an
effort to boost confidence.
When doing tennis psychology with my students, I try to help the tennis parents and
players realize that very high expectations can backfire and cause kids to feel more
pressure. You expectations for tennis kids don’t build confidence! In fact, the opposite
happens….
You want tennis juniors to play with confidence. However, expectations cause tennis
players to feel like they are failing when they do not perform up to their own standards.
When I work with my young players and tennis parents, I make sure they understand
how these two concepts differ and help them realize expectations that undermine their
performance, and eventually confidence.
Tennis parents want to be supportive, but will say stuff that kids interpret as
expectations. You as a parent with good intentions might say, “You should get to the
finals today – and beat Lisa.”
I know what you are thinking… This sounds like what a good tennis parents would say
to support a tennis junior’s confidence, right? Be careful as this approach can backfire.
Your statements are often interpreted by tennis juniors in ways parents don’t realize.
In this case, your tennis player internalizes high expectations from you and now she
might become worried about losing and disappointing you! She may feel more pressure
to play in the final match and focus too much on results instead of playing one point at a
time.
This is why tennis parents must understand my goals when working with players on
sports psychology strategies for tennis… I want you to teach kids the same mental
game of tennis lessons that I teach my students.