Being pushed Too Early

Only time can tell if the right decisions are made in ones career. Hindsight is a great gift but it is often bestowed on us far to late.Valuable lesson's are often learned way to late.Tennis is a high pressured sport and lots of hard work and dedication must be made by the athlete.Only a very few juniors come through the system to be ranked in the top 50.Much of this drive unfortunately comes from parents and they can make bad choices or place too much pressure on their child at an early age.Remember child prodigy Andrea Jaeger she lost a Wimbledon Final to Martina Navratolova in '83 when only 16. She started on the women's circuit when 14.With now early retirements to Justine Henin, Hingis and Clijsters its with interest to read the Jaeger story.Jaeger who had the tennis World at her feet is now a nun,During an interview recently with the Daily Mail she had this to say : "It's very difficult having any parent be your coach because you lose the parental side."Dad was German-bred and people growing up in Germany in Dad's era had a different form of discipline. He grew up being beaten by a belt. He wanted to teach me morals and values."Click on the highlighted text for the full story.