This is my first in a series of "So you want to be a World Class Tennis Player".I have been running a poll on what is the key ingredient to make you a top Pro!One of the choices was have a crazy tennis parent.Now History shows that this works so let's look at this , get rid of the "u beaut tennis academies, the high tech training programs ,and replace them with an over the top crazy parent!I mean when you think about it tennis patterns and tactics are reasonably simple,there's a few basic strokes ie serve, forehand and backhand, volleys are not used that much these days and Mum and Dad could pick up one of the many instructional video's available.Ok there's a few tips to get you on the road but one important ingredient is that you need obsessive devotion to getting to the top , you have to eat ,sleep and drink tennis and when your at the bathroom you had better keep your thoughts attuned to when you are going to hit that next tennis ball!And guess what?Someone who can keep you focused on this is Mum Or Dad they are only too willing to lend support and drive the program for you.
Can you have a normal youthful childhood, Birthday parties,going to beach with your friends,proms,parties , family holidays ha ha forget it the closest family holiday your going to get is Mum or Dad entering you in another tournament interstate or overseas.Or maybe if you get lucky they will send you to another country to train and live.Just in New Zealand I have heard from parents how they have taken a second mortgage to pay for their child's tennis.A huge financial investment with no real Statistics for success for a country like New Zealand and nine times out of ten will most likely be a poor investment if you are looking at making money.I will discuss location as an issue in a later post. Now the Williams sister's are a success and its thanks to their father Richard yes the obsessive parent!So as the story goes , their father, Richard, upon learning of the lucre that women's tennis offered, decided to make his next two kids into tennis pros. That his wife, Oracene, didn't want any more children was a minor obstacle—he simply hid her birth-control pills. He taught himself the game, coaching his proteges on rotten courts where their sessions were sometimes interrupted by gunfire before shipping them to a Florida tennis academy for refinement. While his girls racked up Grand Slams (17 singles titles and counting), he made headlines with his histrionic antics at tournaments, erratic ramblings, and general weirdness—he insisted on meeting his daughters' first hitting coach at a public car wash because he believed the FBI had bugged his car and house.And now the rest is history!
It seems that obsessive and demanding parents do come into the news for all the wrong reasons.Dogmatic Damir Dokic ,he himself nearly won a grand slam getting himself ejected from three out of four grand slam tournaments, he's threatened to kidnap daughter Jelena Dokic and drop a nuclear bomb on Australia.But hey come on Jelena Had her best ranking when he was in control!
And what about Yuri Sharapova who had his degree of "craziness" was caught making a throat-slitting gesture from the stand that Anastasia Myskina refused to play in the Federation Cup if her countrywoman was named to the Russian team.Read that story
hereAnd Maria has had grand slam success , so I guess another win,win story for the Crazed parent syndrome.What about Mary Pierce's father Jim Pierce screamed, "Kill the bitch!" during one of his daughter Mary's matches.Stefano Capriati, Mike Agassi, and Roland Jaeger were all trained as boxers and in some instances i guess were "punch drunk" in some of their methods.But again their children met with success!
And the list goes on if you have a crazy tennis parent story please leave as a comment on this article and I will publish it, I could keep going and this is just the international examples , boy have I seen some Parents lose it at a local junior tournaments that have resulted in Car Park showdowns with the opponents parents.
What i guess I'm trying to say is be realistic of course there are many success full parents and players that create little drama , not everyone will go onto win Wimbledon or be ranked in the top 100 even and if your from a country like New Zealand more probably not , however it does take a certain obsessiveness if you like to call it that to become a World Class tennis player. It takes total Focus,sacrifice and dedication from both child and parents.The underlying feature here is that your child has to want it ! if they do then as a parent provide what ever support they need.
Good news arrived in my Email Box today from Ghassan Beidas father of Bassam Beidas who this week was playing in Cairo Egypt in a F13 Futures .Partnering college team mate from Pepperdine , Omar ALTMANN the unseeded pair won the final of the doubles beating locals KAMAL AITA, Ramy and MOUSSA, Mohamed also unseeded .Bassam also unseeded and having to go through qualifying, knocked out the top seed on route to the final of the mens singles event where he will meet second seed Karim MAAMOUN a household name of egypt tennis.I worked with Bassam as a 12/13 year old and knew he had the drive and the work ethics to achieve good results.I believe this is his first ever futures singles final and wish him the best of luck for the final.Below are Beidas and Altmann playing for Pepperdine.Bassam is foreground.Check all the results.The top photo sees' local South Canterbury juniors Annabel Ellis and Robbie Wigley having some time out at training.Check all the results from the ITF Cairo here
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