Home School Versus Traditional School
Tennis is a big business and more hours for your child on the court equates to more money for the coach or academy.
Todd Widom
There is a new trend in tennis development with coaches convincing parents that pulling their child out of regular school and putting them into an online source of education is going to progress their child’s tennis at a more rapid rate. However, more hours on the court does not mean that your child will progress faster or even progress at all, and it could even mean that your child regresses. It is all based upon the quality of the training.
I have parents call me often explaining how their child trains five to six hours a day, they are home schooled, and they are really struggling with results in their tournaments. I usually take a player like this on the court for an hour or so, and notice that they struggle to get through the hour training with me. The junior tennis player should be training to build up the mental and physical stamina in order to be able to handle all these hours if the training is to the utmost quality.
If the player trains 25 to 30 hours a week and they cannot get through a normal hour of good training with me, and if they are running around with four to five other kids on a court, do yourself and your child a favor and keep them in school. You will save yourself a great deal of headache, money, and time if your child and their tennis training is not done properly.
My generation of tennis players, during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, that went on to become professionals or very high-level college players never had an online school option. We went to school and trained after school in a very disciplined environment for two to three hours.
I understand that times have changed and online school can work if it is done properly.
I also understand that many schools will not allow kids to miss enough days for when they are playing tournaments so the child is frequently forced into going the online route. If you are training in a very disciplined manner, in an excellent and well-formed system, and you are very disciplined with your school work, then the online program can work in the child’s favor. During my years in coaching, I have had students go to and play tennis at Ivy League schools with an online education.
I have seen where the online program can work with highly disciplined students and I have seen where the program is a disaster because there was no organization. It is the responsibility of both the student and parent to make sure that the school work is done in a timely fashion and done properly. I would not rely on the academy to make sure that your child is doing their work and doing their work up to par. No one cares for your child more than the parents.
When I was a junior tennis player, my vast improvements in development were in the summer when I could spend double the amount of time training and improving my skills. I was also trained by professionals that did not market and sell that they produced professionals in their system, even though they actually did produce very high-level college players and professionals.
Therefore, the time spent on the court was always of the highest caliber and spending double the time on the court in the summer months were most beneficial. If you have the option for your child to be in a great training environment, they are serious about their tennis and seeing how far they can go in their tennis career, and they are disciplined and focused on being educated, I would probably take the online educational route.
If the tennis system your child attends is not the best quality or they do not have a great desire to be the best they can be, then do yourself a favor and keep your child in school. If your child is a serious tennis player and has aspirations of being a high level college tennis player or a professional tennis player then you should consider online school and the best training system you can find for them to be successful and reach their best potential.
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So many parents are fooled by homeschool thinking their wonderful little kid will excel and beat others because they will get more training. At a Southern section USTA team event my daughter beat a girl 6060 and the mom said “well if my daughter was homeschooled like your daughter is the outcome would have been different. I said “yes it would, your daughter would most likely be dumber and still lose 6060” I talked to Bill Ozaki afterwards about her comment. His answer, “homeschool is for about 1% of players.
I completely agree with you. If a talented kid has a good coach, he/she doesn’t need to quit traditional school for tennis. 30-40 hours training a week is good only for greed coaches, not for a junior player’s development.
Working smarter not harder is true in many areas of life. While the tennis parent thinks more hours equals more success (coaches more dollars) in fact at the younger ages (before 17) it can spell more injuries, burn out and plateauing. Education should be the first focus of all juniors, a balance must be found that works for both the player, family and coach. I have witnessed many wasted hours on tennis courts with juniors. My belief is; if you can not get it done in two to three hours then you aren’t doing it correctly. Training does really come down to quality over quantity. The no pain, no gain mentally should be a dinosaur in tennis. As for on-line education, for the most part, it is doing more in less time, the public school takes three times longer because of class changes, breaks and lunch etc. But it takes a motivated child and parent to pull off homeschooling. As a parent who has done both, on-line requires a much higher involvement on behalf of the parent. The student must be a organized self starter who isn’t afraid to ask questions and get answers. It is a great development tool for parents looking for a way to develop a self thinking child. The parent must be willing to be the mentor during the development or risk failure of the child to complete assignments. And then add a social life as a child needs to have friends and do some fun stuff. There must be a balance for most children to develop as happy tennis players.
Well said, Debi.
Just wanted to add that the problem of some tennis parents (and coaches) is that they have never read any sports science recommendations.
I believe that if a junior tennis player has talent, then 15 hours a week tennis training + fitness and tournaments is more than enough for the player’s development. If a tennis player does not have enough talent to play on the pro level, why destroy the young athlete’s health with 30 hours of training a week? It is not a big secret that professional tennis does not make a person’s health better.
And never quit school!
There may be personal and family reasons to home school juniors, but, in Southern California, the only tennis reason to home school juniors is if the junior is playing ITF or pro tournaments every week, since the sanctioned junior tournaments, and most adult tournaments, are on the weekends and during the summer. My son played college tennis at University of Florida and on the pro tour after college, and he went to his regular neighborhood high school. The Bryan twins went to their local school through high school and went to Stanford before the pro tour. Lindsay Davenport, Steve Johnson, Bradley Klahn all finished high school at their local schools. I think going to regular school helps juniors to learn to budget their time like they will have to do in college, and helps with social development having friends in school. Juniors can get 5-6 hours training (before school, after school, and strength and conditioning in evening) around school hours, and that is enough training. Taylor Fritz reluctantly started home school because of his schedule of ITF and pro tournaments, but juniors have to get to that level before home school because of tennis makes sense.
Dear parents
Would you invest your money and time
In a business that has a probability of success of 0.00001 , or 0.00003 or 0.00005?
Of course you would not, would you then take your child away from school to pursue this?
Well those are the odds of becoming a top 20, top 100 and a pro.
Please also remember this a coach us only at best 30% of the make up of a pro. The other parts are family 10%, facilities 10%, money 10%, the kid himself 40%
There is a reason the USTA spends millions and can’t get a top 20 in 20 years, it does not understand the odds and thinks pouring more money will increase the odds. Thus is a mistake only managing the variables will.
Tennis aside, traditional school vs home school is a personal decision and each situation is unique to each student/family. I completely agree with Todd that spending more hours on the tennis court each day does not necessarily accelerate tennis development. Similarly, spending all day in a government classroom does not accelerate junior’s knowledge base.
Long story short, there is more than one way to get home. And again, I’m not talking about being successful on the court.