HomeTennis instructionMy Tennis Child Has 4 Ages? What Is That?

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My Tennis Child Has 4 Ages? What Is That? — 5 Comments

  1. I totally agree. We have a problem because our daughter has always been very tall for her age. People expect more because she looks older and then treat her as backward as she appears to them to be slow at picking things up whereas she is in actual fact well above average for her actual age. Until she was home schooled she thought she was stupid. In the tennis world we have found that a lot of coaches get angry with her for acting her age and expect her to be mentally stronger than the smaller but often older kids. This may be fuelled by the fact that she is usually taller than her coach!

  2. Very well said. I kind of had to learn this myself to arrive at such conclusions, but the way you have put this should be one of the fundamentals for all parents to get familiar with before or right after they decide to introduce their child to tennis.

  3. I really like this post. As a tennis junior’s parent I have been observing those differences and asked myself if there might be a way to “customise” the training so that it fits to the particular needs of the kid. I wonder how you’d determine the mental age of the kid. Do you work with psychologists or mental coaches?

    • We work with psychologists and sport psychologists, plus the maturity level of the child. Remember the kid can be very smart but very infantile. For example my son got invited to the player development camp in Orlando last year, we had to ask the school for a day off and got the permission. Upon arriving to Orlando I tell my son, lets forget the camp and go to Disney its in the same town. His answer,” Are you kidding, me, We asked for permission to go to tennis camp, not Disney” Not bad for a 9 year old. We also have him tested for IQ, In essence you need to know what you are dealing with to maximize the proper education and training per time.
      By the same token, since he is a small build kid, the physical demands are appropriate for his build and not others.