What Could Go Wrong?

So you’re taking your junior tennis player to a big junior tennis tournament…That’s GREAT! It could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! What could possibly go wrong?
PLENTY!

At HIGH-TECH TENNIS, we hope you know that we care about junior tennis and we’re sharing our observations (this is the first in a series of articles) for no other reason than to help you, the tennis parent, to be prepared during the competitive junior tennis tournament. Please know that the very last thing we want to do is cause any controversy whatsoever. We can’t possibly solve every single issue that occurs at every single tournament, but what we can do is reflect on what we see and hopefully shine a light of awareness on this subject.

Over the course of these articles, we’ll share our observations about good and bad sportsmanship in “Practice Being a Good Sport”; developing ‘professional juniors’ and creating positive memories in “Expect a Good Experience”, and recognizing the good, the bad, and the ugly in “Choose a Good Coach.”

For the past 5+ years, we’ve traveled to 25+ junior tennis tournaments every year. We can’t count how many times we see that what starts out as a positive, happy experience too often deteriorates into a very tense situation, filled with stressed-out parents and players.

As the tournament kicks off, everything is just great…for everybody! People are excited and, if they’ve traveled a far distance, they’re so happy to finally reach their destination! Everyone is hugging everyone else, “it’s been ages - how have you been???”, “where are you staying?”, “maybe our kids can warm up together!”, and “let’s have dinner together while we’re here!”

The players are so excited to see their friends (particularly those they don’t see that often) and everyone is on their BEST BEHAVIOR. Lots of high fives, lots of smiles, you get the picture. The tournament check-in and registration time is our favorite time of all! The good aspects of a junior tennis tournament can be so very GOOD!

The beginning is so great but that overall sense of goodwill to all tennis players just doesn’t last. Almost like clockwork, we watch the tension build as the tournament progresses and it is just so sad when we see unhappy endings that involve pissed-off parents and crying players. Worst of all is when it involves threats of legal action or even escalates to police involvement. We hate to say it but the bad aspects of a junior tennis tournament can be so very BAD.

Keep in mind that these things don’t happen all the time or at every single tournament (thank goodness)…but they do happen routinely and there seems to be a pretty clear pattern. We see the same unpleasant stuff OVER AND OVER – no matter where we go. How can something that starts out so positive go so horribly wrong?

When it comes to junior tennis (or maybe any other aspect of life), we think it’s important to focus on THE GOOD but watch out for THE BAD. Maybe, just maybe, shining the light to make people aware of these things will enhance the positive and somehow (miraculously) reduce the negative. ?

It really hurts my heart when I think about some of the damaging, abusive things I’ve seen. Seriously…it ain’t pretty. I’m glad I don’t have a crystal ball because I don’t think I’d want to see the consequences of the emotional damage I’ve seen. Not judging – just saying.

But the good news is that we can all be part of the solution. I think it starts with being aware of potential trouble spots and then being prepared to handle them in the most positive way.

The sport of tennis is based on components that all good parents want their children to develop. These include hard work and sheer determination, honesty and fairness, problem solving and endurance, overcoming obstacles and establishing independence, and more. Good parents will always want the best for their kids – and at HIGH-TECH TENNIS, we are committed to improving the game of tennis through technology…and helping tennis players play better tennis! In the next article, we’ll share some of our many observations concerning good and bad sportsmanship in “Practice Being a Good Sport.”

In conclusion, it goes without saying but we’ll say it anyway: Tennis is a classy sport and that’s one of the reasons we all love it so much. Let’s all do everything we can to improve the junior tennis tournament experience!

Junior tennis is a journey, not a destination…
You might as well enjoy it!