Parents & Priorities & Players...OH MY!
Recent and Not-So-Recent Observations
I was recently sitting outside, enjoying our glorious weather while stuffing hundreds of envelopes. Since that didn't require a huge amount of concentration, lol, I started thinking about the upcoming changes to junior competition and then my mind drifted to random memories about parents and priorities and players...By the way, the cute girl in the picture above has NOTHING whatsoever to do with these observations. We've known her for about 6 years...she's one of our favorite juniors on the planet...and she's growing up right before our eyes.
I love this picture..and I love this player.
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I love this picture..and I love this player.
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One thing I remembered was the GA mother of a daughter (14-ish) who wanted to travel to play tournaments a few years ago. The mother put it very succinctly and I thought it was amusing: "Here is the way I explained it to my daughter: Until you consistently beat the kids in our neighborhood, the neighborhood is where we will stay. As you get better, the same will apply for our city...and then for our state. We just don't have the money for you to travel the country like a professional tennis player!"
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Then I started thinking about just a few weeks ago when we saw an AL father and his 13-yr-old son for the first time in a long, long time. In fact, it had been years since we'd seen them (and we used to see them ALL THE TIME)...In fact, I kinda fell in love with this boy when he was about 9 at one of my favorite tournaments-which has now been eliminated from our schedule due to QuickStart :(. So I hugged the kid like a long-lost friend and asked the father where they'd been??? He just shrugged and said they kinda took a break for a while. I asked Danny to record the kid's match for old times sake and then the boy asked his father for that match as well as his next two. The father shared with me that his son doesn't win very often, but he (the son) is still convinced that he's A GREAT PLAYER...so much so that he's gonna to stay in school for two more years and then he's decided that he's going pro. HAHA-The father said he better try to win a southern level 3 match first, LOL. :)
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Then I started thinking about just a few weeks ago when we saw an AL father and his 13-yr-old son for the first time in a long, long time. In fact, it had been years since we'd seen them (and we used to see them ALL THE TIME)...In fact, I kinda fell in love with this boy when he was about 9 at one of my favorite tournaments-which has now been eliminated from our schedule due to QuickStart :(. So I hugged the kid like a long-lost friend and asked the father where they'd been??? He just shrugged and said they kinda took a break for a while. I asked Danny to record the kid's match for old times sake and then the boy asked his father for that match as well as his next two. The father shared with me that his son doesn't win very often, but he (the son) is still convinced that he's A GREAT PLAYER...so much so that he's gonna to stay in school for two more years and then he's decided that he's going pro. HAHA-The father said he better try to win a southern level 3 match first, LOL. :)
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In case you haven't followed the latest turn in the unbelievably tiresome drama known as junior tennis, we got notice last week that the USTA basically agreed to hit the "PAUSE" button with respect to the upcoming changes-WOW O WOW! Never, ever saw that coming!! Check the news HERE! But before you get your hopes up, it turns out that PAUSE doesn't really mean what you think it means...and they quickly followed up with this clarification...sigh. Raise your hand if you're surprised...
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So anyway - back to random thoughts...I remember when Patrick McEnroe began his "LET'S TALK TO THE PARENTS" tour at the G12 National Championships at Windward this past August and a longtime customer/friend of ours was the very first person to stand up and let him have it. To paraphrase our friend's reaction to the upcoming changes, he adamantly told PMAC that it was not his business where and how he spent his money. He emphasized repeatedly that it was HIS MONEY to spend on HIS CHILD according to HIS PRIORITIES. Unfortunately, as I recall, PMAC virtually blew him off. :(
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Nothing makes me angrier than when a parent says "We can't pay full price for your videos because tennis is such an expensive sport. We are spending too much money and we really need a discount." I wonder if their child's coach gives discounts on lessons...or the store where they buy their child's racquets or shoes or clothing gives discounts...or the hotel where they stay while their child competes gives discounts...or the restaurant where they eat during the tournament gives discounts. DOUBTFUL THAT THEY EVEN HAVE THE NERVE TO ASK. A very common misconception is that just because our customers are spending their leisure time at tournaments, they think we are too...but that's just not so. We work very hard to provide a valuable service and we're happy to do so...but please don't ask us for discounts that we can't afford to give. It just happens that this is our only source of income (aka this is how we keep the lights on-or not).
Nothing makes me angrier than when a parent says "We can't pay full price for your videos because tennis is such an expensive sport. We are spending too much money and we really need a discount." I wonder if their child's coach gives discounts on lessons...or the store where they buy their child's racquets or shoes or clothing gives discounts...or the hotel where they stay while their child competes gives discounts...or the restaurant where they eat during the tournament gives discounts. DOUBTFUL THAT THEY EVEN HAVE THE NERVE TO ASK. A very common misconception is that just because our customers are spending their leisure time at tournaments, they think we are too...but that's just not so. We work very hard to provide a valuable service and we're happy to do so...but please don't ask us for discounts that we can't afford to give. It just happens that this is our only source of income (aka this is how we keep the lights on-or not).
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SORRY---didn't mean to digress...Where did that come from? Told you my mind was drifting aimlessly. Now back to the topic at hand: One of many things we've learned over the past 7 years is that WE are not the customers. What I mean is this: Neither of us had parents who were in a position to afford the things most tennis kids seem to take for granted these days - I'm sure we can all agree that tennis is an affluent sport, for the most part - and it's definitely not fair that some can afford to do so and some can't but then life isn't fair, is it? But, as a father of twin boys from FL told me in Mobile several years ago, "It takes all kinds of people to make a world." I never forgot that...Actually, I find myself thinking about it a lot (and not always in reference to tennis).
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I clearly remember a time when I got a wake-up call, TENNIS-STYLE: At the Peach State many years ago-before it got eliminated from our schedule and maybe from the face of the earth, two young boys (12-ish) were playing and one kid (from MS) broke a string. Turns out it was his ONLY RACQUET but fortunately, his opponent (from GA) opened his bag (which had about TEN RACQUETS inside!!!), took one out, and handed it to the MS player to use...which he did - to quickly beat the player from GA! We became quite close to the player from MS and his family over the next 5 years...They had virtually NO money but the boy had a ton of talent---and a super sweet spirit. The boy from GA? We never really got to know him - but his father is 'difficult' to be around. Life is not always fair...and parent's priorities don't always make sense to us - but then our priorities might not make sense to others - and that's what makes the world go 'round. But we do our very best to meet and exceed ALL customer expectations.
SORRY---didn't mean to digress...Where did that come from? Told you my mind was drifting aimlessly. Now back to the topic at hand: One of many things we've learned over the past 7 years is that WE are not the customers. What I mean is this: Neither of us had parents who were in a position to afford the things most tennis kids seem to take for granted these days - I'm sure we can all agree that tennis is an affluent sport, for the most part - and it's definitely not fair that some can afford to do so and some can't but then life isn't fair, is it? But, as a father of twin boys from FL told me in Mobile several years ago, "It takes all kinds of people to make a world." I never forgot that...Actually, I find myself thinking about it a lot (and not always in reference to tennis).
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I clearly remember a time when I got a wake-up call, TENNIS-STYLE: At the Peach State many years ago-before it got eliminated from our schedule and maybe from the face of the earth, two young boys (12-ish) were playing and one kid (from MS) broke a string. Turns out it was his ONLY RACQUET but fortunately, his opponent (from GA) opened his bag (which had about TEN RACQUETS inside!!!), took one out, and handed it to the MS player to use...which he did - to quickly beat the player from GA! We became quite close to the player from MS and his family over the next 5 years...They had virtually NO money but the boy had a ton of talent---and a super sweet spirit. The boy from GA? We never really got to know him - but his father is 'difficult' to be around. Life is not always fair...and parent's priorities don't always make sense to us - but then our priorities might not make sense to others - and that's what makes the world go 'round. But we do our very best to meet and exceed ALL customer expectations.
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As you can imagine, we didn't start HIGH-TECH TENNIS to become rich... Not even close! We started HIGH-TECH TENNIS to help tennis players play better tennis. To us, that includes players of ALL ages, abilities, and financial situations. We realized that nearly every other sport used technology to help athletes improve their performance and we wondered WHY isn't anyone doing this for tennis??? Our next thoughts were: If not us, THEN WHO? And if not now, THEN WHEN? :)
Simply stated, our goal is to MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
We are so grateful that our customers really appreciate our videos. Just please remember that every single parent of every single player is in just as much of a hurry to receive their video...
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! :)
Simply stated, our goal is to MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
We are so grateful that our customers really appreciate our videos. Just please remember that every single parent of every single player is in just as much of a hurry to receive their video...
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! :)
Labels: Change Is In The Air, For Tennis Parents
posted by Julie @ 7:41 PM
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