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The mind of a child playing sports
My son confessed one day after his tennis practice that he didn’t perform as he would have wished.
He reasoned: “Dad I felt pressure today because I have to please my coach, you and mom”.
I was glad that he opened his heart because I had my suspicions. I assured him that he should play for his own enjoyment and fun.
I really hope my talk with him was beneficial so he would be able to consistently dedicate to his passion for tennis …
But …how can I be sure that his performance and his happiness in the court are not affected by this pressure?

Play to feel good ! 

My son put a lot of effort during 3 summer tournaments for qualifying for Nationals but unfortunately he fell short a few points. The good part is that talking with him, he mentioned he wants to commit on changing his game. And the reason is that he didn’t feel good with his current play style even when winning matches. He is willing to take action and learn more so he will feel better while playing. He wants to develop a style that suits him and his strengths. I know how much he wanted to qualify; I mentioned that he still has a chance on a coming tournament but he doesn’t want play being afraid he will fall back to his old routine just for the sake of winning.
 I am very proud of him.


Youth Tennis Traps
Commenting on one of the youth sports blogs In the Internet I thought I have come up with some smart thoughts. Here are my comments:
“My son (11 years old) plays tennis competitively and he enjoys very much. Sometimes I talk with him to find out the drive for his passion and when asked what he likes the most he always mentions the WIN.I watched many tennis matches or soccer games and I noticed that the kids play under pressure and I was wondering if this is normal for a healthy long term development. In my opinion the format for our youth sports are meant for adults, driven by professional objectives and results. By engaging such formats, parents and coaches pressurise the kids to play professional sports. So, in my opinion the results, trophies, rewards are ok as long they are within different play format, enjoyable for our children. I started recently to work with my son to build his blog; this attempts to give my son a different perception about the process and the fact that by developing his tennis skills he is engaged on developing his character.”
Next day , I played tennis with my son and I found myself in a “conflicting” position of “pushing “ him playing a match , respecting the standard professional regulations of a tennis match. That was just“marvellous” and it came up as an eye-opener ….I was aiming to help my son to build a strong character but I found myself as a parent that I might need a lesson or two as well on that department .

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