Growing up, having your own dad as a tennis coach can be pretty rough. I know many people understand where I’m coming from. My dad used to be a professional tennis player and played in many grand slams, so you could say he knew what he was talking about. While he was coaching top players in the nation, he always managed to have time for me. Having tennis run through your blood has its positives and negatives, but I know that growing up as a junior
I felt immense pressure. So this is what I’d like to talk about in this blog post. Pressure.
Whether parents know it or not, junior players always feel the pressure due to the sports nature of individuality. My own father never really put much pressure on me to play, but I knew there were standards I had to meet. Without him saying it, I knew he wanted me to win every single match. Many adolescents deal with this pressure differently. For me, I chose to take it out on the ground with my racquet.
As a kid, I overcame this slowly (somewhat) as I matured. I remember when I was 13 my dad didn’t enter me in any tournaments for 6 months. He could see I was getting burnt out mentally already at an early age. So, I took the 6 months off. Still training every day. The second half of that year was probably one of my best as a junior. I felt relieved of all pressure, all I needed was a break.
So, I encourage everyone to take this break as a real “break” mentally. Especially from competition. Once it’s all over and we are back on court, it’ll feel that bit more special. Never take it for granted, and enjoy the game!
-Dre 🙂
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