There are these things to consider when developing good tennis players. For players, coaches and parents to know and to face the reality. A lot of players/parents have been dreaming to be high level players, but to achieve that should be align with works done in tennis.
For every successful players, there should have this triangle and it should be right.
It came to me from a good coach who introduce this in his podcast. And I was well connected to this theory of practice when listening to this idea. I believe this is very true and this idea should be well understood by players, parents and coaches to get to the highest level in tennis.
1. Coach (Good Coach)
A coach, a very good coach is needed in the journey to become successful. A coach who understand tennis well and have proven to be the one who have produce players before. This coach knows the inside out of the game on term of technical development and tactical understanding of the game.
The need to have this type of coach is crucial since that will be one of three factors contributing to success. The coach also well verse on what to develop at what stage. When you see this kind of coach, grab them. It might be a little costly, but believe me, there are prices in everythings. Players and parents should invest in what is right, not saving some money but getting the performance not up to what needed in the journey.
The coaches should work passionately, and goals of achieving what players need should be communicate well. That coach needs to understand the triangle of success in tennis.
There has to be one good coach behind a player’s success. A player cannot be successful alone. There should be a team behind that player. When that team is high level, then the player will becomes high level. Problems occur when players do not have the chance to have a good coach. Coaches who only work for money and coaches who do not care about their players improvement.
In a country where high level coaches were not many, a good choice should considerably taken to have someone guide one kid. The wrong one will not give players the highest opportunity to be at the best level they can be. The fundamental of the game is crucial. To build bad habit is easier than to remove it. Better to build a good playing techniques right away compared to wasting time in the future to correct the wrong things.
Coaches should understand about the journey or pathway of tennis players. They should understand which tournament to go, what kind of points system to gain. And which tournament outside of the country the player should join to test the level.
Their philosophy should be right, and this can be well informed by talking to the coach. A good coach will have good idea to bring the best out of each players. They know what to do and they know where to seek help. The best coach is the coach who always seek for knowledge and upgrade themselves. The games have evolve and the coach should too, by going to classes, attend seminars, conferences and certification to update their knowledge. At the end of the day, nobody knows everything, only a good coach able to solve problems and know they are not always right.
2. Training (a lot of training)
This comes to the number of hours the training should be. Nobody will prosper and excel in one thing when hours are not put into work. Tennis is a game of repetition. And repetition should be huge to get to a near perfect tennis strokes.
Juniors who really passionate in plyong should not be stopped from playing in relation to burn out scare. You need to do it, and control the outcome of it.
Some parents were scared of injury and that they want to let players rest weekly and play less. Players should be hitting balls daily, and training should behappening daily throughout the years. In this factor, twith good coaches, physical and technical, will bring players to a higher level of tennis.
Do not worry too much about burn out.
“Burnout can happen but you have to take the risk and train hard. Without risk there is no reward. Let kids play as much as they want. Kids generally need thousands of quality repetitions to master their skills and become elite”. Chris Lewitt.
Things with people is that, they scared of things in the future, such as burn out and what they do is to undertrain, and playing less matches in order to control the “future” burn out.
What is exactly burn out? It’s just two words combined together, “burn” and “out”. Sometime, a player dont even burn anything to be burned out, and yet we stop them from playing. Just to ponder. 😁 let’s burn something, and prepare fire extinguisher to control that flare.
Players should be hitting a lot of balls to be better. Tennis is a rhythmic game. A good player has a good rhythm. But the rhythm needs to be mastered through receiving a lot of different balls from different players.
There will be times when a player could not handle the power hitting from the opponent. They will be overpowered. One of the reason this is happening is because of the lack of rhythm in playing fast balls. Players were often handling slower balls in their training and when they encounter with big forehand in matches, they could not handle it. A good training with good players are needed.
Rafael Nadal at 13 years old was already hitting with the best player in the world at that time. He was hitting with Carlos Moya, the number 1 rank in the world. Seeing that, Andy Murray feels the urge to seek that kind of exposure as well in Spain.
The question now, should we train locally or abroad in places where the environment and exposure is better? Because the “training“ is one of the triangle to be taken care of.
For players below aged of 12 years old, keep them hitting as many balls as they can. Give them hours on court, then you will see the difference.
3. Competition (match plays and tournaments)
A lot of match plays needed for players to have better experience. The pressure to be on court by themselves and the pressure to play with different type of players. With the score system where players losing a lot in each games, this will built resilience in players by the time they have more matches in their hands.
This is one factor that been neglected by coaches and parents. In comes with other factors such as the time and the financial burden. Players need to juggle with school and tournaments and parents need to prepare for the financial side in bringing their kids to tournaments. One good side of matches, it does not have to be going to tournaments. It can be done in the home ground courts where players are given opportunity to play matches with other players using full sets scoring.
To get more matches, players who play 2 matches per week, will have 104 matches per year. That is more than most players play in Malaysia if a coach or parents discipline enough to get matches in their local tennis courts. This will save up money from going to travel and tournaments away from home.
Raihah and Reefa have been to 27 tournaments in 2024. In 2023, they played in 23 tournaments where they were many losses compared to wins. That was ok since they were still 9 in 2023 and 10 years old in 2024. For them, getting the hands on the tournament matches experience were the more important things in doing.
In Thailand, they were playing 10 & under and in Malaysia with the players in 12 & under. This setup were done so that they play with their age and compete as well as they have stronger opponent in Malaysia, who are bigger and stronger in physical. The win loss ratio was about 2:1 where they just need to win two matches in every tournament to get that ratio.
Its important to know which tournament have strong contender and which one has weaker contender. This will make sure that the win loss ratio does not compromise to make them motivated in continue playing and competing.
Part of competition is to build the competitiveness in their mind. They want to win and to compete. They live the feeling of winning. Mentally, this will give them the edge over players who compete less than them.
A player who played 100 matches a year, when meeting with players who play 10 matches per year, on paper, who will going to win? That is the point of this factor. The player who played more, will have better experience in adjusting to tournament environment and can play better in tournaments. They are always learning in every matches that they play, win or lose.
Conclusion, get good coach, in tennis and physical. Get good training, put in the hours, get the right environment. Get good competitive competition, guard the win loss ratio and good matches locally. Doing all three factors in that triangle will definitely produce good players. It’s a triangle of success in tennis.