Every parent has smaller or bigger impact on development of a player and training process. Impact can be positive or negative. In most cases parents want to have influence on the development of their child, however they often do big mistakes, which they are not aware of and they slow down the development rather than help it. They often spoil the effort of the coaching staff.

In many cases they are the reasons for giving up by the players and disliking of sport leading to retirement in early age. To prevent such cases from happening and for parents to allow their children develop and maximize their possible success and goals, they need to behave professionally. They need to support their children 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Nobody knows their children better than their own parents. On the other hand, children reflect on most sensitive and intensive way to their parents. Because of this, impact of parents´ behaviours is very important. This impact affects training process heavily, including his behaviour on and off the court.

According to individual needs of every player, it is vital to prepare a training plan and schedule, which needs to be communicated with the coach and other members of the coaching staff and wich needs to be strictly followed. Everyone needs to be on the same ship. Training is the 24 hours process. An approach from parent needs to be very disciplined and responsible.

It is mostly about mental peace which allows players to fully concentrate on their performance. It includes keeping eye on nutrition, biorhythm and overall life style of child, creating such home environment, in which child feels comfortable. So that player can fully prepare, concentrate on the sporting matter and keep the level of its performance very high. In cases, in which child is not living at home (e.g. lives in academy), role of parent is mostly on the coaching staff or on the people responsible for running the academy.

Next important factor is motivation and ambition to be famous and earn big money, which creates big pressure on child and can have negative effect on its performance, leading to frustration, either during practice or match itself. Parents need to understand, not everyone can become world number one. It is important for them to allow their child reach its highest possible level of performance and at the same time keep in mind, that tennis and sport generally fulfils other roles in life.

Last but not least, it is also about financial securities and facilities needed for the process. Every parent should consider its financial possibilities to cover the costy training process of their child and all the costs needed to cover career in sports of a child. Let‘s be honest, this is also one of the reasons, parents tend to be nervous and not objective as they expect performance for their money invested into their child. If performances are satisfying, there comes the problem. It is important to understand the goals for which the whole process is set and fact that development cannot be skipped. If a child is to make his biggest achievement in 18 or 25 and is only 15, there is still room and time for development and improvement, but it also means additional costs.

Next important factor is to allow child go through the whole training process but at the same time have enough time to rest. It is very time wasteful so it effects life of the whole family and their activities and responsibilities. We are still talking about professional tennis, about players who are capable of reaching this level or at least there are assumptions.

In my conclusion, I would like to highlight, tennis is third most technical individual sport after ice skating and gymnastics and therefore demands on players are high. Fact player only counts on wins and losses and there is no draw, brings big pressure. Every point won by the opponent, after unforced error or wrongly solved situation causes even more pressure. Tennis is a sport for mentally strong individuals. Parents need to prepare environment, in which child can be relaxed and mentally comfortable to show its best performance on the court even under pressure.

One of the roles of a parent is to teach child be independent, responsible and approach which includes motivation, passion for game and discipline. These are strategic aspects of being successful and progressive on the court. And I as a parent, I have one piece of advice: Let be professional and love the game!

Written by: Miroslav Polak, LOVE 4 Tennis Academy