There are many children that participate in tennis activities but who are not really tennis players. Competition is a crucial part of a child’s weekly tennis programme. It is not just something that the good players do. It’s hopefully exciting and enjoyable. It is one of the most effective ways for a player to improve. Competition allows a player to get an accurate picture of where his or her mastery of the sport really is.
It is not until a child has experienced competition that they become really committed to the sport and motivated to improve. Quality competition occurs when a player is uncertain of the outcome of the match for at least 80 per cent of its duration. For example, 6-1, 6-1 or 1-6, 1-6 is not usually an example of good quality competition.
There are quite a few parents who walk up to me and say, ” I want my Kid to learn the sport but we are not looking at him to be a grand slam winner at any point”. It is a contradictory statement byitself, if some one has to learn a sport all the way then he/she has to compete at some point at some level otherwise the learning on how stroke the ball on the first day would be the last day.
Moreover competing is all what we do in our regular lives so why should Tennis be an exception. The kid can carry forward his/her competitive spirit into other areas of their life.
There is this one kid called Veeraj in my academy who has a distinct habit of appreciating the opponent after a point if he really liked what his opponent did. I have seen many a time him being upset over the loss but that has never deterred him from appreciating the opponent. Now that’s sportsmanship !!!