Do you expect your tennis kid to always perform well or win? Do you have a hard time focusing on what your kids do well on the court instead of focusing on mistakes? I receive many questions from sports parents about their young athletes’ performance. One question parents ask me: “Am I too hard on my young athlete?” Yes, most parents are. Just today, I received an email from a sports parent about his child. He stated, “I am sometimes hard on my son and tend to see his weaknesses more then his positive qualities!” As a tennis parent myself, I have to agree. I find myself focusing more on the mistakes my child makes in matches instead of the wonderful shots she makes. I think one reason many tennis parents focus on mistakes and weaknesses is that they know what their kids are capable of in practice and matches. For example, one week your child might play flawlessly winning every match in the tournament. Naturally, our expectations as parents shoot up: “My child should be able to perform like this all the time!” I call this the “peak performance dilemma.” Some athletes judge every performance based on their best performance! They think, “If I can play great one time, I should do it all the time.” I think tennis parents adopt this same attitude. When our kids don’t perform up to their potential, it’s easier to focus on the mistakes and what they are doing wrong (compared to their best performances).
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