In case you’re wondering how a woman from Scotland—a country with no tennis tradition, terrible weather and hardly any indoor courts or coaches—managed to raise two boys to become professional tennis players . . . I can assure you, that wasn’t the plan.
I played pro tennis very briefly in the early ’80s and have always loved the game, but I never had in mind that I would steer either of my sons, Jamie and Andy, toward a life in tennis. I was a sales rep when the boys were toddlers and I started helping out at our local club as a volunteer purely to keep myself active. I started to learn how to coach some years later and have been doing it for 20 years now.
I’m from a very sporty family and my philosophy with the boys was simple: Play sporty games with them as much as possible and let them try pretty much everything that’s available. They tried gymnastics, squash, badminton, tennis, football (what you call soccer in the U.S.), ice skating, mini rugby, golf and swimming.
Trying lots of different sports—both individual and team—at a young age is crucial for developing hand-eye coordination and for understanding how to play different games from a tactical point of view. You also make a lot of friends. While it’s usually the parents who enroll the kids into their first sports classes, I reckon that by age 8, kids have a good idea of which sports they want to try or focus on. Andy played as much football as tennis until he was 14; Jamie had a three handicap in golf at age 15. And while it’s true that you likely have to start tennis at a young age to become very good, you don’t have to train like a professional as a child.
Much of coaching today has become too programmed: You learn how to hit the ball, but not always how to play the game. I hear and see a lot of instances of kids who are identified at young ages as having a lot of potential, and very quickly the parents and child take up a program with a lot of structured hours on court. When my boys were young, they would play at the club where I taught, and they didn’t play just tennis, or just with kids their age. They played against older kids, younger kids and adults, which is very important for learning how to read the game and working out how to deal with different sizes, ages and styles of opponents. Tennis is a game of constant problem-solving, so this area is really important. You don’t necessarily learn that from solely playing with kids your own age.
In your children’s early years, it’s important that they have fun. They need to love the game rather than see it as a chore or a possible career. If the love is there in childhood, the hard work that’s needed to become a professional won’t seem as bad if and when that time comes. On the other hand, if tennis becomes too competitive or results-oriented at a young age, it can breed unhappiness and anxiety and cause your child to reject the game. This is especially true if parents become too intense about a child’s results or performances.
Having fun is important for pros too. I’m now the captain of Great Britain’s Federation Cup team and I often have our players participate in crazy on-court games, like four-a-side tennis. You’re never too old to enjoy playing tennis, and having fun will keep you in the game for longer.
