By Jorge Capestany, RSPA Master Professional & PTR International Master Professional.
We often tell our players at the club that tennis is the world’s toughest sport.
At first, they think we are kidding, but after reading the reasons in this post, they come to appreciate just how tough our sport really is.
Below are 15 reasons tennis is the toughest and most psychologically demanding sport.
1) TENNIS IS AN INDIVIDUAL SPORT.
In tennis, you are all alone on the court. No one shares in the glory or the blame. There is no teammate to pass off to if you are playing poorly, and you cannot be taken out of the game for a while to recuperate from your poor play.
2) NO COACHING IS ALLOWED.
Tennis is one of the only sports in which young players are not allowed to receive coaching. Except for a handful of exceptions, like HS tennis, Zonal teams, or the Davis Cup, nearly all tournaments do not allow coaching. This restriction is unusual in sports and clearly forces young competitors to deal with the pressures and problems of playing on their own.
3) INTENSE PRESSURE AT A YOUNG AGE.
Many successful professional players have reported that the stresses of junior tennis were the greatest of their entire careers. For example, Chris Evert has reported feeling more pressure during her junior career than at any other time in her career. The junior player must handle the same frustrations during tournament play as the adult, but with fewer resources and less life experience to draw on.
4) TENNIS PROVIDES NOWHERE TO HIDE.
Tennis players must remain in full view of spectators, regardless of how they perform. They may desperately wish to hide from the world, but they cannot due to the structure and rules of the game. Embarrassment, discouragement, anger, choking, and euphoria are all there for everyone to see. Some players dislike this aspect of tennis, while others embrace it. Either way, tennis provides little shelter for the emotions that accompany such an exciting game.
5) NO SUBSTITUTES / NO TIME-OUTS.
In general, many sports allow players to regain their composure or get back on track through substitutions and timeouts. This is not the case in tennis. Players must stay in the game, regardless of how bad or uncomfortable things may get. This is particularly difficult, given that matches can last two or three hours.
6) ONE-ON-ONE COMBAT.
Tennis is similar to boxing. You have a real one-on-one opponent that you must defeat to emerge victorious. A match can quickly become a personal confrontation, especially if an opponent resorts to gamesmanship tactics. Such direct competition can fuel intense rivalries and, in powerful ways, threaten friendships among young players.
7) THE ACCURACY OF LINE CALLING.
Completely objective, professionally trained linemen make mistakes all the time. And they are motionless and concerned only with one line. Expecting players in a match to call the lines with the same accuracy is, at best, unrealistic. Balls traveling over 50 miles per hour with fractions of an inch separating “out” from “in” provide distinct opportunities for conflict and controversy. Recent studies show that players are legally blind for a moment upon landing on the court while running. This is compounded by the fact that many matches can be dramatically changed by a single bad call, making mistakes unavoidable, and it is easy to see why tempers can flare. (Imagine what would happen if the batters in Little League Baseball were responsible for calling balls and strikes against themselves.)
8) THE “HONOR” SCORING SYSTEM.
Unlike most other sports, in tennis, a player can take a point that is rightfully their opponent’s by deliberately calling a shot out that would otherwise have fallen within the lines. The point can be the most important of the match, yet the call stands. There is nothing a player can do about it. Pressures associated with being cheated or being accused of cheating can place tremendous psychological strain on young players.
9) TENNIS REQUIRES TOUCH AND FINESSE.
Tennis is primarily a fine-motor-skill sport, comprising many precise movements that require “feel.” As such, these movements can be influenced significantly by subtle emotional changes. Anger, fear, frustration, embarrassment, and other emotions can disrupt the delicate motor control required for tennis skills such as serving and volleying.
10) CONSTANTLY CHANGING CONDITIONS.
Changing temperature, wind intensity, light, court surfaces, balls, altitude, indoor/outdoor play, and equipment add to the depth of the competitive challenge in tennis. Players are forced to deal with changes like these many times in the same match. A player’s responses to these situations can indicate their level of mental toughness. Those not affected by changes in conditions are often the ones who win.
11) LENGTH OF THE BATTLE.
Few sports require kids to concentrate and perform for as much as three hours at a time. It is not uncommon for 12-year-old players to be required to compete in two singles matches and two doubles matches on the same day. Mental toughness and physical fitness are critical for a player to succeed.
12) THE UNIQUE SCORING SYSTEM IN TENNIS.
The scoring system in tennis adds to the pressure a young player experiences. Unlike many other sports, there is no overall time limit. Play continues until one player wins two out of three sets. Consequently, there is no room to coast on a lead or wait for time to run out. Each player is always just a few points from a complete turnaround, and a lead is never safe. In contrast, if a basketball team is ahead by 30 points, it will almost certainly win because its lead is too large to overcome within the allotted time. In tennis, a player can be ahead 5-0 in the third set, lose two games, and immediately have reason to fear a loss and a massive comeback on their opponent’s part because there is no time clock to run out.
13) JUNIOR TENNIS RANKINGS.
Junior tennis quickly establishes a clear pecking order through an intricate sectional and national ranking system. For some young players, rankings become synonymous with self-esteem. They develop feelings of expectation, hope, and failure surrounding rankings, seeds, and titles. This can lead to great unhappiness if the player’s enjoyment is tied to winning and losing. If you’re one of the best 12 & under baseball players in your state, you still won’t ever be ranked, so you know whether you are the 1st or 5th best player. But in tennis, you will know precisely how you compare to your peers and friends.
14) “BIG vs. LITTLE” and “YOUNG vs. OLD.”
Another dimension of tennis is that a 9-year-old child can successfully compete against a 14- or 15-year-old. A young girl of 14 may be capable of beating a seasoned veteran on the pro tour. Small can beat large, and young can beat old. A 12-year-old boy losing to a 9-year-old or a 6’3” boy losing to someone half his size can be extremely stressful.
15) TENNIS TRAINING CAN BE EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE.
Tennis training for the competitive player can be a large family expense. The pressure from these expenses can often add stress to the young player, who feels guilty if they are not winning because of all the money their parents are putting into their tennis.
Parents can quickly lose sight of what is important and begin to expect a “return” for their investment. This issue is one of the most frequently mentioned by families of players competing at the national level.
Despite all these difficulties…
Tennis is still the best sport for a child to play. It is the only sport that challenges players physically, strategically, and psychologically. It is no coincidence that so many junior tennis players are the best students in their classes. The goal setting and work ethic needed to succeed in tennis are life skills that will help all players as they age and enter society.
Even the difficulties experienced in junior tennis, like dealing with an abusive or cheating opponent, are opportunities to learn life skills that will be an essential advantage later in life. Few other sports offer as many of these types of learning opportunities.
Parents and coaches often want to get involved or “fix” on-court problems when they happen. The best thing we can do is recognize those episodes as opportunities to learn important life lessons. Children who develop the skills to deal with difficult people at an early age are usually far more successful.
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