Achieving Tennis ‘Player’ status
View(s):
Sports as such, regardless which, is international in blend. In Tennis, it is very much so. Many developed nations today, do not even maintain their own rankings, but extract their ranking from the one maintained by ATP and WTA, the two professional bodies. This makes classification in Tennis 100% non national. This is the method that is accepted and dominant globally now.
It is in this backdrop nation and more so, a player-to-be, has to see development. Age group, school classification, regional and national, has no validity outside its own sphere. In a way, it could be said that, the day a player qualifies for the first WTA or ATP event is the ‘birthday of a player’. As things stand, this is a long and dedicated road with sacrifices menial and massive. To a player with this ambition, hunger to reach the top must be an uncontrollable fire. One can play Tennis and never be a Tennis player. This is the stark truth of today, making local events and rankings ‘Carnival grounds’.
Not a paper plan
The easiest thing to do in development, and it is ever so popular, is making paper plan and talking about it. They will not make players. The player who makes it is the one who runs a mile and plays on the wall daily, without a paper plan. This street value approach has been the only consistent rewarding plan in skill development.
When it comes to coaching in Tennis, all group training ‘will not’ give desired results. Tennis needs the training of defending the court territory alone and surviving it, even in the elementary development. This alone provides the critical ‘performance culture’ in a player, the character building aspect of Tennis.
Goals
In Tennis, there is no destination that is local. Often, we and more in countries like ours, make intermediate ‘stations’ as our destination. The ever so popular approach is the idea of making into the school Tennis team and to forget Tennis is equivalent to wasted teenagers. I can say with certainty, that 80% of school Tennis players do not continue to play Tennis after their schooling years in Sri Lanka. Setting the right goals is the secret of success, and very much so in Tennis. The beauty of the game and its utility in character development happens only after the schooling years. Giving up the sport just then makes the time spent on Tennis in school a waste.
There was a guideline in recruiting players from outside to play for a school. There was a 3-year rule in a school, for a player to be eligible to represent it. I do not know if this is still there. Right now, I do not think school Tennis is contributing to national Tennis development, while at present, it is school Tennis that is big in Sri Lanka. Sports shops do not even sell adult Tennis racquets. It has come to that.
Coaching and assistance
In a modern economy, there is a trend to use anything and everything as employment opportunity. It has taken sports coaching as a form of employment, rather than a specialised skill, an investment in teaching the future generation. I do not think decision makers are aware of it. This has not made Tennis the best sporting stream for a youngster.
These issues leave a burning question. How to be a good Tennis player? As things stand, the administration will have to restart the ‘Playing Club’ system again. Not ‘Coaching Clubs’. It will be difficult, as we have misused the golden goose we had, very badly. Everybody criticises the clubs now. There must a reason for it.
To restart ‘Playing Clubs’, the aspects that were in clubs which contributed to the development, must be identified first. It will be a big challenge and could take a decade or two but, I see no other way out. We have been experimenting a lot here and now, we are lost in the wilderness.
International connection
None of the sports in the world could be developed in a nation without international exposure. This has not been noticed or realized by individuals who want to be a player or, the systems which are engineering the process in our country. The reason behind it is, eventually, international arenas will be the testing and performing platform to every sportsperson in the world. We can give umpteen number of excuses as to why this is not possible to us, but none will be valid against this. In Tennis, our neighbouring countries were our best options, and many used it very well in the past. I can give a list of over 30 players who benefited from this use.
Even the USA has made the mistake of being very local, and found out that Spain and Eastern European states have surged past them within a span of 10 years. Today, European players play worldwide as juniors and seniors. These countries use the system of easy acquisition of technique, Tennis playing skills and game making, than those rigid systems coming down as tradition. As a result, they are more resilient to competition and adaptable than rigid systems. This too is the result of their international exposure.
–George Paldano, Former intl. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup captain/coach– georgepaldano@yahoo.com