Enhancing the Parent-Player & Parent-Coach Relationship in Tennis

Through the course of my coaching career, I’ve had the opportunity to interact with many tennis parents and have learned about the various challenges that they face. For example, a parent spoke to me about her inability to provide her child with high quality resources and knowledge compared to what she saw from parents with tennis playing backgrounds. In other words, she felt her child had a disadvantage from a game development and performance standpoint. This encounter ignited a desire in me to create a technology such as Tenicity to empower parents from all backgrounds to play a valuable role in their child’s game development. Below are three ways that parents can get more involved in their child’s game and use Tenicity (www.tenicity.com) to help maximize their tennis playing potential:

1. Encourage deeper thinking post matches. Parents should ask questions and avoid making statements or sharing their conclusions too early in post-match conversations. Questions such as “how did you play?” are good ice-breakers. A child may respond with a general answer such as “I played well” or “I did not play well”. Follow this response with another question such as “that’s great to know, what specifically did you think you did well?” This approach will encourage deeper thinking from your child, which sets the stage for the next step in the learning process.

2. Document and discuss positive learning behaviors. In addition to facilitating deeper thinking with what I call ‘second or third level’ questions, encourage positive learning behaviors. One such way is to have your child log their match results and assessments in Tenicity and share it with the key people on his or her team (see picture below). These notes will not only be a valuable resource for the team to generate insights and see trends over time, they will facilitate superior teamwork (one of the key differentiators in player development).

3. Utilize the player dashboard to gain insight into your child’s development. Take a few minutes to visit the ‘Player Dashboard’ on Tenicity (see picture below). Understand what the coach has mentioned about your child’s game assessment, strengths, areas of opportunity, and goals. Familiarize yourself with your child’s current skill level and objectives for the future. This will enable you to have richer conversations with the coach and with your child. For example, instead of asking the coach “what is my child working on?”, you may ask “I noticed that footwork and movement is a goal of her’s, I was wondering what additional practice she could do that will help her accelerate her progress?” The latter question enables you as the parent to acquire deeper insights from the coach and maximize his or her expertise and time.

To conclude, Tenicity’s platform is a gateway for parents to get more engaged and educated in the tennis development journey, both with the player and the coach.

Please feel free to reach out to me at harsh@tenicity.com with your thoughts and comments.

Sincerely,

Harsh Mankad

Brief Bio: Harsh Mankad is a former #1 ranked NCAA singles player. He has represented India in over twelve Davis Cup ties and has competed on the ATP Tour for nine years. He holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Management and is the Founder and President of Tenicity, an innovative sports platform that helps coaches improve, players maximize their potential, and parents play a more valuable role.