Dealing with tennis fathers
Talk to any tennis coach these days and they will quickly tell you that the biggest challenge in training is dealing with and communicating with tennis parents.
My first tip for coaches is this.
“Master your communication skills as fast as you can.”
The best tennis coaches are great at communicating with their players and parents.
Well.
Here are 3 tips that can help you make your job easier and less stressful.
1). Listen with the real intention of understanding them.
Let me explain what happened to me.
Japanese parents are very protective and raise their children for life.
Therefore, you would always have to have these long meetings with them on a weekly basis and you wouldn’t really be listening to them during the meeting!
I started disconnecting them!
Which was bad, but the problem was, I hadn’t even realized it.
Now, looking back at it, I realize that they felt it too.
But here’s the fun part.
When I finally stopped resisting the meeting, I began to listen with a real intention to understand their concerns.
Our relationship improved and we became good friends.
You need to make your parents feel like they are the most important person in the world when you listen to and communicate with them.
Next thing.
two). Harmonize with them.
This is a great analogy for this tip.
Imagine your tennis parents as a fast train coming your way.
That means.
If you stand directly in front of him, he will run you over, right?
Exactly.
That is the key point right there.
Coaches should never do that.
Instead, seek to harmonize with them and delve into their mindset and their world.
3). Redirect them.
After having harmonized with them.
Seek to redirect them to your point of view.
They will often follow suit as well.
Please understand this.
Most parents and people seek leadership.
There are many weak energies out there and the person with the strongest will always need to lead the others in the group.
You must do this in a non-direct way.
It has to be natural or they will figure out what you are doing and resent you.
But do not worry.
With daily practice, you will master this way of communicating.
Let’s go over the steps for dealing with tennis parents.
“Listen with the intention of understanding them, then harmonize with them and their feelings and finally redirect them to see it their way or how is best for the team.”
Do you know something?
After dealing with tennis parents for over 25 years, this 3-step process has helped me enjoy working with tennis parents and will do the same for you.
Goal, warning.
This is not easy, you must be aware and you must also let go of your coach ego or it will not happen.