Motivation: Kid's Key to On Court Success

Motivation has many faces for kids on the court.

A. What excites kids?

Remember when you were a kid and how excited you were about new toys, pleasurable things like certain foods or trips, surprises, recognition, attention and appreciation (these things probably still excite and motivate you). This excitement always seemed to provide the energy to overcome any obstacles. Kids like fun and pleasure; new things and excitement. They also like to achieve things to have some sort of success..

So how do we motivate kids on the tennis court? Obviously it would become expensive and time consuming to provide new toys for every kid every time they stepped on the court. But you can provide the opportunity for them to “use new toys” like a ball machine, different types of balls (foam, beach, balloons, etc.) and other unique and fun teaching aids. Here are some other tennis specific examples to motivate kids:

Trips – different court and/or surfaces, trips to college or pro matches

Fun – games, targets, competitions, variety

Surprises – guest appearance, special refreshments, costumes

Rewards – take something home, i,e: “golden ball” (paint a tennis ball)

Success – base it on effort, different types of games (off-court).

Here are some other ideas about motivating kids keeping in mind different ages.

Ages 6-8 A lot of these kids are still trying to master fundamental physical skills – jumping, throwing, kicking and catching so use a variety of activities and games with the biggest focus on fun. All the games or activities don’t always have to be tennis. These kids may not be ready for the pressure of competition or complex strategy. Stress basics and lots of encouragement and use a TEAM atmosphere often.

Ages 9-12 These ages will understand the rules. It’s important for them to learn how to handle setbacks and losses but sports should still be fun. They will feel frustrated by failure but will begin to learn from their mistakes. Consider the child’s temperament when teaching and developing their game. Often kids will look for role models during these ages..

B. Stumbling Blocks

Kids need to learn how to fail. Everyone will fail often on the tennis court. It will become a big problem if they take a “loser attitude” off the court or if it holds them back from competing or trying. You can relate to kids the example of Professional Sports Teams. Losing doesn’t permanently defeat them because the team will learn from and accept the loss but they don’t stop trying. How often will kids fail on a tennis court because they quit trying?.

It’s usually more about the “fear” of failure than the failure itself. Many kids blow failure out of proportion. You usually don’t take it literally when a player says, “if I lose to her (a much lower ranked player), I’d just die”. But that fear is real and it will often have a negative effect. Kids must learn to feel that it will be better to use “I want to do the best I can” as motivation rather than “I must win”. Kids of all ages must learn to accept failure as part of tennis (and life) and to learn to bend rather than break from the pressure.

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