Customer Reviews

Before They Play a Grand Slam: Parenting the Junior Tennis Player

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yes, this is a great book for parents. It is also a great book for young tennis players. I highly recommend it to tennis families like mine.

It is written in an entertaining and direct style. The chapters are short; each addresses a particular aspect of playing junior tennis (and parenting the tennis player). The advantage of this is that once you've read the book, it is easy to return to a particular chapter to re-visit a specific issue. Moreover, the chapters can be read in just about any order you wish -- each is a bit like a self-contained essay on a particular subject.

Our entire family has read the book (we have two tennis-playing sons). Because we've all read the book, we have a shared starting point for some of our discussions.

The chapters cover topics ranging from equipment to nutrition to training to pressure, sportsmanship, traveling to tournaments, choosing and interacting with a coach, and parent-child relationships and how they are affected by competitive play.

We have taken the book to tournaments with us, and turned to a particular chapter after returning to the hotel. It's kind of like taking the coach along. You can draw on that little nugget of wisdom at just the right time!

I highly recommend this book to families raising junior tennis players.

Growing up with David Britt, it was an honor to purchase his book sharing his thoughts, experiences and advise to parents and coaches. I think so much of this book that I have implemented it as purchase for parents of young people in my own Junior ACADEMY. Doing this has saved alot of time and similar repeated conversations about the development of each child in the program.

This book was by far the best book I have read and the only book I have found on this topic. The thoroughness and the personal touch that the Author gives is second to none. It was a fun read and one that I can easily remember and relay onto my children. I have two children that play tennis. One that has been at it for a number of years and the other that is just starting. I am thankful to have found this book now, but really wish that I had it when my first child started playing tennis. This book is helpful for parents who already have experienced junior tennis players and for ones that have kids who are just getting started.

If you are looking for a very basic book that offers some insight to parents who have children just getting started in tennis and what to expect, then this is for you. There is not much detail and chapters are very short. It's blunt and to the point about how difficult, if not impossible it is for kids to achieve success in the pro circuit. I would never let my 8 year old son read this book because it may dash his hopes and dreams. However, I do believe the information in the book is fairly accurate from what I'm learning from my son's tennis coach. The author primarily played college tennis and never really made it in professional tennis. I would have rather known this before purchasing the book. He played a few professional matches and met a lot of the famous tennis players, but never did much in the professional circuit. So, he stresses in the book for parents to focus on collegiate tennis. There were also numerous grammatical errors and typos throughout the book which tells me the author probably doesn't write many books either. Overall, It's worth reading, but continue to get other people's opinions.