Talk to any tennis coach these days and they will quickly tell you that the biggest challenge in coaching is dealing and communicating with tennis parents.
My first piece of advice to coaches is this.
“Master your communication skills as fast as you can.”
The best tennis coaches are really good at communicating with their players and parents.
Good.
Here are 3 tips that can help make your job easier and less stressful.
1). Listen with a true intent to understand them.
Let me explain what happens to me.
Japanese parents are very protective and pamper their children throughout their lives.
So I would always have to have these long weekly meetings with them and I wouldn’t really be listening to them during the meeting!
I started unplugging them!
Which was bad, but the problem was that he wasn’t even aware of it.
Looking back now, I realize they felt it too.
But, here’s the fun part.
When I finally stopped resisting the meeting, I began to listen with a real intent to understand their concerns.
Our relationship improved and we became good friends.
You must make your parents feel that they are the most important person in the world when you listen to them and communicate with them.
Next thing.
two). Harmonize with them.
This is a great analogy for this advice.
Imagine your tennis-playing parents as a fast train coming towards YOU.
That means.
If you stand directly in front of him, he’ll run you over, right?
Exactly.
Therein lies the key point.
Coaches should never do that.
Instead, seek to harmonize with them and enter their mindset and world.
3). Redirect them.
After having harmonized with them.
Seek to redirect them to your point of view.
They will also often follow your example.
understand this.
Most parents and people look for leadership.
There are a lot of weak energies out there and the person with the strongest will always need to lead the others in the pack.
You must do this in a non-direct way.
It has to be natural or they will realize what you are doing and they will 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 intent to understand them, then harmonize with them and their feelings, and finally redirect them to see it their way or the way that’s best for the team.”
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 drop your coaching ego or it will not happen.
