The biggest difference between the best junior tennis players and everyone else is how well structured their development was. No child made it to the top by random chance. By the age of 12-14, their development started to be planned for success. And the development plan for those lagging behind was consistently missing four things.

“A jack of all trades, master of none.”

If a player works on too many things at once, they’ll be mediocre at everything, great at nothing. It’s better to master the most important things first, then start adding in everything else later/

Theres are the 5 most important things a junior player should work on once they have the basic skills down:

“Learning isn’t a way of reaching one’s potential but rather a way of developing it. We can create our own potential. And this is true whether our goal is to become a concert pianist or just play the piano well enough to amuse ourselves, to join the PGA golf tour or just bring our handicaps down a few strokes.” - Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool - Peak

Junior tennis ranking systems for people to be obsessed with have existed for decades. UTR is just another system with its own advantages and disadvantages.

But if a coach always tells a player what to do, a player never has the opportunity to develop the discipline required to make choices on their own during competition.

“People often practice what they know how to do rather than trying to master something they can’t yet do. Effective forms of practice are hard work and generally not fun.” - Dr. Anders Ericsson

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders affect 1 out of every 4 kids ages 13 to 18.

Forty million adults are affected by anxiety disorders each year.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The better a player’s technique, the smaller the probability of a shot breaking down under pressure. But the weaker a player’s mentality, the higher the probability they will break down under pressure, no matter what the technique.

Are you playing practice sets with new balls? Or just trying to dominate champion of the court?

In 2016 Federer fell out of the top 10 for the first time in 14 years. In 2017 he finished number 2. The difference in points won…..1%.

Get better by watching tennis.

Time to adapt.