Get your kids into Tennis rather than running

Don't those poor ex-communist East European countries have at least a few digustingly rich oligarchs who made a stack of money from the corrupt system while most of the nations' citizens were dirt poor?

Certainly, like the oligarchs here. Only thing is that none of those top players were the sons or daughters of one of them. Try again. Same goes for any European player. Only a few had rich parents. If you had the talent in the sport then you would make it no matter what.

Tennis is expensive.

First of all, you need access to a tennis court for hours every day. Public courts aren't reliable for that, and outdoor courts are weather-permitting. You'll need to pay to be a member of a tennis club which has indoor courts and need to pay to reserve them for hours.

Second, raquet strings break all the time, a few times per week if you're playing hours every day, and you either string them yourself with a machine that costs thousands of dollars or you need to pay the tennis club or store to restring it.

Third, you need a membership to USATF and need to pay for tournaments. This is a year-round sport and regular competition is essential for improving your game.

Fourth, you need to pay for lessons/coaching. Even some Juniors players have a separate coach just for working on their serve.

The list goes on.

deep in the heart wrote:

It takes talent to make it as a runner, nba player, or tennis player. Getting your kid in to tennis is about as good as getting them to play soccer with all the other kids. Not going to make it as a pro unless they were born with the talent to make it. No amount of lessons will fix that.

Fair enough, but if they have a modicum of talent, they could enjoy the high school varsity experience, and, perhaps, play D3 somewhere. Plus, it’s a life long sport.

However, I agree w the poster who said to get them in all kinds of sports for maximum physical development. Adding in a little running for enhanced fitness will help, and then they might end up as runners anyway.

One of my daughters played soccer and basketball growing up, the other volleyball & swimming and they could both break 19:30 in cross country as freshmen. They played a little tennis for fun, enough to learn the game.

Weird, pretty sure the #81 ranked player in ATP has earned over 17 million in prize money alone and at least 3x that in sponsorship from Lotto & Dunlop in his 13 year career. So about 5 million per year. You don't know much about tennis do you? You can't compare the top 100 in tennis vs top 100 in basketball. Many more basketball pros than tennis pros. Top 100 in basketball would top 30 in tennis. Tennis players make just as much.

False. Not even close to being as expensive as baseball & football. Tennis players have gotten good by simply hitting the sides of buildings. You can set up an tennis court anywhere. Just need a net, which you can make out of anything. Put it on a grassy field or dirt filed, or concrete/asphalt patch and you're good. Remember...grass courts, clay courts, hard surface. No excuses. Go out and play. You can play with a broken string...which is rare to happen. I have, and its made me a better player. No excuses.

I did all that for free in high school. I suppose my parents bought my racquets, though the school did have some. We had two tennis coaches, one an English teacher, one a math teacher. The English teacher had been ranked in California. There was a racquet stringer, and most of us strung our own. If you wanted colored strings, you had to buy them. I grew up in a largely middle class area. Had I more dedication (and more natural talent), I’m sure I could have excelled pretty cheaply.

A few weeks ago, somebody got a thread going pushing the idea that a kid has the best chance of becoming a pro athlete by playing football and training to become a Punter in the NFL.

Anyway..........

https://wideinfo.org/5-most-inexpensive-sports-for-kids/

tennisator wrote:

ajatipic wrote:

If Djokovic grew into a war zone, then that means that it is cheaper to become a Tennis player if you come from Serbia. His parents would probably never have the means to pay for his tennis lessons if it cost 400$/hr or somebody probably paid for him...

It is not because an activity is expensive somewhere that it has to be the case elsewhere

yeah. So that means kids from war torn detroit and baltimore are going to have it easy making it big in tennis? I mean houses there go for $4,000 in parts.

No, it's still hard but it doesn't have to be expensive. Tennis lessons are not THAT expensive. Many great players were mostly taught by parents who may not have even had great knowledge of the sport.

Chuck Bass wrote:

Novak Djokovic Literally grew it in a war zone in Serbia.

If you have the will power you CAN make it out the trenches and be the one of the best in the world at your chosen sport.

Good info about Novak Djokovic his background. He was born into a well-off family that owned businesses and lived right across the street from a tennis court

His family owned a sporting good store. And he fell in love with tennis at a young age and the play across the street

How do young age of about 6 he was invited to be part of a tennis group and that helped him develop

The family did face hardship due to the war and the economy but they put all their resources into young Novak Djokovic has tennis development

He then went to train out of Professional School in Germany and was coached by some very good coaches

So while it's true that he grew up under difficult circumstances it's not true that he was some very poor person who didn't have access to the right equipment and the right training

He also came from a family of professional athletes and business owners who had the ability to provide him everything he needed

Random poor people from Eastern Europe don't become tennis stars. But people who have the access at an early age and have people who are motivated in their success. Might

Tennis is a great sport for just about anyone including the handicapped, kids, seniors. And gender doesn't matter. My mom played competitive tennis into her 80's. But living in a sunny climate really is an advantage. You can get pretty good on your own with time and with small expense( I traded time working out paying college players for coaching), but after a certain level is reached coaching is essential since the game gets more complex as your ability grows. Plus you will get fussier about the equipment, the condition of the courts, the freshness of the tennis balls,etc. because these things really make a difference to the execution of the game. And just to make this relative to running, all the running I did let me outlast my otherwise equal competitors in long sets, especially in tournaments.

The athletic ability of the pro women in tennis is much higher in the gene pool game .

There are tennis courts in pretty much every park nowadays. All you need to pay for is rackets, balls, shoes. You could honestly just wear sneakers and it wouldn’t matter. If you get good enough you might buy actual “tennis shoes”, but if you are actually good and don’t have the money for it ask your high school coaches.

Tennis isn’t an expensive sport, buts it’s a sport for rich people. Games take hours and you have to be very polite and follow all the rules and wear certain clothes (all white at Wimbledon) but you can certainly be poor and play tennis.

Both Tennis and Golf , you need to start young , very young to be good . Watching young adults learning golf and tennis is sad , knowing they will never be good .

Yet exactly as you described, the family was worse off than 80% of the US. No excuses.

Disagree. They’re both pretty easy sports to pick up. Of course the very technical aspects take years to learn but you can learn to swing a club/racket in a couple hours

Dairyland wrote:

Disagree. They’re both pretty easy sports to pick up. Of course the very technical aspects take years to learn but you can learn to swing a club/racket in a couple hours

Nope , both are a steep learning curve where you face many years of failure. But here is a sample of the athletic ability of Tracks greatest athlete .

Most of the world would know the name Roger Federer; only runners know of Kipchoge. "Show me the money!"

Another thing is that players rackets now cost like $250 now. The price has really increased for them. But you can get the older models of rackets on sale now.

Some people buy 2 identical rackets I’m case the strings break in the middle of the match, or even like 8. But some do get some sponsorships to reduce the price.