The January/February 2008 issue of TENNIS Magazine contains this feature by senior editor Tom Perrotta about six-year-old Jan Silva and other single-digit-age players. He visits Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France, describes Silva's daily regimen and the decision his parents made to move there for Jan's tennis. Perrotta also talks with Nick Bollettieri about predicting future success (not possible at that age, especially for boys) and with Tracy Austin about how things have changed since she was an adolescent phenom (no support staff and no website back then).
When the first widely read Silva story was published some months back in USA Today, I didn't link to it, because I am uncomfortable contributing to what can only be called hype. Tiger Woods survived the burden of precocious talent that was demonstrated on national TV, Michelle Wie has been less successful at negotiating the dangerous rapids of fame before accomplishment. There is no question that an abundance of talent has its perils, and developing the mental skills to accompany the physical ones is best done over time and out of the spotlight.
Publisher Chris Evert weighed in on the subject on her page in the magazine, and drawing on her own experience, she questions the wisdom of the prodigy approach.
"When parents stop their lives and pin the family's future on a 5-year-old becoming the breadwinner, it puts tremendous demands on the child. And when you publicize it with personal websites and videos on YouTube, you're only compounding the pressure."
When the first widely read Silva story was published some months back in USA Today, I didn't link to it, because I am uncomfortable contributing to what can only be called hype. Tiger Woods survived the burden of precocious talent that was demonstrated on national TV, Michelle Wie has been less successful at negotiating the dangerous rapids of fame before accomplishment. There is no question that an abundance of talent has its perils, and developing the mental skills to accompany the physical ones is best done over time and out of the spotlight.
Publisher Chris Evert weighed in on the subject on her page in the magazine, and drawing on her own experience, she questions the wisdom of the prodigy approach.
"When parents stop their lives and pin the family's future on a 5-year-old becoming the breadwinner, it puts tremendous demands on the child. And when you publicize it with personal websites and videos on YouTube, you're only compounding the pressure."
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