Riding Home with Dad

[sdinulescu]

As a son and a father I am dissapointed in Tennisplayer for publishing this. You are calling "I'd like to pop you in your fcking mouth" (dad) a graceful literary style?
As a physician I believe Mr Buss needs professional help, and should not use this publication- and its readers- instead of a counseling group session

[GeoffWilliams]

There is nothing like the pain of losing after you worked so hard on improving. The only way to feel better about it is to decide to. Sampras lost 19 times in a row after switching to a one hander. He knew it was just part of the process and was not hurt by it. That was a decision handed to him by his mentor, the child molester Fischer.

[klacr]

I've experienced those drives. They lasted an eternity. When it was a good victory the drives never seemed long enough. When it was a tough loss, or my willingness to come to net that was both relentless and reckless made me look like a Kamikaze rather than a modern day player failed, those drives were tortuous.

I've been there and many others have before. Many before me and sadly many long after me.

The question arises concerning those parents who used to be the "long drive home" juniors and raising tennis kids. Do these parents learn from the abuse of their past and treat their kids better, or do they simply follow the same path because that's all they know and how they were raised?

Yes, we have a new generation, but what memories does that generation hold from its childhood. As competition gets tougher, tournament entries become more expensive along with cost of travel and equipment, more pressure is put upon kids to excel. To beat their friends, their neighbors, their rivals. That's the world we live in. Is it right? Is it wrong? Or is it just how society has evolved, or devolved for that matter?

Nice work Barry.


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[barrybuss]

What "That" was

Greetings,

When I started looking in to the circumstances around why so many peers of mine chose not to put their own children in to the same junior tennis experience we all grew up with, the one answer that ran through all of their explanations is "I would never put my kid through that"...

Much of what I wrote about was trying to discover what the "that" was they were referring to. Further discussions led to the the most common referred to experience we all shared, that being those long drives home. The things that would get said, or not said, on those long treks home were experiences many of myself and my peers never forgot, and sadly they were not just isolated incidents from our youths. They were every tournament that didn't end with a winners trophy coming home with us.

The point of this piece is not to condemn those who were emotionally in over their heads re their children's tennis. Tennis is hard, parenting is harder, tennis parenting is very complex. What I hoped to do here was shed light on a not very healthy aspect of our sport that happens far more than anyone cares to discuss that in my opinion, could and should be handled better by all parties involved.

Instead we have an entire generation of great tennis players and athletic gene pools sitting on the sidelines, no longer involved in the sport. Yo could fill a small library with all the knowledge and wisdom sitting idly dormant in homes the world round. It shouldn't have to be that way. If anyone should know better how to raise a talented teen, one would hope it would be a parent who had played themselves. There just has to be a more temperate response than the one adopted by my generation. Hopefully my work will start a discussion about how to handle those difficult drives home just a little healthier

[johnyandell]

Let's get your thoughts on Barry Buss' latest "Riding Home with Dad"