Has Your Tennis Player Lost Motivation For Playing?

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Do you have a young tennis player that maybe is a really good tennis player, has worked hard in the past, but now has lost her passion for the game and maybe wants to quit? Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Cohn with the Tennis Psychology Podcast. In this episode I answer a question from guy about his 11 year old daughter. He says, My 11 year old daughter is a good tennis player who has.

Worked really hard at her game in.

The past, but now she has lost.

Her passion for for the game.

How can she regain that passion?

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Well, at 11 years old, she's still really young. We find that most kids drop out of sports as at around 15 when they start to develop maybe other interest or interest in other sports or interest in other activities, or that sport no longer becomes fun. So when you say passion, I'm not exactly sure if you're talking about her motivation, her desire, her willingness to work hard. It may be all of those things when you say passion because based upon your question, you're saying that she was a hard worker in the past but now seems to have lost her passion for the game. And sometimes parents will call us with those issues, wondering how they can get their child really reignited in terms of the sport.

So the first thing is I would want to know is she not wanting to play anymore or is she not wanting to work as hard? Let's address the first one. If she wants to quit tennis and you're really not happy with that particular decision. Well, it's tough for us to step in at peak performance sports and help with that particular scenario. We usually tell parents when they call up, you know, my daughter doesn't want to play anymore. What can you do to help? Maybe I've pushed her out of this sport. Maybe I put too much pressure on her. Really there's nothing we can do at that point. It's really too late. We're not in the profession of helping parents get their kids back in sport once they've quit and don't want to perform anymore. I usually tell parents, look, call us back when your athlete decides that they want to return to the sport and they're not pushed back into the sport, then we're happy to help them with their mental game and have more fun in the sport.

Now from your question, it also seems.

Guy, that it could be more that she's just lost this love for the game. In other words, it's not as fun anymore. She's still involved. Maybe she's not working as hard, but it's just not as fun as it used to be. So in that particular case I would want to investigate and I would want to know what's causing that loss of passion for the game. Does she feel too much pressure to perform? Maybe coming from a parent or a coach, does she feel like it's maybe just too much work, it's too hard and it's getting more and more serious and harder all the time. Does she feel like that she doesn't like losing? Some athletes that are perfectionists as well will lose the passion because they can never feel satisfied with their game. They're always very self critical and upset with themselves for not performing up to their expectations.

So that's the place that you need.

To start with what's interfering with it. Is there anything that's getting in the way that you can modify from a sports parenting standpoint?

The other thing that I would want to investigate with your daughter is to find out, you know, what are the reasons why she got involved in tennis in the first place? Why did she start playing tennis? What was fun about tennis? What did she really enjoy? And then maybe try to tap back into some of those things when she first started playing. Maybe she just liked to go out and spend time with you on the court. Or maybe she liked to go out and spend time with her friends. Maybe it was a social thing for her. Maybe at that point she loved the competition. So you want to tap into what were the, what we call the autotelic or the intrinsic reasons why she originally wanted to or like tennis and was really passionate about tennis and try to get her, try to move her more towards those that direction. At the same time trying to find out what may be inhibiting her from working hard again like she used to. Thanks for the question and good luck with her game.

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