Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Tennis Pros

American professional tennis success reached a historic low at this year's Wimbledon, and theories have been thrown around on how to fix this "problem," but I'm not so sure it's a “problem.” Maybe it's an opportunity to reflect and reevaluate what we really value as a culture. Why is it so important to pursue manifest destiny of the tennis world? Isn't it a bit elitist to define the success of a sport that is enjoyed by millions of American's and enhances the health and education of countless young people by the ultimate success of a few?

Forget about the one percent, that's the 0.000001 percent!

As a tennis coach, I support and root for my students. I'm also a sports fan, and I support the home team like most sports fans, but don't take this diversion too seriously because it's an escape from reality and recreation, not the foundation of a happy and prosperous life.

Tennis is a vehicle to enhance a broad education, not a substitution for a well-rounded education. If a child defines their self-worth by their second serve, they will almost certainly be a better player, but they will teeter closer to the edge of emotional fragility. Is the slim chance of temporary fame and the even more fleeting chance at making a living worth the emotional and practical cost?

Don't put all your balls in one hopper.

Still as American tennis is struggling, theories abound.

Jose Higueras, high performance director of the USTA, thinks that we don't see the court and construct points as well as the players from his native Spain because we don't train on clay. Vamanos Jose … can you see more because of the court surface? Even if such a broad correlation can be made between clay and tactical development, I don't buy the validity of his argument. Correlation is not causation and this reeks a little too of convenience and ethnocentrism … much like Nike saying that the problem is that we don't universally wear their sneakers.

I also hear that the "Best athletes in this country choose other sports." Perhaps that is true, but no more than in than in past. Unfortunately, the player development programs which strive to provide "a pathway to excellence" create few new opportunities since skill and ability are the most significant factors for program selection. With very few exceptions, you need to have resources invested in you to be selected in the first place so that the very best players are cannibalized from other programs.

The shifting of resources is not the creation of opportunities.

Players returning from tournaments with stories of getting penalties for whispering "Oh my God" at a national event certainly don't further the cultural sensibility that tennis is an "inner city" sport attractive to athletes who might otherwise play basketball or football.

Brad Gilbert thinks it's "just a cycle, we can't stay on top forever,” even though "cycles" repeat and this decline and slump in American professional tennis has never before happened in the history of the sport. Who knows, maybe in another 100 years we will bounce back. I cannot wait, but for now, I think the fault is not in our tennis stars, but in us.

When it comes to success in American tennis, we are the tail wagging the dog. Let's shift the paradigm and stop complaining about the lack of American tennis dominance because that conversation is part or the problem and a self-fulfilling prophecy that undermines the sport in popular culture.

Do we really want to reinforce the notion that tennis is an elitist sport?

Why are we failing to dominate the world tennis stage? Perhaps because today, it takes a complete commitment of time and resources at a very young age to succeed, and most Americans feel the educational and emotional price is not worth the remote possibility of the ultimate reward. Tennis fame and fortune is an expensive goal. Every player I know who attended an academy (and I know many) tells me that they would never subject their children to that kind of environment. How many second generation top professionals from the past generation’s elite professionals do we actually see today? Think about it, the former pros who didn't quite make it sometimes push their children to be pros, but the top former players, the ones who know exactly what it takes, the hardship talent and luck, rarely do.

Tennis excellence is one of the best pathways to the excellence of a better life.

Let other countries risk the futures of their children to entertain us by encouraging tennis achievement as the ultimate destination, while we invest in tennis as a pathway to achievement.

If we can succeed at using tennis to grow, we can grow tennis.