Tennis Racquets For Kids: Kids Breaking Racquets

We have all seen footage of John McEnroe and his on court temper tantrums, and we have all seen the antics of Marat Safin, and occasionally of his sister Dinara. There are many racquet breakers out there, and while most pros have it under control and serve us as great role models of keeping cool no matter the bad day and score (perhaps despite their inner most desire for outrage), there are plenty of juniors and amateurs who can’t control themselves (maybe its because only pros are really penalized with big green bucks).

Naturally, we were curious, medically, psychologically speaking if you will, why some kids lose it while others don’t. We consulted experts and came upon a study. Of course keep in mind that it’s pretty hard for studies to be perfect because there are just too many variables and factors to consider.

On January 1, 2008 there was an interesting study published by Melinda R. Bolgar et al. of the University of Florida, in the Journal of Applied Sports Psychology. The study was called “Trait Anger, Appraisal, and Coping Differences Among Adolescent TennisPlayers”. This study didn’t answer all our questions, but it focused on finding out the difference in how two different groups of kids cope with tennis situations. One group was labeled as kids prone to anger and the other comprised of kids prone to coolness. This study was also interested in finding out whether boys and girls manage anger differently.

Tennis officials record hundreds of penalties each year due to racquet abuse on the junior tennis circuit. Even that is surface data to how much breaking really goes on (not every tournament and practice has refs). From personal knowledge, Marat Safin’s Head representative used to lecture kids on the fragility of the frames citing Safin as the worst example, as he demolished an average of 45 frames a year and cost himself and the company quite a bit. Most people study anxiety, but few study anger when dealing with these racquet throwers and breakers. Emotions and psyche are a huge part of sports and a better understanding of them can contribute to more effective intervention from the coaches and parents as well as prevention of early burn out that haunts so many juniors. Plus, we’ve all seen how destructive negative behavior can be when kids get upset a lot on the court and are unable to really compete like they can. Dictionary-wise, Anger is an “emotion-action” and a reaction to stress. Now, stress can be ignited for many reasons such as personality, coping style, type of ego, one’s goals, how one thinks about and appraises threatening situations. It has been long proven that individuals with a trait for anger (lets think of it as genetic) get angry more and do it way more intensely. It doesn't mean that they care more or are playing much worse than kids that don't show emotions. In tennis, so many factors can undermine one’s goal like, cheating, wind, sun, bad day, a cramp, to name a few. Coaches always say, “Don’t make up excuses; your opponent is facing the same problem”, which is true, but not everyone can follow that advice easily. Most people get angry for the same reasons, the difference lies in how people cope. That is what separates the racquet abusers and screamers from the string fixers and deep breathers.

This particular study decided to give several surveys to about 103 (boy and girl) competitive teen (11-18) USTA tennis players. They gave them one survey to find out how prone the kid was to anger, another to see how they reacted to situations and a third to determine how often they showed their anger. The format of the questions was a rating scale (1-10) with statements like, “When I am angry I have a hot temper,” and “When I am angry, I avoid people to stay out of trouble.” To questions like, “I stayed in the situation and tried to control my emotions to better deal with the situation”, to “I often throw my racquet, scream, swear, hit the ground, hit the fence”.

The data they evaluated showed that kids prone to anger, react to the same types of problems that cool kids list, much more emotionally as opposed to rationally. Those who scored higher in reactive anger had more outbursts on the court and it didn’t seem to matter whether they were a boy or a girl. This supports the idea that kids who are less prone to anger find more solutions to the same stressful situations and are thus able to react more calmly.

The question then is, if a kid is prone to anger, will he/she never learn to control their emotions? That is not true; it just means that these kids need to be taught how to see problems from many more sides. To be open to change, not see things in just do or die. The goal is to learn how to identify how the kid is feeling about the problem and then modify their initial emotional reaction to see more ways out and find more logical resolutions. Kids should not be “locked into views of reality that hinder coping” these researchers say. Coping sounds like a better plan to win that match than throwing a fit.

Everyone gets angry, it’s a human emotion that we all have to express, however tennis is a game and no matter what it means to you, at the end of the day someone wins while someone else loses. Point is, by throwing your racquet you will never play your best and be able to focus on the ultimate goal. You will only upset yourself and let your opponent see your mental weakness. (This doesn't just concern the kids, we're talking to adult league players too ;P) Learn from the pros, even though, they too, are only human. Let this be a lesson to you kids especially, you're not all sponsored like Safin and get free frames, don’t crack racquets, they are your only weapons on court, if you really don’t need them, give them to us and we will give them to those that really do need them!

If you have any questions regarding the charity, or how to donate tennis racquets, visit TennisRacquetsforKids.org

For your pure entertainment...Links to YOUTUBE VIDEOS of what NOT to do

John McEnroe (King of classic anger)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxAPKtOe0fQ&feature=related

Andy Roddick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sr3A10qZkE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_pEOmEuToo&feature=related

Kristian Pless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIzPZz2atDk&feature=related

Marat Safin (Prince of temper tantrums)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3QtkHSyvaE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrlpJpKb0Do&feature=related