When people say, “Corey Gauff and Judy Murray say that their kids played other sports, there is no mention of to what extent. It may or may not be true, but it wasn’t a lot.
So Andy trained primarily tennis and once and awhile played some soccer with friends? What does that prove? Coco shot a little hoop after hours of tennis grinding with her dad. That’s still early specialization. Also, many parents lie or demur when asked how much their kids train. Many parents won’t admit how much tennis their little champs are playing.
Two reasons:
- They want other people to think their kids are really gifted and don’t need to practice very much. Ego and reputation thing.
- And secondly because they don’t want other parents and kids to get the advantage and train as much as they are training.
This is a common phenomenon among elite tennis parents—and I’m certain it happens in other sports too. Parents also don’t like when people are snooping around and trying to judge them and how much they work and train.
There is so much misinformation and disinformation on this subject. And you can’t generally trust the parents—or even the players—to report honestly about how much they are training. Sometimes parents won’t even tell their coaches how much a kid is actually training.
It’s a big secret.
That’s one of many reasons why scientific studies on the early specialization are inherently flawed. There is a natural bias in self reporting that researchers often do not take into account!
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