Russian tennis player Andrei Rublev discussed the methodology of raising young tennis players …
– It used to be that a coach should be a dictator. And only this technique gives a result. Could you work in such an atmosphere?
– Such people would have left my team. I am a maximalist in myself. And I demand more from myself than anyone will demand from me. You don't need to force me. If someone says in time: believe in yourself, try, enjoy, you have to, you can win today – then yes. And if “you are obliged”, if you don’t win, it will be the end, then it’s better to end immediately. I think it is hard for all athletes if they are given a framework. Pressure does not allow to be liberated.
– Children's sports are, first of all, discipline, rigidity towards the child. How did you get through this? Have you been broken? And how do you feel about children's sports?
– Hard to say. I am where I am today and everything, thank God, is good. This means that it was not in vain. If you remember, you understand that many moments were abnormal in terms of the coaching approach. Something that shouldn't be. I understand that this is wrong, does not help. It only makes it worse. If a child loves sports, he will do everything himself. And if he doesn't like him, at least kick him with sticks, he will not go in for sports in his life: take me out of here.
There must be adequate discipline. If you are trying, and you are being scolded for making another mistake, then this is wrong. I myself saw parents who could give a child a slap on the head for making a mistake in training five times out of ten.
– Maybe when you yourself become coaches, start talking differently.
– To want to become a coach … If I had not realized myself alone, I might , I would like to improve as a coach. And when you have come all this way, you understand how it is, you are no longer ready to lead someone else. So that you would be overlaid later? On the example of my mother, I can tell when she put her soul into children of five or six years old, and received a stream of ingratitude for this. At some point, the parents' wagon is blown away due to the fact that it seems to them that their child is special.