“I’ve Struggled With My Children” – Roger Federer on Teaching Tennis to His Kids

There aren’t probably a lot of people in the world who can advise on how to motivate your kids. The world number four, Roger Federer certainly qualifies to be that perfect person whom you can seek advice from. That’s what happened recently when the 38-year old Swiss icon came to the live show “On”.

Roger Federer gives advice

During the live stream telecast, one of his fans called up and asked Federer for advice on how to introduce tennis to his one-year-old kid. In reply, Roger did come up with valuable advice, while sharing his personal experience of inspiring his four kids to take up tennis.

He said, “I’ve struggled with my children, you know. I tried to promote tennis in my household, playing a lot of matches against Rafa (Nadal), Novak (Djokovic), but they don’t care. They don’t need daddy home from practice, from matches. But of course, we tried to put rackets in their hand, you know, a ball in the other, to see what happens you know.”

“You get to know quickly which kid likes to play with the ball, or like to rather go running outside. I think you see very quickly thew differences. Now, all four kids play tennis, because I don’t like to be the only guy whose kids don’t play tennis, especially with my background and my wife’s background. But what can you do? Honestly, going out there and trying again and again.” 

Bribe the kids to play tennis but don’t pressurize them

But kids might not understand the importance of the game. Or maybe they won’t like to get involved in the first place. In those scenarios, Federer advises to bribe them.

He continued, “In the beginning, you may need to bribe them a little. ‘You do well, you get a sweety’, there’s nothing wrong with that. We did that. You just keep on trying. If it’s really important to you, don’t be a crazy dad. You know how it is, trust the coaches. Make sure you have fun when they’re young. And when they get older, like eight years, that’s when I started playing tournaments. Maybe that’s when you start to get a little more serious. Maybe when 12 years old. But in the beginning, it’s all about having fun.”

It was surprising that Roger’s kids weren’t initially interested in tennis. What more interesting is that they didn’t care if their father owns the record of winning 20 Grand Slam singles titles. And it is quite inspiring that Federer too didn’t force their kids to take up tennis. This is something that every parent out there can learn from the former world number one.