Storytelling and tennis: coaching, marketing and selling the game

Abstract

Storytelling, understood as the art of sharing stories that support a certain narrative, has evolved into an extremely useful tool for conveying the message appropriate to a given purpose. It is used by organisations and individuals and applied to many contexts that range from politics to business, arts, or sports. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the main characteristics of this phenomena including its definition, importance, origin, evolution but, most importantly, its application to different tennis contexts.

Talent identification among elite Czech male junior tennis players (U12) according to their future tennis performance and birthdate

“…Diagnosis of the level of performance preconditions allows you to control, regulate, and manage the training process and it also plays an important role in the selection of sports talent. TI is a frequently discussed topic in tennis and has long been addressed by a number of authors (Crespo & McInerney, 2006 Schönborn, 2006). Studies by the aforementioned authors often examine the correlation between age, physical fitness, and tennis performance.…”

“…In this context, Ferrauti et al (2014) state that tactics, techniques, and number of tournaments played are the most important factors in the under-12 category. Crespo and McInerney (2006) presented two basic models applied to TI in tennis: 1) the natural selection model where players improve their skills, play increasingly important tournaments, and become professionals. The main criterion is the "good eye of the coach" and the players' result achievements, and 2) scientifically based model incorporating findings from somatometry, physiology or psychology.…”

“…The main criterion is the "good eye of the coach" and the players' result achievements, and 2) scientifically based model incorporating findings from somatometry, physiology or psychology. The appropriate period for tennis-specific TI is considered to be ages 11-12 (girls) and 12-13 (boys) when the greatest changes in motor skills occur (Crespo, & McInerney, 2006;Unierzyski, 2006;Unierzyski et al, 2003). One possible approach to the implementation of talent identification is based on the principle of the so-called retrospective theory, which assumes that athletes who are successful in adulthood already possessed a high level of certain specific performance preconditions in their youth (Hohmann et al, 2007;Zháněl et al, 2015).…”