Most kids don't stand a chance.

[mistermack]

I was watching some French Open tennis yesterday. And one of the commentators said that some player or other left it far too late to start playing tennis.
The kid started at age 10.

All the top players start about the age of four or five, these days.
If your kid's eight, don't bother. He's past it, and will never make it.

You need to pick a sport for them, and push them. Like the Williams sisters, who started being COACHED at the age of three.

[AvtomatKalashnikova]

Is better for teach your children to survive in wilderness from this age, much more practical skill for day when society crumble. Children of Avtomat will rule post apocalypse raiding tribes and crush skull of many tennis player.

[cronus]

Most will die in the coming global Ebola plague. They should learn how to wear a spacesuit and avoiding crowds. Also how to operate a body bag safely for relatives who might croak first.

[JimC]

High pressure parenting can lead to very sad families indeed.

[piscator]

There's a psycho-physiological window in a lot of sports. If a kid's not good on a surfboard or skateboard by the time he's 11, he never will be. Gymnastics is the same way.
If you don't have a head for the gamesmanship of individual sports by a young age, you should probably try something else too. Tennis is like a combat sport.

[Seth]

Is better for teach your children to survive in wilderness from this age, much more practical skill for day when society crumble. Children of Avtomat will rule post apocalypse raiding tribes and crush skull of many tennis player.

Da! Although tennis builds good muscles and reactions for the throwing of stones and projectiles.

[Blind groper]

Give your kids electronic toys at an early age and let them play. That will build skills of more value than tennis.

[JimC]

Give your kids electronic toys at an early age and let them play. That will build skills of more value than tennis.

Not so sure about that, particularly if that leads them to spend a high proportion of their time staring at tiny screens, sitting down indoors with little exercise. That is not to say that valuable skills cannot be gained by a certain proportion of time spent electronic game playing, but it must be in proportion to other activities. I suspect many parents go down that route because it becomes an easy child-minding solution.

[mistermack]

Tiger Woods and Serena Williams started at age 3. It's sad, but in their cases it was worth it.

That doesn't apply to the other 99.999% of kids who never make it though.
You could end up with all kids being pushed from the age of three, and getting nothing out of it.

And fetuses being given aptitude tests in the womb, and special workouts so that they hit the ground running.

[Hermit]

Give your kids electronic toys at an early age and let them play. That will...

...lead them to spend their waking hours playing Angry Birds until they advance to FPS and suchlike. And their social life will consists of Habbo Hotel, Facebook and other chatrooms. "Looki at my selfie. I made it by taking a photo of my mirror image in the bathroom while holding the iPhone at a fetching angle. Bet no one else has ever thought of doing that..."

[JimC]

Tiger Woods and Serena Williams started at age 3. It's sad, but in their cases it was worth it.

If only I had started to truly appreciate gin at age 3!

I would now be utterly superb as a gin afficiondo, instead of just very, very good...

[Svartalf]

Well, that's better than mme who must be content with being a middling whisky afficionado, and who knows very little about gin.

[mistermack]

What's to learn?

The more you drink, the more pissed you get.

Only Americans can get that wrong.

[Svartalf]

there's appreciating the drink between the drinking and the getting pissed.

I peg you as a vodka drinker.

[mistermack]

there's appreciating the drink between the drinking and the getting pissed.

I peg you as a vodka drinker.

Yes and no. I'll drink any old rubbish. But I don't drink anything very often.
Cheap whiskey is as good as anything for me. If it's too harsh, I add ice-cream and chocolate.

But it all tastes much the same to me, so I don't waste money on the high-priced stuff.