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In a major study released recently in Epidemiology, conclusions were drawn – yet again – regarding how shutdowns and online learning were ultimately very damaging to kids’ emotional and mental health (obviously some cohorts of kids were more affected than others with financial security a big part of the calculation). This is no major surprise as parents and students alike weren’t happy with the remote learning environment.
Yet despite this general consensus about online schooling not being as healthy as regular school, a new trend has exploded since Covid: the rapid growth of online schooling for tennis players and other athletes. Parents and their junior athletes feel that by being able to play several hours in the day instead of after school it will accelerate their progress in the sport while still leaving room for academics. And from my perspective, as a parent of a competitive tennis player who attends a “regular” school, it appears to be the rule, not the exception, that most advanced junior players are in online school and not in a physical building. I often find myself bonding with the few other parents whose kids remain in regular school as we’re a rapidly dwindling species.
Consider ICL Academy, the largest of the online schools for tennis players. According to Dayton Hansen the COO of ICL, “Since 2020, ICL Academy has seen a 4300% increase in overall enrollment, with a particularly strong rise among competitive student-athletes. Today, we serve approximately 532 competitive tennis players from across the US and around the world. This is by far and away the largest number of junior tennis players attending one single school. What we’re seeing isn’t simply a pandemic-driven spike – it’s a sustained shift driven by families seeking a model that allows their children to excel academically without compromising their training, competition schedules, mental health, or long-term development.”
But what about socialization in an online school environment? Hansen replied that, “At ICL, socialization is not an afterthought; it’s a core component of our program design.” When pressed more about what this actually means Hansen said, “We heavily prioritize in-person interaction whenever possible. A perfect example of this was just this past week as we brought a number of our staff members to Florida to support our students and families at the Junior Orange Bowl. We do this a number of times throughout the year as we bring our students together across the United States as they participate in different tournaments and events.”
Tristan Stratton, 16, is a preternaturally gifted tennis player who is one of the top ranked juniors in the United States. He is enrolled at ICL and so far it’s been a good fit, according to his mother Meg Stratton. “I didn’t make the decision to enroll my son at ICL lightly”, Ms Stratton told me. “Our intention was to keep him at an in-person high school. And I’m glad that Tristan spent two years at a regular high school. But the travel and logistics with him playing national and international tournaments made it untenable after a while. He is much more focused now that he’s in online school and it’s frankly simplified our frenetic lives.”
This thought is echoed by another parent of an online-schooled child. Laura Lafors of Virginia enrolled her 17-year-old son Cole in the Laurel Spring online school. She stated that, “as [Cole’s] junior year approached it felt more like it was the right time to make the move. We were no longer worried about the loss of socialization since he had already experienced two years of high school. Prior to moving online Cole felt like it was impossible to miss school for tennis tournaments and he had very little time left in the day between school, tennis practice and homework. Cole wants to play college tennis so this move to have more time to train and the flexibility to travel for tournaments was very important.”
Within the tennis community, the gold standard for online schooling is undoubtedly the Dwight Global Online school. An offshoot of the Dwight School, a private school in Manhattan, Dwight Global believes they have found the ideal combination of online and optional in-person activities. Since Dwight has their own physical school, it makes it the perfect option for those in the New York City area. That is, if one can afford it, as Dwight comes with more than double the annual price tag ($42,000) as ICL and other online schools.
According to Blake Spahn, the vice chancellor of the Dwight Schools, “Since 2020, Dwight Global’s enrollment has more than doubled, representing sustained multi-year growth rather than a temporary pandemic spike.” Furthermore Spahn states that, “Dwight Global is the result of a 14-year head start, deep institutional learning, and continuous refinement – not a rapid pandemic-era pivot. We were building, iterating, and perfecting high-touch online education long before it became fashionable. This experience allows us to deliver a level of academic rigor, personalization, and student support that rivals – and in many cases exceeds – top bricks-and-mortar schools, while offering flexibility that traditional models simply cannot match.”
Additionally, says Spahn, for those students who desire more in-person interactions, “We have brick and mortar schools around the world where our online students are able to convene in person for various activities. For example, we hold an annual orientation; Steam (Science, Engineering, Computer Science and Robotics) weekends that allow the students to do labs together; music concerts; Model UN and many more activities.” I asked Spahn how many of the online students engage with in-person events, and thought he didn’t have an exact figure he stated, “I can confidently say that many of the tennis players do some type of in-person activity whether it be orientation, after-school activities, simply using the library at one of our schools, and almost all of them attend graduation and prom in person.”
While most kids and parents seem pleased with their decision to go online, I spoke with several parents, who preferred not to be named, that said their kids were miserable with the online setup. “Hitting tennis balls and staring at a screen all day for school was stunting his emotional and mental growth,” one New Jersey mother told me.
Is there a type of child who thrives best in an online environment? From my perspective it seems that there are two groups of kids who are best fit for online schooling: those super high-performing, top ranked kids are the perfect candidates for remote since they are traveling so much; and then those kids who have had trouble adjusting socially in regular schools, be it because of bullying or other emotional concerns.
Mary Beth Finegan, clinical director of New York Sports and Performance Psychology (NYSPP) at The Child & Family Institute, says that online learning can be beneficial to certain students. “Online learning for student-athletes has its benefits in terms of lessening any time management stress load with the flexibility that online classes provide. Elite-level athletes often require extensive in person competition schedules in locations across the US and beyond. Things to consider for student-athlete mental health are studies that show too early a specialization of one sport leads to burn out and how social support networks help in the prevention of burnout.” But when asked the either-or question about which is more optimal, Finegan said that “from my personal experience in-person fosters better social interactions for youth including how to read facial expressions and nonverbal communication in others.”
In addition to the massive uptick in athletes choosing online schooling, in the last couple of decades there’s been a surge in the number of young athletes in the United States –often at the urging of overly involved parents - who now purposely “reclass” (staying back a grade or even two) in order to gain an advantage for college and, in many a delusional parent’s mind, for professional sports. In no sport is this practice of reclassing as rampant as tennis.
And there is likely no other sport as torturous to watch a loved one compete in as tennis. The emotional and mental pressure the kids (and parents) feel far surpasses every other sport, in my view. Watching Little League and travel baseball games in years past was, for the most part, fun and joyful. Watching high-level junior tennis is stress-inducing agony where exhaustive relief is often the best outcome one can hope for. In fact, it should be mandatory that tournaments provide portable blood pressure devices to distribute to parents.
So why then do we allow our kids to engage in such a tormenting endeavor? Because the cliches are undeniably true: the sport builds character and the journey through junior tennis prepares kids to deal with adversity and learn through failure. Lots and lots of failure. After all, we’ve been taught, that what doesn’t kill you …
Since the chance of becoming a professional tennis player are infinitesimal and getting into a high-level Division I college for tennis is tremendously difficult, parents need to be brutally honest with themselves, if not completely so with their child. No one wants to stifle a dream to become a pro athlete or accomplished musician or dancer or any other endeavor one is passionate about, since they’re all worth pursuing with intensity. But what is the real goal for having one’s child in a remote-schooling environment? All things being equal, would any parent truly doubt that interacting with peers and exchanging in-person dialogue with teachers isn’t better?
The impulse of every loving parent is to provide one’s child with the best opportunities to prepare he or she for life. Who wouldn’t want the best, at all times, for a child? But there’s a thin line between wanting what’s best for your kid v doing what is right for them, to make them stronger and more confident by giving them opportunities and advantages but at the same time showing them that life isn’t fair and that obstacles will always be present.
What is doubtless is that online schooling is here to stay and will likely only grow. It’ll be interesting to see if this will cause brick-and-mortar schools to pivot and offer some sort of blended learning so they can keep up. In our increasingly fractured, siloed society, where life has become more about a la carte choices in how we receive and process information, and universal, shared experiences are rarer, online schooling is furthering that trend.
