Motivation Quote by Guy Forget

Forget’s line lands like a quiet rebuke to the modern youth-sports machine: if you have to remind adults that a game should feel like a game, something has already gone sideways. Coming from a former pro who grew up in an era before tennis became a year-round, hyper-professionalized pipeline, the intent is both protective and practical. He’s not romanticizing childhood; he’s describing the conditions that actually produce long-term excellence.

The subtext is about power. “When you are very little” draws a boundary that parents, coaches, and federations routinely ignore, turning kids into miniature projects with rankings, “college track” narratives, and adult-level emotional stakes. Forget implicitly argues that early pressure doesn’t just risk burnout; it reshapes a child’s relationship to effort. If every practice is an audition, curiosity dies. If every match is identity, losing becomes catastrophe. Fun isn’t a frivolous add-on here; it’s the psychological oxygen that lets a young player keep taking risks, keep playing, keep learning.

Context matters: tennis is uniquely susceptible to early specialization because it’s individualized, expensive, and measurable. You can quantify a child’s “promise” with scores and trophies long before they’re old enough to understand why they’re chasing them. Forget’s phrasing is deliberately plain, almost parental, because the message shouldn’t require translation. The sharp point is this: if you want resilient competitors later, you have to protect play now.