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The dictionary defines cheating as, "acting dishonestly, practicing fraud, and to deceive by trickery". You can find cheaters in every aspect of life; sports, business, entertainment, and unfortunately, even in our personal lives. Is there any way to stop cheating? Sure, create a society where all people live by the same code of honor and where Darwin's "survival of the fittest" theory is replaced by the Golden Rule.

Anyone who has spent more than five minutes at a junior tennis tournament knows how prevalent cheating and accusations of cheating are even at that level of play. The questions we must address as coaches and parents are:

1. What causes our youngsters to cheat?
2. How do we teach our kids to handle cheating when they are on the receiving end?

If we understand why our children cheat, we can better work to change this behavior by dealing with the problem at its source. However, until every parent raises their child to play fair, we owe it to our young players to prepare them by teaching them how best to deal with cheaters.