ok, so I am watching the Wimbledon Semi final, where Andy Murray is already two sets and a break down, and by the time I have finished this, he will be giving some drab interview about why he lost.
Most of the people who know me, know how I feel about Andy Murray. Its fair to say I am not his biggest fan. Its nothing to do with the fact he is Scottish, and it is certainly nothing to do with how he plays tennis. In fact he is my type of player. He hits the ball flat, deep and except a distinctly average serve for his height, he is pretty much a complete player.
But for me, this Wimbledon, and Andy Murray, is what sums up is the poor state of British Tennis.
At the moment this country is completely under-performing in every department. The 5 targets that Roger Draper has been set by the LTA have been missed by a country mile, whilst spending an absolute shed load of money. Literally millions. I wont go in to the details of this, because we only need to see that Andy Murray was the only Brit past the 3rd round at Wimbledon this year to see just how bad things are.
So the question is why are we so bloody awful at tennis?
To bring it back to my mate Andy, the biggest flaw in his game in my opinion is nothing to with his technique or condition, but its his head that is where the problem lies. I dont mean his stupid adolescent beard and irritating hair. I mean whats in-between his ears.
From my brief experience within the tennis set up in this country when I played for Bucks, I always felt everything was about technique. How to hit a ball, how to move your feet, how to hit a volley, how to serve. But I always felt that actually how to win a tennis match was just simply left to me to figure out.
This was something I always felt when playing county tennis, you were just kind of supposed to get it. You were always supposed to just figure out what was required and know how to structure a tennis match.
Ultimately, to me, it seems for some reason in British tennis we are adverse to actually teaching people how to win. We seem perfectly able to teach technique, and how to work really hard in practice, but thats where it stops. Surely technique and practice are a given?
If you take Nadal, before each game, and when the coin is tossed, to me he looks like a warrior. He looks mean, he looks hungry and he is jumping around like he literally wants to rip his opponents arms off.
I find it amazing how Nadal channels this energy in to his matches. You can see Murray literally self implode, he channels his energy negatively. When things are not going his way, he looks at his stupid mum for support, he throws his racket and shouts at himself. How often do you see Nadal and Federer channel their energy this way. They get their heads down, focus and the warrior prevails. With Murray, the spoilt, needy child prevails.
Surely if we could instil this hunger and desire to win, at any cost, our players would be more successful.
Now dont get me wrong, I am all for playing to enjoy, and I dont want to ever be the kind of father who pushes my kids if they dont want to be pushed. But if someone has talent, if a kid shows a spark and willing, surely the best thing we can do is nurture this talent, but most importantly teach them how to win, and to be mentally strong and how to have a hunger which means winning at any cost.
I am not a psychologist, and for all I know the LTA may be teaching kids to win but to me it seems in Tennis in this country we are not creating fire in our players. With all these facilities, and resources, it seems like we are almost spoiling our players and missing the point.
When it comes to Andy Murray, stop relying on your stupid mum for support, stop looking at her when things dont go your way. Until Andy Murray gets his mum out of his mind, and realises a tennis match is his battle, he will never win a grand slam. He has the ability to, but not the head and not the fire in his belly.
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