I'm a dad, husband, sport psych and executive coach. I'm also an ex tennis coach, now playing for myself and demonstrating that despite now being 50 I can maintain my standard and possibly still get better. Inevitably many of my thoughts centre around performance psychology....so if that interests you, whatever your sport or activity then read on....
I'll be posting on the Performance1 Blog going forwards.....
http://www.performance-1.co.uk/blog/247....
Click on the link or the photo below to read my latest post about Murray's defeat in the Wimbledon final...
I've just finished watching the Aussie Open final. This is the most amazing sporting display I've ever watched. I normally shy away from comparing sports, but now Djokovic has beaten Murray in nearly 5 hours on Friday, and then today, with 24 hours less recovery time than Nadal, he has just won another 5 setter in just under 6 hours, I'm blown away. I can't think of any other sport that requires the level of skill and fine motor control combined with supreme endurance.
So what did Djokovic display that we can all aspire to and learn from. Three aspects jump out.
1. Positivity and Resilience. Resilience is different from toughness. Resilience is the ability to bounce back, toughness is the ability to withstand pressure and resist adversity. Djokovic displays an immense ability to bounce back. When he makes a mistake, the opponent plays too well, or something goes against him, he's never happy, but he accepts it and gets over it very quickly. He even smiles at times - a great way of letting go of tension - but then refocuses immediately, never losing his intensity. What follows is almost always a really positive execution of his game, demonstrating immense self belief.
2. Physical and mental toughness I absolutely had my money on Nadal for this match and even more so going into the final set. Yet Djokovic never seemed to be fazed. Two high points: First his ability to keep making great decisions in terms of shot selection and execution. Second his ability to execute superbly under the most pressure, for example continuing to find a high percentage of pin point first serves when serving for the championship. All of this is underpinned by his incredible physical fitness and toughness.
Physical fitness is one of the underestimated areas of mental toughness - it's completely under your own control, and sends messages to yourself and your opponent that you're always ready to come back. In tennis it can be very intimidating when translated to running down everything in defence, and moving superbly to dominate in attack.
One of the rowers I've worked with once used to be a junior academy tennis player. At 6'8" he was incredibly imposing in tennis terms, but only quite tall in rowing! He said to me, "If only I'd known then what I now know as a rower", I asked him to distill the most important learning as a rower, and he said "That pain is just a state of mind". Mental toughness in action.
3. Complete trust in his technique This combines technical skill with self confidence in equal measure. Working both on your technique and your positivity is vital, and builds a virtuous circle. In contrast, many athletes progress technically and mentally far more slowly. One stumbling block can be a destructive perfectionism, that undermines the vital but small gains that they are making. Realistic positivity is a a key mental skill that goes a long way to developing trust in your technique.
A premature headline? Another plucky Brit loser? I don't think so.
Let's be clinical and think about outcome and process. The outcome was incredibly close: Djokovic winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-7, 6-1, 7-5.
Process Goals In my previous blog I highlighted 4 process goals that Murray needs to focus on, as he starts to work with Ivan Lendl. Lets assume these were also Murray's process goals, and review how well he stuck to and executed them:
1. Commit to being an all-court, aggressive baseliner, rather than a counterpuncher. Look back at Murray v Roddick, Wimbledon semi 2009. It's 1-1 set all, tie break set point to Murray, who is committed to a counter-attacking game-plan, and then misses short ball opportunities that allow Roddick to seize the initiative.
Now look at Murray this time, physically stronger, and with far more agression and intent. Thehighlights clip from the Aussie open only partially do him justice, but the match stats do.
Lets start with winners: 47 Murray to 49 for Djokovic - showing a real commitment to attack. All through the tournament Murray stood further up the court, closer to the baseline in rallies and well inside it at times, taking opponents' second serves much much earlier, and demonstrating his outstanding aggressive ability.
Secondly lets look at unforced errors. Paradoxically I think Murray's high error count of 86 is a long term positive. Time and again in this match, when Murray lost the point, he was making 'good mistakes' - going long when forcing the play, flattening out his shots to give Djokovic less time. Higher risk, but potentially much higher reward for Murray as he gets better and better at becoming a dominating baseliner.
The days of being a 'safe' counterpunching Grand Slam winner are over. The physicality, racket technology, strings, technique and aggressive mentality of the top men and women mean that the aggressor has too big an advantage. Even Nadal is having to flatten out some of his shots and speed up his serve to put Djokovic on the back foot, and have a chance of winning.
2. Increase his 1st serve %, especially in key points. Murray has taken a leaf out of Federer's book in varying the pace of his first serve and making a significant increase to his ability to hold serve. His top speed delivery at 215 kph was 12 kph more than Djokovic and Murray used it to great effect several times in saving break points.
3. Increase the speed and penetration of his 2nd serve.
This is still a big development area for Murray. At all levels of tennis it can be said, "you're only as good as your second serve". And at only a 30% winning % on his second serve, with 10 double faults, there is clearly work to be done. It will be interesting to see how new coach Ivan Lendl approaches this over the coming weeks and months.
4.Commit to staying mentally positive.
We have no idea about the conversations between Lendl and Murray in this area, but this was the area in which his behaviour in terms of body language, self talk and communication with his box has improved most powerfully. Gone were the rants at his box, which in the past have almost said "help me, I'm out of my depth". If up to 70% of communication is non verbal, then the positive demeanour that is so much the hallmark of Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, shouts loud and clear "I'm in control, I'm ready, I'm up for this", even "I've got your number."
The Future The fascinating thing about the Lendl influence is how much Murray seems now to be committing himself to process goals, which he articulated after his win in Brisbane, stating his aim now was "working hard and focusing on the process and not worrying about results".
It will be fascinating to see how well he does this over the long run. I've a feeling that with Lendl in his corner, Murray will continue to prosper, pick off the process goals, and indeed the Slams will come.
I'm intrigued by Murray's appointment of Ivan Lendl as his new coach. Lendl's pedigree as a player is outstanding, but as a coach he's unproven, simply because it would appear he's never coached on the tour. The transition from player to coach is often a very difficult one, as Martin Johnson has recently experienced. Coaches who achieve rapid success are few and far between - Jurgen Klinsman is a notable exception, coaching the German football team to 3rd place in the 2006 World Cup.
But this isn't a shotgun wedding, with the appointment coming nine months after initial contact, a gestation period which allowed Murray time to talk with several other possible coaches. Tony Roche, Lendl's vastly experienced former coach has no qualms about Lend's ability to bring great gains to Murray, through his attention to detail, his professionalism, and his oft misrepresented personality. Whilst the press loved to typecast him as a terminator style robot, and indeed North Korea once feted him as an icon through a postage stamp, people on the inside know him as a very witty, engaging man.
What are the key areas that will determine the success of Lendl and Murray together? In this posting I explore four key questions, and show how a powerful model may shed some light on the subject.
The Big Picture Murray is now 24 and ranked 4 in the world, and is a maturing player. He has strong opinions, and a clear sense of how he wants to play. From the outside he can appear highly self critical and critical of others in his team. It is vital that he respects his coach, both for what he has achieved, and how he proposes to help him.
Q1. How joined up is their vision? Early indications are positive ""Ivan's impact on the game is unquestionable and he brings experience and knowledge that few others have, particularly in major tournaments. I spoke to him about a lot of the top players and how I am going to beat those players, and how to see their weakness … how I can exploit them. So I am sure he will help me very tactically as well."
Lendl was famed for being an aggressive player, so may well be able to help Murray in this area, where he needs to become more consistently aggressive. However, it's not yet clear how fundamentally Murray is prepared to embrace this more aggressive philosophy, given his immense strengths and seemingly innate preference as a counterpuncher.
Q2. What is the level of Lendl's psychological skill? All great coaches are psychologists in one way or another - Brian Clough, Martin O'Neill and and Alex Ferguson all have demonstrated the ability to help players increase their self confidence and direct their focus. How skilled is Ivan in this area? Helping Murray to channel his energy and frustration in a consistently more effective way; to understand that he doesn't need to rant at himself and his team, and that it's counterproductive. Helping him to make the mental tweaks that will raise the 1st serve % and his second serve speed in the big matches.
Q3. How will the new Team Murray work?
Who reports to who? In an Olympic sport, the Head Coach co-ordinates the support team of physio, S&C coach etc. The lines of role and responsibility are clearly drawn to work well under pressure. What are Lendl's skills in this area - managing and working with other professionals. It may well be this is a pretty flat structure with little hierarchy, but the way they work together will still need to bed down and be ironed out.
Q.4 How will Lendl manage with such little coaching experience?
In recent press, Lendl cites his experience of being coached by Tony Roche, who helped him win his first slam final at the fifth time of asking. "To me this is like Groundhog Day – I have been in this movie," Lendl told the Times. "I was that player once, who needed something to help make it work, it was the same as I was before I hired Rochey. What happened then changed my career around." The one difference between Lendl and Roche lies in their coaching experience - to check this I called Tony Roche on Skype this morning and asked him about his early coaching career - he told me he cut his teeth for a few years before he coached Ivan, setting up the Newcombe Roche tennis academy, and then being Davis cup coach for New Zealand and coaching Chris Lewis to the 1983 Wimbledon final. All of this may have contributed to his success coaching Lendl, although according to Tony, not as much as the learning he gained as a player from the legendary Harry Hopman, who also coached Laver and Newcombe to greatness.
Chris Lewis also coached Lendl for three years and describes him as "Intelligent, ambitious and always purposeful. He could be the most goal-oriented person I've ever met". At 50 and the father of five daughters, Lendl will likely bring an attitude and immense experience of life that a 35 year old recently retired pro simply could not have amassed.
What do the psychological models have to say?
Relationship Q (RQ) is a powerful and practical coaching model that describes the key phases of coach athlete relationships, and the participants' ability to negotiate these.
The Murray Lendl relationship will be at stage 1, the honeymoon phase which typically includes an initial dose of the mutual trust and energy that brought them together in the first place. As they progress on the tour through the year's majors , emotional intensity and investment will rise. There will be successes, which will build trust and energy, and there will be frustrations and disappointments. How they both handle these 'difficulties' will be critical. Murray syas that he has hired Lendl because he doesn't just want a coach who is overly positive and spends too much time on the right side of this model. He says Lendl is "very honest and very open".
These difficulties are at the heart of coaching - identifying the gap that needs to be bridged, and together finding ways over that bridge. It will be fascinating to watch how this journey unfolds.
