Happy Birthday Mum

Happy Birthday Mum

I am a coach. My world revolves around helping people to become better. It is a job that I feel very privileged to be in and in the last 20 years that I have been doing it I have experienced all sorts of pupils and improvement rates. Over the last year I have met someone who has made the most progress I have ever seen.  This is a story about a growth mindset and how you can always get better. It’s a story about inspiration and hard work and blowing old dog and new tricks out of the water.

My mum and I started taking swimming lessons together last year. She had turned 60 and she told me she wanted to learn to swim. As a runner, occasional tennis player and fitness enthusiast I decided selfishly it would suit me too as something I could do to help me tick over in the times of injury that have become ever more frequent.

There was another dimension to this as well. When I was growing up my parents allowed me to have swimming lessons. My mum would never had access to this luxury growing up as one of ten children. I felt like I had to make sure we would do everything to help her learn to swim.

We started about August or September a few weeks after her birthday. We had found a coach through John from Fusion Triathlon Club in Glasgow called Jenny who has been absolutely amazing. On the first couple of lessons my mum literally could do nothing. She travelled back and forth 5 m between the side of the pool and the lane divider. 

We carried on till about November time before postponing lessons for a while due to our transaltlantic commitments with grandchildren and nephews abroad.

Fast forward to April 2015. My mum is asking to go back to swimming lessons. She says she has hit a wall, she has been practising 3 times per week and she feels like she is not getting any better. I email Jenny who is busy sitting finals. We resume lessons eventually in June.

We jumped into the pool for the first time in seven or so months. My Mum had been practising 3 times per week and although I had absorbed this information on some sub conscious level, I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to behold. Neither was Jenny. The three of us all started swimming up the pool and Jenny and I both stood up in shock or surprise or maybe celebration as we watched my mum swim confidently ahead. I think we broke out into spontaneous applause. We were witnessing at first hand the 10,000 hour rule, the “if at first you don’t succeed”, practice makes perfect philosophy embodied in one moment in a swimming pool in Maryhill.

I’m going to stop going on in a minute but before I do I need to tell you one more thing. At the end of the lesson I joked with my mum about having a race up the pool. The 25 m pool that she couldn’t even do a fraction of a year ago. Not only did she make the full length, she also thrashed me. I need to get practising!

Mum, you’ve just turned 61 today and in my world you have achieved more than I think I have ever seen before. I am so proud of you and you are living proof that with the right kind of practice, quality coaching and perhaps most importantly the belief that you can always get better, you can achieve whatever you dream of. Happy Birthday!!

Where will you watch the Australian Open 2015 final?

Andy Murray will take on Novak Djokovic on Sunday 1st February at 0830 am GMT.

We are hugely excited about it and invite you to join us at one of two venues to amass as many positive vibes to send across the world.

Murray muffins will be served in the bar at Western tennis club, 30 Hyndland Road, Glasgow and the match will be on from 8 am!!

Meanwhile round the corner, our friends from Hotel du Vin are serving breakfast rolls and tea/ coffee for £5.95 from 8 am and showing the match on two 50" screens.

Join us in one of our venues tomorrow to cheer on Andy Murray!!! Members and non members welcome at both venues. There's a rumour going around that the BBC might be there too so let's get a crowd together!!!

The Other Women

On Sunday, Andy Murray will play in his fourth final in Australia since 2010 and once again a nation will live through every serve and return, every smile and every grimace as the best tennis player to have picked up a racket in Britain over the last 100 years battles to win his third Grand Slam title. The media focus over the next few days will be on Andy and his fiancé Kim who have reached the heady heights of celebrity couple status along with all the unwanted attention that accompanies such fame.

But what about the other women in Andy's life? Let's start with his mum and first tennis coach, Judy Murray. I was lucky enough to have breakfast with Judy while attending the Australian Open Coaches Conference in Melbourne a fortnight ago. We chatted about her new initiative, Miss Hits, which is designed to attract girls into the game. It is currently about to roll out across the UK and the package includes full training, a website, app and lesson plans involving colourful characters like Valentina Volley and Bella Backhand. It's exciting not only because it will increase the number of girls playing tennis but also because it will enable more women to become female role models for young girls.

Attracting and retaining females into tennis is a difficulty faced by the tennis community worldwide which was evidenced at the conference. A trio of respected Australian coaches (Andrea Buckeridge, Emma Doyle and Rufus Keown) presented research showing that girls respond to female role models and we need to nurture and recruit more into the sport. This sentiment was echoed later in the panel discussion that featured former players Nicole Pratt and Alicia Molik, Sven Groenveld, coach of Maria Sharapova, together with a former Australian 800m runner Lyn Foreman and our very own Judy Murray.

Judy Murray is one such role model. Not only is she spearheading Miss Hits, she is also the Fed Cup Captain and, in her spare time, is passionate about developing grass roots tennis. I wonder if the general public know how much time she devotes to travelling round the country visiting schools, educating parents, coaches and teachers as well as inspiring thousands of kids to try tennis. 

She is not just a role model for females however. Her most famous protégées are now professional tennis players on the ATP tour and so she knows that females can coach male players just as well as male coaches. Even so, it was heartening at the end of his semi final to hear Andy openly praise Amelie Mauresmo by acknowledging that their partnership had "shown women can be great coaches too". He also said that she was "brave" in making the decision to join his team in the knowledge that their partnership would come under scrutiny in a male dominated industry.

So what has she brought to Team Murray? She will be judged on one level by the result on Sunday. But subjectively, it is clear that Andy is happier, more confident on and off the court than he has ever been. There is an ease about his manner in post match interviews that are a far cry from the awkwardness he has displayed in the past. He is less guarded than before as if he has been allowed to speak more freely and be himself. On the court he looks faster, leaner and seems to be accentuating his strengths and more accepting of his weaknesses. He has gone on the record saying that Amelie really listens to him and is willing to learn. It sounds like there is a growth mindset permeating their team with Andy as a person at the centre. And maybe a person centred approach to coaching is what she has brought to the team. Is that a trait of female coaches? Who knows but at any rate, it appears to be working. 

More articles on this topic:

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/tennis/murrays-mojo-is-back-thanks-to-mauresmo-20150129-131jnb.html

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/tennis/mauresmo-and-murray-breaking-new-overdue-ground-20150131-132rdn.html

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/tennis/postcard-from-melbourne-how-to-follow-mauresmo.117320849

Murray's first match at Aus Open 2015...

It's always interesting getting the view of another country's media on a Grand Slam. Here all the pressure is on local boy Nick Kyrgios who at 55-1 with the Australian bookmakers is an unlikely winner although the national press would have you believe otherwise.

All the better for our national hero who can more or less fly under the radar here although he is writing a column for The Age, Melbourne's answer to the Glasgow Herald.

His first column of the championship entitled, "New year, new season, new coach - new beginning?" is infused with a positivity about changes to this team and developing relationship with coach Amelie Mauresmo. He also says he feels good physically and the images that have circulated social media and the press in Australia have showcased his six pack and athleticism.

So what else is new? First of all he is playing his opening match on the newly upgraded Margaret Court Arena. I am lucky enough to get my ground pass upgraded to watch the match and I take my seat with the usual measure of excitement and intrepidation that Andy Murray seems to evoke.

Watching tennis in Australia is not quite the same reverent experience as in SW19 and today the crowd do not disappoint. The stadium commentator introduces the players and then draws our attention to the "royal" guests who have turned out to support Andy and indeed there is a Queen impersonator as well as a Pope in attendance. Only the best for Andy.

He is looking slick in green under armour gear, a new clothing sponsor. He wears same coloured sweatbands. Did he not used to wear a different colour on each arm? He looks relaxed and assured in the warm up and the match gets under way.

I won't pretend that I was relaxed throughout this straight sets win especially when Andy seemed to be moaning at himself and signalling in a negative fashion towards his team. However there was something about his manner as he went about his business that meant his fans need not be worried for long. He only looks disgruntled because he himself has set the bar so high. His expectations of himself are such that he can't bear to be broken on serve or miss shots that fellow professionals would never dream possible to make.

In his column he hinted that a few changes had been made and it was up to us to see what we thought. Did I just imagine it or was there more topspin on his forehand, more conviction on his first serve, more points won on his second? Is it because I'm a such a big fan that I thought he was moving faster than ever, that he has some of the best hands in the game exemplified in a death defying forehand topspin winner round the net post and a short back hand angle winner both at crucial points of respective sets?

I think not. This was no trick of the imagination. There is an air of resurgence about Andy Murray. Like every great champion, he is not without flaws but who doesn't love a flawed hero? For what it's worth, I'm going to put myself on the line and pick Andy to win this year. There's a long way to go but I have a feeling that I haven't had since I backed Amelie Mauresmo to win Wimbledon at 10-1 back in 2006. They're the pair to watch: Andy and Amelie, the new He-man and She-Ra of tennis.