Winning is not to be confused with ‘play better’
Do competitive amateur tennis players that have a desire to win, need more lessons on how to hit the ball better? Will hitting the ball a bit better, make them win more matches?
Perhaps they just need lessons on where to hit the ball and most importantly their mental state before, during and after, they hit the ball?
After all, in a sixty-minute match, the ball is in play for ten minutes but you are left alone with your thoughts and feelings for fifty minutes.
In a 50/50 match between equals, winning or losing is 90% mental.
Compare the Lendl and Murray relationship and the brilliant article in The Daily Mail by Martin Samuel.
Belief is everything. It’s the cornerstone of victory. The ability to believe you will find a way to win, then win, when a way is not apparent. Part of ‘belief’ is the ability to get into your opponent’s mind and sap them of belief.
‘If you can get into someone’s head in any way, then that makes a difference’ says John McEnroe
Murray has BELIEF. Lots of it. On the ATP Tour where the difference in shot making from top 100 to top 1 is marginal you don’t get to World number 2 without being a Big Point Player. But in Murray’s case, Djokovic has more belief.
It is this strategic and psychological supremacy to become World Number 1, win more Grand Slams, that the pair are hoping to recreate.
If these topics are so important to the world’s best then surely it’s of the same importance to competitive amateur tennis players of a wide range of ages, capability and of course both sexes?
How to beat your peer group?
How do you teach this?
Let’s look at what Lendl trains in person on the practice court and reinforces, devoid of passion, in the player’s box.
At critical moments, and there are quite a few of these during a match, it’s not just the ‘glory’ points of closing out, Murray wears his heart on his sleeve. Do you ever see a boxer cry in pain and frustration because he just got hit hard? Murray in the past would display his range of see saw emotions which would signify his mental fragility. Murray could argue he gets his emotions out and can then be focussed on the job at hand. But too his opponent he knows Murray is wounded. Perception is reality. Murray has just poured petrol on the bonfire of his opponents BELIEF.
During Wimbledon Murray was resilient, relentless and intense. The irresistible force as well as the immoveable object.
What’s it like walking onto court and looking into the eyes of your opponent knowing that ‘when he bleeds he plays his best’ (Becker quote on Djokovic) Or seeing tipping points closed out without emotion.
Lendl cuts to the heart of what matters. He cuts through the many distractions and interferences off court as well as on court. You are who you are on court because of who you are and what you do off court. There isn’t a magical ‘winner’ switch you can press.
He cut through the pressure of British tennis history, cut through the mental exhaustion of chasing the sport’s big three.
What can you cut through to savour victory?
Make practice ‘feel’ like a match? Simulate risk and match conditions. Competitive. Highly precise and purposeful. Exhilarating and joyous.
Or do you do what Murray calls ‘rubbish practice’. Spend your time on things that look good but don’t matter?
Lendl and other great coaches that ‘win’ such as Eddie Jones (Rugby Union) have managed to strip out the unnecessary. Learning to win is complex. Multi layered. That’s probably why until now there’s never been a modular approach to the training. Lendl, Jones, ourselves preach and train a complex gospel of simplification
This training from players that have won Grand Slams, often overcome adversity, helps Murray to prepare better for the bigger occasions. With Lendl in his corner Murray has won three Grand Slams. Without him, none.
Your, myself, our ‘bigger occasion’ might be a match with someone from your peer group with only ‘pride’ at stake.
Finally Lendl concludes, obviously, he can beat Djokovic, but a lot of work still has to be done on that. It is so tight in all the matches that one or two points can sway the match.’
Over 20 weeks, Lendl intends to be the one or two points. It’s all in the mind.
Would you want the equivalent of a Lendl by your side? Make the complex simple? Victory not tennis?
CARPE DIEM!
