CTC Shorts: Andy Murray on Why Players Should Watch More Tennis

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Daniel Kiernan  00:09

Welcome to Episode 210, of control the controllables. And this is also a third podcast shot that we are bringing to you. And we've had such good feedback on our first two, that we're excited to bring you, Sir Andy Murray. And it was such an amazing episode that it took us a bit of time actually to, to pick out the bit of information that we wanted to share in this episode. And it's not a long piece. But it's a piece that I think goes to show that the Great's of the game or the greats in any industry, we think that it's just natural. You know, we often talk about Andy Murray, and we talk about how he reads the game. So well, he just understands tennis, he has such a natural way of understanding what's happening on the court. And I think this will dispel that theory that he's born with that, you know, this is, this is something that needs to be worked on. And you will hear all about how Andy learns, and he shares some, some great stories, stories that I've shared far and wide since speaking to him a couple of months ago. And I think there's a great learning in there for everybody. Now, before we jump in, I also just want to say how excited we are. And we have been nominated for the sports Podcast Awards, the best tennis and racquet category. This year now, we've been really fortunate to have such amazing people that follow the podcast, voting for us the last couple of years. And somehow we ended up in number one spot. Now, that number one spot has enabled us to, to get the credibility to keep pushing this podcast forward. And that truly has helped all of the amazing guests coming on, it's helped my fantastic team behind me that are working tirelessly to bring you these episodes as well. And if you feel we deserve another chance to get close to top spot, I know each year the competition gets much tougher, then please do spend a couple of minutes we will leave the link in the in the show notes for you to just pop in there. It's not too complicated, it might take you a minute or two to work it out. And if you felt the vote deserves to go to control the controllables, then we will be absolutely grateful for that. But yeah, that's that's us, that's where we're at. It's It's almost Christmas, and I'm now rather than yabbering on, I'm gonna pass you over to Sir Andy Murray.

Andy Murray  02:58

From a young age we're like we're allowed to just like, we're allowed to compete. So it didn't matter what age you were playing against, but I would often play against like, you know, kids that were four or five years older than I was, we would sometimes play in the local sort of tennis club, like, matches, so we play like doubles against some of the other, you know, some of the other clubs in the area, you know, when we were, you know, really quite young and we're playing against, you know, 3040 year olds, so obviously, clearly we can't compete by, you know, matching them for strength and power, but you're having to find ways to win, you know, by, by guests being smarter than them and using, you know, different shots and, you know, using lobs and angles, rather than just trying to hit the ball harder. And I did find that a lot, actually, when I moved over to Spain. Because again, I was always training with grown men most of the time, you know, I was only 15 that I couldn't match them, you know, for for strength that I had to play a slightly different way to, you know, to win against them and compete and physically I wasn't very strong, to be honest, like, as a junior player, like, you know, I was pretty thin you know, probably didn't look like you know, a great athlete at the time. So, you know, I had to use like, my brain and my you know, my hand skills to try and beat these you know, these these these men basically. And yeah, I think it's probably a combination of those things like you know, playing age groups and play against older you know, older people since since I was really young. I think it's probably helped that because you can't, you couldn't just win by by brute force you had to find you had to find a different way. And I also I did watch loads of tennis when I was young, like I used to. I was out injured once. Again, when I was 1516, I was out with my knee injury for like six months, and I used to, you know, sit when all the matches were on Sky Sports, and I would sit in front of the TV, like, watch, like, five, six hours of tennis in a row when I couldn't, you know, train or do much rehab and take notes on all of the players and stuff and how I would play against them. And, you know, and it helped a lot when I actually got on the tour, because a lot of those guys, I'd been watching them since I was, you know, 14, 15 years old, I've been watching them for four or five years and taking notes on them. And the one guy, and I never got to play him in a match, but I loved watching him when I was a kid was Coria. And I got to practice with him once or twice when I was in Barcelona, he came to the academy where I was at to train. And I he may see this differently, but I could just see what he was going to do. Like I was reading exactly what he was going to do when we were practicing with each other. And, you know, I was able to win against him when I was on the 16th or so, you know, to have all my friends around the court that were at the academy, you know, on hard, unfortunately, not on, not on clay. But yeah, like, I just Yeah, I loved I loved watching and found that side of the game, you know, really, really interesting. And I actually probably wish I'd been able to do it more over these last sort of seven, eight years, like actually have the time to sit down and watch matches in the stands and, you know, learn a little bit more, because it definitely helps. Because

Daniel Kiernan  06:46

how different is it. And I believe it's massive, to watch a whole match and understand the context, understand the ebbs and flows understand people's patterns under pressure people's behaviors under pressure than it is right now. There'll be a lot of kids that watch tennis, but they're watching tennis TV, on Instagram, they're watching the underarm serve the through the legs shot, they're watching the highlight reel, which is so so different to watching a full tennis match.

Andy Murray  07:16

Yeah, and I think one of the problems with with that is that, but yeah, when someone hits an underarm serve, and I've hit a few in the last couple of years, and you know with, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, you know, when a through the legs shot, when someone pulls that off, like Yeah, it's brilliant, it's great to watch, but the percentage of points that players actually win when they do that sort of stuff, you know, in my opinion is very low. And you could see someone try five and a match and the win won. And that's what everyone sees on the highlights package, not the other five through the leg shots that they butchered or when they've hit an underarm serve. And, you know, the players just run up to and hit a winner or the double faulted with it or whatever. And yeah, and generally that Alcaraz is probably an exception, because most points that he plays are a highlight. But, you know, what tends to win matches is you know, the consistency and, you know, repeating, like, you know, high percentage tenants over and over again and executing that under pressure not hitting one through the leg shot here and there. Doesn't work the majority of the time. So it's probably a it's a bit of an issue with the way that people see tennis know, on social media, like, yes, it's entertaining and fun. I like watching it, but watching a three hour tennis match. The various key points are like that.

Daniel Kiernan  08:41

Absolutely. And one of one of the most impressive stats I think you have Andy is 11 Grand Slam finals. Not many people talk about that 11 Grand Slam finals, three wins three grand slams, double gold medalist, world number one Davis Cup winner, you know, and there's there's been so many amazing tennis players over the years, but they haven't reached that kind of immortality level of doing those things. And you're one of a very select few that have. We know there's not a magic secret potion. And it's not quite as simple as that. But what is it? What is it when you reflect on that because we take the new comers, Alcaraz we've talked about, he's got it. He's got it. She on tech, she's got it, you know that there hasn't been that many. So going from being an amazing tennis player to being those ones that year in year out or making Grand Slam finals winning Grand Slams that you have done. What would you put that down to

Andy Murray  09:47

those certain players that that are that are that are just that are special and have like and have everything? But yeah, the thing that probably separates the The top top players is probably the mind. I know people say that, you know, a lot. I often see it used just based on, like, someone's mind mindset during a match or an important moment in the match. But to me, there's a lot more to it than just that it's, you know, how do these players like? How did they deal with losses? Like, how did they? How did they learn from setbacks? How is their mentality, like, every single day during the year, like when they're training and when they're, you know, are the cutting sessions short in the gym, are they, you know, out partying when they should be in bed, you know, sleeping and preparing for, you know, the next day's work. And, you know, it's not as simple as just or that that person is really good, like, you know, under pressure, or, you know, when the, the third set tie break, that's what everyone sees on the, on the TV or when they're watching in the stands. But to me, it's like, the thing that separates the top top ones is that they're able to do that, like, day after day, like, consistently, year after year. And that's why, yeah, the guys that have been up at the top of the game, you know, certainly during my era, you know, been what's incredible what they've done, because you can work extremely hard for 10 years, and, you know, be right on it for all those 10 years. And as soon as you drop off for six months, and you're not focused, you know, on your practices, and you're not doing all the right things away from the core and your training and everything, you aren't gonna stay there. And that's what's been amazing to me about what Novak and Rafa and Roger have done. Yeah, it's just that longevity of clearly loving the game, but being able to just work hard and focus on their tennis for such a long period. It's not that you can enjoy other things. It's not that you can't enjoy life, you know, you solely have to focus on tennis, it's just when you show up to the practice court. Are you working hard? Are you are you putting in the right? The right effort? And when you show up to the tournament? So are you giving your best? And, yeah, it's very different to what a lot of people, I think, when they talk about mindset and mentality, it's often just about what happens on the match court. And to me, what separates the great athletes and the great players. It's what they're doing away from the court as well, consistently, day after day when there isn't anyone watching. And that's arguably the harder part of it. I

Daniel Kiernan  12:49

I hope you all enjoyed that and got that message into your veins, you know, so much to be learned from Sir Andy Murray, his measured responses, the way that he thinks things through is is one of the reasons that he is arguably the greatest ever male British sportsman, and we wish him all the very best going into 2024. And he's been working incredibly hard behind the scenes to get himself ready. And let's see if he can have another big push as he goes into the new season. And to all of you were a big, Merry Christmas to you all. And I have to mention at this time, yeah, I know, Christmas can also be very difficult for lots of people. And there's, there's many special family friends that aren't with us. And this is the time of year that we tend to feel that even stronger. So thinking of you all and thinking of everyone that is going through the challenges that the world is going through right now. You know, it's as we tuck into our Christmas turkey and open our presents in front of the fire. There's some people that aren't as fortunate as I saw a little prayer, a little thoughts for everybody out there that is having to go through such these tragic events right now and we're sending all of our love from control the controllables but until next time, I'm Dan Kiernan, we are Control the Controllables