The Sixth Sense

Mental blocks - why Andy Murray lost

I knew Andy Murray would lose the US Open Final. I’m not a prophet or psychic or anything. I just knew. How? Because he had already won his final. Beating Rafa Nadal was a huge mental breakthrough having lost each of their previous contests.

This is the classic sporting situation. It happens in most sports. Teams beat opposition that they should never have beaten only to surrender meekly in the following round.

For whatever reason, many sportsmen and teams suffer from this mental block. They have a major - and perhaps unlikely victory - only to then struggle in the next round.

Here’s why I think this is. It’s because they don’t have high enough expectations. Their goal is not winning the competition (no matter what they say otherwise); it is winning the immediate contest.

It is not the goals that you say out loud that count; it is the goals we truly believe deep down that define us. Andy Murray will have looked at the draw, seen he had to face Rafa Nadal in the semi-final, and known immediately and that was THE match of the competition.

Sure he will have dreamt of winning the whole thing. And, of course, he said he believed he could win it. But as soon as beating Nadal became THE match, the competition was lost.

Of course, next time round, facing Nadal is a totally different proposition. This makes his future chances of success in a major tennis tournament far more likely.

This all leads to some interesting questions for the rest of us. Whilst it’s unlikely we’ll face circumstances quite like Andy Murray, we do all have goals and ambitions which each have coinciding obstacles. What are the mental blocks we may have holding us back from getting to where we want to get?

What do you think?

Tags: Andy Murray, Life, Sport, Tennis

Humble and Ferocious

It is probably fair to say that I spent far too long in front of the television yesterday. Yes, I got totally caught up in the Federer vs. Nadal Wimbledon tennis final. I don’t think I missed a single point!

It felt like a real privilege actually. It was the best game of tennis I have ever seen. And it seems like I’m not the only one. Pretty much everyone is hailing it as the greatest game of tennis that has ever been played.

One of the things I love about Federer and Nadal is that they are both amazing tennis champions. They are both in a class of their own. No one else can get near them. And yet, they are two of the must humble, genuine guys around as well. Neither of them has a trace of arrogance.

I was reading how after Nadal thrashed Federer in the French Open, he deliberately waited to go into the locker room to give space to Federer who he knew would really be feeling down. And, just this morning, Nadal got onto a plane to Stuttgart to apologise in person for having to pull out of their tournament this week due to a knee injury. Not only that, after winning the Queen’s tennis tournament a few weeks ago he flew home via an Easy Jet flight - Europe’s low cost, budget airline.

Nadal in particular seems to combine real ferocity on the tennis court that is fueled by absolute humility. So many sports stars are undermined by arrogance. And arrogance is such an ugly quality. I love it that both Federer and Nadal show us that you don’t need to be a horrible, arrogant person to make it to the top. In fact, I would argue that their humility is perhaps the reason they are so consistently at the top of world tennis year after year.

It may not be a quality that is massively valued, but I’m convinced that one of the keys to lasting success - individually or as an organisation - is humility.

What do you think?

Tags: Humility, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Tennis, Wimbledon