Murray reaction to Monte-Carlo loss

Sheddie · administrator

Murray reaction to Monte-Carlo loss

LadyTigress · County player

Thanks for that Sheddie.

Sounds like even Andy doesn't know what's bugging him. (He says he felt okay mentally in the interview.).

Criminy, he has bluebelt syndrome.

Let me explain for the uninitiated... this is a term that we use in Tae Kwon Do. You're going well, you're close to the top, you've been at it for a few years now... and suddenly, BAM! It all starts to plateau, and then slip, and you haven't got a damned clue how or why this is happening to you. You used to be able to read your opponents like large print books... now you can't read a thing off them in your duels and you're getting your butt whooped by opponents several belts below you. You're fitter than you've ever been, you're on top of your game, you're doing ten times as much training hours as when you started not to mention your competitors... physically you have no excuse, so you can't understand how you could be going downhill, and you're massively frustrated because of it. You can't explain why you're losing, even you are baffled when you know you're putting in the hours and beyond... You're feeling frustrated, confused, and like things are spinning out of your control and you don't know how to fix it. You're trying your damnedest and nothing is working. As a result you feel that this is a grim situation and that you've lost your touch, your magic, your prowess, call it what you will but whatever you had you feel like you've lost it, and now you're floundering like a whitebelt beginner. You get down on yourself because of this, and as a result, you lose motivation and may even consider quitting.

He has bluebelt syndrome! Well, the tennis equivalent. Geez, he's in trouble. That is tough to overcome, it's a malady you can't explain and don't know how to fix, and leaves you with a dragging sense of confusion and helplessness. Mentally crippling in its way. He's not the first player I've noticed with this kind of "bluebelt syndrome" in the past... sometimes they power through it after a few months, sometimes it ruins careers. This really makes me worry for Andy's future now, for the rest of his career. hmm

indiana · Tennis legend

I actually found some grains of encouragement in that interview.

Andy didn't sound such a lost soul and in particularly didn't look such a lost soul as he did in Miami.

If mentally he is much more with it then good. The fact that he actually played crap after playing so little and badly for such a period, and this being his first match of the clay season is no huge shock ( well quite so badly maybe a shock ) and if it's now more a matter of rank bad form rather than other issues, then that is more clearly rertrievable.

steven · Tennis legend

LadyTigress wrote:

Thanks for that Sheddie.

Sounds like even Andy doesn't know what's bugging him. (He says he felt okay mentally in the interview.).

Criminy, he has bluebelt syndrome.

Let me explain for the uninitiated... this is a term that we use in Tae Kwon Do. You're going well, you're close to the top, you've been at it for a few years now... and suddenly, BAM! It all starts to plateau, and then slip, and you haven't got a damned clue how or why this is happening to you. You used to be able to read your opponents like large print books... now you can't read a thing off them in your duels and you're getting your butt whooped by opponents several belts below you. You're fitter than you've ever been, you're on top of your game, you're doing ten times as much training hours as when you started not to mention your competitors... physically you have no excuse, so you can't understand how you could be going downhill, and you're massively frustrated because of it. You can't explain why you're losing, even you are baffled when you know you're putting in the hours and beyond... You're feeling frustrated, confused, and like things are spinning out of your control and you don't know how to fix it. You're trying your damnedest and nothing is working. As a result you feel that this is a grim situation and that you've lost your touch, your magic, your prowess, call it what you will but whatever you had you feel like you've lost it, and now you're floundering like a whitebelt beginner. You get down on yourself because of this, and as a result, you lose motivation and may even consider quitting.

He has bluebelt syndrome! Well, the tennis equivalent. Geez, he's in trouble. That is tough to overcome, it's a malady you can't explain and don't know how to fix, and leaves you with a dragging sense of confusion and helplessness. Mentally crippling in its way. He's not the first player I've noticed with this kind of "bluebelt syndrome" in the past... sometimes they power through it after a few months, sometimes it ruins careers. This really makes me worry for Andy's future now, for the rest of his career.

This does actually make sense and I think something similar can occur in all sports and even in other areas of life - academic work, careers, etc - and that people who are very committed and intense tend to experience it more than most - it's not that hard to work out why that would be the case either. It's more visible in Andy's case because sport has such obvious wins and losses and its stars are so heavily in the public eye.

It's very difficult to get through, but you can get through it, and I have a feeling Andy will. The prime example of what happens if you don't is probably Richard Gasquet, who I'm pretty sure has suffered from this since he was in his early teens without ever managing to escape from it.

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:

I actually found some grains of encouragement in that interview.

Andy didn't sound such a lost soul and in particularly didn't look such a lost soul as he did in Miami.

If mentally he is much more with it then good. The fact that he actually played crap after playing so little and badly for such a period, and this being his first match of the clay season is no huge shock ( well quite so badly maybe a shock ) and if it's now more a matter of rank bad form rather than other issues, then that is more clearly rertrievable.

I've just viewed the interview - I didn't before writing my previous post. The interview doesn't invalidate it, but I agree with Indiana that there are some tiny encouraging signs there - he's basically saying that he tried to mix it up but it was one of those days when he couldn't find the court (I remember that Elena Baltacha used to have spectacularly bad days like that once upon a time - probably still does, just less frequently than before) and until he gave up towards the end, there were signs that he was trying to mix it up but it just wasn't happening.

LadyTigress · County player

For me, the interview showed all the classic signs. During that first question he's looking down, he's looking at the ground, rather than up at the journos or the camera - looks like he's staring off into space a little bit, trying to work out the answer himself! He describes the court as being small during that match and implies that this is a situation he hasn't experienced for some years and is unusual - he looks a bit baffled as to why he found the court so very small and can't explain why in his reply. He speaks rationally, not as if he's torn up, but he sounds at a bit of a loss to explain his performance - another classic sign; feeling fine but not being able to identify where one is going wrong. He also admits that he "just couldn't find the court" and that he "tried a few different things" like serve-and-volley, higher balls, just trying to mix it up, but it "didn't really make a whole lot of difference"... and then he concludes his answer by saying in a very thoughtful/puzzled/somewhat frustrated way that he "just couldn't get the ball in the court". That's pretty typical of bluebelt syndrome. Because it's just pure confusion and frustration without really knowing why, it's in some ways worse than a very emotional issue that you get fired up from and can push on from, because it just leaves you feeling demotivated and sucks all the fun out of things and just ultimately feeling numb.

There are good signs though. Andy says in his first reply that his nervousness before a match has come back, implying that it wasn't there in Indian Wells and Miami and that he has managed to regain this feeling. He then expands upon that statement in his next reply, and notice how he is suddenly looking up a lot more, at the people around him, his eyes seem more animated and he seems fresher and brighter and more alert, and he's making eye contact a lot more. This is positive, because it means he is actually feeling something going into that match, instead of just feeling totally numb and then getting wound up with himself and frustrated, it almost gives him an emotional stake in the match, he's feeling something out there, he's caring about the outcome. That's motivation, ultimately. No sportsman is going to feel motivated going into a match/duel that they feel numb about. Nervousness is actually a great emotion to have going in, far from being necessarily a bad thing (which it sounded like the journos asked Andy when he made that second answer), it's very common and provides great motivation and trigger off adrenalin, which your sportsman can translate into an attentive, very successful performance.