Mumsnet live webchat with Judy Murray, tennis player, coach and mum to Andy and Jamie - Friday 29th July, 12-1pm

[RachelMumsnet]

The strawberries and cream are coming out at MNHQ on Friday lunchtime when we'll be joined by Judy Murray for a webchat at midday until 1pm.  Best known as being mum to tennis stars Andy  and Jamie Murray, Judy herself can hold her own in the courts and won 64 national Scottish titles and represented Great Britain in the World Student Games. Judy is a PCA Qualified Coach and has coached at all levels. Inspired by her experience as a tennis coach and parent, Judy has created a programme called Set4Sport, which showcases easy and accessible ways for parents to play with their children that develop the skills required for playing sport. The programme centres around a book of activities, ball skills, and exercises based on the games Judy played with her sons when they were growing up and is supported by The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), long-term sponsors of the Murrays. The book details a range of ways parents can help children acquire basic physical skills in a fun environment and is available to download for free from //www.Set4Sport.com

If you want to put a question to Judy, join us on Friday 29th July at 12 midday or if you can't make that time, send in your question in advance to this thread.

[munstersmum]

Boxing - Ouch!

[LilyBolero]

As Judy is doing so fantastically well at getting through the questions, can I sneak in another one and bump ds1's?

From ds1; "Did Andy always want to be a tennis player, or were there other careers he considered?"

And sneaky one from me - what would you be doing with someone like my ds1 who is so obsessed with tennis - he literally spends HOURS hitting a ball against the wall - he is playing out Roland Garros atm - he draws up a draw of 128 players and then plays out all the matches with the wall being the opponent each time. He has struggled with hand-eye co-ordination, so this has really helped that, and he is getting quite reasonable now but he is never going to be a champion tennis player! What would you do with someone like him?

[JudyMurray]

@caughtinanet

I have a question for you Judy, do you think the current LTA system for juniors concentrates on too few children at too young an age?

In my view we would be better to try to bring on as many promising players as possible rather then directing all resources towards a handful of youngsters while allowing the rest to fall by the wayside as they are treated as second rate simply because their parents don't have the time or money to keep up.

I too heard the 5 live interview with the LTA head, he was awful and its no wonder they lack credibility.

I'm looking forward to your chat tomorrow

Yes i would for sure spread the opportunities across way more children. Overdosing at a young age can spoil the "chosen" kids and put off those who are not included. Kids dont know if they really want to be tennis players until they are probably 15-17. Before that, they are kids who play tennis...not tennis players who are kids.If that makes sense. And as Ive always said, its better to be a small fish in a big pond. At the moment we have a small pond (not enough players) and so its not so difficult to become a big fish....

[TheGrimSweeper]

Nosy...lily how old is your DS?

[JudyMurray]

@shirl1811

Hi Judy - firstly I want to say what wonderful lads you have - I watch Andy whenever I can and seen him last year at the O2. He has refreshed my interest in tennis.

My question is: I have two sons and if anyone was to criticise them I get very defensive. When I hear and read rubbish about Andy I also get very annoyed as most of what I read/hear is total rubbish. How do you cope?

the natural reaction is to defend your kids, particularly if the criticism is unfair or unfounded, but sometimes its best to just turn the other cheek and remind yourself that the people doing the criticism dont know them and so its just their opinion. What matters is that you know whats right....

[LilyBolero]

he's 10

[MindtheGappp]

Hi Judy,

I love reading your blog on LTA.

Do you really do Andy's ironing for him when you are with him on tour?

[JudyMurray]

@Pabbers

We're fortunate enough to have a tennis court in our village - paid for by raising funds and some lottery money. What we're not blessed with in this country is decent weather. Do you think that may be the reason that Spain and France have more players? It's easier for them to access outdoor courts? We could never have enough indoor ones to provide serious training for all interested kids in the UK.

yes its a huge advantage to be able to play outdoor almost all year round. The weather helps enormously, especially if the sun is shining. We dont have anywhere near enough indoor facilities in this country and those that we do have are expensive...Playing outdoors in the wind and rain doesnt encourage kids (or parents) to love tennis...:(

[JudyMurray]

@LilyBolero

As Judy is doing so fantastically well at getting through the questions, can I sneak in another one and bump ds1's?

From ds1; "Did Andy always want to be a tennis player, or were there other careers he considered?"

And sneaky one from me - what would you be doing with someone like my ds1 who is so obsessed with tennis - he literally spends HOURS hitting a ball against the wall - he is playing out Roland Garros atm - he draws up a draw of 128 players and then plays out all the matches with the wall being the opponent each time. He has struggled with hand-eye co-ordination, so this has really helped that, and he is getting quite reasonable now but he is never going to be a champion tennis player! What would you do with someone like him?

ds1 - I reckon Andy would have been a footballer if the tennis hadnt worked out.

Its great if you have a wall to hit against. try varying the distance you hit the ball from against the wall. Put down some chalk lines and move from one to the other with each shot. So you could start wquite far away from the wall (baseline), move to next line (mid court) and then to 3rd line (net), then move back. This will help your tracking of the ball moving forward and also moving backwards. Great for foot-hand-eye coordination. Also try hitting with the other hand (left hand if you are right handed). Tennis is a 2 sided sort so improve your coordination by testing the non dominant side.


Try and get him in to a tennis club with a good coaching and competitive programme.....

[JudyMurray]

@MindtheGappp

Hi Judy,

I love reading your blog on LTA.

Do you really do Andy's ironing for him when you are with him on tour?

of course.....:) i am an exceptional ironer!

[LilyBolero]

(That was to The Grim Sweeper - he's just turned 10, and I've never seen anything like it, he spends so long out there hitting the ball against the wall, and when I saw his draws I was just because it is such a big undertaking, he does all the seedings (adjusted to which 'surface' the tournament is), and plays best of 5 matches for every pairing, right the way through to the final. I did lol when he came in yesterday and said "GUESS WHAT, Tomas Berdych BEAT Rafa Nadal in the FIRST ROUND of RG" - I was a bit until I realised it was the wall, not real life!).

[JudyMurray]

@kipperandtiger

Hello, Judy. Can I ask you what the minimum age (or maybe height) a child should be before taking up tennis and what kind of racket they should use (which company makes the best ones suitable for small children)? My son watches older children and adults play when he passes the courts and is keen to try it.....he's not even 6 yet! (By the way, congratulations of the achievements of your sons; you must be very proud of them!)

Hi! You can start mini-tennis from age four, though I remember the boys having mini-rackets (more or less a head with a handle) when they were three. The smallest rackets are 19". They then go up to 21" and so on. Any good sports store should stock the small rackets these days or go on line to www.pwp.com for a good selection. I recommend Head. You can get mini versions of Andy's racket! I'd suggest a 19" to start with!

[LilyBolero]

Thanks Judy, I will see what we can do about a tennis club - he is going for a 3 day course in a couple of weeks and will see if they do some reasonably priced lessons. The distance to the wall is unfortunately not huge, it's just on our drive, but once we've moved our shed that should be better! Thanks for the advice, and ds1 will be interested to know about Andy and football too!

[JudyMurray]

@HelenMumsnet

Hi Judy. We've just had this question in - from Twitter. "Please ask Judy her how she'd make tennis more affordable. My son was on 4 lessons a week. It cost hundreds!"

build lots more courts in public parks and ensure there is a coach/organiser employed on a part time basis to ensure lots of fun activities. If we can significantly increase the places to play and number of people playing tennis, there would be lots more local competition and practice opportunities. Too much structured coaching at a young age can be a bit of a turn off. Learn to play the game rather than how to hit the ball......less expensive too!

[SenoraTorres]

Hi Judy,

was so excited when saw you were going to be on mumsnet. We're big fans of the Murray family in this house and want to echo the comments of a previous poster and say that you have all rejuvenated our interest in tennis too. I really enjoyed watching Andy and Jamie play doubles in the Davis cup and hope to see them play together more in the future. I also really enjoy listening to Jamie when he's commentating on radio 5.

Jamie once said that Andy's gameplan is to wait for the other player to make a mistake and this is pretty much his gameplan. Has Andy had to become more aggressive in his play and has this changed his personality at all?

If i edit this anymore will run out of time to post!!

[JudyMurray]

@TheGrimSweeper

Welcome to mn Judy!
In addition to my questions, I too would be very interested in hearing about how you cope with emotions watching your boys and how this has changed over the years.

If not that many questions ...could you also tell us about how you managed you relationship as mum plus more with the boys growing up? Did you do any coaching? How did you seperate your involvement in their tennis from being a mum? Not sure I expressed myself well on that one

Good question.....i find it a lot more stressful nowadays watching the boys because the expectations (esp on Andy) are enormous. When they wre growing up and playing through juniors, for the most part its just about having fun and trying to improve. I think it helped me a lot that I was a coach and could analyse the matches and the performances without getting too caught up emotionally!

Re the coaching...I found a great young caoch to work with the boys when Andy was 12 and Jamie 13. He was just learning to coach and was very keen to learn. He had bleached blond hair and diamond studs in both ears. Very Beckham and very cool (acc A and J). So i mentored him to work with the boys and that allowed ne to be a step back. His name was Leon Smith and he is now Head of Mens Tennis at LTA and Davis Cup captain. Minus the earrings!

[carriemumsnet]

Two questions if that's allowed!

Firstly as someone who already struggles to keep up when playingtennis with my 10 year old ds, do you still manage to play tennis with Andy and Jamie?

Second: As you can see from above am not the best at tennis but would love to play more with friends. Some of the mums at school sometimes suggest playing but when folks say they play tennis "a bit" I've discovered that can mean anything to v basic player like me to ex junior wimbledon champ? Any tips for mums wanting to return to tennis without experiencing total humiliation?

[JudyMurray]

@SenoraTorres

Hi Judy,

was so excited when saw you were going to be on mumsnet. We're big fans of the Murray family in this house and want to echo the comments of a previous poster and say that you have all rejuvenated our interest in tennis too. I really enjoyed watching Andy and Jamie play doubles in the Davis cup and hope to see them play together more in the future. I also really enjoy listening to Jamie when he's commentating on radio 5.

Jamie once said that Andy's gameplan is to wait for the other player to make a mistake and this is pretty much his gameplan. Has Andy had to become more aggressive in his play and has this changed his personality at all?

If i edit this anymore will run out of time to post!!

Glad you enjoyed the Davis Cup. It was a fab atmosphere and the boys loved playing in front of a "home" crowd. The support was amazing. Not sure I totally agree with Jamie because I think Andy has got a lot more aggressive over the last couple of years:) Tennis is an individual sport and everyone has a style to suit their physique and their personality. Andys game is not based on power...its what makes him interesting...i reckon! :)

[JudyMurray]

@carriemumsnet

Two questions if that's allowed!

Firstly as someone who already struggles to keep up when playingtennis with my 10 year old ds, do you still manage to play tennis with Andy and Jamie?

Second: As you can see from above am not the best at tennis but would love to play more with friends. Some of the mums at school sometimes suggest playing but when folks say they play tennis "a bit" I've discovered that can mean anything to v basic player like me to ex junior wimbledon champ? Any tips for mums wanting to return to tennis without experiencing total humiliation?

Last time I played tennis with Andy was about 18 months ago. when he clearly had nobody else to play with......As i havent played competitively for about 8 years and mostly coach 14u players...I was not surprisingly struggling to keep up. Hes smacking balls side to side at the rate of knots and im popping them back in the service box. He says "mum - what the matter with you? You used to be good." I said " and you used to be 12". :)

Its very common for mums who played at school to return to the game when they have their kids. Tennis can be a tricky sport to come back to in terms of fnding someone to play with who is a similar level and who can keep the ball going (control it). Nothing worse than spending most of your time picking balls off the next court or the back fence. If you are coming back to the game, make it easier for yourself by trying with green low pressure tennis balls. You can buy them in most sports shops. They move more slowly through the air and are lighter. Give you more time to react to the ball. So it helps you to get your stokes and footwork under control...and when you are ready ...move back to the yellow balls. Sorted

[TheGrimSweeper]

It's gone so quickly

Thank you so much for coming to mn Judy, It's been one of my favourite webchats.

Set4sport looks great too, will be trying some stuff out! Good luck to you and the boys, you're doing a fab job.

lily your DS sounds awesome

[JudyMurray]

@LeninGrad

www.set4sport.com/ looks good thanks, will try some ideas with mine.

Just another note that I think it's great to see you all being supportive, must be difficult being in the public eye and maintaining your own identity, hopefully the balance is shifting a bit so people can just be themselves.

glad you enjoyed set4sport. If you get a chacne would you email me on [email protected] and elet me know what you thought of the game s and the content.

If you fancy joining us on any of the set4sport roadshows...hers the dates and venues...we would love to see you..;

Aug 10 - South Shields
Aug 16 - Halifax
Aug 22 - Brighton
Aug 23 - Manchester
All free. Nice family day out!!!!!

Full details on set4sport site and set4sprot facebook page.....

[JudyMurray]

@LilyBolero

I third that comment about the criticism - I hate hearing Andrew Castle and the like pontificating about whether Andy will ever win a slam, or whether Federer is finished....because Andrew Castle was SO successful wasn't he!

you said it...not me! Im told that Andrew Castles new nickname is Bouncy....

[caughtinanet]

Annoyingly I've just got back and missed it all but I'd like to say what a good chat this was (nothing to do with Judy agreeing with me of course ) and I'll be looking at the set4sport website.

Its a pity there wasn't more time for questions but thank you for taking the time to answer.

[LilyBolero]

lol @ Bouncy!!!

I'll look at your Set4Sport pages, they look great, and I'll try some of the games with the kids - as well as ds2, the next 2 are both starting to get into tennis now (they're 8 and 5), the baby is too small! But I think looking at your games, the older 3 will all enjoy them!