This evening, as may some of you, I watched Andy Murray take on Bernard Tomic in an early round match at the ATP 1000 Miami Open. Bernard is the youngest player in the top 100 of the world rankings. Neither player performed particularly well throughout the game but when Bernard made mistakes he became very animated and displayed his inner dissapointment by hitting his racket against the floor, shouting at himself, tearing at his hat and more. Andy never outwardly showed any annoyance when he made mistakes.
Bernard's outward displays in dissapointment clearly acted as motivation for Andy as he clearly knew if he continued to play in the same manner as he did it would only be a matter of time before he'd break Bernard - and this all went to give Andy more confidence. The struggle of negative thinking and negative posturing by Bernard became the catch 22 situation which would lead to his downfall.
Where Andy was struggling initially, Bernard's negative posturing would have provided Andy was some strength and support internally that he was on top. The reality is had Bernard, at least kept positive in his thinking and posturing, Andy may have himself have had started doubting where the game could go. Instead, he learnt when his opponent was struggling, even with particular shots, and simply repeated the shots he knew were frustrating his opponent. Bernard became his own downfall. It was hugely dissapointing and people are questioning where Bernard can go on in the sport but hopefully it will be a lesson to him of how important mental preparation and manipulation is in sport. It is never down to just to sheer physical size, age or experience.
It is something Mick always tries to emphasise to our clients but I thought this would be an interesting, fresh example of the importance of positive thinking and positive posturing in sport and to sportspeople, regardless of what sport, reading this to retain this example in their minds every time they play/perform. If you can catch a reply of this game in the next 48 hours definitely do so to understand the full extent of the example.