Judy Murray Wears Multiple Hats at Australian Open 2012

Written by: Staff on 15th January 2012

Judy Murray Wears Multiple Hats at Australian Open 2012 |

The Australian Grand Slam Coaches’ Conference launched yesterday at Melbourne Park with Judy Murray, experienced coach, tennis administrator and mother of Australian Open competitors Andy and Jamie, headlining an array of coaching luminaries speaking at the event.

Murray is wearing a number of different hats during her time in Melbourne.

Only last month, Murray was appointed captain of the Great Britain Fed Cup team and, with the team due to play in the Europe/Africa Zone Group in a pool with the Netherlands, Israel and Portugal in early February, she has only a short time to prepare.

Prior to arriving in Melbourne, Murray spent time at WTA events in Auckland and Hobart helping her team and their coaches, as well as keeping an eye on their upcoming Fed Cup opponents.

As part of her new role, she is also actively working to encourage more female tennis coaches in the UK. Murray plans to identify a number of coaches that she can mentor and “provide an educational package around them.”

On a larger scale, she is hoping to create workshops to help female coaches understand not just the basics of the women’s game, but everything else they need to know about the tour.

“Women are particularly good in the early stages of kids taking up tennis,” said Murray. “But at the top end of the game as well, I notice on the women’s tour that most of the coaches are men. “It would be nice to have more of a balance I think.”

At the Coaches’ Conference, Murray hosted a session on ‘Nurturing a Talent’ in which she ran a group of young Victorian kids through a number of innovative drills aimed at stimulating their brains, allowing them to think for themselves and learn how to play the game of tennis, as opposed to just hitting the ball.

“It’s really good to get the opportunity to share your knowledge with everybody else,” Murray said. “I wanted to show the kind of drills that I use with children in order to highlight the things that I believe are important at a young age.”

Murray encourages kids to recognize the following on court situations, “how to cause trouble for their opponents, avoid trouble and get out of trouble.” From that initial philosophy, she offered the “four C’s” of control, concentration, competition and co-ordination as keys to learning the game.

The concept of co-ordination also underscores Set4Sport, an initiative Murray launched in the UK in June last year. Set4Sport is about having fun in the family environment while developing balance, co-ordination and agility skills at an early age via a series of inexpensive and accessible household games.

“Helping kids aged four to eight develop these skills will allow them to play any sport competently later in life and can also improve confidence and self-esteem,” said Murray.

Set4Sport is currently running a series of road shows across the UK, as well as offering a free book and a website, all of which Murray is actively involved in. Free apps for iPhone and iPad are also on the way.

The Australian Grand Slam Coaches’ Conference is being held at Melbourne Park’s Hisense Arena and runs until Saturday, January 14, with an interactive workshop on Sunday, January 15.