Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #68 Tennis: A Game for Life with Jamie Murray
Episode Date: June 26, 2019CAUTION ADVISED: this podcast contains mild swearing. Having won 6 grand slam titles, Jamie Murray is one of the most successful British tennis players of all time. This week, with Wimbledon nearly up...on us, I sit down to talk with him about what he does behind the scenes to keep fit and healthy and what we can all learn from this – from the equipment he carries with him to how he focuses his mind before a match. We talk about his childhood, how much tennis he and his brother (Andy Murray) played as children and whether just focusing on one sport is beneficial for children. We also discuss the benefits of playing doubles and Jamie talks about his youtube channel in which he has created instructional videos to help people improve their doubles game. Jamie believes that tennis is a game for everyone – I hope this conversation inspires you to pick up a tennis racket or simply get more active. Show notes available at drchatterjee.com/jamiemurray Follow me on instagram.com/drchatterjee/ Follow me on facebook.com/DrChatterjee/ Follow me on twitter.com/drchatterjeeuk DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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Get out there, get down to my local park or local club, do it with your friends.
I think that's always more fun.
Throw yourself into it.
Tennis is a game for life.
I mean, you can play it till you're 80 years old if you look after yourself.
Hi, my name is Rangan Chastji, GP, television presenter and author of the best-selling books
The Stress Solution and The Four Pillar Plan.
I believe that all of us have
the ability to feel better than we currently do, but getting healthy has become far too complicated.
With this podcast, I aim to simplify it. I'm going to be having conversations with some of the most
interesting and exciting people both within as well as outside the health space to hopefully
inspire you as well as empower you with simple tips that you
can put into practice immediately to transform the way that you feel. I believe that when we
are healthier, we are happier, because when we feel better, we live more.
Hello and welcome to episode 68 of my Feel Better Live More podcast. My name is Rangan Chatterjee
and I am your host.
For today's show, I'm trying something a little bit different. Here in the UK, we are approaching
the height of the British summer, a time when many people in the UK get gripped by tennis fever
because the Wimbledon Tennis Championships are about to start. For those of you not living in
the UK, this is typically a time when tens of thousands of people either dust off their rackets or pick up a racket for the first time as they feel inspired to get
out there and play tennis. To celebrate this, I have sat down with one of the country's most
successful tennis players of all time to talk about all things tennis. My guest today is Jamie
Murray. Jamie has won a phenomenal six Grand Slam titles and is the older brother in the most
well-known of British tennis families, the Murrays.
In today's show, Jamie talks about what he does behind the scenes to keep fit and healthy
and what we can all learn from this, from the equipment he carries with him to how he
focuses his mind before a match.
We talk about his childhood, how much
tennis he and his younger brother Andy Murray played as children, and whether just focusing
on one sport is beneficial for children. We also talk about the benefits of playing doubles and
Jamie talks about his YouTube channel in which he has created instructional videos to help people
improve their doubles game. Andy believes that
tennis is a game for everyone. I hope this conversation inspires you to pick up a tennis
racket or simply to get more active. Now before we get started, I do need to give a quick shout
out to the sponsors of today's episode who are essential in order for me to put out weekly
episodes like this one.
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Now, of course, I prefer that people get all of their nutrition from food,
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and digestive enzymes. whole food supplements that I've ever come across and contains vitamins, minerals, prebiotics and
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at athleticgreens.com forward slash live more. Now, on to today's conversation.
So Jamie, welcome to the Feel Better Live More podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Hey, not at all. It's really, really good for you to be here.
You know, you are a professional tennis player.
You've won six Grand Slam tournaments, I believe, so far,
which makes you possibly one of the most successful British tennis players of all time.
Yeah, I guess so. I guess so, yeah.
I don't, uh,
I don't like think about that, but yeah. You're too modest, obviously, to talk about that in your own sense, but you've been very, very successful. And, you know, this is a podcast about, um,
trying to inspire people to get more out of their life. And I think we could probably learn a lot
from you and your experiences in terms of what you do as a tennis player in terms of what we can all learn in terms of how we live our own lives. So
I wonder if we might be able to explore some of that on the podcast today.
Absolutely, yeah.
So you're a professional tennis player. Obviously, sometimes we will see you play on television,
but there must be a lot that goes on behind the scenes in terms of keeping fit and
keeping healthy yeah i think in in tennis today well i'm sure forever is you know the people see
you walk onto the court they see you play the match and then they see you walk off the court
and they don't have any insight into what goes on beforehand to get you to the point that you're ready to
compete at ideally your highest level and obviously afterwards they don't see the
the aftermath the fallout but I think like for for me as I kind of gone through my career like
I understand more the importance of you know the preparation and the recovery and you know the preparation is
obviously physical but a lot of that is is mental as well because you need to be in the right frame
of mind to be able to get out there and compete you know with a kind of clear focus state of mind
in order to make the right decisions that you need to on the court to be uh to be successful
so how old are you now jamie 33 33 and when did you start on the tour
uh i started on the tour in probably my first full season in 2007 has the way you approach your
fitness and um your recovery and and you know the mental preparation for a game changed from when
you were fresh on the tour to now when you've got all these years of experience? Yeah, totally. Because when I first started, I mean, I was 20, 21.
So for me, it was just like getting out there,
practice as much as I can, get out, compete
and not really think of sort of too much else.
But obviously, as you go, you learn a lot more
and, you know, about other components
that can kind of give you these sort
of marginal gains you know also players are playing a lot longer than they used to and i
think a lot of that's to do with the preparation the recovery you know whether that's getting the
ice baths or the food that you're putting in your body afterwards um has allowed these guys to play
for a lot longer than previous generations yeah well i was watching your youtube channel the other day and i
saw the video of what you have in your tennis bag yeah and i'll tell you what i found super
interesting about that because you know as a sports fan and someone who was a lot more in my
bag now than there was when i started in 2007 that's interesting but i tell you what i thought
was that um a lot of things that are in your bag, let's say those resistant bands, for example,
that you probably travel with.
I thought that's a cheap bit of kit
that is keeping you fit and flexible
and working on your mobility whilst you're on the roads.
And I thought, well, that's a lot of the general public
could probably benefit from something like that in their house
or when they're going traveling
or let's say a businessman's traveling for work
and they just keep a couple of those things with them to do in the hotel room in the morning. They'd probably get some benefit from that like that in their house or when they're going traveling or let's say a businessman's traveling for work and they just keep a couple of those things with them to do
in the hotel room in the morning they'd probably get some benefit from that as well yeah i mean
100 i mean i my resistance band so mainly i'm using that in my warm-up to kind of activate
like muscles in my shoulders uh stuff for core but you know you can use them for probably a full body
workout just about i have like a trigger ball that i travel with a couple of different trigger balls
so wherever i am i can take that out of my bag and you know i can sit on that if like my glutes
are tight or my hips tight i can lie on the ball my back back my shoulder things like that so
for me that's like like it's a lifesaver
sometimes because I obviously don't always have the opportunity to you know get a massage or
other forms of recovery but there I have that in my in my bag at all times I can use it I have a
foam roller as well so I can roll out my back quads calves things like that so these things
you use they're not expensive either I mean yeah 10 15 quid. I mean, the band's not even that...
Well, that was, you know,
I think that was the thing that struck me.
You're a professional tennis player
who travels the world playing and performing and competing.
Yet a lot of the equipment I saw in your bag
was very accessible to so many of us.
And that really struck me
because I think a lot of us might perceive top tennis stars to, for example, have all kinds of equipment and support staff that are not accessible to everyone else.
And I'm sure at the elite level, particularly in singles, that possibly is the case.
But I think you managed to show that actually it can be quite accessible for so many of us.
Yeah, definitely. And I think, I mean, obviously for me, it's my job to look after my body. that actually it can be quite accessible for so many of us yeah definitely and i think i mean
obviously for me it's my job to look after my body so my knowledge of what i need with me in order to
kind of give me the best chance of doing that is probably higher than your person on the street
who's not really it's not really a focus for them is it you know I think with a bit of learning and stuff and knowing what the right
things for you to buy for your body is it doesn't I don't think it takes much and like I said it is
is cheap and everyone can go on Amazon and get this stuff delivered yeah the next day and start
but I guess you kind of it's a it's probably the awareness first that that people need yeah
absolutely um I know that know that one of the resistance
bands that I saw in your video, I, in the morning, I'll often, with a resistance band, just do some
overheads, stretching, because my shoulders can get quite tight. And I think I've always thought,
because I'm very tall, I can get a bit rounded in my upper back. So I always try and stretch that
out in the morning. And I just keep that resistance band with me all the time even when I'm traveling and I find it super super useful um you mentioned mental focus Jamie and
of course that's very important because at the elite level um I'm sure you're always playing
against very good players so what's going on up here is probably really important do you have
some set practices that you do to get you in the right frame of mind um you know if i'm warming up and
stuff i'm i'm still sort of like visualizing things that i want to see happen in the match or
moves that i want to make or strategies that we want to play or i'm thinking about like the volley
that i'm going to move across the court to take or things like that just kind of like get my mind ready for what i want to kind of try to implement
on the core even things like i try not to you know maybe put my phone away maybe like half an
hour before i i go on the court so i'm not sort of distracted with you know messages or emails
coming through that all of a sudden you know you get in your own little world and you're
meshing and all of a sudden i'm getting called to court and I'm a bit kind of scatterbrained. That's an interesting thought for
a tennis fan to think that in the changing room, just before you come out on court to warm up in
front of the crowd, let's say, people might just be, you know, sending emails or sending texts or
just, you know, the sort of stuff that we all do in our everyday lives yeah tennis players are addicted to their phones just like
the rest of the world yeah but that's a great take-home tip isn't it you know before something
important you know maybe half an hour beforehand you switch it off and it allow your mind just to
be fully present and focused in what you're doing and you mentioned visualization which
a lot of sportsmen talk about this i know tiger woods has spoken about this before
i think a long time ago about how and other golfers would visualize you know if they're
going to play a course and i say they'll visualize the night before or the morning of the the rounds
what shots they're going to play what shot shapes are going to play on each hole it's almost
and the neuroscience tells us that it when you visualize it it's actually happening in your brain
so when you actually go and perform it's actually happening in your brain. So when you actually go and perform it, it's a lot easier.
Is visualising something you just found was helpful for you
or were you taught it at a young age?
I first used sports psychologists probably when I was like 14, 15.
I was kind of having a bit of a rough time in my tennis.
I went to see him and he's kind of been a lifelong friend since that.
And he kind of got me into it a bit.
And it was kind of part of our routines.
And then, you know, I kind of just kept with it sort of as I became older professional player
and kind of moving through the ranks.
Yeah. No, no, super fascinating.
But even stuff like, for me, you know,
if I'm going to play a big match,
like if I'm going to play on the centre court at Wimbledon, for example,
and there's going to be a lot of crowd there,
or we're playing Davis Cup where it's mental
and everyone's there to support you or the other team and it's so noisy.
Like that stuff for me is like important to kind of, you know,
visualise the crowd, how they're going to be cheering and stuff like that.
So when you do go there, you know, you're not caught off guard
and rabbit in the headlights and maybe you freeze and your body gets stiffen up and you know you
can't move your feet you can't get going and then it can spiral quite fast your mind going at a
thousand miles an hour and you know you can't stop it to the point that you can just stay in the in
the moment and stick to the process and play point by point with a kind of clear image of what you're
trying to to achieve.
I mean, it's interesting. We would naturally think that these things aren't applicable to us.
You know, we're not professional tennis players, but everyone really is seeking peak performance
in their own lives for whatever they're seeking to do. So for you, you're seeking peak performance
to perform on a tennis court, but someone working in an office is also seeking, I guess, in some way, peak performance to perform.
Yeah, their task, yeah.
Yeah, and so visualizing, you know, getting yourself in the right mental state to perform, I don't think should be exclusive to sportsmen.
I think we maybe need to think about our own bodies as a sportsman would do in terms of how we look after it.
We maybe need to think about our own bodies as a sportsman would do in terms of how we look after it.
Your family, Jamie, certainly from what I read, you know, you, your brother, Andy, the singles player, obviously have been very, very successful.
And I guess the natural question is, you know, how much of this is nature and how much of this is nurture you know to have two amazing players from the same
family um is that something to do with your upbringing do you think and what you're exposed
to or do you think there's some natural talent there or is it a bit of both yeah well i think
both i think we were very fortunate with our environment which I think is incredibly important for for anyone in any walk
of life and what environment they're surrounded in but we we had my mum who is an amazing
tennis coach especially for kids at a young age in terms of being able to develop the necessary
skills in them to be equipped to be tennis players. And then also we were brothers.
So there's obviously that natural rivalry,
probably more from Andy because he was younger brother.
So we always had that person right there in front of us
to probably subconsciously push each other to try to be better than the other one.
And then the other thing was, I mean, we grew up in Scotland where there was,
I think at the time there was like two indoor tennis centres.
In the whole of Scotland?
Yeah, and we were fortunate to live like 10 minutes from one.
So that was a big advantage for us because obviously, you know, more than half the year it's raining there and you can't play tennis outside.
So we had the opportunity to play indoors a lot, whereas maybe other people in the country didn't have that uh that opportunity
but we also had parents grandparents as well who made incredible sacrifices for us to give us the
opportunities that we needed to further our tennis i hear from from what i read that um your mum or
your parents didn't force you to specialize early in terms of just playing tennis yeah it was very
much a case of doing lots of things and i think i read some of you you you'd like to wrestle with
your brother is that right um yeah i mean we definitely did all sorts of different sports and
games and activities and we were never pushed to play tennis um which i think is really important because especially for like burnout and
yeah if you don't if you're forced to do something you don't enjoy the chance of you reaching your
potential in that sport or activity or whatever is i would say is very very low uh with regards
to wrestling i mean it was huge at that the time when The time when we were growing up and we were right into it.
So we would have like, you know, they always say don't try this at home,
but, you know, we would be in our bedroom and stuff having fake matches
and we had the wrestling belts that we'd create ourselves
and the cardboard and everything like that.
And yeah, we'd have a good go at it.
So it wasn't all about tennis?
No, no, absolutely not.
I mean, I get asked often by parents who have young kids
and they're saying, you know,
when you were my son or daughter's age,
how much tennis were you playing?
Were you playing every day?
Were you playing two hours, three hours a day?
And I was like, you know,
we maybe played like three or four days a week
and we maybe played for an hour or an hour and a half
that time and everyone's like really what why I was like well that's just what we wanted to do
you know our parents always said like if if you want to play tennis we'll go play tennis if you
don't want to then we won't there's no no big deal I think for them was just they wanted us to be
happy and enjoy our our childhood which we did it that's so fascinating
because how do you think things have changed um in culture since you were kids and and
a really good mate of mine from scotland he his son is a very good tennis player in scotland and
he you know he's you know they're driving to tournaments a lot of weekends a lot of training
and i think he said to me a little while ago he said it's really interesting now there seems to be a real pressure on kids to
specialize early and you know go on camps all the time and actually not do anything else and he's
trying to fight against that a little bit with his own son um is that something you're seeing
because I know you guys you and your family are quite keen to put back into tennis and actually
help raise awareness and the profile off the game and getting more
people active basically yeah i mean i can't speak for other sports but i definitely feel like that's
the case in in tennis where parents are kind of putting their all their eggs in this one basket
and okay he's quite good at tennis so now we're gonna put him with the coach and he's quite good at tennis, so now we're going to put him with the coach
and he's going to get lessons every day
and it's just going to be tennis, tennis, tennis for him
because that's what he needs to do.
He needs to do his 10,000 hours or whatever
to be a great tennis player.
But actually, I think it's of detriment
to the child's development.
I don't think it's particularly healthy for them
because like I said, they're forced into doing it
and they're young kids.
Why are they going to want to do something 20 hours a week
if they're not liking it?
And they're missing out on loads of other stuff
in their personal development, I think.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's really inspiring to hear this actually
that you guys weren't just know just tennis tennis the whole time it sounds like you had quite a normal childhood
lots of different things and um you know what age did you do you think you knew you wanted to be a
professional tennis player um well it's I mean it's weird because when I was 10 and 11 12 like
I was one of the best in the world in my age so
I guess like most kids if you're good at something you're motivated to keep doing it so
probably from a young age that was in your that was in your yeah I was thinking yeah I can be a
you know I can be a professional tennis player and that's what I want to do I want to be a tennis
player but then you know for me
obviously I ended up being a player but it wasn't always like on a upward curve for me because then
probably by the time I was 14 15 a lot of those kids so I was better than they'd overtaken me and
probably when I finished juniors when I was 18 I was probably about I think my my junior world ranking was like 40 45 which it might sound good
but actually in the grand scheme of being a world-class tennis player is that's just that's
very average so it wasn't like you know I was on that path at that stage thinking you know I can
make a career from from tennis but I was able to do that in
in doubles and it gave me the gave me the opportunity to do that because my
skill set I think was more suited for that part of the game. Well that's quite fascinating to me
the the whole singles versus doubles piece because I'm intrigued to know when did you move to doubles
and what were those skill sets what were those you know skills that
you had that you feel are more suited to doubles and singles and i guess i'd like to extend that
into thinking about as a society you know clear clearly physical inactivity is a big issue
and you know at this time of year you know britain particularly when wimbledon is on has a real love
affair with tennis and tennis could be a great way of getting more people active thing about doubles that appeals to me is
it's quite social you know you're doing it with other people you're building up relationships
and potentially for people who used to play as kids and maybe don't feel fit enough in let's
say middle age to cover the whole court is doubles quite a good option for them to get back into the game so quite
a lot of questions there basically but starting off with you moving from singles to doubles
yeah okay so I started to play or like to refocus on doubles in summer of 2006 I think because I was
I mean I was playing singles and doubles but I was doing a lot better in my doubles
and I was able to start playing a lot bigger tournaments.
So it was an easy decision for me to focus more on my doubles
because for me, I just wanted to play the biggest tournaments I could
against the best players in the world.
And doubles was going to offer me,
what I thought was going to offer me the opportunity to do that.
So that's why I tried to do that I think
the you know double is like it's a huge part of tennis especially amateur tennis yeah because for
those reasons like you said you know it's it's social you can go and you can play with your
with your friends you don't have to cover the full court and yeah it's just a fun way of being involved in the in the sport and i think
that there should definitely be more sort of initiatives or a bigger play to get more people
involved in tennis in that doubles environment yeah no i would agree i think doubles is um
you know i think doubles is really important i think it's um i i recently because
my kids are currently eight and six and um you know we've we've started you know the local park
has got two free tennis courts so we sometimes when we do the park run at the weekend afterwards
we'll hit the ball around a bit and we literally joined a tennis club a couple of weeks ago uh the
club that i played as a kid, actually, we joined it.
And, you know, it's pretty cool that, you know, people just rock up and you can just join in any doubles game.
And if they're missing someone, you can join in.
It's very, very social.
So I had been thinking a lot is a lot of the focus on tennis in terms of professional tennis is on singles.
You know, I know singles players get
paid a lot more than doubles players um and obviously your brother is a singles player
world famous singles player you are doing it in doubles but there seems to be a lot more column
inches devoted to andy let's say than what you're doing and is that that's at the elite level but is
that also coming down to the amateur level when people playing at their local clubs do you think or should we be putting more focus on doubles
yeah i mean i think i mean you know you go you go to your local club everyone's playing doubles
certainly in this country i think in in the states as well and maybe some of the other
the other grand slam nations yeah people are playing doubles for the reasons that we just talked about.
But I also think for kids as well,
it's so important because tennis is such a lonely sport, singles,
very lonely sport, and the journey is so long
and there's a big dropout rate.
And I think that to kind of keep kids in the game
where maybe they would drop out and
go play football for example a team sport doubles can kind of cover that because you know the kids
can keep playing with their friends there's that social aspect of it as well whether that's you
know they're playing doubles or there's just more sort of team events that they can be a part of I
think it's a great way to keep the kids in the game
where otherwise they might lose interest and go off and do something else.
And you're setting up a YouTube channel, aren't you?
Well, I've seen a few of the videos, but I think from what I understand,
you're going to put a huge focus on doubles in that channel.
Yeah, so the YouTube channel will have a lot of a lot of instructional videos for
i guess sort of all ages and and levels i think there'll be a lot of stuff about you know what
it takes to train to be a doubles player which i don't think many people will will know about and
i think um with this sort of doubles coaching a lot of the stuff in terms of the positioning on the court, the movement on the court, where you need to be, that's not necessarily hitting tennis balls.
So people can actually improve their level of doubles a lot without necessarily having to get better at hitting a tennis ball.
That's fascinating.
So they can get better at doubles without actually improving the way that
they're stroking the ball yeah exactly yeah just by knowing where they should be on the court
you know for even just starting the point a lot of people are in the wrong positions and then
in terms of things like your movement after your friend's served and you're at the net where you
should move to depending on where he's served if you're serving to his forehand or her backhand you need to move to a certain spot
on the court so even all that stuff you you'll improve your game through that and it's not
actually necessarily having to learn how to hit a better volley but I will try to cover that as well
no that's that's fascinating because you know because of channels like YouTube, you know, so many of us
are seeking to improve certain aspects of our hobbies or our life. You know, we're looking
for instructional videos, you know, and YouTube is a great medium to provide that. And I guess
having the ability to learn from someone like yourself with all the experience, you've got
six Grand Slam titles. I mean, that's pretty awesome for people to learn um you know how they
can improve their doubles positioning and I've got quite a few people I know who play doubles
who'd probably be super interested to actually go oh you know I've not really thought about my
position on courts I'm just trying to hit a better forehand or a better forehand volley
um yeah that's that's pretty exciting I hope so I think it'll be I think I believe anyway that
it'll be beneficial for a lot of a lot of a lot of people, a lot of amateur players as well. And I think it'll be cool for people to see how I train to be a world-class doubles player, which I think is pretty unique insight because no one else is doing that and no one really knows what it what it takes I don't think so no I agree um fitness obviously is a big
part of being a tennis player but so is nutrition is that something that you've changed over your
last 10 years well 10 plus how many years on tour now 12 yeah yeah 12 13 12 13 years yeah have you
you know is it you know when you're younger you can get away with more things, you can get away with less recovery, you can, you know, eat a less good diet, let's say, and still perform.
And as you get older, do you need to take more care? Is that something you've noticed?
Yeah, absolutely. I think for...
I appreciate you're in your early 30s.
Yeah, but it's true, isn't it? For a sportsman, it's kind of the latter part of your career but yeah I've definitely learned a
whole lot more about that side of it and you know what you're putting in your body is your fuel
right so you know I want to put in the best possible stuff into my body because it's going to
again enhance my performance hopefully legally obviously and hopefully get those marginal gains
that maybe other people are getting.
Is that hard on the road
when you're travelling
in different places and hotels?
Yeah, it's difficult
because you're not always in control
of what you're able to eat
because you're a lot of times
at the tournament,
especially during the day
where you're spending most of your time,
you're kind of at the mercy
of what they're providing.
And certainly since I started on the tour compared to now,
it is a whole lot better than nowadays.
And also I think like for a tournament,
you know, if you've got the best players in the world
turning up to play your event,
you want them to be putting out the best product.
So you can't be serving Djokovic and Federer and Andy,
these guys, you know, burger and chips for lunch
before they go to play a match.
That's not helping anyone.
So, I mean, me personally, for my nutrition,
I'm not like counting calories
or worrying too much about what I'm eating,
but I'm not eating rubbish.
Certainly not before I play. And I'm also really rubbish yeah certainly not before I play and I'm also
really aware like as soon as I finish playing I need to be getting the right stuff in my system
ASAP like I'll always try to eat something you know 20 to 30 minutes with it coming off the
court you know I won't leave it for an hour or two hours so when your muscles are hungry for that you
know replenishing exactly yeah you really want to get it in then yeah what about hydration have
you noticed is that something you have to spend much time focusing on yeah definitely that i'm
kind of like more aware of that because i feel like if if i don't drink enough water or I'm aware that I haven't, I start to get tense.
So you can feel it?
Yeah, just in my mind, yeah.
I just start to get a bit antsy and I don't have patience for anyone
and it's like I need to get a bottle of water,
which is not always difficult at tournaments
because they're stockpiling you for that.
But yeah, I am aware of that
because even just a slight drop in hydration
is like a huge drop off in performance.
Yeah, so it's incredibly important.
And when I'm on court for matches,
often we're traveling following the sun.
So we're playing in heat know heat humidity things like that so
i have like my electrolyte drinks carb drinks things like that that i can you know sip on
during the match to kind of maintain energy have you got foods that you travel with to make sure
you've got some of your favorites and you know to keep you healthy and yeah i mean i have these um
this is not an advertisement you don't sponsor me or anything but I this year
when I was in the States
I bought a load of
cliff bars
these nut butter
filled bars
which I really liked
and there's a lot of
bars out there
that I think are
pretty rubbish
they just don't taste good
or they're really like
hard to eat
but these ones
I really like
so I bought a load of them
to bring back
and then
I take a few of them
when I go to
go to tournaments Is is there anything you
do i bought a nutri bullet as well yeah yeah so i can you know so i can make like my drinks
smoothies and stuff because like after matches you know try to get in like some like glutamine
some creatine and stuff because that helps again for the recovery for inflammation muscle regeneration so it just
helped me to kind of have that and do it through that it's just easier so you take that with you
and you'll go to what local supermarket yeah i told you my bag's getting a lot a lot bigger
yeah no it's faster it generally is and now i travel with two two full suitcases whereas i
just used to have one but now with all these extra recovery products
and everything yeah blenders now and you've got to travel with that exactly i need the extra bag
yeah fascinating what about sleep um you know we we read stories that someone like federer for
example sleeps nine plus hours a night i don't know that's true or not i think i've read that
somewhere so um you know sleep is clearly a really important part of health. It's an important part of recovery. Is that something
you need to stay focused on when you're away, when you're on the road? Or is it tempting even
for a tennis player to be in their hotel room at night and actually spend too long on Netflix or
on Facebook or on Instagram? You know, I presume you guys have the same temptations as everyone else yeah absolutely
I mean yeah I feel I always aim to try to get like nine hours of sleep whether I need that much or I
just you know for me mentally just to know that I've got nine hours in the bank helps me that's
what I aim for but again like you said there's so many distractions you know and you're
watching your Netflix series and then one finishes and you're like oh just one more episode and that's
another 45 minutes down the drain that you could have been sleeping or you get on Instagram and you
start watching videos and swipe swipe swipe and that's half an hour gone you're like you know
what am I doing I haven't actually achieved anything from watching these videos.
I'm not getting any gain from it.
But you just, it's like tunnel vision, isn't it?
And you just get into that world and you do it.
Yeah, you just waste time.
And then you're like, shit, I got to be up at eight in the morning.
It's now midnight.
I could have been to bed at 11 when actually I was tired anyway.
Yeah.
But I just get distracted by this.
So it's a constant battle like with
everyone to try and switch off and actually get that sleep yeah I I think so yeah but do you
struggle with sleep when you're on the road you're quite good with that yeah because I think like
we're I think like tennis players really adaptable as well because we every week we're in a new
environment new surroundings new hotel new bed we never know when we're going
to play either unless we're playing the first match yeah it can be but you just you just get
used to it it's just that's just the job and i've been doing it like so long i mean i've been playing
professionally since i was like 19 but obviously i've been playing tennis since you know traveling
to play tennis i was like 10 10 years old. So you just,
you just get,
you just get used to it.
But,
you know,
I travel with a pillow,
my own pillow now.
Oh,
that's interesting.
So I know every,
because.
Hence the second suitcase.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So,
you know,
that helps me because,
you know,
if you get a dodgy pillow or something like,
and that throws off your,
you know, your neck, you can't move your neck, and then that's throwing your hip off.
Yeah, exactly. And it's just, you're fighting an uphill battle.
Is this more and more common? Are you seeing more players travelling with pillows, travelling with their own gear?
Is the whole industry moving? Sorry, not industry, the whole profession?
sorry not industry the whole profession i don't know about the pillow but i definitely see guys more and more often with you know the recovery stuff so like we're talking earlier like
foam rollers your trigger balls your bands some people like now i had another product which i
travel with what's called norma tech it's like a recovery compression thing for
your legs so in the evening I pop them on at night for 20 minutes 30 minutes and use that to try to
kind of increase like blood flow and everything in my in my legs because obviously next day I got to
play again if I haven't lost so it's just yeah it's just another way to kind of optimize uh performance but i think just
the sport as a whole everyone's a lot more aware of what all this stuff can do for you and obviously
there's more and more money getting pumped into the game there's more money for the guys to to
play for so if that can help you one percent two%, that might be worth 100 grand
for you to win your match tomorrow.
Guys are going to do it, you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's a no-brainer, isn't it?
In terms of raising the profile of the game,
which I know you're pretty passionate about doing,
well, a couple of things really.
The first thing is for me,
I studied in Scotland.
I went to med school there
and worked there for two years afterwards in Edinburgh.
And although I didn't play golf at the time, I now realize that actually there's a big
difference between Scotland and England in the sense that golf is very accessible to a lot of
people in Scotland in a way that I don't think it is in England. It seems to be a lot more
middle-class, maybe elitist in England, certainly where i live and and you know the way i view it
yeah um and i've spoken to other people i've got a good mate in scotland who plays rugby and says
yeah absolutely he grew up in england and said it's so much more accessible in scotland
are there similarities with tennis do you think
um well i don't think tennis is particularly accessible in Scotland.
Probably through the UK, really.
It's probably still seen as an elitist sport,
as an expensive sport as well.
Would you like to change that?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, especially in Scotland,
because I think what Andy's obviously done in his career
you know he's created so much
interest in tennis
and it's kind of
like for me it's a shame
that there could be some
kid watching him play
in the East End of Glasgow
and Andy's a hero to him
and he wants to go out and play tennis
and try tennis and be the next Andy Murray
but he can't because he's got no course
to go try it on
and the nearest courts are five miles away or something
so for me that's really sad
and that's what I think
well certainly what my mum's been doing
with all her initiatives and getting in a van and travelling around Scotland to rural areas, taking it to underprivileged areas as well, underprivileged kids and trying to introduce them to the sport.
And, yeah, I guess bring it to the masses, but you need the facilities in order to let them to give them
the best chance to to do that yeah absolutely it is a shame but hopefully that's changing you know
as i say i've recently literally actually what we now we are thursday on sunday morning we paid
the membership to our local club and joined for the years of family and that's the first time i've
been a member since probably I was 17 18
about like 20 20 plus years ago and I'm really excited now about having it's just that because
we paid the membership as well I sort of feel okay well we're going to go most weekends we're
going to play something to go and do now as a family together with my kids and I'm really
excited so I'm hoping that our conversation might inspire some of the listeners
to get their rackets out
or play with their kids
or, you know, for some of the older listeners
who maybe haven't played since they've been a kid,
you know, to get their rackets out
and start playing again.
Have you got any, for people listening to this,
who might be inspired by your journey,
by Andy's journey,
by just tennis in general,
be caught up in the fever of Wimbledon
any tips for them if they want to get involved with tennis or you know anything you can share
with them to get them going I guess I would just get out there get down to my local park or local
club do with your friends I think that's always more more fun throw yourself into like tennis is
is a game for life.
I mean, you can play it
until you're 80 years old
if you look after yourself.
And I think most people,
I think, that play tennis,
they did it because family members did
and they taught their kids
and then you teach your kids
and that's how it falls on.
I think it also helps
if you're going down to your park or club that there's stuff going on there's an energy there is an atmosphere and
it's not something that's this is nothing happening it's a bit of a ghost town that's
not really inspiring for people to to play I think that's uh that's something that the the
sport needs to look at as well but yeah just get out there and enjoy it see if you like it and
if you do then then keep playing.
Sport's supposed to be fun, right?
Yeah, exactly.
I think that's some great advice, Jamie.
And look, I really appreciate you
taking some time out of your busy training schedule
to come and talk today.
I think, hope people enjoy our conversation.
Absolutely.
Good luck for the rest of your career.
Thank you very much.
Cheers.
That concludes this week's episode of the Feel Better Live More podcast.
I really hope you enjoyed the conversation.
I know it was a little bit different from my normal conversations, but I hope you got something out of it nonetheless.
As always, do try and have
a think about something specific that you can take from this episode to apply in your own life
immediately. Are you someone who used to play tennis and has been inspired to dust off your
racket? Or perhaps this episode has simply inspired you to go out to your local park
and get more activity into your daily life. Whatever it is, please do let
Jamie and I know what you thought of our conversation on social media. Jamie is present
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please do use the hashtag FBLM so that I can easily find your comments. Everything that Jamie and I spoke about today
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On this page, there will be links
to Jamie's brand new YouTube channel,
his website and other interesting articles
in the media about him.
Getting more activity into your daily lives
is something that is essential
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first two books. In the first book, The Four Pillar Plan, I outline simple strategies that you can use
to get more activity into your daily life. I also share which types of movements are good
for particular conditions and complaints
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like type 2 diabetes. You can get a copy of the four pillar plan in paperback, audiobook or in
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In my latest book, The Stress Solution, I explain how our stress response in many ways primes our
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there all day looking at it, you are not burning off that stress energy that is built up and it
will be accumulating in your
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