"COME ON MURRAY!! LET IT ALL OUT!! WE ARE HERE FOR YOU!! COME ON! SPEAK! TELL US HOW YOU FEEL!" I shouted at the TV. Total silence in the Centre Court as Andy Murray tried to compose himself enough to talk to millions of people about his day. "COME ON MURRAY!! YOU CAN DO IT'! (My poor flatmate was in her bedroom either thinking the tennis was still on as her Mac had a time delay or wondering what the heck was going on as in real time the the tennis had finished). Camera cuts to cheers of the crowd in centre court and Murray Mount/ Mound (?!!) as Andy starts to talk......
So, Federer may have won today but the above moment was today's TRUE win of the tournament.
Let me explain.........when I was 16 years old, I was 13 and a half stone. I was one was of those misunderstood teenagers aching to find an expression for my talents and skills but never quite found the right avenue and channel for them until that is, I found drama lessons and my drama teacher Mr Ryan. Now, I don't know what he saw in me but Mr Ryan had a true gift for creating environments of equality within his drama lessons. He picked those most unlikely characters for his school plays and made the quietest of them, stars overnight. I'M SERIOUS. Mr Ryan's technique with me was to ask me to audition for a character in his latest play Faust and Furious. It was a play loosely based on Dr Faustus (which was I was to come to again later on in my acting career) and my part was to be LECHERY. Week by week we rehearsed and became a solid team until one day he dropped a bomb shell that I was to wear a rubber dress AND have to seek out the Headmaster during the performance in the audience and go and tickle his bald head. YEP. All true.
You can probably imagine my total shock at this and how I thought I had been duped but there was no turning back and it was quite a controversial play anyway and everyone was in the sport of it. This crazy costume along with some madly backcombed hair, bright red lipstick and the support of my fellow actors became the making of me. For the last few months of my school term, I was seen in a totally different light and knew that if I could pull of that kind of confidence on stage, be clapped and cheered at the sheer boldness of tickling the headmaster (who himself was incidentally a brilliant leader of our school and found it hilarious) I KNEW I could find some of this buzz in my everyday life.
Now you may be wondering why I have chosen to talk about this in relation to Andy Murray?
Part of my job now is teaching public speaking and helping people find their confidence. I was given the gift of learning the positive effects of this from Mr Ryan so now I love to do the same for others. It gives me so much pleasure seeing people grow and actively changing their thinking and actions into becoming the people they want to be. The people I work with HAVE to want to do it and it is not always a success. Thankfully, I don't push people to rubber dress limits but the majority of the time I do push out of peoples comfort zones and get positive results and big smiles all round. (For those doubters, I can provide many testimonies if needed).
Now I know nothing really about the real Andy Murray (none of us do apart from his family and friends) but what I do know is that he is an amazing tennis player and has worked so hard to get to where he got to today. All you ever hear about Andy, even if he is our only British hope is negative PR to do with the way he talks and comes across when public speaking.
Today, as far as I am concerned all of that changed.
Its sooooo easy for people (lets go with this term 'The Doubters'* ) to be really negative about people in the public eye (especially in British culture) but today that man faced probably the hardest thing that he has ever done in his life, not only lose the one thing that he has been working towards his whole life but speak in public in front of millions of people about how he felt.
The series of events are as follows:
He was handed the microphone by Sue Barker.
He couldn't speak.
He was lost for words whilst everyone was waiting.........and waiting..............and waiting but what did we all do this time?
Did everything come crashing down for him?
Did we make it painful for Murray?
No.
This is what happened...........
We CHEERED and CHEERED and CHEERED, we WILLED him to speak, we FILLED that void with love and we pushed him through the painful silence and we saw the real man underneath all the bad PR. He revealed a normal young guy, living the dream with strong opinions, a capability for good sportsmanship by being so generous to his opponent who he lost to and an 'attitude of gratitude' (to coin a term of my friend Simon Jordan) to the people he loves and to the crowds of supporters that follow him.
The beauty of today and joy of today was that all the people that have given him negative press over the years were proved wrong because Murray was able to show his emotions, totally be himself, BE BRITISH and be accepted.
REMEMBER: HE IS ONLY 25!!!
From here on in, it'll be 'The Doubters' comments that are a reflection of their issues and NOT his. When he stood there and couldn't speak I wanted so much to reach out to him, stand next to him with my arm through his (just like I have done with a few young people I have helped in the past as they have done their first speaking to a group) and help push him through. I joked the other day with a colleague at work that I would LOVE to help him with his confidence and his public speaking techniques because it is something that you can learn and have a good relationship with rather than a petrified one. That evening I also had a conversation with someone who is in his mid forties and in the limelight a lot in his job and he said he hates to speak in public as well.
How many people truly feel like this? I would LOVE to know.
We shouldn't act against people at the point when in the public eye they are showing their weakness. We should support them and in these instances I would love to see 'The Doubters' who hide behind their criticism, exercise at their best for 5 hours under scrutiny of everyone, lose and THEN have to stand up and talk about it. The strong will for him to crumble really is the will of THEIR lack of confidence crumbling...........in fact maybe it's these people I should be seeking out and working with?
HEY DOUBTERS! ANY TAKERS?
BRAVE Andy Murray doesn't seem to need me any more.............:-(
*Term related (mostly) to the British Press. In short, we (the British) are our own worst enemy.
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