Pressure pot

How do you handle pressure?

Andy Murray normally looks pretty focused out on court. He says that he doesn't feel the pressure now that he goes into this years' Wimbledon as the victor at Queens.

Tim Henman had seemingly the weight of England on his shoulders when he came on court at Wimbledon. Does Murray have the weight of Scotland? Who knows! I think that anybody with blood in their viens is entitled to feel a little pressure going in to a tournament as No. 3 in the world and seeded No.3. Pressure can be good and pressure can be bad. I guess it just depends on how you are made up and how you handle it. I don't think that I am necessarily one of those people who works well under pressure, but I don't crumble when faced with difficult situations. Some athletes thrive on the pressure of competition. Usain Bolt for example seems to take it all in his stride and he rises to the occassion, whereas his compatriot, Asafa Powell, seems to find it difficult to perform his best at the big competitions, even when he is the favourite.

Confidence and self belief have a huge role to play when handling competitive pressure, and I beleive that Andy Murray is at his most confident, and that is worth its weight in gold in the world of sport. Being able to deal with pressure is a quality of top performers and every successful sports person has had to do this in order to win.

Andy Murray has show that he can do this, evidenced by his win at Queens last weekend. Only time will tell if he is able to translate that to the grass of SW19.