Diet The Secret To A Slam?

Some say Djokovics gluton free diet helped him go on a winning streak that included acquiring 2 slams. From this article it appears Murray has been inspired to tamper with his diet in attempt to improve his own fitness. Its unclear exactly what his new diet consists of as the article talks of colour coding and blood tests but not actual food. But is this the secret to winning a slam?

http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/104905.html

I wouldn't think the diet in isolation would be the secret to winning a slam, Djokovic seems to have improved every aspect of his game by a few percent.

It must be a fairly big aspect though. He's gone from being the one top guy that seemed physically weak to someone that now covers more ground - and quicker - than anyone.

He's clearly fitter than he was a year ago, anyone can see that.. But also the belief gained from his run must have made him feel almost unbeatable. As a Murray fan, I'm really pleased that Murray has taken some steps to try and replicate what Djokovic has done.

It would have been easy to say 'one slam final, semis at the other 3... I don't need to change anything, it'll happen for me' ... But instead he's aspiring for more and aspiring to get better. There's a difference between dreaming of winning slams and being number one, and doing everything you possibly can to make it happen... It sounds like Murray is doing the latter, which is great.

I look forward to seeing how he looks later on.

The fact that Novak was probably seen to be one of the least fit out of the top five with his frequent Mto's prior to his startling transformation may well be down to his diet change which probably has helped.

Having said that natural talent is required which he had a lot off anyway, so without that any " miracle" diet would not be sufficient for most players to bag a slam.

Danny_1982 wrote:I wouldn't think the diet in isolation would be the secret to winning a slam, Djokovic seems to have improved every aspect of his game by a few percent.

It must be a fairly big aspect though. He's gone from being the one top guy that seemed physically weak to someone that now covers more ground - and quicker - than anyone.

He's clearly fitter than he was a year ago, anyone can see that.. But also the belief gained from his run must have made him feel almost unbeatable. As a Murray fan, I'm really pleased that Murray has taken some steps to try and replicate what Djokovic has done.

It would have been easy to say 'one slam final, semis at the other 3... I don't need to change anything, it'll happen for me' ... But instead he's aspiring for more and aspiring to get better. There's a difference between dreaming of winning slams and being number one, and doing everything you possibly can to make it happen... It sounds like Murray is doing the latter, which is great.

I look forward to seeing how he looks later on.

the boy seems to be in need of some good red meat!

I do hope this is not another case of adding another 'mate' to the Andy team. Get a coach, keep the fitness guy and dispense with the rest......I beg you Andeeee

Agree TP. Also, it did not seem to help in Montreal first round.

Perhaps he should switch to what Kevin Anderson. Michael Llodra, Michael Russell or Vasek Pospisil eat.

Another interesting factor is Miles MacLagan (see the travails of Andy, Kohli and now Baggy, in that sequence).

Seriously, how much tinkering does he need?

A bit more info on the colour coded stuff - it seems to be a traffic light system, and according to Neil Harman in certain categories we have:

Red - bagels, cereal and yoghurt
Amber - red meat and pasta (gluten-free)
Green - porridge with soya milk, rice, fish, and greens (!)

Obviously there'll be others but a bit more info there anyway. Must be a bagel pun there somewhere...

The gluten-free element caught my eye, definite shades of Djokovic in there. If Murray shows a similar improvement then I'm going gluten-free too! Can it make a silk purse out of sow's ear I wonder?

Any diet without natural talent = no slams

Positively 4th Street wrote:The gluten-free element caught my eye, definite shades of Djokovic in there. If Murray shows a similar improvement then I'm going gluten-free too!

The thing is that Djokovic was diagnosed with coeliac disease, which means not only that he will be feeling so much fitter on a gluten free diet, but that the new diet is actually essential for his long term health. People with coeliac disease will over time develop ulcers in their bowels as reaction to the gluten, some of which may, in the worst cases, become malignant in later life. If coeliacs go undiagnosed for a long time, there may be all kinds of serious consequences. It is not necessarily the best option for Murray and it is not a recipe for success. Djokovic of course will be feeling better than he has done for a very long while because the gluten was effectively poisoning his system.

This is what worries me about Murray - this seems to be too faddy for words and Andy seems to have much more faith/empathy/liking or matiness for his fitness team (and how many of them are there?!) than he has for listening to people about remaining aggressive and controlling his emotions on court.

time please

"This is what worries me about Murray - this seems to be too faddy for words and Andy seems to have much more faith/empathy/liking or matiness for his fitness team (and how many of them are there?!) than he has for listening to people about remaining aggressive and controlling his emotions on court."

I saw Murray play at Wimbledon and our seats were directly opposite the huge Murray team. I was totally distracted by them as they lived every point with him. We joked that they were all on edge as one of them would be for the chop if he lost... By contrast his opponant (a german player ranked at about 100) appeared to have no-one in his support box.

time please wrote:

Positively 4th Street wrote:The gluten-free element caught my eye, definite shades of Djokovic in there. If Murray shows a similar improvement then I'm going gluten-free too!

The thing is that Djokovic was diagnosed with coeliac disease, which means not only that he will be feeling so much fitter on a gluten free diet, but that the new diet is actually essential for his long term health. People with coeliac disease will over time develop ulcers in their bowels as reaction to the gluten, some of which may, in the worst cases, become malignant in later life. If coeliacs go undiagnosed for a long time, there may be all kinds of serious consequences. It is not necessarily the best option for Murray and it is not a recipe for success. Djokovic of course will be feeling better than he has done for a very long while because the gluten was effectively poisoning his system.

This is what worries me about Murray - this seems to be too faddy for words and Andy seems to have much more faith/empathy/liking or matiness for his fitness team (and how many of them are there?!) than he has for listening to people about remaining aggressive and controlling his emotions on court.

Hi time please,

Apologies if it seemed I was making light of a serious issue. One of my closest friends was diagnosed with Coeliacs while we were at university, and had to radically alter his diet so I know what's involved. If Murray is just avoiding gluten in pasta then it's no big deal. I agree though that this is unlikely to give him the extra bit he needs to land a slam and that his ability to control his emotions is key.

Positively 4th Street wrote:Hi time please,

Apologies if it seemed I was making light of a serious issue. One of my closest friends was diagnosed with Coeliacs while we were at university, and had to radically alter his diet so I know what's involved. If Murray is just avoiding gluten in pasta then it's no big deal. I agree though that this is unlikely to give him the extra bit he needs to land a slam and that his ability to control his emotions is key.

Hi Positively - I was actually wondering when I pressed send if I had the wrong tone in message and I wasn't meaning to lecture, just to join in the discussion. There is no reason for you or anyone not to make a throw away lighthearted remark, and certainly I think we have all wondered if gluten free is the way to go after seeing Nole's new found vitality and grit! I should have acknowledged that before adding the bit about coeliacs which was actually intented for the whole thread discussion not aimed at you at all, just to add to or open up the debate. I only know because one of my best friends is coeliac but didn't have a clue about it until she was diagnosed last year.

Hope this makes sense or not completely waffling - very tiring week and not able to string coherent sentences together atm!

PS - meant to say to Hawkeye - that's really interesting about Wimbledon - I guess you have the sense of the team watching Murray's matches on television but I had no idea that they were actually really so intense about every point - no wonder he swears at them sometimes

time please wrote:Hi Positively - I was actually wondering when I pressed send if I had the wrong tone in message and I wasn't meaning to lecture, just to join in the discussion. There is no reason for you or anyone not to make a throw away lighthearted remark, and certainly I think we have all wondered if gluten free is the way to go after seeing Nole's new found vitality and grit! I should have acknowledged that before adding the bit about coeliacs which was actually intented for the whole thread discussion not aimed at you at all, just to add to or open up the debate. I only know because one of my best friends is coeliac but didn't have a clue about it until she was diagnosed last year.

Hope this makes sense or not completely waffling - very tiring week and not able to string coherent sentences together atm!

Hi tp,

Makes perfect sense, you do yourself a dis-service...

Coeliacs is being diagnosed a lot more now, more awareness I guess. This will only increase with the Djokovic success story too.

Djokovic clearly had issues with his fitness before this year, and has remedied it. To my mind, Murray's issues are not about fitness so am skeptical about this giving any tangible improvement in his case. His remedy remains to be seen.

its more about being Confident and Calm than being a fitness freak... Murray is often not confident or calm in tough situations... that's the general consensus from my view!

I have no issue with Murray trying out things to give him the extra few percent he needs to win slams. He has enough natural ability to win slams and match the top 2, so in his head he probably thinks he has to do all the other things as well as them.

He trains as hard as anyone by all accounts, he's trying to eat as well as he can, which some dismiss as faddy but if it gets an extra 0.5% then surely it's worth it.

However I'm convinced it's all to do with the serve. His return stats are not bettered by anyone, but his percentage of service games won, percentage of first serves in, and percentage of second serve points won are simply way below the top 3.

I've said it before, so apologies if i'm boring anyone, but Murray has the most variable service motion of any of the top guys. He has so many moving body parts during his serve that I'm more surprised when he has a good day. Because of the inconsistency of his movements, it seems to deteriorate more under pressure.

I don't believe he needs to change his overall game much at all. His movement is great, his backhand is wonderful and his forehand is now a weapon when he leans into it (though he is still prone to leave half court 'hit me' balls when he defends with his forehand). We all know he could use his weapons more, as we've seen him do at times, but if he tried to make his service motion a bit less variable then he'd get way more accuracy, and more consistently high numbers.

Of course, he could still win slams with his game the way it is, but he probably needs over 65% first serves in a final in this immensely difficult generation, and under such pressure he's been unsurprisingly unable to produce those numbers.

That said, this tennis game is easy from my sofa... And incidentally, my serve is the weakest area of my game, so what do i know!! Whatever he needs to do to win slams I hope he gets there as he's a wonderfully gifted player.

Positively 4th Street wrote:To my mind, Murray's issues are not about fitness so am skeptical about this giving any tangible improvement in his case. His remedy remains to be seen.

I agree wholeheartedly with you Positively - John McEnroe worried as far back as the US Open 2009, that Murray was too obssessed with fitness over every other aspect of training - he pointed to Federer talking about being 'tennis fit', which McEnroe approved of. Obviously tennis fit today, as discussed on other threads, is very, very fit indeed and Federer works extremely hard at it, but Mac felt that Murray was taking it a step further and was actually tiring in some circumstances during matches because of too much emphasis on the gym, and time spent in it. Obviously I don't know if this is correct, but it was interesting to listen to a former professional's opinion on the matter.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:its more about being Confident and Calm than being a fitness freak... Murray is often not confident or calm in tough situations... that's the general consensus from my view!

Agree with this too - I would like to see Murray work with a sports psychologist to help him maintain focus and concentration and confidence when he is in a tight spot.

Danny_1982 wrote:
He trains as hard as anyone by all accounts, he's trying to eat as well as he can, which some dismiss as faddy but if it gets an extra 0.5% then surely it's worth it.

However I'm convinced it's all to do with the serve. His return stats are not bettered by anyone, but his percentage of service games won, percentage of first serves in, and percentage of second serve points won are simply way below the top 3.

I've said it before, so apologies if i'm boring anyone, but Murray has the most variable service motion of any of the top guys. He has so many moving body parts during his serve that I'm more surprised when he has a good day. Because of the inconsistency of his movements, it seems to deteriorate more under pressure.

Danny, of course eating for health and energy is paramount for atheletes and I don't think that is faddy at all, but while gluten free may help, it is not a sure fire recipe for success for everyone especially if he does not have a medical imperative to eat this way - I just worry that he seems to constantly add to his fitness team and because they all seem to be 'mates' .

I think you have absolutely hit the nail on the head about his serve, and how mobile his whole body is in separate parts during the serve, and how it is particularly vulnerable to deterioration under pressure. I am sure that it must wreak his confidence in all parts of his game when the first serve begins to let him down. I just wonder again whether a sports psychologist here would be able to give him some strategies to focus on when this begins to happen so that he can change negative feelings into positive reactions at these points, and so turn around the serve?