Getting an insight into the thoughts going through Andy Murray’s mind as he decides who will be his next coach has been particularly relevant to me this week.
You may have read a couple of days ago that we’ve taken the decision to part company with our own coach, Dave Hay, as well as one of our team members, Sarah Reid.
Murray’s comments were really interesting.
It sounds like he is torn between going for the former player ‘super coach’ type, like Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg or a coach’s coach who would be less well-known outside the tennis world.
The big names would be better equipped to get into his head and give him the sort of insight you can only have if you’ve been in his position, trying to win Grand Slam finals.
But, as he explained really well, those big names probably aren’t the best candidates to break down a shot and improve it.
When we see who he chooses we’ll also see where he thinks key improvements can be made in this last stage of his career.
Does he think he needs a better serve or a better mindset?
For us, we’ve come to the conclusion that we probably need somebody who can help us improve the team dynamics and psychology.
Up until this point our coaches (my dad and Dave) have been tactical curling coaches.
We’ve thought long and hard about how we want our support bench to look, and we’re going to try something a bit different.
I think there’s every chance that our new coach will be from abroad as well.
As far as replacing Sarah is concerned, there probably isn’t a big pool to choose from.
The new team member has to have big tournament experience. We’ll not be introducing a rookie.
It was now or never to make these changes.
Next season will be the last before the Olympics year and by doing it now we’ve given ourselves the best chance of coming together as a new group.
We didn’t think we were quite at the level to challenge for Olympic gold, which is our ultimate aim.
They are never the nicest conversations to have but I made sure they were face to face.
You only have one career and these are important decisions. The last thing you want is to look back at the end of it and think ‘if only’.
* Jordan Spieth’s Masters torture was the latest proof that golf, perhaps more than any other sport, is a mental challenge as much as a physical one.
Before he had his quadruple bogey on the 12th hole at Augusta, Spieth was seen as the most reliable guy around to close out a big tournament.
Now people are speculating about the psychological damage his trauma may have done to him.
You have a caddy with you, but golf is such a lonely sport.
You are out on a golf course for four or five hours these days and that gives you a lot of time to think between shots.
Making sure the thoughts are positive ones is easier said than done.
Spieth is young enough to get back to his very best, and maybe even improve, but I think it will be a few weeks yet before he is fully recovered from what happened at the Masters.
It would certainly be asking an awful lot of him to win his first event back, the Players’ Championship this week.
