IT’S just gone five in the morning, I’m on my second cup of coffee, I’m a morning man. It’s a beautiful time of the day. The philosophy is that you get your practice in early, then maybe you get another one in later in the day — but the first one you definitely do early.
If Andy Murray isn’t an early-morning person, that’s going to change. The standards I set are those I learnt from my only coach, Tom Chivington from Foothills College in Los Altos, California — you put in an honest, hard day’s work every day. It doesn’t mean you are going to win every time but it sure gives you a better chance. Every day you want to be that little bit better.
And it can never be the coach’s way or the highway; the player will have his opinions and I hear Andy’s are pretty strong. I’ll certainly have mine and it’s about where we meet. Basically, we spend the first few weeks learning about who the other is — we’re getting it on for the first time in Washington tomorrow — and it’s gonna take time to implement all that I want to do. I don’t want to take away his self-confidence, or want him to throw himself under a bus.
In the week leading up to the US Open next month and during the Open itself, I’ll be doing a lot of observing, getting to know his habits. The best time to make changes will be after the Open; it’s hard to make any real big impressions when he is going straight into tournaments. What he’ll learn from me is that I love the game, that I talk about it a lot. He’s got a lot of listening to do but I’m not a bone-killer.
I’m not going to put pressure on Andy but we are going after it and that means working hard. If he does that, he is going to achieve a lot of the goals he has set for himself in the game. He wants to become the best player he can be and I share that desire. People who want that have to make the sacrifices. He’ll have to work harder than he’s done before, but that’s a fun sacrifice, isn’t it?
I don’t see myself as a hard-ass but I do lead by example. When we meet in Washington, that’s day one. What happened in the past is over and doesn’t concern me. Let’s get after it. I’ll be in the gym early to work out and Andy will be there with me. I’ll be doing the very best I can to help him; I’ll be getting him into the position where good things can happen, that’s for sure. There is a card game called Texas Hold ’Em where the most important thing is reading the person. It’s about him learning to read me and me him.
Sometimes I’ll be watching up real close, sometimes from afar, and these are the things that take some getting used to. I talk really fast, he talks a little slow and methodical. We’re going to have to strike a happy medium on that one.
But I woke up yesterday morning and there was a completely different buzz to my life again. The nerves are different. I’m ready to go to work. I loved my time with TV but I’m a coach and coaching is something I have a great passion about. With Andy it’s not going to be about two weeks or five weeks or two months before we make judgments. To me every day is going to be a step in the right direction.
There’s no magic pill to take that makes you a better player, Andy needs to become physically stronger and over the next year that will be a big focus for us. He needs to be more hardened if he wants to be a really successful professional player. All you have to do is to look at Rafael Nadal: he has set the fitness bar to a new level for the other guys.
Andy is 19, and I love that. No question there’s a lot of time to mould his game. What I’ve seen in the past few months is that he has a great talent, like a cross between Wayne Ferreira and Miloslav Mecir. He is a good size, has great eyes and he reads the game really well. I think over the next year to 18 months, we can start doing some real exciting things. He’ll be spending quite a bit of time in California at my place, where he can have some peace and be a kid, then we’ll train together in Florida, getting him ready for next year.
This is a unique turn of events for me. I’m used to working with just one player, but now I’m working for the entire LTA. These guys will discover that the passion I have will extend to everything they want me to do. I’m eager to see the new facility at Roehampton, I want to meet the other coaches and the players — but I can tell them all as well, we’ll be on the courts early, no late starts.
It’s easy to criticise but I don’t know what happened in the past, who did what and why. It’s no point looking back because then you spiral backwards.
Roger Draper, the LTA chief executive, isn’t like what we think of as the typical stodgy British guy. He has a vision and wants to make things happen. He’s not interested in being in the middle of the pack, he wants to get better.
I know people have talked about what I might be earning, but that’s up to them. I’m not doing this because of the money. That doesn’t matter to me. I’m doing this because I love it and I feel I can make a difference. All I’m thinking about is working.
I hear, though, I might have to be measured for a suit. Apart from finals day at Wimbledon this year, I hadn’t worn one of those since my grandmother’s funeral. Things really are going to have to change.
THE ART OF WINNING UGLY RESULTS ARE ALL THAT MATTER FOR GILBERT
1961: Born August 9 in Oakland, California
1982: Joins ATP tour and wins first singles title in Taiwan
1982-94: In 12 years on the circuit adds further 19 singles titles, reaches US Open and Wimbledon quarter-finals, takes bronze medal at Seoul Olympics and attains career-high ranking of No 4 in the world
1994: Retires as a player after striking a deal over dinner to become Andre Agassi’s new coach. Within months, Agassi wins the US Open
1995: Gilbert steers Agassi to another grand-slam title, the Australian Open
1998: After a terrible previous year, Agassi soars from 141st in the world to No 6 and wins five titles
1999-2001: Agassi wins French Open, completing his set of all four major titles. With Gilbert at his side, he wins three further grand-slam titles
2002: Gilbert and Agassi announce an end to their partnership
2003: Appointed as coach to Andy Roddick, 20. Roddick wins US Open in September and climbs to No 1 in the world
2004: Dismissed after Roddick loses No 1 ranking to Roger Federer
2006: With Roddick having fallen out of the top ten, Gilbert is recruited by the LTA, primarily to coach Murray
