Waging war on obesity / Judy Murray sets up new foundation
● Tennis’ great campaigner has our waistlines in her sights with a new foundation Iain Morrison
Judy Murray is to set up a foundation in her own name to tackle obesity and encourage people to exercise more, writes Iain Morrison.
Murray revealed her plans during a visit to Glasgow yesterday, where she was teaching tennis coaches and stressing the importance of girl- only sessions as part of the She Rallies scheme she runs on behalf of the Lawn Tennis Association.
Her next project is addressing the nation’s lack of exercise.
“Our obesity problem that we have in Scotland absolutely kills me, so this is me trying to do my bit to get people off the couch and get them enjoying exercise again,” she told The Scotsman. “I am setting up my own foundation next month.”
Two thirds of adults in Scotland are either overweight or obese.
Judy Murray has never been the type to sit idly by and settle forth est at usquo when she could be taking up arms and doing battle with the next ogre on the horizon and this time she has you, and me, firmly in her sights.
Tennis’ answer to the Duracell Bunny is setting up her very own Judy Murray Foundation; a one-woman crusade against our ever- expanding waistlines.
“Our obesity problem that we have in Scotland absolute - ly kills me, so this is me trying to do my bit to get people off the couch and get them enjoying exercise again,” she says by way of explanation. “I am setting up my own foundation next month.”
More details to follow, no doubt, but no- one can accuse Murray of not practising what she preaches.
She is already fighting on two fronts; taking tennis into parts of the country which have little or no exposure to the sport and leading a campaign to encourage more girls and women back into tennis.
“We have been doing this thing for the last four years, Tennis on the Road ,” she explains. “Just taking a van full of equipment with me and one driver into deprived and rural areas.
“We build workforces and we don’t mind if they have courts or not. You can star t playing tennis in school halls, on badmint on courts, school playgrounds and we recognise that tennis can be expensive. We have been going for about four years, with 200 days completed.
“Now we have identified three areas and we will stay over a three - year period and work with those people, to build workforces, show them how to run events, we’ll link it allp have demand ar to get herks clubs, ca ndlu web through then,s. will If in th create areas eschools,y do that then’ t don’t that demand have courts, to influence we will local use authorities to build courts.”
If, like me, you are a little cynical about local councils’ willingness to build tennis courts across the country when they can’ t fill the pot holes that blight our roads, you bet against Murray at your peril.
She is a force of nature and, if determination alone was enough, the courts would bnow.S heShe Murray eh R allieshas alfalr ea dyw is a scheme no ty co to organ is edm be onpl ga ins aid.e behalf ted herb ofy the female six of LTA whom coaches which operate introduced across in the S cot- UK, 56 land, aging with girls the back view into to the encour- sport by offering an all- female learning experience. “In the tennis environment there is a need for a girlonly option,” Murray argues the case for a female only lessons. A huge amount of the girls who drop out of sport at a young age do so because they are intimidated by the boys who are just naturally more robust, more physical, more competitive.
“Girls are differ en te moti on ally and they are different physically. I showed them (David Lloyd coaches) that today. I took a class of wee girls. I showed them how to engage. Having girl-only options is crucial.”
The LTA is even now crunching the numbers to see how effective the 56 ambassadors have been at converting the unbelievers.
Young Scottish boys, I point out, at least have two role models to emulate in the form of Andy and Jamie Murray and surely it would be good if the young Scottish girls had a similar superstar in the female ranks?
“Of course, it would be because that provides the profile and the inspiration but what happened with Andy and Jamie… the role model is great because they provide profile, but any sport is only as good as its grass roots and, I have been saying this for years, because it ( Andy and Jamie’s success) hasn’ t made that much difference to tennis in Scotland.
“I don’ t think we will ever sort out performance properly until we sort grassroots and that for me is courts in state schools or courts in public parks for an inexpensive activity, and we could really grow the numbers.”
We are talking in th eD av- id Lloyd centre in Glasgow, where Murray is coaching the coaches to be more family friendly. However, the cost of a skinny latte in the cafe alone is enough to exclude something like 90 percent of the population.
Facilities, or rather the lack of them or the cost of accessing them, is a constant sore in Scotland.
There are just 12 pay-andplay facilities across the country and, as Murray points out: “If you can’t play all year round, you can’t coach all year round and, if you can’t coach all year round, you can’t use that as a career.”
Those 12 facilities have remained the same over the last 11 years, exactly when Andy was at t he pinnacle of his chosen sport.
Incidentally, his mum won’t bed raw non when Junior is going to make his comeback after undergoing hip surgery in January of this year, other than to offer: “He’ll be ready when he’s ready.”