Fiona McCade: Andy's so hard to beat when he's got hernias Published on Thursday 7 June 2012 02:44 Andy Murray likes to win. His childhood tennis coach described the five-year-old Murray as "unbelievably competitive," so it's no surprise that he's just posted photos on the internet of a triumphant game of Scrabble, in which he beat his girlfriend 346 points to 281. "Hernias," he tweeted, smugly. Always good to finish off the game with a 7 letter 88 pointer to beat the missus. Well, it's nice to see Murray winning a significant tournament. What's more, I'm sure that such single-mindedness would be applauded at Hutchison Vale, an Edinburgh youth football club, which has recently trialled a "performance psychology" programme to help its under-12 players improve their game. Tracey Donachie, the sports psychologist who gave workshops to the under-12s, said: "My sessions included character-building, identifying strengths and using them in a positive way, dealing with pressures, self-talk, performance profiling and goal-setting, communication, understanding roles and team building... The boys put themselves under a lot of pressure and that also comes from the sidelines. I taught them to accept the referee's decision and control their feelings so that they don't get distracted. It's about helping the boys improve their self-esteem and overall performance. Hutchison Vale plan to implement this "performance psychology" across the board, which would mean involving children as young as eight, but not all the parents welcome this strategy. "Everything at that club seems to be geared to pushing the kids towards the professional ranks," said one. I don't know what's wrong with just letting the bairns go out and enjoy themselves. It's not always easy to find a good balance between encouraging children to have fun and urging them to do their best. If Andy Murray had been content simply to have fun at age five, maybe he wouldn't be World No4 today. Equally, if he hadn't been so utterly driven, he might have ended up the sort of attractive, balanced individual who doesn't feel the desperate need to tell the entire, developed world how awesome he is at Scrabble. As a parent, I struggle with this balance all the time. I want my son to do well at stuff, but I also want him to have a good time. I've tried introducing him to as many interesting things as possible and hoping he gets enthused, but it doesn't always go to plan. Nearly two years ago, when he'd just turned five, I took him to an open day at a small youth soccer club. The leaflet said it was for children of his age and upwards to come along and "have a go." Great, I thought, a nice, easy, no-pressure way to discover if he likes football. How wrong I was. My little one had no idea about football, that was why I'd brought him to a "have a go" day, but despite the lighthearted leaflet, the reality was serious sport. The first thing - the first thing - they made him do was dribble. Of course, he couldn't, and this drew sneers from the older boys. I don't know if previous open days had weeded out all the normal kids, but it seemed to me that mine was being thrown to the scant mercies of a load of steely-eyed, semi-pro eight-year-olds. Then, they had a seven-a-side match. Just like that. With a little kid who'd only just walked on to a pitch for the first time in his life. I was torn between running in and rescuing him and leaving him in the hope it would somehow build his character. In the end, all it did was put him off football for life. Having experienced that horror, I sympathise with the parents who think that Hutchison Vale are putting winning before fun, but I also can't help agreeing with the club that instilling professionalism and self-discipline is extremely important. It's certainly important for the future of Scottish sport, because we need competitors like Andy Murray, who can say: "I know I'm Scottish, but I still think I can win!" There can be no doubt that performance psychology has helped Andy to get to the top of his game. I just hope it'll help him when his girlfriend finally beats him at Scrabble.