Are We a Nation of Bottlers?

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jimbob.someroo

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Something that never ceases to get me frustrated when watching British sport is how much we tend to bottle it, as soon as there is pressure or a situation in which are expected to succeed.

The one that's bugged me this time is Laura Robson throwing the first set against Kanepi. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting her to win this game and she's done very well to get where she is in the tourney. But from serving for the set and then being two points from the set in the tie break she wasn't ruthless on either occasion.

Like I say, it's something which annoys me pretty regularly when there is any level of expectation on British teams / individuals.

England Cricket in the Champions Trophy against India needing 28 from 18 with 5 wickets left. Rory being cack since getting to world #1. GB Badminton at the Olympics as a whole (particularly Adcock/Bankier in the mixed). England football as a whole. Westwood at Wentworth, Donald at Merion. etc etc

I'm not saying we haven't been good in some sports or overachieved, but simply from positions either within matches themselves, or before they start, we just don't seem as ruthless as other nations. Justin Rose at Merion was a good exception for me and we did exceedingly well in the Olympics with Jess Ennis and Mo Farah in particular performing well under immense expectation, but these are fleeting examples that come to mind over the last decade or so.

Hopefully someone will provide me of some more examples of us doing well under pressure as it might cheer me up!
 
Plenty of examples - England's Rugby team in the 2003 World Cup final playing the hosts? Doesn't get much more pressure than that!

I think the problem is the media and fans casting people out as bottlers before the game/match has even finished! She's down 1 set with every chance to win the 2nd! Give her a chance!
 
With golf you can still make a good living whilst under achieving... Whatever has gone wrong with Rory's game looks to be getting to him at present... Looked very uncomfortable last week in Ireland... I am sure he is determined enough and has the talent to re-find his game... Hopefully soon... Paul Casey hasn't shown good form recently, for a variety of reasons, but showed good form over the weekend and being rewarded with the win...
 
Aztecs27 said:
Plenty of examples - England's Rugby team in the 2003 World Cup final playing the hosts? Doesn't get much more pressure than that!

I think the problem is the media and fans casting people out as bottlers before the game/match has even finished! She's down 1 set with every chance to win the 2nd! Give her a chance!
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If she wins from the position she's in, it will only go to further emphasize the point. We're much better when playing as the underdog.

With regards the rugby in 03, although we were pre-tourney favourites, playing the hosts in the final it would have been hard to argue that we 'should' have won it - Australia were playing well and were at home. We weren't fully expected to win that match by all before hand.
 
Rory should play in the Scottish Open before the Open, he has nothing to lose by doing so and everything to gain.
 
wow a 19 year old, little experience, on the biggest stage with the press heaping a load of pressure on her, how dare she be human and hence a little nervous? - think its very harsh questionning her, lets see how she does a few years down the line under pressure.

Some of the other examples clearly far better, the ICC cricket a good example, there again could be worse, we could be South Africa

The biggest issue relates to "expected to succeed" - never a more over rated side or player than one representing England
 
upsidedown said:
Reckon she'll have learnt a lot from this Championship and will be stronger next year. Didn't she win the Junior girls a few years back ?
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One would certainly hope so... Its not as if she rolled over and let the other girl win... In fairness to Miss Kanepi she played very well and most probably deserved the win...
 
fundy said:
wow a 19 year old, little experience, on the biggest stage with the press heaping a load of pressure on her, how dare she be human and hence a little nervous? - think its very harsh questionning her, lets see how she does a few years down the line under pressure.

Some of the other examples clearly far better, the ICC cricket a good example, there again could be worse, we could be South Africa

The biggest issue relates to "expected to succeed" - never a more over rated side or player than one representing England
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Agree, that this instance may be a tad on the harsh side and let me say again, that it wasn't disappointment at her losing the match as a whole. Merely the first set after being in such a commanding position. That said, Hingis, Serena, Sharapova all had won majors by her age.

Also agree about the media expectation to win. England football are a prime example of the press expecting them to win matches with very little proof in either results or performance. The last time England football 'bottled it' was in the penalty shootout against Portugal in 2006. We've not been good enough to put ourselves in a position to bottle anything since then!
 
I think we build our own up a tad too much at times and although Laura stated she was trying not to look at papers or watch TV reports, its pretty hard when the nation is behind you and willing you on. Hopefully she will be stronger for it today in the future. I agree at 5-2 and then lose the break must have had a huge mental drain on her.

I'm confident she'll come good and give us a championship in the future.


News Flash: Williams just got broke, get in their :)
 
We no more bottle it than any other nation's sportsmen and women striving for the very top. We just notice ours more and perhaps our media builds up the expectation more, although the Aussie press can be scathing if they don't succeed in sport.

Laura is a youngster still (if not by some tennis standards) and continues to improve and develop - she'll learn from this and hopefully come back tougher.
 
AmandaJR said:
We no more bottle it than any other nation's sportsmen and women striving for the very top. We just notice ours more and perhaps our media builds up the expectation more, although the Aussie press can be scathing if they don't succeed in sport.

Laura is a youngster still (if not by some tennis standards) and continues to improve and develop - she'll learn from this and hopefully come back tougher.
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Good post :thup: and tbh, I guess Laura losing that first set was nothing in comparison to Adam Scott's meltdown at the open!
 
jimbob.someroo said:
Good post :thup: and tbh, I guess Laura losing that first set was nothing in comparison to Adam Scott's meltdown at the open!
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..but Adam had already won some events previously.

On a positive note she wasn't born here so has a better chance of success :smirk:
 
There can only be one winner per tennis match so does that make the other player a bottler? :confused: she got beat by a better player
 
jp5 said:
There can only be one winner per tennis match so does that make the other player a bottler? :confused: she got beat by a better player
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She was outplaying the other player and had good chances to close out the set. In her own words, "I think I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and at the end of the first set I had my chances. At that point I was willing myself to play unbelievable tennis when just serving would have been fine. I know it's a cliché but it's all part of the experience."

If she'd have carried on playing the way she was doing, she'd have taken that set no worries.
 
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