Learning from Rafa

Rafael Nadal is the king of clay. It will be really hard to beat his achievements on dirty surface. It is incredible how well one person can compete on one surface year after year against the best players in the world. Rafa’s achievements are not limited just to playing on clay. He won Grand Slam tournaments on other surfaces too and he occupied the highest ranking spot. Should we focus on Rafa’s strategy to be able to achieve great things? Definitely yes but let’s not forget about other aspects too.

When we think of Nadal we have fabulous topspin forehand in mind. This stroke gave him many wins through entire career. Then we have solid backhand that transformed from regular stroke to really offensive weapon. We can’t forget about perfect movement connected with world-class endurance that made his opponents get frustrated of inability to hit winners past Nadal. Of course Rafa’s shots, tactical decisions and physical preparation are factors that we should try to earn from to improve our own game but Rafa’s story has more to offer. Nadal’s recipe for success is not where it is visible at the first glance. His recipe is visible only when we look from slightly different perspective.

Modern tennis is a fast-pace sport. Sport where big money is offered to players, sponsors hunt for famous ambassadors and styles of play became based mostly on power and short points. It simply means that to be able to get to the top players have to be able to deal with these challenges in the most effective way. We can definitely say that Rafa did it perfectly so let’s use his achievement to learn important lessons from the champion.

Rafa’s game is great but his attitude is beyond the words. Here is what makes Rafa special and what we should try to copy from him:

• Nothing else to blame

Rafa was taught to be responsible and he got this skill to the highest possible level. He never throws the racquet after missing easy ball. He never blames others for mistakes he made. The only person that is responsible for failures is Rafa Nadal. That is why he got to the top, stays at the top and is able to compete for the trophies even while being over 30 years old.

• Success doesn’t change

There are many examples of athletes who get to the top, earn millions of dollars and never achieve similar results again. It is not the case with Nadal. He has plenty of money on his accounts, records of titles in Roland Garros, trophies that all players would love to have but he still is the same hard-working Rafa as he was at the age of 15. When Nadal finishes practice session he does the court himself. This is his attitude that will never change – on the court and in life.

• Always with Toni

We know many histories of players working with family members but Rafa and Toni are special. They were through ups and downs together. They got to the top and still were able to implement minor adjustments to achieve top results. They didn’t face a burnout – both from Rafa and Toni’s perspective. They knew they can fight for all trophies only if they do it together – no matter the actual scores the vision and respect to each other were there. It is kind of different approach so common visible on ATP/WTA Tours where players change own coaches even 2 times a year.

Rafa is the person who is famous because of his strokes but that’s not the whole picture of this champion. What makes him different is his character – shaped by his uncle and developed by himself. Not all of us will ever have a chance to play on Roland Garros but we can definitely use lessons from Rafa’s life and respect our team members, be responsible for own actions and … do court after we finish practice!

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