I finished Rafa’s book a few days ago, so I thought I’d write a bit of a review. So if you haven’t read it yet, or don’t want to know about its content ... then its time to look away now!
First and fore-most I have to say that I enjoyed it. I think as a piece of writing its well crafted and well put together. Whilst its Rafa’s “autobiography”, there are several voices in there. His own (re-counting largely the tennis match memories), John Carlin’s (re-counting his interpretation of Rafa’s other thoughts and memories) and that of some of his team, friends and family (with one notable exception). Its central theme is the Wimbledon final of 2008, and the match flows through the whole book whilst it picks up and intersperses on other aspects of Rafa’s life along the way. Because of this, its like structured story telling, but without the standard start-middle-end aspect of say Rafa’s young years, then teenage boy, to tennis champ rolling through each season from 2005 to 2010. And for that, I liked it.
It brings you things you didn’t know, things you did know (but straightens out a few misnomers) and things you do know. So to pick up on some of these (which brings us to the heart of the book and the aspects I’ve chosen to talk about), we know Rafa doesn’t like the dark, and that he doesn’t like dogs. That Mallorca, his family and his friends are central to him and to who he is. We know he has to have his rituals, that he likes fishing and football. But moving on to the things that I’ve known about, but not really known about, the stand out thing from all of that ... is the foot.
I knew he was out injured in 2006 missing the Australian Open along the way, and the reason for that was his foot injury. And I knew that it was pretty serious, and that its been considered more serious than what he’s gone through with his knees, and the term “career threatening” has been used before. And I knew that the 2006 French Open victory meant as much, indeed if not more to him than the first victory in 2005, because it was a tough and long road back for him. That’s why he hugged his family and cried after victory ... and I always loved the emotion shown in that moment and indeed had a photograph printed off of Toni holding the weeping Rafa ... and Toni Nadal signed that picture for me at Monte Carlo this year.
But what I didn’t know was that this foot injury has a “name” – the tarsal scaphoid – (and yes, I just had to look that up again) and that it is, in fact, a congenital problem and a very rare disease. So to paraphrase from the book, what has happened is that this bone failed to harden and ossify as it should in Rafa’s early childhood, and as a consequence, painful sequels are felt in adulthood, and all the more so in his case because of the repetitive stress Rafa puts upon it as a tennis player. And equally, as he put his foot through intense activity as he did as a child when it wasn’t yet fully formed, the bone has become deformed, bigger than it should be and it is therefore liable to splinter. Now we can fully understand just how worried Rafa was this year at Wimbledon when he heard a “crack” in his foot in that match against Juan Martin Del Porto. And SHAME ON YOU to all those commentators, studio pundits, journalists and hatahs alike that accused him of faking it. So what I’ve learnt is that its not the knees ... this is Rafa’s Achilles Heel ... there is no cure, and its the most vulnerable part of his body.
His father stayed calm and worked with the right people to find a solution, and that solution is making some specially constructed insoles within his shoes to help take away the stress from that area. Sounds too simple, eh? but it seems that they are still working to this day to get these insoles absolutely right to take away the pain, and he has still subsequently played and no doubt will play with injections in this foot. So this much bandied about story that John McEnroe is so fond of, of Rafa playing in a shoe which is too small to help support that foot is codswallop. He plays with a bigger shoe in order to accommodate the insoles. And another funny thing I read earlier this year was that he wears insoles because he is just so incredibly flat footed. Funny really when you learn the real truth.
But it seems that this solution doesn’t come without a price ... and the price of angling his foot with an insole means that it puts stress on another parts of his body; and whilst the book talks about his calves and his back and doesn’t specifically cite his knees, I think it alludes enough to it that they have suffered as a result. Speaking as someone who has a low pain threshold, Rafa ... my admiration has risen ten fold.
So finally the things I didn’t know. Well, I didn’t know that Rafa’s father told him on the flight home from Australia in 2009 that he and his mother were separating. I thought that came later in the Spring, around Miami time when we started to talk amongst ourselves that something was just not “right” with Rafa. Poor Rafa. Can you imagine coming from the absolute high of wining his first hardcourt Slam following his Wimbledon victory and thus cementing his place as one of the greats, to then the absolute low of hearing that devastating news? And I remember there were frenzied scenes at the airport when he arrived back in Mallorca after that victory. He must have felt like death.
But the stand out revelation in this book and what I found both shocking and illuminating ... is Rafa’s relationship with Toni. Before I start giving my opinion, I do believe that they are the sum of two parts, intrinsically linked with the other. And Rafa points out he loves him – several times - and that he credits his success to him. But I found him to be a bully. I find his methods excessive, shocking even, to a young boy – and even to a young man. Its strange that he seems to have this mercurial standing in the family ... but is the black sheep, the outsider, just ever so removed from it all. And I truly believe that if he had been anything other than family, then they would have taken Rafa straight away from his charge. And yet whatever they thought, (and even though some family members did think Toni’s treatment of Rafa was too much at times), they’ve allowed it to continue because family trust over-rode everything else. But when Rafa talks of balls being fired at his head, the slap downs, the lack of praise, being picked out for criticism, to have to do the dirty tasks ... I fail to see where this is character building and just believe it abusive. He seems to have been told over and over that others are better than him, that such and such isn’t good enough, next to no praise but a heap load of criticism. I found it painful reading that Toni called Rafa a “Mummy’s boy” ... and yet in the book you have a statement from his mother where she says it pains her for the world to think that someone else brought up her own son.
And the one character within the Nadals that I didn’t particularly care for before reading this book, was Papa ... Sebastian. But I’ve changed my opinion simply because he has been so central in Rafa’s life by being the balancing out figure from whatever Toni was applying and so very important to him.
And I’m sure that people will say that without each other, they would not have been who they are today. Now for Toni, I feel that is particularly true. His “Mallorquin-ess” would have left him a simple tennis coach on the island, probably never making anyone a world champion, but mostly I believe that no parent would have allowed what he meted out to Rafa to happen to their child. But for Rafa himself ... I’m biased, maybe. But I believe he would have made himself into some sort of sports champion regardless ... whether it to be to a lesser degree as a tennis player, or he may have even found that calling as a footballer. There just seems something inherent within Rafa that isn’t put in there by Toni, his parents or anyone, that just makes him want to be competitive in sport and to succeed.
I read that Toni has claimed not to have read Rafa’s book, and that’s probably true. But there is a part within it where Rafa seems to be teeming tale, after tale after tale of incidents where has had to suppress himself, put up and shut up, or just bow down to Toni’s being ... and I just get the feeling now that as a 25-year-old man, Rafa’s had enough. Its not like Rafa is without his incidents, his own temper and shouting at and falling out with, Toni. Our friend Denzy witnessed him screaming his head off at him at Monte Carlo last year. But one incident in the book during “Rafa’s Rant” that he recalls is at the US Open last year when they had a tumultuous row after the Istomin match where Toni yelled at Rafa for not wearing his “Face” ... and Rafa fought back believing Toni to be so wrong in his judgement that it resulted in Toni stating that he would quit. They obviously patched it up (and its not revealed how), but you do have to ask yourself as to the merit of that kind of coaching at this stage in his career ... now that Rafa is the man. Rafa recalls that if he expresses doubt in himself, Toni will yell at him for his lack of confidence. Yet he is the product of Toni’s DNA because if he ever expressed himself as better than his opponent, then Toni would have slapped him down for that too.
I’m moving now into a territory that is beyond the book, but I wrote a post previously called “Much Ado About Rafa”, where I’m trying to work out just what is this malaise with him for this season. And the Djokovic aspect and Rafa’s own confidence are vital parts. But after reading this book, Toni’s harsh, critical methods are old hat to me now. Because at 25, Rafa has developed into being the man and person he is now, and he doesn’t need any more of that. Plus this constant thing of being told you’re not the best, always instilling the fear of the opponent in him ... you know, the man is a double digit Grand Slam winner on all surfaces. He’s won 19 Masters and an Olympic Gold Medal and the Davis Cup twice. He’s part of tennis history, he’s a man ... so enough of all of that now, because clearly he has been so much better and on so many important occasions.
In my opinion, that relationship is at a critical point because actually its Toni that has to prove his worth now. He shouldn’t be trotting out tat about Rafa’s game face being wrong ... what he should be doing is earning his coin as a coach, and developing tactical plans and tactical measures for Rafa to employ to help beat his opponents. In the book, its interesting that Rafa admits that he has no game plan against Djokovic, none. He just hopes he can be the better player than him on the day. As I say Toni ... try and develop some tactical nous to help turn Rafa into a winner again which will reap the benefit towards his confidence ... that’s what you should be looking at, counter-active tennis tactics.
So I’ll call a halt at this stage, because why use 100 words when 10,000 will do, hehe. There was a lot of bru-ha-ha when it was first announced that Rafa would be doing this book; you know, the usual stuff of how at his age and when he’s still mid-career, how could he possibly have a story to tell? Well, I didn’t agree then because I felt Rafa has an amazing story of his rise to professional tennis player, to be the clay court King and then develop himself into a winner across all surfaces. How in 2008 he won it all, to then lose it all in 2009, but then rise from personal and professional adversity to be the Champion and No. 1 player again in 2010 and the youngest ever to achieve the career Grand Slam. It does lack one final chapter though, and that was him regretfully not being able to be the first man since Rod Laver to hold all the Slam titles at once. But for all that, its a highly entertaining and well written book ... and a “must read” for any Rafa fan.
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