Rafa at Rest: Rafa's Brilliant Manipulation of Time (clipped from butt thread)
Patrick Kehoe
> On Apr 23, 11:16 am, Patrick Kehoe <pke...@telus.net> wrote:
> > On Apr 22, 2:29 pm, GOYLE <jameshollowa...@aol.com> wrote:
> > > On Apr 22, 10:53 am, "ulys...@msomm.com" <ulys...@mscomm.com> wrote:
> > > > I'm not saying he doesn't still do it, but he used to do it literally
> > > > before every first serve. Now he's touching his front pocket instead.
> > > > I saw him do it a few times when receiving serve from Monfils today,
> > > > but only once when he was serving. That's a huge improvement.
> > > I don't know, my wife briefly watched the encore a hour ago and said
> > > watch him, he's pulling at his shorts. I said that's my boy Rafa. She
> > > laughed and said, watch, he does it before every 1st serve, pull at
> > > the shorts, brush his hair on the right then the left. She doesn't
> > > really care for him doing it but didn't say much. I said it doesn't
> > > bother me, I'm use to him doing it. I said why do you think he does
> > > it, she said it's a habit, probably something he started doing at a
> > > young age like from a stressful situation.
> > I think your wife is exactly correct... youth, stress, habit, Rafa
> > creature of habits, etc...
> > P
> It seems he has gotten really bad at a lot of habits. Today, he has to
> place the water bottles just at th right spot, then, he has to eat a
> protein pack and it looked like he was rolling up the paper just the
> right way before handing it to the ball boy, then, he has to fold a
> towel just the right way and place the head of his raquet on the towel
> just the right way and it took him 4 or 5 times to get the raquet
> right. If you get the chance to watch the encore pay close attention
> to what he does and you will see what I'm posting. It really boggles
> the mind why he does all this.- Hide quoted text -
> - Show quoted text -
Yes... we have noticed it for years and years here on RST... and the
other players simply just give into his idiocyncratic behaviour(s)...
which is fascinating... Connors one time mentioned he might just sit
there a while and make Rafa wait... another time during the W final,
egged on by John Lloyd about what 'Jimmy' would do to those water
bottles, Connors admitted he would 'accidently' knock them over for
sure...
Man would that be funny to see...
There's a reason Rafa does all of those 'particulars' and it's NOT
simply long formed habit for the sake of 'just doing them'... it's
about time control BASED ON the fact most athletes IN THE FLOW tend
to
want to keep the momentum of their particular rhythms going... which
is in itself a form of control of the dynamics of match play/events
unfolding... Rafa uses the OPPOSITE as his 'game speed' -
deliberation
and periodic micro-stalling - to allow for HIS GREATEST STRENGTH, the
abilility to concentrate and refocus constantly unto the task/
necessity before him, the very next play.... It's BRILLIANT really...
in a sense most great players when to 'string together shotmaking
into
a series of unfolding patterning... Nadal wants to almost, almost,
isolate each stroke unto itself, certainly each specific point,
rally,
to maximize the potentiality of his defensive power tennis... works
to
Rafa...
Like most all time greats, Rafa MAKES, compells, the others around
him
play to his game-projections... you would have to attempt a McEnroe/
Connors ASSAULT upon the decorum of the match to get him out of
it...
P
Carey
I agree completely, and am amazed that no player, (none!) has tried it.
drew
The players nowadays are trained to eliminate this kind of behavior.
I think Rafa would be very susceptible to gamesmanship. The little
indiscretions
of Berdych and Soderling were enough to piss him off.
Imagine how McEnroe or Connors would fuck with his head.
*skriptis
"drew" <dr...@technologist.com> wrote in message
news:d803f58b-88a5-497b...@z33g2000vbk.googlegroups.com...
I think he wouldn't hesitate to hit them..
Court_1
>
> - Show quoted text -
Personally, I don't think we can label what Rafa does pre-match as
"brilliant" but each to his own! What I see in the bottle arranging
and other pre-match rituals is some serious OCD tendencies. :)
Court_1
>
> - Show quoted text -
McEnroe must see what Rafa does pre-match with the bottles and he must
be thinking to himself, "this guy is nuts!" I mean seriously, can you
see McEnroe employing such rituals? Too funny.
Raja, The Great
Federer is too much of a nice guy to Rafa. McEnroe, Connors, Lendl and
even Becker would have played mindgames with him and messed him up.
TT
Rafa plays only better when controversy happens. Don't wanna piss him
off. Nice try though.