Rafa: My Story by Rafael Nadal with John Carlin - review
grif
The Observer, Sunday 4 September 2011
In 2005, when he was 19, Rafael Nadal won the French Open - his first grand
slam title. By any measure, it was an impressive achievement. Winning a
grand slam is hugely difficult, whatever a player's age (just ask Andy
Murray). So one might have thought that Nadal's coach, Uncle Toni, would
have expressed delight at his victory. Not a bit of it. As Nadal records in
his memoir, Toni informed him that he thought his opponent had played the
better match and that he'd been lucky to win. The next day, Toni left him a
handwritten note listing all the aspects of his game he needed to improve if
he was ever to win another major tournament.
If Nadal displays little surprise in recounting this, then that's because he
has long been used to such behaviour. Toni, a failed tennis player, began
coaching him when he was a small boy. From the start, his approach was to
treat his nephew with the opposite of favouritism: "It was always me. that
he got to pick up the balls, or more balls than the others, at the end of
the training session." The injustice evidently still rankles. When Nadal was
11, he won the Spanish under-12s national championship. He records his
family's delight, but "as usual it was Toni. who spoiled the party". Toni
phoned up the Spanish Tennis Federation and got a list of the title's
previous 25 winners, which he read out to Nadal. Sure enough, most never
went on to become famous players. "So, Rafael, don't get too excited about
today's victory," Toni warned. "There's still a long, hard road ahead."
In other circumstances, such treatment might seem vindictive and callous.
But as Nadal's memoir makes clear, Toni's bullying was part of a grand
strategy for turning his nephew into a tennis machine, capable of directing
every possible resource to the task of winning. And it's hard to deny that
his method worked. Nadal, still only 25, is already thought by some to be
the best player ever. What's true, moreover, is that his effectiveness is
based not so much on innate talent as a superhuman toughness that is as much
mental as physical. Nadal simply doesn't seem to get affected by the
setbacks that befall other players in the course of a match. In a revealing
passage, Nadal's physical trainer, Joan Forcades, is quoted as saying that
tennis is all about "resolving emergencies, one after the other". Nadal
often gives the impression of having been custom-built to withstand such
pressure. Adversity, far from weakening him, merely strengthens his resolve.
Rafa: My Story is an unconventional memoir in that it is written in a
language - English - he speaks poorly, as anyone who has seen him
interviewed knows. Presumably, the ghost writer, Invictus author John
Carlin, talked to him in Spanish before subjecting his words to a
simultaneous process of translation and buffing up. The strategy isn't a bad
one, because the finished product reads pretty fluently. The ghost's
invisibility is compromised in another way too: alternating with Nadal's
first-person account, which is structured round his five-set Wimbledon final
against Roger Federer in 2008, are short third-person essays about aspects
of Nadal's background or character. While these were no doubt prompted by
the fear that Nadal's unadorned narrative would be too skimpy, the end
result is oddly effective, like a literary portrait in the round.
There are gaps: Nadal says next to nothing about his long-term girlfriend,
Maria Francisco Perello (a Carlin interlude on "Rafa's women" doesn't really
supply the deficiency), nor does he talk about his ritual tugging of his
shorts before he serves (a triviality, perhaps, but one it would have been
sensible to at least mention). Overall, Nadal emerges as a decent, modest,
intensely private man still struggling to escape from the shadow cast by his
domineering uncle. For as this book reveals, Nadal's gladiatorial on-court
personality is a charade: on the inside, despite all his success, he remains
the unconfident little boy convinced he will never be good enough.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/04/rafael-nadal-my-story-review
number_six
> William Skidelsky
> The Observer, Sunday 4 September 2011
> Rafa: My Story is an unconventional memoir in that it is written in a
> language - English - he speaks poorly, as anyone who has seen him
> interviewed knows. Presumably, the ghost writer, Invictus author John
> Carlin, talked to him in Spanish before subjecting his words to a
> simultaneous process of translation and buffing up.
Is he referring to that rugby movie?
Invictus (the poem) was by William Ernest Henley.
uly...@mscomm.com
Or as Rafa romantically and gallantly told an interview in May, "She
has her own life. She goes her way and I go mine."
Spoken as Rafa deftly manouevers the compliant Feli into the spoons
position....
Court_1
Wait, there is a part in Rafa's book called Rafa's Women? LOL. What
does it say about "his women?" Anybody know? Does it talk about Feli
and Moya? Hee, hee.
Superdave
I suspect it is only about his mummy and nuns who may have taught him at school.
MBDunc
actual career (whether athlete or politicin or some other (semi)
important person) is over. Maybe they sell enough and provide some
extra bucks (as like some like Nadal needs extra money).
Murray's "hitting back" is the most laughable example. What he had
back then? One 4R at Wimbledon and 20 years of age? (ok he had already
something else but just to underline my point).
.mikko
felangey
> actual career (whether athlete or politicin or some other (semi)
> important person) is over. Maybe they sell enough and provide some
> extra bucks (as like some like Nadal needs extra money).
Yeah, I dislike this trend also. Have to figure it is a numbers game in this
instance....getting it out at the peak of his fame.
> Murray's "hitting back" is the most laughable example. What he had
> back then? One 4R at Wimbledon and 20 years of age? (ok he had already
> something else but just to underline my point).
Yeah...that was a strange one. Only slightly worse than "My First Grand
Slam" by Djoke....which has only this year garnered a teensy bit more
credence. ;)
Court_1
Superdave
Funny but in fact I remember every nun who ever taught me at school grade 1 thru
12 and not only their name but what they looked like too. Deep impression for
sure.
bob
yes, the murray/nadal "bios" are dumb at this pt.
bob
Thomas R. Kettler
bob <stei...@comcast.net> wrote:
The Murray one would be worthwhile if it had video game tips. After all,
he's an expert.
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