Nadal’s little secrets
Le10Sport.com by Bastien Aubert

Rafael Nadal, qualifying for the 1/8th Roland Garros final, has his little obsessions. Enter the everyday world of the Mallorcan who constructed his story based on important details.


A close watch

In each of his travels, Rafael Nadal has a close entourage. His agent Carlos Costa, his PR agent Benito Perez Barbadillo, his uncle and trainer Toni Nadal and lastly, Rafael Maymo, his physiotherapist. Those 4 are always there, except his uncle who doesn’t accompany him on the American tour in the beginning of the season. Other people may join that list at times, like his father Sebastian or his friend and doubles partner Tomeu Salva. Among each other, they speak Mallorcan, a sort of dialect derived from Catalan and incomprehensible for outsiders.

Chocolate, indulgence

Before being a top athlete, Rafael was a very bad student when it comes to nutrition. “My basic nutrition, very Mediterranean, was bad. Even up to the point of being mocked by other players for feeding myself so badly”, he joked recently.
Since then, the work done by Rafael Maymo is amazing. According to him, Rafa’s nutrition can be divided as follows: “65% carbohydrates, 25% proteins and 10% fat. The recommended division for an average person is as follows: between 10 and 35% proteins, between 20 and 35% fat and between 45 and 65% carbohydrates. Nadal has made enormous progress but the temptations are many: chocolate and seafood are his indulgencies.

Scared of lightning

Eric Babolat, the person who discovered him at a very tender age thanks to his connections in Spain, knows him very well. Since always, Rafa has used only one brand of racket and he’s made it a successful brand. Babolat’s boss tells an interesting story about young Rafa. “Toni Nadal had a technique without fail to make him play well. When he was little, Rafa was ver afraid of thunder. Toni knew this and quickly, he made him belief that the thunder gods would come down on him if he was playing badly, if he wasn’t 100% focused on his game. I do think that Toni only needed to say it once”.

A morphology like Phelps

Even though it would seem as if their morphology is different at first sight, the Spanish champion is often compared to Michael Phelps. Several extensive studies, done over a period of three years, have revealed that the Mallorcan has the same resilience as a sprinter! Like the American, Nadal is a force of nature. He posseses a natural elasticity at the joints, his body mass has been developed by lifting weights. But Nadal’s body is such that he doesn’t need to lift a lot of weights to gain muscles.


The physiotherapist who became his friend

Rafael Nadal has developed an extremely close relationship with is physiotherapist. Rafael Maymo tirelessly accompanies him for years now and he’s there whenever the world number two travels. It’s a fact that Rafael would not be who he is without him. He also needs him to change of pace, for entertainment. Maymo has thus become his biggest opponent in Playstation!

Ice baths after the effort

To be concrete, Maymo passes the majority of his time making notes about when he eats, sleeps or awakens. The time Nadal spends hitting his forehand and his backhand is also scrutinized. Everything is calculated. After the matches follow the toughest physiotherapy sessions. After having “worked his body” with his hands, his physiotherapist does not hesitate putting the Spaniard in baths filled with huge ice cubes.