For a couple of weeks Rafa has been training with Frederico Ferreira Silva, a 16 year old left-hander from Portugal who started playing in the ITF futures tournaments this year. Pedro Felner is Frederico's coach and writes an online blog. With the help of Ana N (where the Google translation was just a tad random) here are some excerpts.


Mallorca Day 1
(Translation by Google with some changes by MAC)

Well, we have arrived in Majorca for 10 days of practice with Rafa Nadal! We cannot complain of the reception. We settled in very well in Porto Cristo, a small "pueblo" by the sea where Nadal lives. The hotel is nice, with a great view of the marina. Over the next few days I will update the blog with a little "diary" of what is going on here. To safeguard his privacy, and since we will be together every day, I will be careful not to send you anything about his private life, or at least nothing that I know he would not like to see written.

The morning workout went very well. Rafa was only with his physical therapist and without his coach, Toni Nadal. Fred was in excellent form, hitting very strong and consistently. Rafa, as always, with great intensity; concentrated and very demanding on himself. [The concentration is such that when he broke a string he didn't realise he'd done so until Pedro pointed it out. "Surprised, he looked at the racquet and said he had not even noticed!"]

Mallorca Day 3
(Translation by Google with some changes by MAC)

Training from 9:30 to 14:00 with Rafa, but this time with much agitation. With the presence of our friend Peter Silva, who came to visit us, Albert Molina and Carlos Costa, IMG agents of Frederick and Rafael. At the end of practice, as usual, many requests for Rafa. With his genuine humility he responded to requests, always with a smile. First interview after autographs and photos. In the end, and when I was walking from the car, he turned back yet again because he had forgotten to sign a car full (literally!) of promotional material from Babolat. We came away and he was still there writing signatures without a break!


Mallorca Day 4
(Translation by Ana N)

... However, the highlight of the day was one of the breaks we took during the practice. Today I felt really like a privileged person for being able to share with Rafa and Toni a conversation about his present and his future. In the end of the talk, which got emotional for some moments, Toni turned to me and said "Are you seeing this? You will still go through these problems!". The answer was obvious: "it would be a very good sign if we had these problems one day!!!".

Even though they were talking in Catalan, and I couldn't understand everything that was said, Toni's messages to Rafa were understandable. It doesn't look good for me to tell you the content of the talk, but I should tell I was impressed. At first with Nadal's coolness, maturity and ability of argumentation. At only 25 years old, he is an athlete who is completely mature and conscious of what he's done, what he is doing and what he will achieve in the future. On the other hand, his uncle, Toni, is somebody with a very clear perception of tennis and of sport in general, with a really great ability to motivate and direct the focus to what is important: goals, work, motivation, effort. (...)

Mallorca Day 5
(Translation by Google with some changes by MAC)

The training day started pretty hard. ... Today I got to be scared ... the first hour of training was of brutal intensity, without a single stop and without downtime to catch balls. ... The truth is that Rafa, too much worn from a season that is already too long for him, was no longer fresh. ... One thing that has impressed me is Nadal's concentration and the effort that he puts into everything he does. It can be talking, laughing, taking pictures, etc.. But when he puts the ball in play or even start to make a physical training exercise, it seems that he enters into a "trance."

Off the field, today was a day more calm. Besides us, Rafa was with Toni and Rafael. Rafael is his physiotherapist and a man inseparable from Nadal.

After completion of the session, we go to the gym to do our physical program. In this short trip, a surprise was reserved for Fred. Instead of going in the little old Audi that he kindly provided for these days, it was an Aston Martin with Rafa behind the wheel. Strong emotions on the road and, according to Fred, a nice chat about young people's things (cars, girlfriends, nights out, etc. ...).


Mallorca Day 8
(Translation by Google with some changes by MAC)

Yesterday, as planned, we went to Rafa in the evening. He was with his group of friends and we all went out together, making a "raid" on the bars here in Manacor. As any of us when we go out at night with friends. With his simplicity we forget that he is one of the biggest stars of world sport! Moreover, normal. Despite being at home, he does not go unnoticed anywhere. However, people do not bother him and respect his privacy. Throughout the night there we felt a few shots of the flashes of cameras and some people (always women, of course!) pluck up the courage to directly ask for a photo. I never saw him refuse or look a bad guy. He has a special affection for the people of his country. In fact, I'm sure anywhere else in the world he can be as genuine and that, anywhere else, he feels free to do what he wants.


Mallorca Day 10
(Translation by Ana N)

We start, little by little, to get into the routine here. Today was another tough training day, not much different from the previous ones. We arrived to the club at 9.30 hrs, warmed up and did a bit of physical work before going on court with Rafa. The practice began at 10 o'clock and finished at around 13.30 hrs. The work was the same as what we did the day before, but with more intensity and less breaks. Tiago Olimpio made some videos I will try to post today.

The comic moment of the day was when Toni told us a story about Rafa, when he was 13 or 14. Here it is: Rafa was playing at a tournament and his racket got broken (completely broken, from one side to the other!). Obviously, he couldn't put a ball in and was making double faults one after the other. He was losing 6-1. Toni was far from the court and didn't notice it either, until a coach, his friend, asked him if Rafa didn't have another racket, once he kept playing with the completely broken one. Toni, then, told Rafa; he changed rackets and ended up winning the match. In the end Toni asked him why he didn't get another racket. The answer from the young, irreverent Nadal was: "I didn't change it because I didn't notice anything and because I'm so used to everything being always my fault, that in this situation, too, I was completely convinced it was my fault the balls were all going out!".

After listening to this story I thought with myself "and we are so used to watching the 'opposite movie'. The wind, the sun, the strings, the racket etc etc are many times blamed when the balls go out". In the afternoon we went to Palma to take Tiago Olimpio to the airport and, then, we went to the gym for the physical training. Today we were alone at the gym, because Rafa would only do the training by the end of the afternoon. He kindly gave us the key and so we could come back earlier to the hotel. Tomorrow we will go back to training! See you soon!

Mallorca Day 11
(Translation by Ana N)

Well, we are already in the last moments of our stay here. Tomorrow morning we will have the last on court practice and in the afternoon we will fly to Portugal. The practice went well today. Rafa had pain in the foot and couldn't move a lot. Maybe because he wasn't moving much, he was hitting the ball even harder! We don't have the experience of competing against him "seriously", but what we were told here is that he plays much harder when practicing than when competing! I got more peaceful! As usual, in the afternoon we went to the gym to do our physical training. The intensity of the practices and the management of effort we have to do, so that Fred can be at his best when he goes on court, have forced us to make some punctual changes in the (excellent!) program Luis Lopes gave us for the pre-season.

At this level (physical training) we can notice too that what we do is, at least, at the level of the best! After the training was done, Joan Forcades and Rafael Maymo left the gym quickly and me and Fred stayed there with Rafa. Calmly sit on the machines of the gym, we ended up talking to him for an entire hour. I didn't want to believe his tranquility while telling us some aspects of his life, namely personal. He told us about his family, about his coach Toni, about the professional circuit, the friends he has, the contracts and even about the taxes he pays! It was late and we were hungry, so we said goodbye. Me and Fred left the gym looking at each other and thinking the same thing.

I said this here already and will repeat: "more than a great player, he is an extraordinary person". There's a lot of things to learn from (some of!) the best players and this learning goes much further than training or what happens on court! We are leaving, but we hope to be able to meet Rafa again, on or off court!