Time to Reinvent Rafael Nadal
When Roger Federer won against Rafael Nadal a couple of years ago in the hallowed ground of
True, Rafa has won quite a few of Grand Slams in his young career. So far he has six of them: Four French Opens, an Aussie and a Wimby, quite impressive since he is only 23 years of age. While Roger Federer continues his onslaught and is frequently mentioned as the Greatest of All Time debates, Rafa has repeatedly beat him in the French and in the past few non-clay tournaments as well. In terms of number of Grand Slams won, Rafa is the only one who is on pace to beat Roger’s record.
But that is the problem, isn’t it? “On pace”. 
The thing that Rafa leans heavily on to beat the other masters and Roger is his pace. He’d run from one end to another without tiring and often, with a little school boy glee as if running one’s ass off all the time is a natural thing. In terms of play, he relies more on being capable of returning whatever is thrown to him until the opponent becomes impatient or tires out and makes a mistake.
That’s his pace. And while his lungs could take it, his knees apparently cannot. In this year’s Australian Open, Rafa quit while behind against
It’s the start of the season. If your knees are not holding up now, it wouldn’t hold up as the year goes on.
This is why Rafa should start adjusting his game for longevity reasons. There have been many athletes who have performed well enough to have won major championships but still found out that they needed to readjust their methods in order to get to the next level, remain on top, or to prolong their career. Rafa should take his cue from these people:
Tiger Woods
A couple of years after winning the Masters by 12 strokes, Tiger Woods decided that he needed to change his swing. That’s right. The most dominant golfer of all time who destroyed the field in the Masters decided that his swing could get better. So Woods reinvented his swing both as a way to improve and maintain his form and also to help ease the knee problems that he’s been having. It’s important to realize that if a person is doing something so devastating, it’s only logical that it is also has devastating effects on the body of the person.
Manny Pacquiao
Manny was already a champion by the time he beat Marco Antonio Barrera in the Alamodome. His wicked left hand pounded the Mexican hero to the point that the latter’s brother cried and surrendered. A couple of fights later, he went up Erik Morales and lost due to the ability of Morales to avoid his left hand. That woke Pacquiao and his coach, Freddie Roach, up. It told them that while his natural talent was good enough to win fights against majority of his opponents, it was not enough to beat the best consistently. This is why they started to develop his right hand, his defense and his ring generalship. The left hand will always be there no matter what but now he doesn’t have to rely on it. He has other tools.
Roger Clemens
Clemens was already a Cy Young winner and known universally as The Rocket, because of his incredible pitching arm. Clemens was young and brash and was always ready to show his stuff in the mound and dare the batter to swing at his pitches. While immensely successful, it also did a lot of damage to his shoulder resulting in a torn rotator cuff and had to undergo major treatment. Undaunted, Clemens returned, adjusted his game and won six more Cy Youngs in a 24 year career.
If there ever were other athletes that Rafa should take his cue on, these three are it. Rafa has tremendous talent and has shown that his shot making is about as good as anyone not named Roger Federer. His reliance on his being able to run down any shot may have won him six Grand Slams so far but for the same reason, he might not win any more of them. There are other tennis players coming up from behind him such as Murray,
He has unmistakable talent and while his return game is his calling card, it will always still be there once he adjusts his game. In my opinion, his goal this year should be to improve other aspects of his game, such as his serve, and not to focus so much on winning a grand slam. It will eventually come because he has the talent to do so. All he needs now is the game that allows him to use his talent without destroying his body.
Should he not win a Grand Slam this year but succeeds in reinventing his game then the year should be considered a success. He needs this. At his age of 23, he has the time. And as a 6 time Grand Slam Champion, he sure has the talent.
