The value of effort | Toni Nadal | TEDxMalagueta

Who has been for almost three decades the coach, tutor, support, tactician and emotional anchor of one of the best tennis players in history, Rafa Nadal, reveals some of the keys of his education: humility, effort, respect to the opponent, modesty ... He tells us all this embellished with some anecdotes of his path alongside Rafa. After almost thirty years together, Toni Nadal takes a step aside, to focus on his pedagogical work.

This talk is a TEDx event, organised independently from TED Talks. More information in: http://ted.com/tedx

For many years, I've been
Rafael Nadal's coach

and I've met two important requirements
to be a good coach.

The first one is that I'm his uncle,

is always harder to fire a relative
than somebody else,

and the second is that
as we are half Catalans

I've been the cheapest coach
in the circuit

and that counts too.

For that ...

(Applause)

For that I've stayed in that position
many years,

not for other reasons.

Once, in Monte Carlo,
we had to play the final

against a not very good Swiss player,

he played for a while.

So, we had to play against him

and Rafael asked me,

"How do you see the match today?"

And I told him, "How do I see it?
I see it a bit tough."

"Federer has a better drive than yours,

his backhand is better

volley is better too" ...

And when I was about to tell him,
"And the serve, there's no comparison,"

He told me, "Whew! Stop, Stop."

"You really support me
before going to the pitch."

And I told him, "I could lie to you

but in a while Federer
isn't going to do so.

It's better for you to know
what you are going to deal with,

from now on we are going
to look for answers."

That has been the way I've understood,

a kind of way that I've understood
training.

Accepting reality is one complicated
thing to do nowadays.

It seems today that we always have to give

messages to our relatives, positive ones.

We have to say to them constantly

that they are almost the best ones,
that they are really good.

I think that this is not a good principle,
I prefer the other one.

Knowing that I'm not good enough.

I think that when you know

that you are not good enough
and you know reality,

that's the first step, the starting point,
to reach your goals.

That's how I've always understood it.

I've always avoided an overvaluation

of the boys I was training,
mostly of Rafael.

He was, obviously my nephew
and I could do it.

I remember I add after telling him that,
I told him,

OK, well, if you are capable of playing
every point as if it were the last one,

if you are capable of playing this match
as if life depended on it,

if you are more excited than him

and you are ready to run faster than him,

I think you'll have
lots of chances of victory.

I've always believed in chances of victory

although, the truth is,
it hasn't gone out very well.

That girl I told her that
she didn't know how to play,

ended fourth of Spain in her category,

which wasn't that bad.

This search of impartiality,
of avoiding a hoax,

as I was saying, it hasn't stopped me
from having the maximum confidence

in knowing that we'll reach our goals.

Always.

I've always had the maximum trust
that Rafael would achieve his goals

with work, obviously.

I remember, many years ago,
at Carlos Moyá´s place,

Carlos Moyá asked me --

Rafael was about 15 years old,
he asked me,

"Would you sign for Rafael to become
an Albert Costa in the future?"

Albert Costa had just won Roland Garros,

he was the seventh at the ATP.

And I told him,
"No, I don't sign for that."

"I don't think that Rafael will be better,
I want to believe that he'll be better."

Carlos Moyá was surprised by that statement

Because Rafael was just a young promise

and aiming to also be a
Roland Garros champion, wasn't that easy.

Immediately afterwards he asked me,

"Would you sign for Rafael to become
a Carlos Moyá in the future?"

I answered... "Of course!"

Carlos Moyá also won a Roland Garros,

he was world number one,
five years among the eight bests.

I told him,

"Yes, I sign for him to be a Carlos Moyá."

We had dinner, he invited us.

We said goodbye,
but just as the door closed,

when Rafael and I left, I told him,
"Well, there's no way I would sign it."

(Laughter)

In his house, obviously,
I couldn't let him down.

There's no way
but to shape well the character.

I have been a coach who took care

more of shaping Rafael's character,

strengthening his character,

than to form him well technically.

That's the reason behind
those strange hits that he makes

over the head,

or serving as he does now,
although I think he serves better,

but for many years,
I didn't manage to make him learn.

But the truth is,

it never was my fault that
he didn't learn how to serve.

It was always his fault ...

(Laughter)

because, as many years ago I told
to the father of a pupil I trained,

who, seeing how disastrous
his son was, asked me,

"Is this what you teach to my son?"

and I answered,
"No, this is what he learns,

what I teach is very different."

(Laughter)

(Applause)

I've never liked to assume
the responsibility,

that's why, since he was a child

I made Rafael assume his responsibility.

I have the fame to be a strict coach,

I have actually been strict,
I have been a tough coach.

I don't believe in roughness as an aim,
I believe in roughness as means.

I have been a demanding coach
because I cared a lot

a great fondness for my nephew.

I wouldn't have ever been tough to
somebody who couldn't cope with it

or who couldn't cope with
that thoroughness.

But I would never be tough with somebody

who I didn't feel a great fondness for,
for somebody I didn't appreciate truly.

Since I wanted the greater good
for my nephew,

I was really strict.

I think this

is a main condition.

And to be strict,

well, this thoroughness I always tried

that it turned into self-demanding.

One can't always be stretching constantly

to his player, in this case,

or to anybody who you train
in any activity.

That's why I always tried
that Rafael felt

the responsibility himself.

I think that he assumed it, since:

Many years ago I went with him
to a tournament

with another player.

I accompanied him and ...

I remember that they scheduled the match

at the same hour than the other player
I was also accompanying.

I was seeing my nephew playing from afar,

and he was being a complete disaster.

He was losing 5-0 against
a not so great player.

In that moment, a friend of mine arrived,
he was a former player, and he told me,

"Hey! I think your nephew
is playing with a broken racket."

The ones that have played tennis,

with a broken frame
is almost impossible to play,

the balls always go out,

except inside the court, they all go out.

I went to Rafael's court and I told him,

"Listen, your racket is broken,
I think your racket is broken."

The guy did like this, "Damn! Yes,
it is broken, I'll change it."

Well, he changed it, the scene changed,
but at the end he lost 6-0, 7-5.

So, when the match was over,
I went to him and asked him,

"Can you tell me that a boy" --
he was 15 years old, I think --

"Can you tell me that a boy
after playing for so many years,

doesn't know when a racket is broken?"

And his answer was very clear, he told me,

"Look, I'm so used to always be blamed,

that I didn't even think that the racket
was the one that was making me lose."

(Laughter)

(Applause)

The speech has always been the same.

A few times ...

I think that a sense of self-criticism
is necessary,

it's very hard to progress, to improve,
without a good sense of self-criticism.

I've always tried for him to have it.

I have always made sure that
he never gave me excuses,

neither about his defeats,
nor about anything that happened.

It is too easy to justify,

to justify oneself constantly.

In the academy I was asked to

put up some phrases to motivate the guys.

I don't know if I motivated them,
or if I discouraged them.

But I remember that one of the
phrases that I put up was,

"Never an excuse made us win a match."

And that's the truth.

Some years ago we were at the US Open

and in that edition, the balls
didn't give a spin that Rafael wanted.

We were playing and it was a disaster.

Everyday when we were going to train,

"These balls aren't right for me,
they don't give the spin."

"Interesting," I told him.

The next day was the same;
excuses bother me a lot.

He won his first match,
the second, the third;

but tired of hearing him, I told him,

"Listen, what you should do, is to lose,

lose and, in Majorca,
the ball will give a spin."

He listened to me: he lost.

(Laughter)

He lost, but he didn't go to Majorca,
he went to Beijing,

and I went to Majorca and later
we met again in Naples.

Curiously, in Beijing he won
the next tournament.

He beat everybody,

he defeated the world number three,
the number five.

He made a great tournament,
I saw in on TV.

I knew the balls he was playing with
and were the same than the US Open ones.

I said "f***!" when I met him
again, I asked him,

"By the way, what ball
did you play with in Beijing?"

And he, a bit embarrassed answered:
"No, with Wilsons."

So ... in Beijing they give a spin,

in New York they don't,
but in Beijing they do.

Whatever, it's always the same.

Now he was in Australia and when
he played his fourth match,

and he didn't play too well
I said to him, "Yuck!"

He called me after the match and I told
him, "You haven't played too well."

And the first thing he told me was:
"It's because it was too hot."

It seems that it was hot only in one half
of the court, not in the other.

The other player did play really well.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

As I said, I tried to strengthen up
Rafael's character, and I did

trying to encourage his ability to endure

because I think this is
what is decisive in life.

The ability to endure.

Years ago I was in a school,

and I heard a teacher that told us,

"In life we have to learn to articulate
the phrasal 'put up with'."

He articulated it in a different way.

Well, he told us,

"I put up with, you put up with,
he puts up with."

"We put up with," said the teacher.

Rafael learnt how to articulate it:

"I put up with myself, I put up with you."

I was hard to put up with.

For many years I made him train
with balls in bad shape,

with tennis courts in bad shape.

I told him, "We are going to train
for one hour and a half,"

and then I used to go on
with the training indefinitely

because I was interested in making
him learn how to put up with everything.

I was interested in teaching him how
to strengthen, mainly, his character.

I think that this is decisive,

that is what has been decisive in life.

I believe that character builds up
thanks to difficulty.

And I think this is
the great mistake nowadays.

Nowadays, the children having
so many more things,

having all the technology behind them,

even having nutritionists,

having biomechanical studies,

audiovisual studies, analyzing the hits,

statistics that tell you what to do,

in the end,
people find it harder to improve.

I give a very clear example.

When we arrived
to the professional circuit,

the first ones there were:

Hewitt, 21 years old.

Roddick, 20 years old.

This Swiss was already there, 21, Federer.

Coria, 21. Nalbaldian, 21.

Ferrero, 23. Safin, 24.

I think Moyá and Agassi were there,
they were a bit older.

Nowadays, the top ones are:

Federer, 36.

Rafael, about to turn 32.

Murray and Djokovic, 31.

Wawrinka, 33.

Del Potro, about to turn 30.

Čilić, 30. Berdych, 33.

What has happened?

Why does it take so much to the new ones

to replace the old ones nowadays?

I think it is simply because
they haven't understood

what is essential.

The essential ...

Obviously, I'm not against technology.

The world progresses and technology
is going to help us,

but I think there are things that,

mostly on the training stages, don't help.

Making the life of the young ones so easy

I don't think it helps at all.

I believe that sometimes it's better

to restrict a bit the advances

and go back to the essential.

For us the essential was always:

perseverance,

it was the respect to the opponent,

it was the effort, it was the sacrifice,
it was the discipline.

Technologies weren't ever the essential.

I think that's what all the young ones
should understand.

This is what I understand
that was fundamental in Rafael:

be sure that everything that happened
was his responsibility,

being ready to fight until the end.

Rafael had many problems,

physical, of injuries ...

I do not like complaints,

when he used to tell me that he had
many problems, I answered,

"Well, this is what it is,
that's what with have to fight with."

And I understand this is fundamental,
not only for Rafael,

but for anybody who aspire

to reach high goals.

I've confirmed many years later

that I used to think that Borg, McEnroe,
Lendl, were exceptional people,

also, I used to think that their coaches
were also great managers.

I believed that they have been gifted
with a special talent.

Well, I have verified that
a boy from Manacor, a normal child,

well, I don't know if he has reached
McEnroe's or Lendl's level,

but that with effort, with sacrifice,

he has managed to reach many goals

that he decided when he was young.

That's why I understand that
if he has managed to make it,

obviously many people,
many of us, can make it.

I don't know if everybody could
become world number one,

right now, number two from Monday on,

I don't know if we all can reach this

but I'm sure that all, all or almost all,

can improve and progress.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)