Quote:
Originally Posted by stewietennis
Did he say slow down the points - as in don't hit the balls fast and flat so the points slow down. Or did he say slow down the games - as in take your time between games walking around.
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Points. But I think he means the game overall. Said: ""Cuando enfrentábamos a Roger la idea siempre fue bajar la velocidad de los puntos"." Speed of the points is effectively making sure the match doesn't run away from you. For Nadal himself when he was younger he actually, believe it or not, had a problem with playing too fast. Toni and his other coach when he was younger devised techniques to slow him down such as picking up 3 balls and then choosing one to discard etc. so that he took the time to regroup and think and did not rush as much as he did.
An article on tennis.com today mentions how fast Nadal's game was when he was 13 (cool article looking at the Gasquet/Nadal Petits As final from 1999 and what it tells us about the players
http://www.tennis.com/news/2012/10/c...le-aces/39651/) and similarly in a documentary which followed Nadal at Miami 2004 his coach mentions how he had a tendency to rush things. (see around 1:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMZ6Ztfm5QE). So obviously by 17 they'd implemented changes which helped.
Don't think it's a tactical "make sure you wait as long as possible between points" more than a "play at your speed" and don't go along with the fast Roger blitzing style.