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21 " He has always been obedient, which is a sign of intelligence in a child because it shows you understand that your elders know better than you, that you respect their superior experience of the world. "
― Rafael Nadal , Rafa
22 " Clark Kent and Superman "
23 " All his fears—be they of the dark, of thunderstorms, of the sea, or of the disastrous disruption of his family life—obey a compelling need. “He is a person who needs to be in control of everything,” Pérez says, “but since this is impossible, he invests all he has in controlling the one part of his life over which he has most command, Rafa the tennis player. "
24 " The Rafa Nadal the world saw as he stormed onto the Centre Court lawn for the start of the 2008 Wimbledon final was a warrior, eyes glazed in murderous concentration, clutching his racquet like a Viking his axe. A glance at Federer revealed a striking contrast in styles: the younger player in sleeveless shirt and pirate’s pantaloons, the older one in a cream, gold-embossed cardigan and classic Fred Perry shirt; one playing the part of the street-fighting underdog, the other suave and effortlessly superior. "
25 " reproachful—I’ve "
26 " And of one thing I have no doubt: the more you train, the better your feeling. Tennis is, more than most sports, a sport of the mind; it is the player who has those good sensations on the most days, who manages to isolate himself best from his fears and from the ups and downs in morale a match inevitably brings, who ends up being world number one. "
27 " That’s why just about every top professional athlete has been laid low by injury, sometimes a career-ending injury. There was a moment in my career when I seriously wondered whether I’d be able to continue competing at the top level. I play through pain much of the time, but I think all elite sports people do. All except Federer, at any rate. I’ve had to push and mold my body to adapt it to cope with the repetitive muscular stress that tennis forces on you, but he just seems to have been born to play the game. His physique—his DNA—seems perfectly adapted to tennis, rendering him immune to the injuries the rest of us are doomed to put up with. "
28 " So there was fun and magic in my relationship with Toni, even if the prevailing mood when we trained was stony and severe. "
― Rafael Nadal
29 " Miguel Ángel dice que el éxito del deportista de élite se basa en su capacidad «para sufrir», incluso para disfrutar sufriendo. "
30 " Estar concentrado significa hacer en todo momento lo que sabes que tienes que hacer, no cambiar nunca tu plan, a menos que las circunstancias del peloteo o del juego cambien de un modo tan excepcional que justifiquen la aparición de una sorpresa. Pero en términos generales significa disciplina, significa contenerte cuando surge la tentación de jugártela. Luchar contra esa tentación significa tener la impaciencia o la frustración bajo control. "
31 " The rest of the family looked on with a bemusement that, in the case of Rafa’s mother, occasionally gave way to anger. His father, Sebastián, had his misgivings. His uncle Rafael wondered sometimes whether Toni was pushing his nephew too hard. His godfather, his mother’s brother, Juan, went so far as to say that what Toni was doing to the child amounted to “mental cruelty. "
32 " I looked at you there, a big, grown-up champion with his arms in the air, and suddenly my mind leapt back in time and I saw an image of a deadly serious, skinny little boy of seven training on a court back home in Manacor. "
33 " Séque si me las arreglo para seguir jugandoal máximo nivel hasta los veintinueve otreinta años, habré tenido mucha suerte yme sentiré contento. "
34 " desafío consiste en escalar la cumbre de las propias posibilidades. "
35 " «Esa fuerza mental, esa confianza y ese espíritu guerrero tan excepcionales que tiene son la otra cara de la inseguridad que lo impulsa», "
36 " Toni, himself not immune to the familytraumas, had been sympathetic, for the most part. But now, as my annus horribilis approached its end, he said that enough was enough. It was time to buck up and return to work. “There are a lot of people who have problems in life but keep going,” he said. “What makes you so special that you should be the exception? "
37 " «Aguantar —decía—, aprender a superar la debilidad y el dolor, esforzarte hasta el límite sin derrumbarte nunca. Si no aprendes eso, nunca serás un deportista de élite.» "
38 " I won. Rafael claimed later that he’d let me win, so I’d be in a better frame of mind for the final, but I don’t believe him. It’s important for me to win, at everything. I have no sense of humor about losing. "
39 " At 1–1, on his serve, I smelled blood. "
40 " Here was compelling cause-and-effect evidence that the will to win and the will to prepare are one and the same.The real test comes on those mornings when you wake up after a late night out and the very last thing you want to do is get up and train, knowing you’re going to work furiously hard and you’re going to sweat buckets. There might be a moment’s debate in your mind.“Should I skip it today, just this once?” But you don’t listen to your mind’s siren songs because you know that they will lead you down a dangerously steep and slippery slope. If you flag once, you’ll flag again. "