Nadal switching back to old racquet

I stated on other threads that I questioned the wisdom of this bizarre decision. To me it reeked of desperation and really bad timing to switch to a new racquet while Nadal was slumping and prior to the part of the season that he has the most points to defend. It was absolutely the worst time for a switch. I wonder who in the Nadal camp pushed for it or if it was the player himself. You would expect that a racquet switch would bring about a small dip in form, well while you are already slumping and going into the most crucial part of the season this move was highly stupid. Now Nadal by his actions indicates what an ill timed move this really was. I think and my prediction is that he will improve his form with this change back to the old stick. Typically players who make a racquet change struggle for some time with change. And I wouldn't be surprised if part, not all but part of his problems in Monte Carlo and Barcelona was due to this ill timed decision. However it must be noted that his form prior to the change was not all that wonderful to begin with. Still this change at this point in the season was like trying to put out the fire with gasoline. It also says a lot about the lack of confidence and doubt that has infested in Nadal's mind. A player who believes in himself and feels he can beat the very best doesn't make this kind of move mid season. We know how the change eventually helped Federer and I believe Fed should have made a change a long time ago. But the timing of this move by Nadal tells me that Nadal really believes he needs more help to retain his FO title.

Don't think it will change anything, maybe make him feel more confident that its not racquets fault.

New racquet should of given him more power, and he barely hits over the net and so short, and why is he standing 5m behind the baseline, only he knows.

Good move by Rafa, the new racket didnt give him good control, hence overhitting and sometimes mistimed his shots resulting in short shots barely over the net.

Rafa's game is intact as proven in MC, its just that he has to hold his nerve at crucial moments and not let any lapses causing him games or sets. He should be fine in Madrid, after a good one week rest and going back to using his familiar old racket.

According to Rafa, the racket change was supposed to be at the beginning of the season, not just before the clay season started. I think they meant to change racket for the new season but Rafa unfortunately had his appendicitis and so couldnt practise with the new racket, hence they didnt change his racket until the clay season. It might be that they assumed he would do better on clay so changing to a new racket wont affect him much but it turned out to be a bad decision. They certainly didnt change his racket just because he's not feeling confident on clay!! On the contrary, they ferl confident and thats why they change it without giving Rafa much practice.

Rafa's team realizes that as he grows older, he'll lose some power and so has intended for the change to give Rafa more power.

It takes a while, as was the case with Federer (losing to Del Bonis on clay). If Nadal can take a break from the clay and practice, may be skip a MS to get in tune with the new racquet, it may work better.

I would question this second-guessing decision on switching back to the old one, which can cause worse problems. It shows the lack of confidence in UT (and other coaching staff), which does not augur well for Nadal.

I don't see any problem when switching back to the old racket. Rafa's lack of confidence is known to everyone now, that's nothing new; switching back may mean he's back to the old Rafa, I don't think his opponents would think that Rafa has suddenly lost the ability to play tennis on clay. If he could beat Isner and Ferrer on clay on consecutive days with a racket that he's not used to playing with, he's able to beat anyone in Bo3 except maybe Novak.

I think thats a good idea. Remember when Rory switched his clubs, going back to something familiar until hes got a break to really dial in a new one

laverfan wrote:It takes a while, as was the case with Federer (losing to Del Bonis on clay). If Nadal can take a break from the clay and practice, may be skip a MS to get in tune with the new racquet, it may work better.

I would question this second-guessing decision on switching back to the old one, which can cause worse problems. It shows the lack of confidence in UT (and other coaching staff), which does not augur well for Nadal.

Yes this is my take on it but I would go even further. It is another pointer (for me) of his lack of confidence on court and off-court as he can't even decide on which equipment to go for. Why did he initially change he should ask himself and has he given the new racquet a good enough chance before switching back? Also is it more a case of choosing to blame the equipment rather than the man or form of the man holding it?

It seems that you all have not read what Rafa had said about the switching. I see it as logical, as he has no time to get used to the new racket (the new racket change was planned last year for the new season but its delayed until the clay season as Rafa and his team felt that he did not have enough time to train using the new racket for the early HC season, so using it during clay was more logical thinking that Rafa was better on clay).

I do believe we'll see a better Rafa here at Madrid, I doubt his opponents would take him lightly, not when Fed mentioned that Rafa is still the man to beat on clay!

No I haven't read Rafa's views. But again you have to ask why ditch a racket that served him so well throughout his career at all? Is that not a case of blaming the equipment rather than looking to the form of the person holding it? Not having a go at Rafa but it has to be said it is odd.

If you've read my earlier post, I mentioned that Rafa and his team had planned for the change to give Rafa more power and spin but with less control, this I supposed was to cater for some loss of power when Rafa's getting older. They planned to use the new racket at the beginning of the season, but because of Rafa's appendicitis and so he had not enough time to practise with the new racket, they postponed that to the clay season, probably feeling that Rafa would do better on clay than on the HCs. It didn't work out the way they expected, and Rafa mentioned that Madrid Open was played at an altitude so it would be worse for him with less control using the new racket. He said that he would stick with the old racket until the end of the season, and he would then train using the new racket, I assume to prepare for the new season next year. He said using the new racket is the right direction to go for the future.

Belovedluckyboy wrote:If you've read my earlier post, I mentioned that Rafa and his team had planned for the change to give Rafa more power and spin but with less control, this I supposed was to cater for some loss of power when Rafa's getting older.  They planned to use the new racket at the beginning of the season, but because of Rafa's appendicitis and so he had not enough time to practise with the new racket, they postponed that to the clay season, probably feeling that Rafa would do better on clay than on the HCs.  It didn't work out the way they expected, and Rafa mentioned that Madrid Open was played at an altitude so it would be worse for him with less control using the new racket.  He said that he would stick with the old racket until the end of the season, and he would then train using the new racket, I assume to prepare for the new season next year.  He said using the new racket is the right direction to go for the future.

Okay cheers for explaining that.

I am still not sure though that changing rackets was ever really necessary or the answer. The fact it was even contemplated suggests Rafa and his coaches are not happy with how things are going.

Yep, they probably are not happy with Rafa's results last year. Anyway, Rafa, like Fed, is also getting older and so the loss of power is expected. The last time they 'meddle' with Rafa's racket was at end of 2009 for the new season in 2010, adding some weight to his racket back then. After losing to big hitting Sod at the FO, and then to Delpo at the USO, they decided to do something to his racket, and we saw how well he had done in 2010, winning three slams in a row and beating Sod twice at the slams, at FO final and then at Wimbledon QF.

I suppose the difference then though was that he was younger and in much better form and frame of mind going into a tinkering with equipment unlike this time.

Yep, but looking at Fed, the new racket did help Fed, so probably the new racket may also help Rafa going forward. I think we sometimes expect too much from Rafa, especially on clay. He's also human and also will grow old, so he has to tinker with his equipment, may tinker with his game too, like stepping into the court more often, plays like he has done in 2013, Rafa will lose on clay more often now compare to in the past. He told us to expect that when he was asked last year about his losses (on clay).

I have to agree with Craig, in that to me it shows a lack of confidence and belief to change in the first place. And again the timing was very unusual. BLB you can't simultaneously say Rafa has said to expect more losses on clay and then say that Rafa was so confident he would do well on clay that he was willing to take a drop in form by testing it on clay. The switch and the whole switch back strikes me as a sign of a loss of confidence. Not that he is so confident on clay that he wants to make the change during the clay season. If he wanted to he could have made the change after the AO there is almost as long a break between IW and AO as between MC and Miami. That is why his answer to me doesn't answer the issues we brought up about lack of confidence.

After AO? He was just back from a long break, he needed match play, so how could he risk using a new racket? He expected more losses on clay compared to in the past, but that didn't mean he's not going to win some, so compared to HCs, which he wasn't confident of winning, using the new racket during the clay season made more sense. He did have some good results in MC, and if not for his poor play in Barcelona, he might stick to the new racket! I don't think there's any contradiction, as if he's going to lose all his clay court matches??

Nadal did mention that he believes the new racquet is the right one for him going forward, so I'd expect him to make the switch after RG or possibly Wimbledon. The extended grass season should allow for time to change, even given the surface switch. Hopefully his level of play remains high until then. If nothing else, the draw that he has at Madrid should enable him to make the SF with relative ease.

I'm starting to think that BLB is IMBL's alt.

Also, he's not confident in the first place! How come we have to argue here about his confidence issue? I thought that was already well known? So what difference does it make, whether he's using his old or his new racket, where his confidence is concerned, at least in our eyes??

Silver, no I'm a woman, from Singapore. I'm not IMBL, so don't make wild guesses.

So the unloved lucky boy is a woman? Or a girl? Or a woman with a loved lucky son?

Congrats.

Belovedluckyboy wrote:Silver, no I'm a woman, from Singapore. I'm not IMBL, so don't make wild guesses.

Fair enough, sorry. He hasn't been around much and you have similar styles / both post about Nadal a lot.

I think someone misses me

socal1976 wrote:I stated on other threads that I questioned the wisdom of this bizarre decision. To me it reeked of desperation and really bad timing to switch to a new racquet while Nadal was slumping and prior to the part of the season that he has the most points to defend. It was absolutely the worst time for a switch. I wonder who in the Nadal camp pushed for it or if it was the player himself. You would expect that a racquet switch would bring about a small dip in form, well while you are already slumping and going into the most crucial part of the season this move was highly stupid. Now Nadal by his actions indicates what an ill timed move this really was. I think and my prediction is that he will improve his form with this change back to the old stick. Typically players who make a racquet change struggle for some time with change. And I wouldn't be surprised if part, not all but part of his problems in Monte Carlo and Barcelona was due to this ill timed decision. However it must be noted that his form prior to the change was not all that wonderful to begin with. Still this change at this point in the season was like trying to put out the fire with gasoline. It also says a lot about the lack of confidence and doubt that has infested in Nadal's mind. A player who believes in himself and feels he can beat the very best doesn't make this kind of move mid season. We know how the change eventually helped Federer and I believe Fed should have made a change a long time ago. But the timing of this move by Nadal tells me that Nadal really believes he needs more help to retain his FO title.

Good article Socal, I read the full Nadal interview on it.

I'm not really sure what to say, Nadal needs some confidence right now and I'm not sure changing rackets and then U-turning is the best way to inspire that.
The court at Madrid is quite fast which may actually suit him a bit more than people think, but he has to improve from his awful performance against Fognini... I think getting some big scalps in Madrid will be very important.

It Must Be Love wrote:I think someone misses me

Always!

+1.

It Must Be Love wrote:

socal1976 wrote:I stated on other threads that I questioned the wisdom of this bizarre decision. To me it reeked of desperation and really bad timing to switch to a new racquet while Nadal was slumping and prior to the part of the season that he has the most points to defend. It was absolutely the worst time for a switch. I wonder who in the Nadal camp pushed for it or if it was the player himself. You would expect that a racquet switch would bring about a small dip in form, well while you are already slumping and going into the most crucial part of the season this move was highly stupid. Now Nadal by his actions indicates what an ill timed move this really was. I think and my prediction is that he will improve his form with this change back to the old stick. Typically players who make a racquet change struggle for some time with change. And I wouldn't be surprised if part, not all but part of his problems in Monte Carlo and Barcelona was due to this ill timed decision. However it must be noted that his form prior to the change was not all that wonderful to begin with. Still this change at this point in the season was like trying to put out the fire with gasoline. It also says a lot about the lack of confidence and doubt that has infested in Nadal's mind. A player who believes in himself and feels he can beat the very best doesn't make this kind of move mid season. We know how the change eventually helped Federer and I believe Fed should have made a change a long time ago. But the timing of this move by Nadal tells me that Nadal really believes he needs more help to retain his FO title.

Good article Socal, I read the full Nadal interview on it.

I'm not really sure what to say, Nadal needs some confidence right now and I'm not sure changing rackets and then U-turning is the best way to inspire that.
The court at Madrid is quite fast which may actually suit him a bit more than people think, but he has to improve from his awful performance against Fognini... I think getting some big scalps in Madrid will be very important.

Thanks IMBL nice to hear from you. I actually think we will see Nadal more comfortable on the court with the old stick. I am just puzzled by the decision making in his camp to be honest on the timing of the decision and then the quick switch back brings up more questions as well as if there is a bit of panic in the Nadal camp and if it is being driven by him or by UT.

I don't think the raquet is that much of a problem as he would change back if it was.

I remember Babolat launched a new raquet the "Pure Strike" and they got Tsonga and Janowicz to endorse it and play events with it, within a couple of months they both went back to their old sticks.

"Jo-Wilfried Tsonga talks about switching to the Babolat Pure Strike":-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kz6iKMcank