Toni Nadal, the coach and uncle of world number one Rafael Nadal, said that he finds it easy to coach his nephew because he is a family member. This means that he could be more honest with his coaching approach with the 13-time grand Slam champion. Toni has been coaching Nadal since he the latter was three years old.
“It’s not difficult to coach someone in your family. It’s easier. When coaches are getting money from young players, it’s difficult as they might not feel as though they can say exactly what they think, and what the players need to work on,” he said.
Toni also added that coaches not related to the players might not say what they want to say for fear of losing their good-paying jobs.
“They [coaches] could just end up saying what the player want to hear because they don’t want to lose the money from coaching the players. They might be thinking, ‘I earn so much money from my players and so it’s not a good moment to say anything they don’t want to hear’,” Toni said.
“For me, it’s so much easier with Rafa as I’m part of the family, I’m the uncle. You can say what you want. You can say, ‘this is good’ and ‘this is not so good’.”
