Ariana Geerlings reveals: Harsh criticism of Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy

Ariana Geerlings, an 18-year-old Spanish tennis player who recently parted ways with the Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy, is causing a stir with her recent comments about the organization’s standards and practices.

Geerlings claims that the training method used by the academy, modeled on that of 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafa Nadal, is causing injuries to students. “They try to rely a lot on their careers,” Geerlings said in a recent interview with Punto de Break.

“They train for long hours and Toni (Nadal) is very present. He trained me a lot. They take the same philosophy as Rafa, lots of training and little rest, completely focused on the track.” “That led to a lot of injuries because nobody has Rafa’s physique.

Many of us couldn’t keep up with the pace of five hours of training a day and no rest days,” she added.

Praise and suggestions for improvement

Despite her criticism, Geerlings praised the academy for allowing players to fully dedicate themselves to the sport.

“Very cool, it’s an incredible experience, they supported me from day one. Maybe I left too young, you move away from your parents and that’s hard, although it was good for me to mature and realize the sacrifice this career requires.” “You also made it easier for me in my studies; “It would have been different at home,” said Geerlings.

Geerling stressed that she doesn’t believe the harsh training regime is done out of malice, but she does think that more individualized workload adjustments could help players improve without reaching their limits.

She understands that the academy is trying to accommodate a large number of players from all over the world, but feels more could be done to ensure training is personalised.

“As far as I know and what I saw, everyone trained the same number of hours. Of course, if you were very tired, they would let you rest at some point. I think what they need is to specify more about each player, analyze and understand more, decide what is best for each profile. “But hey, I understand that it is an academy and there are a lot of people “You can’t set a plan for every person,” said Geerlings.