… Porta describes Moya as a Mallorcan sporting trailblazer, whose international success and fame spawned a generation of sporting stars from the Balearic island. Among those athletes is Rafael Nadal, another whose game was influenced by Porta in his formative years.

The coach came across a young Nadal while conducting a coaching clinic in Mallorca. Nadal’s uncle Toni urged Porta to see a young Rafa in action, who at that time was a right-hander with double-fisted groundstrokes on both wings. Porta began working with the “amazing” nine-year-old talent at his Mallorcan academy, with Nadal first attending three times a week – while still working with Toni as well – before living at the academy for one year.

Porta’s last tournament with seven-time French Open winner was at the 2004 Miami Masters, at which Nadal scored his first of many victories over Roger Federer.

“(With Rafa) I more worry about the technical things and the tactics but the real power of Nadal is the mentality, and that comes from working at home with Toni,” Porta said.

Nadal embodies many of the coaching principles adopted at the Global Tennis Team academy. One of these is “concentration”, which Porta believes is central to professional tennis success.

“When we speak about the discipline in Global – you are really focused all the time, really scared about everything – Nadal was like this. Nadal know everything that happened in every court, because his mind is going like animal,” he explained.

“When you are concentrated like this, your subconscious starts to look for a solution for everything … you don’t know why, but you know where the ball will go … be concentrated, and with that, you can get 90 per cent of the things in tennis.”

This is one of the many unique, if slightly unorthodox, approaches to player development at the academy. …

Full artucle: Jofre Porta: the man behind the champions