lol nice one :)

October 19th, 2011 at 1:23 pm

Another stupid headline! Why r all u people obsessed with Rafa’s butt?????

October 19th, 2011 at 1:35 pm

Michael, I’d have said it was Rafa who had a butt obsession. And for Pete’s sake stop using that stupid textspeak!
Mr Gainey – “Tongue and cheek”? No such phrase. Try “tongue IN cheek”.
Can’t anybody round here write English?

October 19th, 2011 at 1:40 pm

with all due respect some of us are too busy watching rafa play tennis, to notice any of his personal habits,or any other players for that matter,i mean does it matter,a lot of fuss about nothing,its nice to see him relaxing and enjoying himself away from the stress of tennis.

October 19th, 2011 at 2:22 pm

Bad enough he does it! Very unbecoming and…UGH!!!

October 19th, 2011 at 2:42 pm

Dumb headline, impressive swing.

October 19th, 2011 at 3:10 pm

Loved the video, thanks! You could have gone with a much more appropriate title…..but you got us to read it so shame on us…..

October 19th, 2011 at 4:16 pm

Wow, Rafa does play some nice golf. But bad headlines! Good video. If people want ot read some good articles, here is one on Federer and what does his rank 4 means:http://bit.ly/nUKaLC

Worth a read!

October 19th, 2011 at 5:01 pm

Actually he does, and I have a photo to prove it hahaha

October 19th, 2011 at 5:13 pm

The business of Nadal “picking his butt” is ambiguous, even euphemistic. This doesn’t help Nadal, since a false impression is then conveyed – and Nadal suffers unfairly from it.

Let us be candid. What is implied, in this “butt picking” terminology, is that Nadal sticks his finger well up his arse hole, and then proceeds to rub, dig or scratch vigorously. Any sufferer from piles, for example, is likely to do this – until such time as it actually hurts too much. The idea is this: first, you scratch to relieve the intolerable itch. Relief is obtained, but only briefly. Therefore the urge to scratch is renewed, and so it goes on until the flesh is torn and bloody and the itch slides into pain.

This is not what Nadal does. He does not have an itchy rectum. There are two possibilities to account for his behaviour, or three rather, since the two can (but don’t necessarily) merge into one.

One, there can be this irritating feeling of the pants clinging to the crutch. A quick adjustment, which involves pulling slightly at the shorts (no pressing or excavating of the flesh therefore even via the mediation of cloth) – and relief is obtained. But once again, the relief is momentary only, particularly since the exertions of a particularly industrious athlete are heavily productive of sweat. Sweat is sticky, and renders the separation of cloth from flesh awkward or even impossible.

The second possibility, which as I say may partake somewhat of the first also, is that this picking at the trouser seat is of the nature of a nervous tick. Many, many people have nervous ticks, but usually, we do not comment on them, out of a wish to spare the feelings of the possessor of the tick. A person with a tick is unable to rid himself of it,will power is powerless – even though the tick may not be entirely involuntary (as facial ticks tend to be).

Why, then, do people have a go at Nadal for this unfortunate habit and, in the process, accuse him of doing that which he does not do? I really do think it is a puerile thing – anything to do with bottoms is always fascinating to the infantile mind, and also to the adult mind of course, but from a quite different point of view. And then there is a sort of primitive allure (think of dogs)and I suspect these quite different aspects of the bottom somehow become conflated in the viewer’s mind. A sense of unease, of unconscious confusion is engendered, and there is a tendency to lash out.

Note that this entails the psychology of the bully.

October 19th, 2011 at 5:26 pm

grendel i am nearly doubled over in agony from laughing at your post,ha,ha,ha.

October 19th, 2011 at 5:40 pm

@Grendel:

LMFAO! Your post makes me laugh- good stuff!

This rafa thing is just silly. He’s a successful tennis player, who gets alot of covergae when he plays and most probably will do for a few more years atleast. When he’s on court you could either watch the match or him scratching his behind. The choice is yours.

October 19th, 2011 at 8:35 pm

Rafa is just ocd when it comes to tennis. He is a more natural golfer.

October 19th, 2011 at 8:37 pm

Actually if you look carefully, you can see rafa pushing his hair away from his ears before the swing. I have watched rafa hundreds of times playing a tennis match and i have come to notice this “pushing hair from ears” as part of his serving routine. Now, I cant remember if he picks his butt before pushing the hair or vice versa. That is why to me this golf swing seem unfinished…something is missing, i can now see why Tom Gainey was thinking about butt picking…

October 19th, 2011 at 8:48 pm

He looked pretty ocd to me before that swing. I guess that goes well with golf, though.
Shaky takeback on the tee off swing?
Otherwise swing looks good and his golf outfit is cute

October 19th, 2011 at 9:26 pm

His rear end looks great in those pants

October 19th, 2011 at 9:54 pm

Hey.. Nadal work hard for beating Nole. You can do it quicky. Improve your backend and serve only. Plus start 100m spirint race like Usain Bolt. By doing this you can beat everyone. But do that.

October 20th, 2011 at 1:22 am

Can anyone one give me rafeal nadal Email id or Nadal Team contact details. I want to disucss them some thing regarding Nadal Game.

October 20th, 2011 at 1:23 am

Sorry give me details on harkeshmca@gmail.com

October 20th, 2011 at 1:24 am

Hi Kimmi & Dari.. Do any one of you have Nadal Team contact details./…

October 20th, 2011 at 1:33 am

““pushing hair from ears” …. And touching his nose…..after he picks his butt!!

How about wearing a jockstrap? Imo, no excuse for picking your ass in tennis. Is there massive suction going on? I mean WTF?

Where in the history of ANY sport has a habit of this? Trust me, there are remedies to not do this, Rafa chooses not to remedie this. Why? Must really help his game….errrrrr….OK. ADD?…….whatevers.

How this increases is overall sexiness to women is a mystery to me. What he thinks he is accomplishing by doing this brings me down to a darker hole I do not want to venture. Nuff said, girls rejoice, I guess. What a great significant contribution to the history of Tennis.

If Anna K picked her butt imo would be a huge turn off. Just sayin……

October 20th, 2011 at 1:44 am

Skeezer shows his true colour.He is a secret butt watcher.

October 20th, 2011 at 7:02 am

Does anyone here have tic when they play? I apparently adjust my scrunchie every point. One opponent who i beat recently complained it threw her momentum and I felt bad and tried to stop but I couldn’t. I don’t even realize I do it most of the time. But I felt bad so I asked another person who i play with a lot and she said the first few times she played me she thought there was something wrong with my hairband but now she’s used to it and now my hair adjustment is part of her ryhtym as well!

Ok so his is a little grosser. Big deal.

October 20th, 2011 at 1:52 pm

kimberly i work in a care home for the elderly,and i do a lot of bending, stretching,turning lifting etc etc,and i am always adjusting the waiste on my trousers,not to mention tucking my hair behind my ears,and tightening my pony tail when it gets loose,none of my work colleages could care less,they only care about me doing my job,just like the majority of rafas fans only care about him playing tennis,as for gross habits when you work with the elderly youve seen everything,what rafa does is nothing compared with some of the things they get up to.

October 20th, 2011 at 3:18 pm

Paradux,
Good one lol :)

October 20th, 2011 at 3:23 pm

I can’t speak to his swing, as I know nothing about golf, but he sure seemed to knock the hell out of that ball!

October 20th, 2011 at 4:35 pm

If somebody told me adjusting my hair tie threw off their rhythm they would get a big “SO WHAT”

October 20th, 2011 at 5:54 pm

alison & kimberly

ok girls, “you can’t be serious!”

Fixing ponytails and scrunchies is one thing, but picking your butt is something so entirely different. Let’s put in another way;

If I picked my nose and touched the ball before each time I served against you would you want to touch the tennis ball? Gimme some hand sanitizer please, and a tequila chaser to wash down to get up the courage to touch the opponents ball ( which has touched his perfectly sanitary whatevers )

I mean, then its ok for me to play some pocket pool before I serve? Pahleeeasseee?

October 20th, 2011 at 11:45 pm

skeezer ok i take your point,i think rafas only adjusting his underwear though thats all,still not nice i suppose,like i say i work in a care home and some of the things the elderly get up to would turn your stomach let me tell you,sitting picking there noses,earholes,etc,ect,then offering the staff sweets,i could go go but i wouldnt want to put you off your tea,breakfast,lunch,depending on what part of the world your from,i would say this too at least rafa has a shower when he goes of court.

October 21st, 2011 at 5:19 am

skeezer, if you pick your nose, your finger is in contact with a (possibly) slimy, wet membrane, and when you remove the finger, some of the mucous clinging to it gets transferred to the tennis ball. As a matter of plain fact, the amount is probably vanishingly small, but it is the thought that counts, is it not, and your opponent across the net may perhaps observe your activities with some alarm. He may be inclined to give the ball a particularly vicious whack with the express purpose of driving all foreign liquids into the atmosphere. But then, he may be visited with the unwelcome thought that some of this liquid may have been deposited upon him. The subsequent panic which engulfs him is likely (one might conjecture) to have a damaging effect upon his game.

On the other hand, perhaps the nostril is dry. Then, the proceedure (for the questing finger) is generally as follows. The finger, accompanied by its small burden which has been meticulously excavated from the nostril, is thrust into the mouth. This procedure is generally surreptitious, the practioner having a certain sense of shame regarding it, and it is a curious and well attested fact that conducting this activity in a furtive manner has the effect of persuading the perpetrator that nobody can see him doing it. Despite the fact that the manouevre is conducted in a public space where there is, literally, no hiding place, the person munching his own bogies somehow persuades himself that his occupation is a purely private one. The alternative, I suppose, is too much to bear.

Now consider Nadal. What does he actually do? He lays his fingers upon cloth,and wriggles them. This cloth, furthermore, is probably not covering bare skin – one would have to ask Nadal this to be sure, of course – but is likely to be an outer garment, since most people wear underpants. In short, at no stage do Nadal’s fingers come anywhere close to those areas which, for example, one might expect his girl friend to be familiar with in some tactile sense or other.

So what do we have? One the one hand (noses) tangible contact; on the other (bottoms) mere imagination on the part of the spectator….

October 21st, 2011 at 10:23 am

grendel,

It has taken me awhile to get off the floor from laughing. I never thought someone would actually go through in details describing this calamity. Kudos to you, it was a fun read.

My only add would be “What if there is leakage?”

October 21st, 2011 at 10:33 am

He does wear underwear, grendel, at least for the most part. I often notice panty lines :)

October 21st, 2011 at 10:37 am

grendel and skeezer i cannot stop laughing at both of your posts,my husband is in the next room wondering what the hell is up with me,calling me a bloody nutcase,grendels post gross but very funny,and skeezer yours when you said playing pocket pool before serving,please keep it up fellas your both killing me,ha,ha.

October 21st, 2011 at 10:43 am

grendel: so glad u pointed out to skeeze, the essential differences between picking your nose and adjusting your outerware…..
skeeze….um, do u pick your nose through a hanky? If yes, how unsatisfying is all I can say…..

October 21st, 2011 at 11:50 am

skeezer, us ladies store second tennis ball in our compression shorts or skorts, definite thigh sweat making contact with the balls. But nobody cares.

October 21st, 2011 at 1:51 pm

grendel has been belting some classics out as of late

October 21st, 2011 at 1:51 pm

Kimberley, in the days when I was a youth, men ALWAYS put the second ball in their pockets. None of this namby pamby rubbish of glancing towards the ball boy, receiving balls and then rejecting them and finally alighting upon one as if this will make all the difference between winning and losing. The really puzzling thing is that some men actually put the second ball into their pocket and then, when it comes to the second serve, take it out, examine it, reject it with a look of contempt, and proceed to go through the whole glancing at the ball boy routine. All very puzzling.

October 21st, 2011 at 3:43 pm

I have seen players lose points because the second ball fell out of said pocket mid-point, so maybe they prefer the “glancing at the ball boy” routine for that reason. Perhaps amongst others.

grendel your posts are indeed funny, but in a serious way. I understood you to being saying that it isn’t nice to pick on Nadal, not that Nadal’s picking is nice.

October 21st, 2011 at 4:49 pm

Yes, grendel has been on Falla lately.
That’s true, Kimberly about the ladies ball storage. On particularly hot days I think about it more. In that case, before I serve, I bounce the ball with the racket harder and more times than usual, get some of the sweat off before I serve.
Tennis is crazy how much you can consider on court!

October 21st, 2011 at 5:28 pm

Nice to see others join in on the fun here :-)

No worries Rafa, we all have our “picks”, you’re just more in the camera than all of us. You’re still a damn good tennis player in my book. Now, where was I,…oh yeah….back to that buger in my nose……without tissue. Got to get that thing.

October 21st, 2011 at 5:40 pm

skeezer blow your nose,works every time lol.

October 21st, 2011 at 6:08 pm

i have to say you people,dari,skeezer and kimberly, that actually play tennis get my upmost respect,you must be really fit,i wish i had the energy after a day at work running up and down stairs after 27 people,im lucky if i have the energy to cook hubby his tea,or go shopping,never mind play tennis,so kudos to you all.

October 21st, 2011 at 6:22 pm

When I was growing up I noticed one of my Mom’s friends used to deposit the spare tennis ball in her cleavage as opposed to the normal position inside their skirt/underwear on their hip.

October 21st, 2011 at 7:40 pm

jane, you make me out to be more virtuous than I am. I have frequently been prejudiced against Nadal, usually unfairly I daresay, and against other players too who sometimes just get up my nose. But as a point of fact, I think the criticism of Nadal in this business of “picking” is both wrong and misguided.

About the dropping of the ball. It never used to happen. The size of pockets has perhaps changed.

October 21st, 2011 at 8:08 pm

Rafa takes his golf club back just like his two-handed backhand in tennis which in golf makes his backswing noticeably short. His regular golf swing looks like he is shortening up his stroke like he is hitting the ball out of a sand bunker.

October 21st, 2011 at 8:09 pm

My husband said that He notices that he gets wet tennis balls from me (the only woman he plays with) and nobody else (as the dudes put them in pocket) But no one ever complains. It’s the norm. All the women do it.

El flaco I imagine the cleavage balls would be even wetter ans sweater than the skort balls.

I guess tennis is not a sport for germophobes.

Here in Miami (although not today) the average player (at a decent level) looks like they have jumped in a swimming pool after about a half on hour of play.

So rafa butt picking is quite hygienic in comparison! Better than making the adjustment in the FRONT like some of the rappers do. That would be really crude.

October 21st, 2011 at 9:10 pm

How many times do I have to say it. His pants are too tight in the butt and he’s pulling at the PANTS! Remember, it’s the PANTS!

October 21st, 2011 at 9:20 pm

Some of the most unappealing arguments I have ever heard in favor of butt-picking, LOL!

October 21st, 2011 at 11:28 pm

Has anybody noticed Andy Roddick AND Andy Murray frequently making adjustments in the FRONT???

October 22nd, 2011 at 6:57 am

Michael: springing to Andy M’s defence……but of course, you cry ;) Andy wears lycra pants under his shorts, dunno why but may be preventative against groin injury….guess they can be too tight occasionally……not a tic though.

October 22nd, 2011 at 8:53 am

Michael,

Now wait a sec, all guys know things in the front can easily get out of sorts at times, that is a given. Malady of a man.

Lynne,

Its the pants? Nike MAKES clothes for Rafa, think kinda maybe they could make some not so tight then?

October 22nd, 2011 at 10:02 am

Rafa was asked about thte tugging of his underwear and said that it was a habit that he has been unable to stop. It has been noted that he is a tad obsessive-compulsive, ritualistic and admits to being superstitious. Having said that, many players have ritualistic quirks like Andy Roddick’s tugging his shirt at the shoulders or atgging on to the peak of his hat, but Rafa’s happens to be in a more noticable location. Let’s be real , he doesn’t pick his butt,he tugs at his briefs. So what?

October 22nd, 2011 at 10:45 am

margot, am impressed by your knowledge of Murray’s underwear. First hand, I take it? I mean, it’s not the kind of info which is generally blazoned in the media is it? You wouldn’t, for instance, expect to be able to google Murray with the aim of researching the specific types of underwear he goes in for, what he wears for what occasion, does he keep some specially for what’s her name, or does she only get the homely stuff and are the more imaginative – shall we say -variations reserved for those special nights out, or even afternoons (when covert operations may be said to be simpler to arrange) and so on, which does leave one to wonder…..

October 22nd, 2011 at 12:11 pm

grendel, grendel, just common knowledge amongst true, and I repeat true, Murray affectionados, who listen to, and remember, every word spoken at interviews…besides you can actually see the damn things!

October 22nd, 2011 at 12:25 pm

Does the Telegraph journalist read Tennis-x?

It’s Murray’s cycling shorts:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/australianopen/7120042/Australian-Open-2010-Andy-Murray-undone-by-brilliance-of-Roger-Federer.html

October 22nd, 2011 at 12:35 pm

I remember this match he wasn’t tugging at his nuts, it was lower down more on his hip!

October 22nd, 2011 at 1:39 pm

Honestly, he was pulling at a lot of things during thqt match, but I remember watxhing the video of the press after and it was nice to see him laughing after crying a bit at the podium.
Margot- did you see the “blank or blank” interview with Andy after shanghai?
The laugh at the end was as hearty as ive seen

October 22nd, 2011 at 2:10 pm

It was a big deal, re: Muzza’s shorts. He was asked about it in his presser during the AO 2010 when he met Fed in the final. margot is right that if one was following Murray at the time, he or she would remember the short hoopla.

As for Roddick… He is almost obsessive in rearranging the front package, lol. And it is caught by the cameras a lot. He is so hyper though that it could be just a habit and not an actual adjustment everytime.

They all have their tics and picks and pulls and wipes and …

October 22nd, 2011 at 3:47 pm

^granted but is it really comparison to this?

Notice the technique, is it a dig, tug, or just pulling at the shorts? Notice the swing prep and then the dive down with the right hand and then the fingers inserted to the necessary spot, before the initial “pick”, “tug”, or whatevers. Controversial, nonetheless, no?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4jUGufaJek

October 22nd, 2011 at 5:24 pm

no fair skeeze, that was in slow motion!!

October 22nd, 2011 at 6:54 pm

K,

:-), all in good fun, sorry, couldn’t resist. In all fairness you need to post a shirtless Rafa, there is plenty of you tube vids on that also…..that should make up for it…..:)

October 22nd, 2011 at 7:41 pm

This one really answers the question of Rafa’s technique, then what his fingers/hand do/does after the tug.

Mind you, I would not have found this youtube if not for Skeezerweezer’s video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXuCngV2-wY&feature=related

October 22nd, 2011 at 7:53 pm

And in all fairness, Djokovic pays a high compliment to Nadal Rome 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQqaMb0J8EM&feature=related

I’m bored.

October 22nd, 2011 at 8:07 pm

lol at carlo link :)

October 22nd, 2011 at 8:09 pm

And off topic but it is almost Halloween so I am posting a scream video staring Azarenka and Wozniaki

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXW0-vrt9Ao&feature=related

Anyone have a better one?

October 22nd, 2011 at 8:34 pm

Didn’t nastase actually moon the crowd once. I thnk that goes a level above butt picking.

October 22nd, 2011 at 9:36 pm

Connors once spat at Mac’s box….now in terms of bodily fluids going everywhere, that’s really nasty!

October 23rd, 2011 at 2:13 am

@carlo 7.53: a graphic video – which, however, once you look closely confirms conclusively that Nadal is simply readjusting the tight underwear. It can be awkward, so very occasionally (perhaps the weather was especially sticky on that day), more than one attempt is required. Notice, too, that having finished at the back, Nadal turns his attention to the front. Every male knows about that, too – how irritating it can be.

The compiler of the video obviously thinks this is somehow doubly damning. In fact, it is the opposite, for it confirms that the irritant is tight clothing. Of course, not many people react to such irritations so compulsively as does Nadal – this is a bad habit, and he’s stuck with it.

October 23rd, 2011 at 10:12 am

amazing how one video of a golf swing transpires into all these posts.

October 23rd, 2011 at 2:07 pm

^read the title

October 23rd, 2011 at 8:07 pm

skeeze are you watching the world series. Maybe i’m nuts but Pujols reminds me of Rafa!Need to check if he picks his butt.

October 23rd, 2011 at 8:45 pm

grendel-

That youtube link I posted was a bit graphic. However, I thought it showed exactly what Rafa does quite well.

Then, in an attempt to get away from the thread topic, I tried the WTA screamers link but, no takers.

October 24th, 2011 at 12:48 am