Rick Macci: The Coach Behind Serena & Venus Williams Success

0:03When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. She's always on the attack, the little panther. Oh, that's why you call her the little panther. Yeah. Dive into Vlada a little bit. A good friend of mine, Peter Bodo, he said, Rick, there's this little girl from Ukraine you need to take a look at.

0:40I've seen that movie like 10 ,000 times, you know. Vlada, the racket was like as big as her. She got on the court. She just had this burning desire. It was personal between her and the ball. This little girl will be number one in the world. And if she doesn't, I did a bad job. There she is. What an honor. Sit down. Her work ethic is unsurpassed. Where do you think that comes from? Just my mind. Love that. I love tennis. You love tennis. She's a little kid that has a lot of potential to be one of the best tennis players in the world. You can correct me. The best, I know. Okay, the best in the world.

1:21So, Rick, we're here at Rick Macy Tennis Center here in Boca Raton. This has been the home of training for so many amazing tennis players. The Williams sisters, Andy Roderick, Jennifer Capriati, Marie Sharapova. And now right now you got Vlada Haranchar out there who's a junior, who's going to, you know, in your opinion, be the next number one in the world. Walk me through the journey of this amazing facility you have here, training all these athletes and everything that it's brought. Well, you know, first off, if I can back the truck up a little bit, everybody asks me like, who's your favorite student of all time?

2:01And people might say Venus, Serena, Capriotti, Roddick, Sharapova, Kennan, Pierce, Rude. I coach Rude, Christian Rude, Casper's dad, not the one that's top 10 in the world. And, but it's who's ever on the other side of the net, that hour, that minute, that second. And that's the way I feel. And when you coach from the heart, that's how you extract greatness. And that's what I do, you know, and the kids can feel that and I can get them to move mountains. So whether I'm coaching you or an adult player, it doesn't really matter. But obviously I've been known for the people that want to want to achieve greatness.

2:38But I don't really change strokes. I more importantly changed lives. And when they come back. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at goodtoknowfacts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit goodtoknowfacts.org. They don't talk about the forehand or the backhand or the serve. It's all about never make excuses, run for every ball.

3:22The harder you work, you'll feel like you're hardly working. I can go on with the Macy-isms. And I love it just as much today at age 70 as I did at age 22. And that's the best feeling in the world knowing I'm making a difference to people's lives. It's just legacy, right? You're building that. You said something that spoke to me. You said, who's your favorite? Like, whoever's on the other side of the net. Because that gives an amount of presence to that individual, that player. And they feel that love. And they feel that care. So they work extra hard. And they're in that moment with you. You know, it's funny to me because a lot of times, you know, I play, I was a baseball coach for a lot of years.

3:58And people always ask me, well, who's your favorite athlete? It had to have been this one. Who was your favorite catcher? I'm like, the ones that were there to work. Like the ones that understood that I'm there to coach them, that I love them and respected them and to give them a positive experience. I think coaching is a lost art. I think a lot of people view coaching as working with the players that just have great skills. But to your point, it's about every single person. Absolutely. You know, I kind of like the ones that are more of a challenge. If someone's a little lazy, I can flip the script and get them to do their homework better, clean their room.

4:37So you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text. But which you do you listen to? Is it, we could buy a house in Tulum. Get optioning those options. We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research. Get your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you. Learn more at FINRA.org slash trade smart. Get off drugs. See, I look at this very differently through a different lens. The tennis part is easy because we're the worldwide leader in biomechanics. My partner, Dr. Brian Gordon, did his thesis on this stuff. We're pretty much the worldwide leader in mechanics of how to hit a ball.

5:23But the motivation and the stimulation, that's kind of what I do. And I extract greatness and I just expect it from myself. So the ones that maybe have a bad attitude or don't want to work, I kind of like that because now it's that game between Rick and Rick. Now, if you get someone that never makes excuses and runs for every ball and goes for the jugular, like Vlada or whatever, then obviously it's easier. But it doesn't matter. I just love helping anybody, anytime, anywhere. I think the key though, to where everything you just talked about is, we're talking about getting kids to clean the room better, do their homework better, stay off or get off drugs.

6:04That is impacting someone's life. Coaches a lot of times get in a place where they're just trying to go win championships or to take credit, like I coach that person. When you can make an athlete's life better just for them, but also it helps the parents out at home and they can be good citizens and give back to the world positively, that's the real win in my opinion. No, absolutely. And people ask me all the time, why don't you go sit in the box, you know? And I do this differently. I go to Publix, buy it on aisle four, put it in the oven, I bake it, I put the icing on it. I'd rather build the box than sit in the box.

6:40Now, if that happens, that's great, but I'm a busy guy, I still teach 50 hours a week, maybe with Vlada, because I coach her and represent her. Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door, expertly cleaned and folded. So you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you. Said you hear about Dave. Or even tea time, tea time, tea time you. Mmm. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great. than her. That could be a little different dynamic when she goes pro.

7:22But at the end of the day, that's kind of how I've always been put together. And when you talk about coaching, it's such a vague word because the art of coaching is how to say it, when to say it, why to say it, when to say it, how loud to say it, how soft, how to talk to an eight-year-old opposed to someone on the pro tour and taking the temperature. I can feel the temperature every second with the player, how to navigate this. Even on their worst day, I can get the most out of anybody because instead of just mailing it in, like a lot of people do, and I could, you know, with everything I've been fortunate to accomplish, but I've never been put together like that.

8:06And anybody listening to this, if you're always trying to get better, to me, that's the leader in the clubhouse because getting better is a lot better than getting worse. And I prefer better. Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of selflessness in coaching. Well, done the right way. Right. So, you know, that's really what the deal is when you say wiring in the box, I want to bake it. I want to put the icing on it, but I want to be in the box. I want to build it. And that is true coaching because you realize it's not about you. You're there as a vessel to help somebody bring their gifts out to make their life better so they can operate in their own genius.

8:40I think that's amazing. Absolutely. You know, even when I took on the project with the Williams sisters. I took a risk. I took a gamble. I could have been wrong. I knew I wasn't going to be, you know, I mean, there was arms and legs and hair and beads flying everywhere. You know, before that whole thing, I had Jennifer Capriotti and she was poetry in motion, racket back in the parking lot, low center of gravity, great fundamentals by the late, great Jimmy Everett. And she was top 10 in the world at 14. She won the national 18s as a 12 year old, a record that still stands today. Are you kidding me?

9:1712 years old, winning the 18s. Okay. So at the end of the day, you know, this is kind of what coaching is all about for me. You know what I mean? Just trying to help anybody anywhere, you know, and it's not where you start. I always look at this as a bigger picture and I have a vision and I can evaluate talent, just like the Williams sisters. I, I didn't see it at first. And then we started playing competitive points after about an hour when I was in Compton, I was going, what, what the heck am I doing in Compton? You know, looking back, I'm the only guy that says their best vacation ever was Compton.

9:55I read that somewhere. You have to explain that one. Yeah, no. Well, but, but back to the Venus and Serena, once we started competing, okay, we were doing drills at first and it was a train wreck. I mean, Serena, a plane would fly over and she'd wave at it. I'm going, whoa, I'm not thinking this girl is going to be the greatest of all time. And we start playing competitive points and the whole landscape changed. They started popping the popcorn, extra butter. The preparation got better, but there was a rage. There was a rage inside these two little kids. I haven't seen my whole life until the little Ukrainian.

10:33I never saw that. I never saw that. And when you're all about the competition, and that was nine and 10, baked in double crispy from birth before Rick Macy, I knew they'd handle pressure better. I'm not saying they'd be bulletproof because everybody gets nervous. They would be almost bulletproof because when the bell rung, they were very different. It was all about the competition. And that's how you handle pressure. So that's what I saw in VW. And I told Richard, I said this in the movie, after I saw this for 20 minutes, I go, Richard, come here. Let me tell you something. You got the next female Michael Jordan on your hand.

11:12And he puts his arm around me, goes, no, brother, man, I got the next two. And I go, I like the way you think. But Serena wasn't that mature. But I was picturing both of them, six feet, 160, 5 '11", a buck 45, big, strong, fast, quick. Where women's tennis in the early 90s, if you were big and strong, you weren't nimble. They were going to bring a whole different element to the sport. So not only that I think they could be number one with the right coaching and financial help, I think they could transcend the sport. This is all in video and articles. and I was almost like psychic in the way I felt.

11:56So to go all in and buy him a$92 ,000 motorhome and a golf cart and a condo on the golf course and my time and hitting partners and taekwondo and boxing and ballet, Disney tickets, seafood buffet, the whole enchilada to go all in like that, when I believe, I just achieve. I pick up little things, man, like very little things. I'm picking up a light switch mentality, right? As soon as the disco lights come on, I'm using baseball terms now, disco lights come on, we're dancing disco lights. It's done. You know, either you can play with the lights on or you're sitting over here. So what I'm hearing, there was a certain gift that they had mentally that the moment the competitiveness started, it was a different individual, right?

12:46And then, and then you're going into another conversation about ballet and taekwondo. This is for the audience here and the parents that are taking their children, because you and I talked about this off air a little bit about, you know, crazy sports, parents, things like that. When you have a child that is playing a sport and you think they have all the promise in the world, there's too many people, in my opinion right now, that are specializing their children too soon, not exposing them to other movements. You mentioned boxing, taekwondo, and ballet. They're tennis players. Why is that important?

13:20Well, first off, another great question. They were already athletic. Venus was like an Olympic sprinter with a racket in her hand. And Serena was built like a cornerback in NFL. She had muscles on muscles at 10 years old, but she wasn't that good. And when she got good, People said steroids. No, she was just put together that way. But, and that's one of the things Richard liked about me, even though they were so athletic, my goal was simple, triple down, make them more athletic, cross training, but make it fun. They'd go around the court with a cone on their head, doing a hula hoop, taking two pound dumbbells and doing curls.

14:02They threw the football because the serve is like a throwing motion. They threw the football more than anybody. Okay. There was so much cross training to make it fun. Cause listen, kids could be dead tired, but when you make it fun, whether they play tag or whatever, they're going to get better. But so many parents, it's about repetition. They drive the kid into the ground and they don't understand that this is a journey. It's a junior development, not junior final destination. And while we're on the cross training, this is, this is an epic story. Serena loves this. We have a sand pit, okay? And the kids all go in the sand pit and they play tag.

14:41You know, you go and you chase someone, tag them. Serena, when she was it, she's the only person I've had in the history of my career that played tag with a closed fist. Okay, that was that Compton street fight coming out. I go, whoa, whoa, whoa. Serena, Serena, wait, wait. We got to, listen, I don't want to get sued here. Punching people. Yeah, I know. You got to play with your hand open, you know? She loves that. story. We talked about it at the after party. She just was on the ground crying, but, but that's the competitiveness. And that's what I saw in them. And that doesn't mean you're going to be number one in the world.

15:16You can be competitive and work at Burger King. Okay. It doesn't matter. But then when you start checking boxes, speed, quickness, strength, you know, dedication, bulletproof, competitiveness, when you got some of that in your pocket, it's Rick Macy's job to put Humpty Dumpty together technically and strategically of how to play a game that's going to go into the next, the future. And that's what I'm doing with Vlada. Vlada is going to play very different because six, seven years from now, the game's going to be quicker and faster and we're going to be ahead of the curve. So I just met her out there.

15:52You took me out there and watching that. Was she nine, 10? Like how old is she? She's nine. She's getting up there like me. She's nine years old. She's four foot six, 65 pounds. Unbelievable athlete. Like everything. You can hit whatever at her and she's going towards the ball, towards the opponent. And you mentioned something out there that I thought was a very good point. She's not playing the opponent. She's playing the ball. Explain to the audience what that really means because, And I want to clarify it because I'm a baseball guy. And I saw a clip of Barry Bonds, the greatest hitter of all time, in my opinion.

16:34Say whatever you want about the steroids or whatever. The dude can hit, right? And he said, I wasn't trying to get a hit. I was just trying to beat the pitcher. So meaning I was just trying to put the ball in play. He simplified it that much. And if I hit the ball in play, I win. And so it triggered that when you told me about Vlada, about going and playing the ball, that's what the great one Barry Bonds did. So explain to them in tennis terms what that really means. Well, I probably it's a mindset. And this is what I do with the players. You know, I look and I have them look at things to a different lens.

17:15And I tell people all the time what you may see is different than Rick may see. OK, so that's a Macyism. There you go. I'm hearing all of them. They're good. They're good. No, listen, I haven't played the ball because you are playing a person and you should know what, whether you're a batter and a pitcher, you know what they can and can't do. And all the dirty work is done before the match. You know the strengths and weaknesses and the game plan. But when you go out there, you're playing the ball. You're a performer. Okay. You're playing the ball. It's about you. You're playing a faceless person.

17:49And I got to train the person, if they buy in, to think like that. Because greatness thinks different. Everybody's good. Okay. Great is rare air. I train great. I've helped build it. I've seen it. I've seen it go right, left, up and down. And I know how this is done. And you got to buy in. So you can see, Vlada, no matter what comes. Sure, sometimes you got to go back and you got to be on your back foot. But it doesn't matter. She's programmed to go to the ball. Okay. So with that being said, it doesn't matter size, strength, or what anybody's bringing at her someday, whether it's Coco, Sabalinka, whatever, she's playing the ball.

18:31And that's been put in her head at eight, nine. And as we go down the yellow brick road here and you're playing the ball. Okay. And she's already cleared that hurdle. Okay. And a perfect example is the Williams sisters. No one saw when they went into pro tennis, people hit on the run with firepower and flip the script and go from defense to offense. Cause usually when you're in a little bit of trouble, you go upstairs and live another day. They looked at as an opportunity on the run. I wanted them to attack where the rest of the world might lob. See, it's all about the art of coaching. Now, you got to have the thoroughbred to win the derby.

19:14I get that. But they still got to buy in. You want to eat chicken, not be a chicken. And I train different because everybody under pressure, I don't care, NBA, NFL, everybody's going to get a little tight. They're going to prevent defense. They try not to lose. So I do it 360 the other way. Attack, swarm, in the face, cut the court, play the ball early. And if you look at some of the girls that I've had that went on for greatness, Venus, Serena, Capriati, Sharapova, Kennan, Pierce, Moschina, okay, all these people that won grand slams, they play kind of the same. They cut the court, they hold the baseline, they take the ball early, they're dealing the cards and running the show, and they're the ones dictating time.

20:01They're playing on their terms. Then if you got to use your speed to counter punch, that's easy. So this is kind of how I train and no one's bought in more than the little panther. I don't call her Vlada. I call her the panther. She's always on the attack, the little panther. Oh, that's why you call her the little panther. Yeah. Dive into Vlada a little bit. Tell the audience about who she is, where she's come from. And I mean, obviously we know what track she's on, but. yeah i know you know i've it's a unique situation a good friend of mine peter boto senior writer tennis.com one of the best writers in tennis history he said rick there's this little girl from ukraine they're up here in vermont new york you need to take a look at okay well i seen that movie like 10 000 times you know like i get that all the time yeah so i said listen send me a He sent me a video.

20:53I saw some good stuff, but it wasn't like, whoa, just like the Williams is when I saw it. It wasn't like, whoa. Okay. I said, listen, if they ever want to come to Florida, they can come. I'll check her out, see what's going to happen. So a couple months later, they decided to drive all the way down and they came and they came on a Saturday, just like yesterday. They came on court six. I was on the court giving a lesson to a 12 year old boy, met the mom and dad, super nice people. So Vlada, the racket was like as big as her. She got on the court and right off the bat after hitting a few, we start playing, once again, competitive points.

21:30I wanted to get right to the competitor. Within five minutes, I saw the speed. I saw the quickness. I saw this is the coach. I saw how tall she's going to be with the mom. I saw the athleticism, the focus. OK. And she just had this burning desire. It was personal between her and the ball already. And I'm sitting there going, I need to change her forehand, her backhand, her serve. I need to show her how to hit the ball at the highest level. Okay. Biomechanically. I mean, she was in the neighborhood, but not the neighborhood it takes to be elite. Right. But all the internal stuff was there. Then the more I got to know her as the morning went on, it was a home run.

22:18Okay. And so at the end of the day, I talked to the parents. I said, listen, if you want to come here, I'll give you a scholarship. You can train in the academy, so on and so forth. That was it. So they said, we're coming. We want to be around Rick Macy and the environment. That was it. No contract. So then she's here a month. now I'm seeing it every day, live and in color. And I'm saying, you know what? Maybe even at this stage of the game, I can really help this family because she needs me. You know, I'm out there teaching 50 hours, you know, so I don't have a lot of time to give to her, especially for free, like I did with the Williamses.

23:01And she needs hitting partners and maybe boxing and stretching. So we started talking. They said, listen, we would feel honored to do a contract. So I went back and forth for a while. So I entered into a contractual relationship the second time in my life. The only other time I did anything like this was with the Williamses. Right. And I signed a 20-year contract that I'm going to represent her besides coach her. And I'm helping out the family. Obviously, they need help. and hopefully I'm around to see the end game, but at the end, it doesn't matter. I'm making a difference, Sean, in someone's life and making this little girl's dream come true.

23:43And as you just saw, Humpty Dumpty has been put together. She just has to grow, have fun. She couldn't even speak that great of English. Now she's like the master. Wait, how long has she been here? Because I couldn't even tell. Yeah, 2023, December. Okay. Wow. And she takes English. And, you know, so it's just, it's taken on a life of its own. Her accomplishments, no one's improved so fast, so quick. For 12, she plays 12 and under. She's already like three in Florida, top 10 in the nation, seven point something UTR. But that doesn't matter. I don't care if she wins or loses. every day, got to get better.

24:29And I don't look at her as four foot six, 65 pounds. I look at her just as I would teach a pro. I expect her to make every ball. I expect her to, it's what Rick Macy expects of himself. I expect her to do everything right during perfect. Even though I know three more inches, 20 more pounds, the whole landscape changes, man. It changes big time. It's a whole different animal then. Okay. And the great thing about this, she came here at age eight. So I don't have to rush. I can go in the front door, the side door, the back door, the basement, the chimney to figure it out. If I got to tweak and modify, and I know how to put this together because the game is probably going to be a lot different eight years from now, quicker, faster, better technology.

25:15but the game that I'm putting together on the Panther, people, it's going to blow their mind. Barring injury, because you never know what that could happen. Sure, of course. I have no doubt this little girl will be number one in the world. And if she doesn't, it's not going to happen overnight. If she doesn't, I did a bad job. That's what I expect of myself, because I believe in her as much as I believe in myself. It's amazing, you know, just hearing that, because when you talk about the game changing in eight years, is there any way with tennis to predict the potential changes? Like I know you mentioned faster, stronger, better technology.

25:55Are you able to stay ahead of that or think and think in terms of, okay, based on your experience, this is what I could see would be coming up in order for me to help her be better. Yeah, I'm able to, because I'm a visionary. I always look at the bigger picture. I know where this, I know where this is going to go with her. and the speed of the game, you know, but she's already, she's playing the ball. They're not going to change the court or whatever. So I've already got her to buy in, you know, like a boxer, no one backs you up. You just stay in there, you know, like Joe Frazier, you just stay in there and keep punching, you know, and she'll be able to cut the court.

26:35So yeah, I'm, I'm way ahead of this thing. And obviously with my partner and biomechanics, there's always going to be adaptations and modifications. You can see Sinner, when he hits the ball, it comes off his racket very different. He has like two pronations on the forehand. I don't want to get too deep here. The way people hit the ball now is very different than 10 years ago. A very different joke, but I know this stuff inside out and there's not a wrong way or a right way. There's a better way. And I'm going to find the better way for the little panther. The little panther. I love that nickname.