- Now, listen, I have a lot of kids that try hard
and I've coached a lot of great players.
With Venus and Serena it was different,
there was a rage inside these two little kids.
What I saw on the inside is why I took the chance,
I rolled the dice, and now I'm going, whoa.
These two little girls
can not only be number one in the world,
they can transcend the sport.
And the best vacation I ever had in my life, officially,
is Compton, California.
[inspirational music]
My name is Rick Macci.
We're at the Rick Macci Tennis Center
in Boca Raton, Florida.
I teach tennis, but more importantly
I don't just change strokes, I try to change lives.
I have people all ages, all levels.
Whether you're top 10 in the world or an aspiring junior,
it really doesn't matter.
If they want me to help 'em I'm here seven days a week
and I just love helping people.
I've been fortunate
to coach some of the best athletes in the world.
Venus, Serena, Capriati, Roddick, Sharapova,
players who have gone on to win Grand Slams
or become number one in the world,
that I work with at a young age, say nine to 15,
which is critical
'cause that's when you really create the environment
for them to mature and develop a pro game for the future.
Whether they need help biomechanically, or mentally,
or technically, or whatever it is,
what I do, it's a medley of things
just to try to feel the temperature.
And I also work with the parents,
that's a big part of this, keeping this thing together.
I tell 'em, it's very simple,
if you're not getting better, you're getting worse.
It was 1991, May, I remember it just like yesterday.
A guy called me, Richard Williams,
he said, I'm honored to talk to you, blah, blah, blah,
I have two daughters, Venus and Serena,
I'd like you to come to Compton.
But I never went to see a player.
I just decided what the heck,
so I booked a ticket and went to California,
that night, Venus, Serena, Oracene, and Richard
come to the hotel room.
Richard pulls out a piece of paper
and he starts grilling me like I'm in a deposition
for two hours.
He's just peppering me with these questions.
If he was gonna let someone in their circle
he wanted a role model, father figure,
someone been there, done that,
'cause he saw what I did with Jennifer.
Well, I kind of respected him for doing that.
So he said, we're picking you up the next morning.
He goes, we're gonna go to East Compton Hills Country Club.
So now I start doing drills with Venus and Serena,
arms, legs, hair,
they had beads in her hair, they were flying off.
So now I'm seeing this and it was a train wreck
so after about an hour,
I say, okay, let's do some competitive points.
Once I said, game on,
they started popping the popcorn, extra crispy,
the footwork just became unreal.
There was something inside them.
They ran so hard, both of 'em,
to get to the ball they almost fell down.
I went to Richard and I just, right then and there, I said,
you got the next female Michael Jordan on your hands,
this is in the movie.
He goes, no brother, man, I got the next two,
and now I'm going, whoa.
These two little girls
can not only be number one in the world,
with the right financial backing and coaching
they can transcend the sport.
They were gonna bring a different athlete.
They changed the whole landscape,
and it wasn't one, it was two,
and the little one might be better.
Whether it took four years or 10 years,
it didn't matter because I knew where this could go.
Once I believe I don't quit until it happens.
I visited Compton in May of '91,
they decided in September of '91 to come to the Academy
and they came across the country in that motor home
and we got right into it.
Both the girls had their own courts,
they had their own hitting partners.
They were with me four hours a day
and it was all about technical development
'cause, remember, when you're dealing with athletes
they can improvise
and sometimes there's not a wrong way or a right way,
there's a better way.
And some of the best coaching I did with Venus,
I left it alone.
She kind of taught me
'cause maybe what I thought was a liability,
I'm thinking, wait a minute, this could be a weapon.
Especially on her backhand.
I think her backhand down the line
goes down as the greatest shot in history of tennis
'cause you can't read it, it comes outta left field
and it's very different,
but her contact point never deviated.
They trained right away, starting in September,
six hours a day, five days a week, four hours on Saturday.
And we had grass courts at Grenelefe
'cause I knew on grass, that would be her calling card
with her serve and the way she could run,
and it kind of makes you go forward,
and she practiced two hours a day, at age 12, on grass.
People don't understand this.
I did it as a developmental tool to shorten her backswing,
hit it early, come to the net more,
a good volley would be great, a bad volley is good.
Get her to bend more 'cause she was very tall,
she had big swings.
In 1992 they did a story in England, Angela Buxton,
I said, this little girl someday
was gonna win five Wimbledon's.
Fast forward 30 years later, she's won five Wimbledons.
It's the little things in life
that make the biggest difference.
That's part of that environment that I created for them,
it was so positive and so inspiring.
I wanted them to play very different,
and what they brought to women's tennis
was very, very different.
They were just kids and Richard made sure of that
and that's why I love the guy.
So he goes, I'm going to Disney world, I'm going.
Well, wait a minute, we gotta practice.
Oh wait, we're going to the beach. We're going to the mall.
These two little kids worked hard, but he kept them kids.
They have their whole life.
So now you look back through the rear view mirror,
well-rounded, educated, crazy successful,
and game, set and match Richard Williams.
They had courage.
I mean they were the two Compton Comets.
I had to kind of pump the brakes
and get 'em to groove and slow down to develop timing.
We always said, they're gonna have two of the better serves.
They had different throwing motions.
Nobody, since I've been doing this,
hit more serves after practice
than Venus and Serena Williams.
Where most people are leaving, they're staying,
instead of maybe getting behind,
they were always getting ahead.
The biggest thing
with both of 'em at a young age was consistency,
'cause remember, they had a lot of firepower,
they loved to hit the ball hard,
and they had to master boring.
They have to master boring.
You gotta hit the ball across court
a hundred times in a row,
cross courts, down the line, you gotta hit it to targets.
There's a difference between there and right there.
In the beginning, it was all about consistency,
keeping the ball in play.
Then as they got bigger and stronger,
it's the quality of the consistency, hitting it harder,
maybe being more adventurous, running around more.
Like anything else in life,
whether it's a house or a tennis game or whatever,
if the foundation has cracks
it doesn't hold up under pressure.
And when it's all said and done,
not only could they keep it in play
they could keep it in play with a lot more mustard
'cause I always told 'em, if you have more mustard
maybe you won't have to ketchup.
With Serena it was just more maturation.
Serena is 11 and Venus is 12 and it's the middle of July,
it's like 110 degrees.
Move your feet. She goes, why?
She gives me that look.
A lot of people have seen that look at the US Open,
she had that look even as an 11-year-old,
and I go, you say you wanna be number one.
She goes, I will be number one.
Venus at a young age was more stick to it,
she was more mature,
and I think any parent, you can't compare your kids.
But one thing Serena had,
more than any other player I've ever coached,
she had more time.
She seemed like she had all the time in the world
when the ball came.
A lot of times when you have time,
you look sloppy or there's no urgency,
but I saw she had the calmness and she had the intensity,
so when those two things meet
that's like the ideal performance state.
They look at this physicality she has and this rage,
and that's the outside.
When you're a brutal competitor
and you'll run over broken glass to get a ball,
and yeah, it's not that big a deal, I'm pretty calm,
and that separates great from good.
And I was right,
she went on to become the greatest player ever.
You never know when you're ready unless you try it,
but I knew she was ready.
For tennis it's called junior development,
it's not junior final destination.
It's a long-term process.
Venus, I knew she was there mentally
but I knew even if she lost or played bad,
anybody with eyes, 'cause the eyes evaluate talent.
I've never seen anybody run like that,
six feet tall with that firepower and competed like that,
how good is this girl gonna be?
She had gifts from above that Serena didn't.
The next female Michael Jordan,
no one could jump like Venus Williams.
And she had a wingspan,
she was like a praying mantis at the net,
you couldn't pass her.
And even when you come to the net
even if you don't volley, you can freak people out.
The kid's Bulletproof.
Her serve was actually better at 14 than when she got older,
'cause biomechanically, it changed.
I knew how she could serve, I knew how she could run,
and I knew the firepower that she had,
so I knew she'd compete.
I knew she was ready because I saw where she was at.
Little V stepped up to the plate
and when she won that match against Stafford,
and she's at the net
jumping up and down like a human pogo stick,
and those beads,
that was by far one of the happiest days of my life.
After Venus's debut,
when she's hibernating at Rick Macci Tennis Academy
for three and a half months,
and I get her the wild card
into the Bank of the West Classic.
People gotta understand,
she might, we might not even have did that
but in 1994 they changed the age eligibility rule,
they called it the Capriati Rule,
that they weren't gonna let you turn pro at 14 anymore
'cause they didn't want these girls burning out
or having problems.
I told Richard, you gotta make a decision,
either she has to turn pro,
even though she probably wasn't ready,
or you're gonna let someone dictate to you
15, 16, 17, limited number of tournaments.
He goes, I guess we gotta go pro.
So I got her the wild card, she hasn't played any matches.
all we're doing is training.
I get her a wild card,
take her to the Bank of the West Classic,
the year before 22 media credentials, this year 252,
it's like Elvis is coming, and this girl's never played.
She was legendary and didn't do anything.
So to fast forward the story,
outta nowhere she beats 57 in the world,
which that in itself is amazing.
Almost beats number one, as you saw in the movie,
and I knew right after that,
she's gonna get 5, 7, 10, $12 million contract
'cause she's gonna just go nuclear.
People can see she'll be number one someday,
bring a whole nother audience into tennis.
People think I should be bitter or upset
'cause in '95 it didn't go.
There's no bitterness because we changed history
and I know what I did,
then to have it come out in a movie and come and everybody,
the whole world knows exactly what Rick Macci did.
If your heart's in the right place,
at the end of the day, everything comes full circle.
- [Richard] Watch 'em hit a few balls.
- All right. So tell me your names again.
- I'm Venus.
- I'm Serena.
[intense music]
- So what'd you think?
- when I first saw the film,
I talked to John Bernthal a handful of times,
they read the book, "Macci Magic"
so I didn't really know how they were gonna tell this story.
The first time I saw it, here in Boca, I was impressed
because it showed how much I cared
and how much I was on a mission,
and I wasn't gonna be denied.
How Richard and I were in this together,
and it's so true.
It's amazing.
- I think you might just have the next Michael Jordan.
- Oh no brother, man, I gots me the next two.
- I knew early on
that I like to help others more than help myself,
and I like to analyze things.
Here we go, work the legs. Good.
When I was about 22, I got into coaching
and I knew eventually if I really wanted to do this
I had to go to Florida or California.
I teach seven days a week.
I just outwork the competition
that's just how I've always been.
I love being on the tennis court. It's my living room.
None of it seems like work.
You might have a system or a methodology when you teach
'cause everybody's an individual,
they come with a different background,
they have a different family environment,
they're at different stages in their career,
and this is what I do.
You just gotta feel this,
but if anybody treats everybody the same
and does the same thing,
they're looking at the wrong playbook.
Venus and Serena never played really any junior tournaments.
So I could say, listen, I got the playbook,
let's shut down junior tennis, don't play any tournaments.
And I've never been like that, it's not one size fits all,
it's not cookie cutter.
Here's what your kid needs
and I'm gonna do my best to help them reach their ability.
When people come to me,
whether they want something technically
because we're pretty much
the worldwide leader in biomechanics.
My partner, Dr. Brian Gordon,
we've been cutting-edge in sports science in biomechanics.
So for me to do reconstructive surgery,
even though I'm not a doctor, I kinda am on the court
where, bang, in five minutes
I not only can put Humpty Dumpty together
and correct things, I can reverse engineer it,
do it backwards, they're blown away,
and correct things and identify the problem.
The way I evaluate talent
is you gotta get this style of play,
are they gonna be a baseliner,
are they gonna have a big serve, how tall they gonna be?
I look at their attributes, their movement,
'cause if you can move, even if you're nervous,
you're gonna be able to hang in there and win matches.
I don't play it safe, I teach everybody courage
and that's the wild card in my teaching.
You might make a mistake but it might be a positive mistake.
There's certain things, if they wanna be a high level pro,
you gotta build the game for the future.
Andy Roddick's one of my all-time favorite,
he wrote the foreword to my book.
He came to me at age nine, his backhand was a little shaky.
He never had the softest hands
but he had an amazing forehand, okay, back then,
and I knew I could make his serve nuclear.
His serve was a train wreck,
he externally rotated his forearm,
he always had a lively arm, okay,
so I knew there was a lot of potential there.
Fast forward, he had the biggest serve on the tour
with the highest percentage.
Andy was one in the Nation in the 12s,
I think he was six in the Nation in the 14s,
he was 15 in the 16s.
He grew seven inches, at 18 he was number one in the world,
two or three years later he wins the US Open
'cause he got that serve going.
I see it differently.
I tell everybody,
what you may see is very different than Rick may see.
I just try to get better every day.
I've obviously been fortunate,
coached so many great players,
a lot of Hall of Fames, a lot of awards.
That's the window dressing.
When it's all said and done, I'm getting up at 3:30,
I'm gonna work seven days, I'm gonna open up the park,
I'm gonna be on the court at six,
and I'd like to do this as long as I can.
As long as I have the passion,
I just want to keep not only changing strokes,
but changing people's lives.