Second Serve Tennis

Legendary Tennis Coach Rick Macci - Most Memorable Moments on the Court (Part 3)

• Second Serve with Carolyn Roach & Erin Conigliaro • Episode 267

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What is the most exciting tennis match legendary tennis coach Rick Macci has ever watched? What did he think of the King Richard movie? What is the most memorable moment on the court for Rick as a player and as a coach? We explore these topics and more in our on going conversation with Rick Macci!

Rick Macci has trained and worked with Serena and Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, Jennifer Capriati, and many more! Five of his players have reached number one in the world and he has coached eight Grand Slam Champions.  His junior players have won 322 USTA National Championships and currently over 60 WTA and ATP players work with Rick on a regular basis.

You can contact Rick at info@rickmacci.com or learn more about programs at https://rickmacci.com.

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Carolyn:

Hi, this is Carolyn and I'm here with Erin, and this is part three of our conversation with Hall of Fame tennis coach Rick Macci. He has coached some of the best tennis players in the world, including Serena and Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, Jennifer Capriati and so many more. If you'd like to hear his tennis tips and mental tips for adult recreational players, please check out parts one and two, but here's part three.

Erin:

Let me ask another question. Since you've watched thousands of tennis matches, is there one that stands out as the most exciting?

Rick:

easy answer October 31st 1994, just the other day, when I took that tall, skinny girl from Compton, california, to make her debut, you got to remember three and a half years training. She never won a match. She always put play boys or hitting partners. She never won a match. And now we're making this debut. I didn't know if she was going to freak out, I didn't know if she was going to get beat 0-0. I just knew that people would see this girl, 5'10", that ran like the wind. She was like a little gazelle, a lot of open stance, serving 110 miles an hour as a 14-year-old. Serving 110 miles an hour as a 14-year-old, you know. And they would go whoa, there's something in the oven here that's going to be good in the future. But I didn't know what was going to happen that night. So when I watched that match against Sean Stafford okay, richard wasn't with me, he was like I don't know where he was and Venus won that match and it's all over YouTube and she came up to the net and had that smile from ear to ear and those beads flopping up and down. She's like a human pogo stick. She's just jumping up and down and you know, that's just. That's with me forever that match, because you got to understand. Three and a half years, six hours a day, you know, five, six days a week, putting up with Richard. I should be in the Hall of Fame just for putting up with that guy, you know. But no.

Rick:

And then you go to this pinnacle and it happens Forget if she won, even if it was close or it didn't even matter. But then she won and then so that was that will never change. She won and then so that was that will never change. Nothing could change that, a grand slam or whatever, just because I was such a part of it and you're just building for that moment.

Rick:

And then she almost beat Sanchez the next night and then eight months later she gets a $12 million contract from Reebok, you know. So you got to understand that match is by far the leader in the cub house. And I told Venus that at the after party, at the red carpet about jumping up and down, she was Rick at 42. I'm still jumping up and down all the time, but just to see that because we were like she was like my own daughter, so was Serena, you know they were like my own daughters. You got to say like, we're like that and when that happens and you just you know you see that happen after not playing at all, and what was on the on the line that matches the best of all time that's great.

Carolyn:

That is great. That is great. Yeah, was it weird at all to see yourself in a movie? I would think that would be so strange. What was your reaction to that?

Rick:

I'm kind of like naive and I didn't know the magnitude. Well, first off, I didn't know exactly how the movie was going to be told. So I didn't know if they were going to tell how it really happened, or like Tompton to center court, and when they told, you know how, how much I cared and the bond we had and the risk I took, I mean that just was amazing, because that's the true story. But to answer your question, I asked my daughter who's right here next to me? I said listen, am I that wired and fired up all the time? She goes? Dad, yes, you are, all the time. My name is Richard Allen Macy. She called me Richard Alien Macy. So I just do things a little bit different, but all from the goodness of my heart. But the movie was spot on. You know, once I saw it like three or four times, I kept seeing more. The only thing that was wrong John Bernthal had this mustache and it was very bushy. I had this little piece of astroturf that took me 30 years to grow, so the mustache was way off. But he kind of had the talk, the walk, the nuances, but it showed that I was just all in and I told John, we talked many times and he talked to me for he read the book. I mean, he did an amazing job. And Will Smith with Richard I told Will at the after that was crazy. I'm just telling you he was better than Richard. You have no, because no one had a better front row seat than me other than Orstein the white.

Rick:

I was laughing the first time I saw the movie. I'm going this is freaking me out. But it wasn't weird to see it because it's exactly what happened. Now, if it wasn't kind of what happened, then maybe I'd have felt different. But because there was just so much like family and love and the journey and how it really happened and how you know Venus and I were and stuff like that and how Richard was, it was that's. I think that's what made it more enjoyable. But to see myself not that much because I see myself in other situations video and some TV, but it was a little bit different. But I didn't never look at like that, I just watched the movie and when I got back on, the court said I got to get better. So that's me, oh that's great.

Carolyn:

Can you tell us your most memorable moment on the court, both as a player and as a coach?

Rick:

Yeah, the best moment on the court would probably be because I used to play. I was actually. I picked up a racket. This is a crazy story. I picked up a racket at 12 years old. I grew up in a small town, greenville, ohio, 10,000 people 20 miles southwest of Dayton, Ohio. My father passed away when I was 10. So it was just me, my mom and my sister. I used to play golf. I was a four handicap. How crazy is that. At age 11? I thought it was going to be a pro. No, I was like I was like the arrow, I could hit that ball like that. And now if I ever played, I'd be the sparrow, it'd be going everywhere. So I picked up a racket at 12.

Rick:

By 18, I was number one in Ohio Valley no lessons how crazy is that? I got to be pretty good. I was one of the best in Ohio. I was in New Jersey for a year. I was number one in the men's division. Probably the best moment I ever had when I got to play the Dayton Pro Classic. Best moment I ever had when I got to play the Dayton Pro Classic. I got to play the qualifying with all the big guns. Here I am no lessons and you know, I got an opportunity to play in something like that and I just I kind of made myself that would probably be the best I have.

Rick:

So many tournaments I played that were. Well, I got to tell this story now that you asked me. It was Willingboro, new Jersey. I tell this to the kids all the time Okay, it was 4th of July and it was Willingboro, new Jersey.

Rick:

I'd played in the finals of a thousand dollar prize money tournament and right when the match was starting it was at a city facility and the road was right behind the tennis court. It was like Main Street and there was like cheerleaders and floats and motorcycles and fireworks. It was insanity. For like an hour and a half you can't even hear, you couldn't hear the ball. It was crazy. So we started the match and me and the guy we played were like even we're like pretty close. I played him before. It was like six, four and a third. I won. I had to get that in there, but we were even. So now we're playing okay and it's out of control the noise and everything. I win 6-0, 6-1, 40 minutes. Listen to this. The guy breaks a couple rackets. He throws the water jug over the fence. He's going crazy like Joe Psycho. I don't remember the guy's name.

Rick:

The newspaper Willingboro Gazette interviewed him. What do you think of the tournament he goes? This tournament's terrible. They should have canceled. They should have waited till 11 to start to match.

Rick:

This parade is a joke. It's out of control. It was just insane. So then they come to me and they say what do you think about the match? And what about the parade? So on and so forth. And I go what parade? See? I flipped it in my mind. I love cheerleaders, I love the float, I love the motorcycles, I love the noise. It became my best friend and before I knew it, the match was over and I gave him a donut and a breadstick. So that's a great story, so accurate, and I tell that to the kids. You know all the time how it is, what it is. Now, what are you going to do? See, you asked me that earlier about reacting to the problem and mind control flipped it. And that day, for whatever reason, and the more he got upset, the more I love the cheerleaders and I love the motorcycles, and it was amazing. So that's a great story.

Carolyn:

And the other question was oh, as a coach, what's your most memorable moment?

Rick:

I don't like to single anything out because obviously the Venus moment trumps everything. I've had so many. But it'd probably be 1988 when I took Jennifer Capriotti to the hardcore nationals Me and Stefano who's no longer alive took her there as a 12-year-old. She's playing the 18 and under. I mean that in itself is crazy. People have driver's license, boyfriend, I mean, and she's this little pipsqueak, okay.

Rick:

And I got her to play near the base sign take the ball early. She was hit side spin like Chris Everett changed. That got her a serve. She was like the ball was on a string racket. Back in the parking lot she had the best technique or fundamentals I've had to this day. I mean, she was like amazing balance. She could hit ground strokes with a cup of water on her head and both shoulders and not spill it. She was a wizard. Anyways, jennifer won that tournament, okay. And right then and there I knew, like you know, you know what's coming next endorsements like through the roof, and she comes off that court right up in the crowd and gives me the biggest hug ever.

Carolyn:

Oh, that's great. That's a great memory and a great story.

Rick:

No, it's like so. I've never even said that to anybody because it's more the Venus, because that was like unreal. But Jennifer that was in, she's like one of my all time favorites and still talk to the mom now and then. But she's like, she's amazing, she's a wizard. I'm never saying like it. Listen, I've had more than anybody in the world. Unbelievable.

Erin:

Think about it, 12 years old, doing that, yeah, you've had a lot of families, like you know, like I know, you have your own family, but you've had a lot of extended families. I mean, what a amazing legacy. And you know, I know it's the coaching and it's the being with them through the mental and everything else, but I just think you've made such an impression on so many people. It's amazing.

Rick:

Yeah, you know, I'm glad you asked that because one of the things that happens now I coach a lot of the kids of the parents who I coach them, you know, like Christian Rood. You know Casper, you know I coach Christian. He was Norway's number one player when he was like 17 and he became the best player. Now his son took his place, you know, and I met up with him at the Miami Open and watched him play Alcarez in the finals. But they all come back. Everybody that I talk to.

Rick:

It's not about you help my serve or forehand or backhand or strategy, even though I did that. It's like the work ethic and the attitude and a winner finds a way and a loser makes excuses. But I didn't try to do that with them. But they pass that down to their children and they put it in at a young age and if the kid buys in then it's like a game changer and that's what Casper Ruud. He actually told that story after winning four clay tournaments in a row, out of nowhere. He started talking about Rick Macy and I never met Casper and he said my dad told me he went to Academy and he said winners find a way, losers make excuse and I always remember that I don't have time to get tired.

Rick:

I don't make excuses. I don't live my life Now to get the kid to buy into that, especially in today's world. That's amazing parenting, if you can get the kid to think like that. But no, that's what makes me feel the best. Whether a doctor, lawyer, whatever they do, they all say the same thing. It's all more about life lessons. So I'm probably more a life coach. As a tennis coach, it's just that I'm showing them how to hit a tennis ball.

Erin:

Yeah, well, that's the mental side and I mean that's what you're teaching is. You know a lot, a lot of. I mean we even know this as rec players. A lot of us have. We're the. We have the same skill level. We're ranked. You know we're very low ranked, but like we all play, within our level. But it's you know, the ones that win are usually the almost always the ones that are more mentally strong, almost always.

Rick:

And it's what you, it's what's, it's what's underneath. But for them to come back and that's what they, they tell me that that's. They don't talk about the tennis part as much other than it was a great time, one of the best times of my life. That's obvious. That's going to happen. So I create an environment like I did for Venus and Serena, even the Rick Macy Academy. It's so positive. If you go on the website, there's motivational signs everywhere. You just see things that inspire you. It's like Disneyland and Candyland, but I tell people it's a land of opportunity for all ages and levels. What we do, you know and so, but the people, they feel that and you know. When you can inspire people, maybe you can make a little difference and, as we all know, a little difference means a lot.

Carolyn:

We can't thank Rick enough for coming on the podcast. We have one more episode with Rick where he discusses some of the biomechanics of tennis, and we even told Rick some of our problems. If you'd like to contact Rick Macy for a lesson, or maybe a lesson for your kids, we've included his contact information in our show notes and we think that would be such an incredible experience. We hope you check out our website, which is SecondServePodcastcom. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.