Second Serve Tennis

Improving Your Tennis Game: Insights from Legendary Coach Rick Macci (Part 4)

• Second Serve with Carolyn Roach & Erin Conigliaro • Episode 268

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Ever wonder why your forehand doesn't look like the pros? What has made legendary tennis coach Rick Macci such a successful coach?

We had the absolute pleasure of talking with Rick Macci, who enlightened us on the biomechanics of tennis. Rick's insights on the technical aspects of the game will help you understand how a deeper comprehension of the game can expedite your learning curve. The conversation goes beyond just the technicalities, as Rick shares his unique approach to coaching. He believes in tailoring a player's game to their unique body type and muscle memory. This episode is packed with wisdom from a true tennis savant!

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 our final episode with Hall of Fame tennis coach Rick Macci. Rick has coached some of the best players in the world, but he also helps everyday players like Aaron and me. If you'd like to learn the tennis tips and mental tips he recommends for adult recreational players, as well as listen to the most exciting tennis match he has ever watched, please check out parts one through three, but here's the final part.

Erin:

What got you so much into like the biomechanics of like the mental we've talked about, but but what is it that you do? You just see it in people. Is it just a your elbows in the wrong place, or you're doing this with your racket, or your grip is I get this? Your grip is wrong. You know what is it. Did you study that? So, because there was no YouTube back there, like even when you were saying you learned without coaching, you got all the way from 12s to 18s with no coaching at all. Now a lot of us can sit on YouTube and watch, you know, hundreds of hours of video, but how did you get into that specifically?

Rick:

First off, great question, the thing about YouTube. I got to be careful what you watch, because now everybody has a platform and they can kind of put their own spin on it and regurgitate it. And even if they're famous, they're not even in the neighborhood. But I'm not going to go down that. That's a whole nother podcast.

Rick:

But I was always intrigued, even as a kid, to figure things out. Always I go to the movies. This is a great story. I go to the movies with my friends. We sit down there and five minutes in I'm telling them how it's going to end and I'm there by myself eating popcorn somewhere else. No one wanted to go with me anymore because I'm always trying to figure out how this was. So I was always like that and then I played point guard in basketball, so that may be why I like to help others. I was good at passing the ball, but I always wanted to figure things out, you know, and I was never satisfied and I tell people if you're not getting better, you're getting worse, because I want to get better tomorrow. I got better before I came to talk to you guys this morning with everybody. I had to teach, so but I got intrigued.

Rick:

I always was intrigued by the technical part. But unless you're around someone who maybe has their PhD in this or did their thesis on this. And that's when I collaborated with Dr Brian Gordon. He came to me with all this 3D technology because he knew I kind of had the platform and could lay it out there. When we collaborated, like 15 years ago, it took it to a whole nother level because a lot of the things that I knew or I said he'd go, how'd you know that? How'd you know that? And it wasn't. I just kind of figured it out by being an athlete and trial and error and he was kind of blown away that I was already doing things backed up by science that were spot on. But even with Brian, 90% of what we were going over I didn't even understand. Okay, now I know it inside out but more importantly, I know how to expedite the learning curve. If there's a problem, you know, I always tell people. Importantly, I know how to expedite the learning curve. If there's a problem, you know, I always tell people there's not a wrong way or a right way or a better way, so I wouldn't change your grip and stuff like that. That's like, that's brutal. That could take two months, but I would change something and you'd feel something. You'd go Rick, I'm hitting harder, I'm hitting faster, I'm getting more spin. This is unbelievable, so, but I've always been intrigued by it. So then, when that was kind of another cornerstone of Rick Macy or Rick Macy Academy before, it was like there's amazing motivation, inspiration, dedication, very good strategy, technical.

Rick:

Look at all these players. Now we're putting Humpty Dumpty together for younger kids and the people that don't understand it. They're going to say, oh, they're too little, they can't learn it. Listen, I got seven-year-olds that look amazing. That doesn't mean they're going to be great players, but they're going to have strokes that will last a lifetime and they're just rock solid, better than some of the girls I work with on the tour. But if you do 10 million of anything, it's going to get better. But that doesn't mean it's optimal.

Rick:

And especially with the serve. See, the serve is the easiest to learn and I know you said something about your serve because there's no movement. A lot of people think it's more difficult because there's a lot of movement. To me it's the easiest and that's why it's not in the water when you back the truck up. Serena Roddick, you know Opelka, he's out there saying Rick told me to step on the bug, his weight. I could get real deep into this, but I won't. The serves are easy if you understand the science part and I probably help a lot of people that just come in on the tour just on that, because the groundies are kind of baked in double crispy, you know. But the serve can be well. I do a lot with that.

Rick:

So, to answer your question, I got to get better. I'm always learning, always talking to Brian. I mean he could write something and you could read it. You could say that's the most amazing thing I ever read. But I don't understand any of it. You know that's how this guy is so smart on this part and he's so into it. Every little fiber in your body, okay, of how this goes and how this is better or whatever. And the one thing I do I'm not so cookie cutter that I won't deviate a little bit because the game's always evolving. You know it's. I like cloning. I mean that's like silly because we all got different body types and you're coming with muscle memories, especially people that are, you know, adult players. But to modify and tweak we can do that better than anybody in the world.

Carolyn:

So there's hope for us. I was going to say you have so much work to do. Especially with our serve. Can we get it up to a hundred miles per hour? Can we get it up to 40?

Rick:

Where are you at now? Wait a minute. Are you were you're? Is it on the radar gun? Does it even register on the gun?

Carolyn:

Not really. It doesn't A little hundred. No.

Rick:

But listen.

Carolyn:

I can make you 25.

Rick:

No, it steers much better. But see, I got to see it. Both of you have different problems because you're bringing different issues. That's why you can't read a book any coaches or anybody. You can't read a book any coaches or anybody. You can't read a book and be a good coach.

Rick:

I certify guys also. I've certified over a thousand people around the world. They come on the court three, four hours a day, three days, and they're freaked out. They see this medley, this smorgasbord of biomechanics, technical, strategic, mental, dealing with the crazy parent on the sideline, the kid mood swing, ok, and how I. It's like a medley of all this stuff. And a lot of these people played on the tour. A lot of these people are directors, ok, and they're just like, they're in shock. But it's not just like, oh, this is what to do. You know I'm constantly moving the pieces around and everybody, when they walk off the court, they feel great and they win, you know, and they're all blown away. So you can't watch YouTube, you can, that can help.

Rick:

Or read a book to become a better coach If you see it live and in color and you see how this is done, if you can pick up some of those things which everybody has. They all say the same thing. I, I've never knew anything like this and they were top 50 in the world and they, they're director at a club. It's not just like what. And they get you get locked in to the same thing. And I'm always evolving, like tomorrow I'll experiment and I'll get better. I'm always like doing that and that's's why Brian and I were way ahead of the curve with the ATP forehand and the backhand, but, more importantly, how to correct things. So I put it out there for free, you know, on the internet, and people rewrap it and say it differently, which is great. That's to me, that's the best compliment in the world.

Carolyn:

Is that on YouTube that you have it out there for free, Rick?

Rick:

The YouTube channel. Everybody can go there. But once again, I got to see what you're doing and what you're doing and then I would know how to attack. You know what I mean. It's not like, oh, you got to use your legs more. You know, if you're like the tin man, I might have to make you the scarecrow. You know what I mean. Like Capriati was really tight so I had to make her loose, then I might have the neck first and they're already like Gumby and I got to put it together differently from the ground up, so it's not like boom. You know what I mean. So you got to be flexible as a coach and that's a sign of a great teacher. If you had 30 kids in a classroom, you can't teach them all the same. You got to know how to. You know bop and weave and figure that out.

Erin:

Yeah, what is the ATP forehand? I've heard you say that a couple of times on the podcast. I don't know what that is. I don't have that. What is the ATP forehand?

Rick:

Okay, let's back up a little bit. If you watch and there's a lot of the women that do this they're in the neighborhood. What I mean by that? They're close. Okay, if you watch the men hit the ball, let's just say let's take Federer, him hit the forehand. Or Alcaraz If you look at his forehand I think you'll agree.

Rick:

It looks than, say, madison Keys, federer and all these guys almost all the guys when they take the racket back, the racket, when they come out of the backswing, it's on the right side of the body. Okay, it's on the right side. So someone like Madison Keys, a great forehand, she can kill the ball. Her racket goes the other way, it goes the other side of the body, so her swing will be a semi-circular movement where I think you agree, don't you agree? The guy stroke looks different, not because they're bigger, stronger, but I think you. I think you see the guy stroke looks different. It's shorter and it's faster. The way that it's set up when they pull the racket, it flips the racket this isn't going to make sense down and back and creates more racket head speed. So you have a shorter, quicker stroke and you're able to actually turn the racket over and get more spin instead of coming around the body and this kind of evolved because the speed of the game has changed. If you look at the stroke, even in the 70s you wouldn't see this.

Rick:

Agassi was starting to get in the neighborhood. Roddick was one of the first Mohicans where you keep it on this side and if it's at an angle and you pull the racket, it flips it. When anybody flips it, it goes down and back and then it comes through faster. That's the ATP forehandhand, because a lot of the girls when they grow up this is why a lot of girls don't do it A, they're not taught it, which is wrong in my opinion, and they're maybe not as strong, so they want strength. So they kind of make a loop, an arc, a rainbow, a banana, a candy cane, a ferris wheel and the racket, you know, goes back to Miami.

Rick:

I'm in Boca, that's why I said Miami, so it goes back to Miami. And then here's what happens when they're 14, it's the same correction your elbow is too close. Shorten your backswing, hit it more in front. I already tell them what the person at home is correcting before I've seen them hit a ball they're going. Oh my God, how'd you know that? Because I know what's going to happen when the ball's faster. You can shorten your stroke when it's faster, but you're not going to make it go faster when the guys. Even though it comes faster, it's shorter and faster already. So it's a different. It's a different. Well, I did. I did so many things on this and got like 5 million views. When I did this for USPTA in like 2014 or whatever, people were like that's too much information. Well, that isn't how I teach it. I was generalizing this is how this works and it's all based on science and that's kind of hard to argue with.

Erin:

I know you said Capriotti was a wizard, but I think you're a wizard with all the stuff that you've done.

Carolyn:

I agree, I think it's amazing.

Rick:

No, thank you. No, it's all good, we'll do it again.

Carolyn:

We greatly appreciate Rick taking time out of his busy day to speak with us and we've included his contact information in our show notes. We hope you check out our website, which is SecondSirPodcastcom. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.