Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Rick Macci - Williams Sisters Tennis Coach | Unlock the Billion Dollar Mind

Transcript

Rick Macci - Williams Sisters Tennis Coach | Unlock the Billion Dollar Mind · Success Story with Scott Clary

0:00
It's like what you put into your mind is the key.
0:03
People let their mind control them.
0:05
You got to control your mind, because we all have problems,
0:08
but how you handle it and look at it is the key.
0:12
And that's really a five-star gold star billion dollar mind.
0:15
You don't judge a book by the cover.
0:18
The cover could be amazing, the book bad.
0:19
The cover bad, the book amazing.
0:21
One of the staples of what I do, I make it fun, but serious.
0:26
People can love something if you're getting paid for,
0:28
because sometimes you just don't want to work harder.
0:30
You got to work smarter.
0:32
Anybody who's successful, they dealt with more problem
0:35
and more failures than the people looking at them saying
0:39
how they get successful.
0:40
They don't understand the journey and all the failures.
0:43
You have to want to change your routine.
0:46
If you can change your routine, you're going to become a machine.
0:50
The mind's never neutral.
0:51
It's either for you or against you.
0:54
Welcome to success story.
0:57
I'm your host, Scott Clary.
0:59
The success story podcast is brought to you
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2:09
All right, Rick, I'm excited to do this.
2:11
I'm really, really, really grateful
2:13
that you took a second to sit down.
2:14
I want to go through a lot.
2:17
But the first question I want to start off with
2:21
is, what is a billion dollar mindset?
2:24
Well, first on great question,
2:26
but I kind of got to back the truck up from that.
2:29
The young lady that I wrote to book with, Dr. Niva,
2:33
I actually taught her and her sister back in the day.
2:38
Okay, I got them both in the harbor.
2:40
She was like number one player in the cell.
2:42
So, she came and approached me about the book and bank.
2:46
It's taken off.
2:47
It's a bestseller and it's all about mental strength.
2:50
It's really not a lot to do about tennis.
2:53
It can apply to tennis, but it's about life, you know,
2:57
and the positivity and how to look at things
3:00
through a different lens.
3:01
You know, it's all about perspective.
3:03
It's about choice, you know what I'm saying?
3:06
And it's like, what you put into your mind is the key.
3:10
People let their mind control them.
3:12
You got to control your mind.
3:14
And that's confusing to a lot of people.
3:16
And everybody's aware of what they put into their mouth,
3:19
but they're not aware what they put into their head.
3:21
And the book is like about 80 hours of private lessons with Rick Macy.
3:25
There's so much positivity in the thing,
3:27
but it's all about mental strength and how you handle everything.
3:32
Because we all have problems,
3:33
but how you handle it and look at it is the key.
3:37
And that's really a five star, bold star, you know,
3:41
a billion dollar mind.
3:42
And I'm curious, like obviously, you know,
3:46
people most know you as being a coach,
3:49
but usually coaches start off as being players themselves
3:54
and then they graduate to coach at some point.
3:56
So what was the point in your career
4:00
when you understood the power of having this billion dollar mind
4:05
and this idea that it wasn't just enough
4:09
to be talented or skilled or learn the physical mechanics.
4:14
But there was like a sports and just life psychology,
4:17
but sports psychology component that you needed to master
4:20
to take it to whatever the next level was.
4:23
Yeah, well, first off, that's another great question.
4:26
You know, but I got to go back to truck up even further.
4:29
You know, I grew up in a small town, Grigal, Ohio.
4:32
I picked up a racket at age 12.
4:35
My father passed away when I was 10.
4:37
I picked up a racket at age 12.
4:39
This is crazy stuff.
4:41
At 18, I was the number one player in Ohio Valley
4:44
with no lessons.
4:46
Okay, very good and basketball, great athlete.
4:49
Okay, very mentally strong, great competitor.
4:55
So I won on other qualities other than maybe optimal technique,
5:00
whatever that is.
5:01
You know, I was just like a ballerina gamer.
5:04
So that's always been a cornerstone of how I was put together.
5:08
I wanted the ball to last, you know, the last second of the game.
5:11
I always won on other qualities.
5:13
I mean, I had some of the other things too,
5:15
but that's a way I kind of was wired.
5:18
And then later on in my career, well, early 80s,
5:22
I teamed up with Dr. Jim Lair,
5:24
who was the first of the Mohicans in sports psychology.
5:27
All about mental toughness.
5:29
It was more for the corporate structure.
5:31
And I'm saying, wow, the way this guy presented it,
5:35
I was kind of already like that, you know?
5:37
So then when I really got into the teaching part,
5:41
that's been the staple because I'm more a life coach
5:43
as much as that tennis coach.
5:45
People might look at me with biomechanics or a motivator and all that.
5:49
But no, that's like a huge part the way I'm put together.
5:53
So I can look at it very differently.
5:55
And I think when you're a coach and you understand every aspect
6:00
and you're not pigeonholed and you realize
6:03
the game is a game of inches from year to year, you know?
6:08
And I know that.
6:10
And you know, I get people to believe
6:12
and I get people to have confidence even before they think of believing
6:17
or even before they have confidence.
6:19
I've done this for so long.
6:21
So at the end of the day, it's a game changer.
6:24
And that's why I've had so many young kids become good,
6:27
kind of pretty quick.
6:29
And I knew this was where this was going at an early age with a lot of these kids.
6:34
But I try to get them to look at things to a different lens,
6:37
not to slip it in their mind.
6:39
Remember to forget, you know, I got to, I do this very differently
6:43
than even a sports psychologist.
6:45
And it's just one of the things on the cafeteria
6:48
when people work with myself.
6:50
I love that.
6:50
So obviously from like a super young age,
6:52
you understood how important this was.
6:54
And this must be what really differentiates people
6:57
that are just good from great.
6:59
I mean, there's so much to it.
7:01
But I think the mindset probably unlocks
7:03
a whole other level of performance.
7:06
I mean, then you go into a lot of the actual mechanics as to why.
7:11
But even if you look at the beginning of your coaching journey,
7:15
you were, you know, I mean, you've coached tons of stars.
7:20
But the, you know, Venus and Serena, they were, they were incredible,
7:24
absolutely incredible.
7:25
When you first started working with them,
7:29
did you find that somebody who operates at that level
7:34
had a little bit of the mindset already
7:37
or is that still something that you had to teach them
7:40
and that they really lacked?
7:41
They had the technical prowess, they had the, they had all the skill set
7:45
but was the mindset the thing that you sort of imbued into them?
7:48
That was sort of like the secret sauce.
7:50
Does that make sense?
7:51
Absolutely.
7:52
Know that the Compton Comments, they were like my own daughters.
7:55
As you probably saw the movie, you know, King Richard,
7:58
Richard's like still one of my best friends, you know?
8:01
So, but I got to back up a little bit.
8:05
You know, I had Capriotti before them.
8:08
And she's the best junior player ever to hold a racket
8:13
in the history of the United States.
8:14
Think about this.
8:15
12 years old, when's the National Girls 18th?
8:20
Harvard Court and Clay Court as a 12 year old.
8:23
And we both know nowadays you can't do that.
8:25
It's too physical.
8:27
But even back then, you know, she took it on the rise and gave you a surprise.
8:30
No one was like the generator.
8:32
She was top 10 in the world at 14.
8:34
So, by blueprint,
8:36
her greatness was like no other.
8:39
So now I got the Compton, you know, I have no idea why I went.
8:43
But it was the best vacation I ever took looking bad, obviously.
8:46
Richard and I wanted me to come out there and said,
8:48
Rick, I won't get you shot with the funniest guy I've ever met.
8:51
But when I got on the court with the two girls, they were 9 and 10.
8:56
I didn't see it.
8:57
And I think it's a great lesson for any coach or parent.
9:00
You don't judge a book by the cover.
9:03
The cover could be amazing, the book bad.
9:05
The cover bad, the book amazing.
9:07
These girls had arms and hair and legs and beads were flying off their head.
9:11
I'm going, what in God's name?
9:14
If I do it in Coffin, California, they were like any kids that you and I coach
9:18
that are just very good high level junior.
9:21
But I'm getting the answer question now.
9:25
That was the first hour we were drilling, doing all kinds of technical stuff.
9:29
Then I said, that's placed some competitive points.
9:32
And it was me and Serena because Venus was much more mature.
9:35
Serena was like still a hamburger all over the plate.
9:38
And the whole landscape changed.
9:41
When I said game on and we kept score, the preparation got a little better.
9:47
They were popping the popcorn, extra butter, the footwork and proof.
9:50
But here's the wild card.
9:52
There was a rage.
9:54
It freaked me out.
9:55
I never freaked out.
9:56
It freaked me out.
9:58
There was a rage inside these two little girls.
10:02
I never saw in my life.
10:04
They were running so hard to get the ball.
10:07
Venus was almost by nine.
10:09
Her nose was out far off the ground.
10:12
Serena would try so hard to get the ball.
10:14
She'd almost fall down.
10:15
But that doesn't mean you're going to be a world champion.
10:18
But whether it's a game of life or
10:21
tennis, I knew they would be bulletproof and handle pressure.
10:25
I knew right then and there.
10:27
After that moment, I could put Humpty Dumpty together.
10:31
I could help them the technical part and the any type of strategic part.
10:36
But they were already bulletproof.
10:38
I just saw that they could listen.
10:41
If you're all about the competition,
10:43
you're going to handle pressure better with all of this other nonsense.
10:46
So that was one box that was checked.
10:50
And then I started thinking six feet, 160, 510, 145.
10:56
Because Richard was pretty big.
10:58
Now I told Richard, come here.
11:00
This was in the movie.
11:01
I said, let me tell you something.
11:03
You got the next female Michael Jordan on your hands.
11:06
And he puts his arm around me.
11:07
He goes, you knew the old brother man.
11:09
I got the next two.
11:11
So but to answer your question,
11:13
it's what I saw on the inside.
11:15
Then I saw speed,
11:16
quickness, agility.
11:18
But what I saw on the inside is why roll the change, roll the dice.
11:22
I took a chance, you know, and as they say, the rest is history.
11:27
I could have been raw, but I thought they could transcend the sport.
11:30
But it's all because of the inside.
11:32
And I saw it in Kenan.
11:34
I saw it in Sharapova.
11:36
Okay.
11:36
Rodic was a dog too, but you know, men's tennis is more physical.
11:40
I got a couple girls here from Ukraine right now.
11:43
They're all going to be top 10 in the world.
11:45
It's because of the inside.
11:47
I can put the other stuff together.
11:49
But that that mindset, when you're all about the,
11:53
and that doesn't mean you couldn't change.
11:54
And that doesn't mean you can't get it later.
11:57
But when you're all about the competition,
11:59
pressure becomes one of your best friends.
12:01
It's, it's amazing that you saw that.
12:03
And I would actually ask you,
12:06
that mindset, that hunger,
12:10
that can be a blessing.
12:11
But I would, I would assume that if it's not channeled in the right way,
12:16
that could also destroy your career because you're going to
12:19
injure something hurt yourself, blow something up.
12:22
If you don't channel that energy and aggression in the right way,
12:25
like you have this art of taking that,
12:30
that passion and that, and that aggression
12:32
and putting it towards something useful.
12:34
But I see a lot of athletes burn out and, and pull this and break that
12:40
because they are so into it.
12:41
But then they don't know when to stop and they don't know when to take time off
12:46
and they don't know when to recover.
12:48
So there's an art to this too.
12:49
It's not just all in and never take your foot off the gas.
12:54
No, you're absolutely right.
12:55
There, this, and there's an art to this.
12:57
You know, when to say it, how to say it, why to say it?
13:01
But once again, one of the staples of what I do,
13:05
I make it fun, but serious, you know, in their kids first and tennis player second.
13:11
You know, there's an art of probing and how to say it.
13:14
And depending on the age and whether I'm talking to an eight-year-old
13:17
who's the best in the world or someone 23,
13:20
30 in the world on the WTA tour.
13:22
It's a very different dynamic.
13:24
The art of coaching.
13:25
You just don't read a book and you figure this stuff out, you know?
13:29
And the best compliment for one of the best compliments I ever got in my life
13:33
was at the after party after the red carpet with Venus and Shrina.
13:38
And they both said, Rick, we were literally brainwashed to become number one.
13:44
The positivity I put around that.
13:47
Hey, everybody.
13:48
I should be in the Hall of Fame for just putting up with Richard.
13:51
Jesus, what was that all about, you know?
13:53
But no, I got it because I was there for Venus and Shrina.
13:56
But they said that, you know, it was always about the future.
14:01
It was always about, well, Hengus is going to get that,
14:03
Navratovila, get that.
14:04
Rap is going to get that.
14:06
Capriotti would get that.
14:07
And I'm talking to 11-year-olds.
14:09
Now, you got to have the thoroughbred
14:11
to maybe win the Derby.
14:13
But you got to have the thoroughbred that's mentally strong
14:16
and the belief that was put in to
14:19
then you got all these boxes checked.
14:21
Big, strong, fast, quick, pretty high-level technique.
14:24
Great serers.
14:25
So you get this package and greatness is a package.
14:29
But like Shrina, she would get mad a lot.
14:34
But then she got more determined.
14:36
Mac and her was kind of like that.
14:38
Most some people get mad and they disappear.
14:40
They show their cards, they're opponent.
14:42
They can't regroup.
14:44
You even see that on the tour, you know, breaking points, okay?
14:48
And I don't clone people.
14:49
It's not like the same person.
14:51
Everybody, I teach everybody a little different.
14:54
And I know how far it can go.
14:56
Because I want someone with a backbone.
14:58
I want someone with passion.
15:00
I want someone with anger.
15:02
But like you said, you got to control it.
15:04
Because sometimes you just don't want to work harder.
15:06
You got to work smarter.
15:08
Amazing.
15:09
And then I'm just very curious.
15:12
Managing the dynamic because, I mean,
15:15
everybody has actually now seen the movie,
15:19
seen, you know, the dynamic between Richard and yourself
15:23
and the girls as a coach.
15:28
How do you manage a dynamic of somebody like Richard
15:31
who is obviously you're all focused on the girl's success?
15:34
That's the end goal.
15:36
But two very different personalities.
15:38
And I know there was even a sort of like a breakup point
15:43
where there was a letter written.
15:44
And I don't want to spend, because everyone has seen the story.
15:48
And I, you know, judging by you recounting,
15:51
a lot of it was quite accurate.
15:52
I don't want to spend too much time on what people already know.
15:55
But just from your perspective, how do you manage
15:56
these really high tension relationships
15:59
when everyone's a high performing individual?
16:02
Well, no one, no one has been around the block
16:06
in this area in the whole world than myself.
16:10
Stefano Capriotti, Jim Pierce,
16:14
Yuri Sharapova, you know, and Richard Williams, you know,
16:18
you got to understand that it's usually daddy's little girl
16:22
doesn't happen a lot with the boys like Roddy's parents
16:25
weren't even involved.
16:26
You carry your own water, this is his thing.
16:28
It's a different dynamic, you know, with the boys.
16:31
But I think the first thing is you got to know when
16:35
to keep your mouth shut.
16:37
Some of the best coaching is not saying anything, you know,
16:40
and feeling the temperature.
16:41
I'm very good at reading people when to say this or when not to
16:45
where if you're so set in your ways,
16:48
this saying would have blown up in a week.
16:50
And I knew it was going to be a challenge,
16:52
because even though Richard was setting his ways,
16:56
it wasn't really a tennis coach.
16:58
Unreal father, one of the best ever.
17:00
I mean, the girls brought their books to the court every day.
17:03
And if it rained, he said go up in Rick's office and study.
17:06
And every single night, good, bad, happy, sad.
17:10
The girls would give me a hug and say, Rick, thank you very much.
17:14
Listen, that's a world-class dad and mom.
17:16
So, you know, it was a little different dynamic.
17:20
And that's why I had so much respect for him.
17:22
Even though he might say some off-the-wall things.
17:24
And there's a lot of controversy.
17:26
I made him legendary before they even did anything.
17:30
A lot of media.
17:31
I mean, it was out of control.
17:33
But I think no one wanted to keep your mouth shut.
17:35
And I was there because I just
17:38
loved the girls.
17:40
I was on a mission.
17:41
I was rolling the dice.
17:42
It's one thing people can love something if you're getting paid for.
17:47
I was just like, you know, I was all in.
17:50
Well, it was the opposite because you invested.
17:52
The opposite.
17:53
It's one thing to say, hey, I think you're good.
17:55
It's one thing to put out hundreds of thousands or a million dollars
17:59
and, you know, go for the gusto.
18:00
I could have been wrong, you know.
18:02
So at the end of the day, I think just knowing
18:06
when to take a deep breath.
18:07
You don't react, you know, to anything.
18:10
And when Richard wasn't there,
18:13
that's what I would go in technically
18:15
and do some reconstructive surgery, you know.
18:17
Because at the end of the day,
18:19
you're going home eating bitter and you're not there at the table.
18:22
So I think any coach that hears that, you know,
18:25
you got to know how to handle this and not be set in your ways.
18:30
And listen, because of the pedigree I got
18:32
and everything I've done, eventually some of the pairs
18:36
they start telling me what to do out of hit a four.
18:39
And I'm going, whoa, wait, wait, I wrote their curriculum for the USPTA.
18:43
It's like, I don't get into that.
18:45
I just try to get better.
18:46
And my favorite student is really who's on the other side of the net
18:50
that hour or that minute, that second.
18:52
I've always felt that way.
18:54
And so I'm all about the players.
18:57
I don't get into the other stuff,
18:58
but it takes a strong mind to be able to think like I think
19:02
and handle in the parents like that.
19:04
Well, I would say like I think that, you know,
19:06
just listening to how you manage all these relationships
19:09
and you practice what you preach.
19:11
So not only, not only, you know,
19:13
it's one thing for the person performing
19:16
to have the mindset and the billion dollar mind, right?
19:19
But all the people that that person surrounds themselves with
19:23
also has to have that billion dollar high performance mind.
19:28
Because if not, then the support and the guidance
19:31
that they're getting is not going to be of quality.
19:34
Like if you got emotional, doesn't matter if you found a way
19:37
to work with somebody who could be the next Michael Jordan or two of them, right?
19:42
It only matters if you can properly serve them as a coach.
19:46
And to do that, you got to be like, you know,
19:48
eating your own dog food, so to speak,
19:49
or else you're not going to be able to do it.
19:52
Absolutely very good. I love it.
19:54
You know, just one final thought as sort of as you look back,
19:59
there was like a lot of a lot of incredibly impressive moments
20:03
when you were working with them.
20:05
When you look at sort of how you split
20:09
and how you stopped working with them,
20:11
was there any things that you wish you did different,
20:14
any regrets on how you handled the relationship,
20:16
anything at all?
20:17
I'm just curious about that.
20:19
And then let's move into a little bit more of
20:21
the link between like mindset and performance
20:23
and some of the things that you speak about in the book.
20:25
Yeah. Well, no, first off,
20:29
not really. I don't, I never look in the rear view mirror.
20:32
I never look back.
20:33
I'm trying to get better.
20:35
If you're not getting better, you're getting worse.
20:36
But regarding that situation, it was a little complex
20:41
because when it ended, you know,
20:47
Venus got, you know, the $12 million contract from Reebok.
20:51
Okay.
20:52
And no one helped put more zero is behind that deal than Rick Macy.
20:57
You know what I mean?
20:57
The healing in the balloon.
20:59
And besides,
21:01
she played that tournament.
21:03
And Shoney played that tournament,
21:04
Noclan, as they changed the age eligibility rule.
21:07
Or we wouldn't even play that tournament.
21:10
We kind of had to to beat the system to get in there.
21:13
So she wouldn't have someone dictating and Richard agreed.
21:16
You don't want to get by dictating to him.
21:18
So when she made that debut,
21:20
I didn't know what was going to happen.
21:21
I would know they see this tall long girl
21:24
that ran like the wind.
21:25
Okay.
21:25
And they'd say she has enormous potential.
21:28
And the fact she drops Sean Stafford 57 in the world.
21:31
And almost beat number one,
21:33
who she hadn't played a match in three and a half years.
21:36
Junior or anything.
21:37
People go, whoa, whoa.
21:39
This kid's going to be amazing.
21:41
And her little sister,
21:43
what Rick says might be better.
21:45
So you got that as the backdrop,
21:47
eight months later, $12 million.
21:49
We had an agreement.
21:51
It didn't kind of go the way it should.
21:53
But Richard offered me $1 million a year
21:56
for the next five years,
21:58
a million a year for five years
21:59
to be exclusively with the girls.
22:02
But I have to give up my business.
22:04
And that kind of was like,
22:06
whoa, because when you do something for,
22:09
you know, four years.
22:10
And it's a crapshoot.
22:12
Okay.
22:12
And there's a lot of things from the past.
22:14
Okay.
22:15
And then the goal post kind of changed,
22:17
even though there was a new opportunity.
22:20
Okay.
22:20
I just felt like, whoa,
22:21
you got to understand when I say four years,
22:25
six hours a day or whatever.
22:28
Five days a week, four hours on Saturday.
22:30
They were like my own daughter.
22:32
You got to understand.
22:33
It doesn't sound like a lot.
22:34
But every day there was like,
22:36
this was up and down or whatever.
22:38
And you know, Richard felt you read the letter as you acknowledged.
22:42
So, uh, should I have done that deal?
22:46
No, I never look back.
22:48
You know, I don't, I just reload.
22:50
And then after that, obviously,
22:51
at a big hand with, you know,
22:53
Mosquina and Sherpova and Ken and many,
22:56
many other people.
22:57
And I run a business, you know,
22:59
and it's a great model.
23:00
So really at the end of the day,
23:02
no regrets.
23:03
That's kind of how it ended.
23:05
But what's interesting,
23:07
how everything has come full circle.
23:09
And, you know, hundreds of millions of people
23:12
I didn't know really what I did.
23:15
Where before it might have been
23:16
from Compton to center court,
23:19
you know, and all, all Richard.
23:21
You know what I mean?
23:21
And you know, as a coach,
23:23
there's so much that went into the hitting partners,
23:26
like one, no boxing, ballet.
23:28
You have no idea what went into this,
23:31
because I believe.
23:33
So yeah, no regrets.
23:34
And here we are today.
23:36
And everybody's like,
23:40
we've reunited it.
23:41
And we see it.
23:42
And Sherin and I might even do
23:43
in this docu-series of phenomaker.
23:46
So stay true.
23:47
I love it.
23:48
I love it.
23:49
Good. Let's see it.
23:49
I'm excited for it.
23:52
All right.
23:52
So let's teach, let's teach some lessons here.
23:55
So the book is talking about a link
23:58
between mindset and achieving extraordinary success.
24:03
So that's mental toughness.
24:05
You're instilling mental toughness in athletes.
24:08
How do you take some of those lessons
24:10
that you instill in athletes?
24:12
And maybe translate them into other areas of life.
24:15
So mental toughness in business,
24:17
mental toughness in just day to day.
24:18
What are like the core things
24:21
that are not just, you know,
24:24
tied back to athletics?
24:26
Number one, everybody has to understand.
24:29
Anybody who's successful,
24:31
they dealt with more problems
24:34
and more failures
24:36
than the people looking at them saying,
24:38
whoa, how did they get successful?
24:41
But you just look at them as they're there.
24:43
They don't understand the journey
24:45
and all the failures
24:47
and all the problems.
24:49
Everybody has problems every day.
24:51
You meet everybody.
24:53
How you deal with it?
24:54
Okay.
24:55
That's such a big, big thing.
24:58
That's the number one thing.
25:00
It's a perspective
25:02
of how you look at stuff.
25:04
Okay, that's number one.
25:05
And number two,
25:06
everybody needs to be more appreciative
25:09
of what they have
25:11
instead of what they don't have.
25:13
And that would be some of my best advice to anybody.
25:17
You know, how to,
25:18
you got to be more thankful
25:19
and have more gratitude.
25:21
But we get caught up
25:22
in what we hear on the news
25:23
and everything influences us
25:25
and we're on that very go round.
25:26
And everybody needs to take a step back
25:29
and listen to YouTube.
25:30
The motivational speakers
25:32
or write it down all the positive stuff.
25:34
And that's what's amazing about the book.
25:36
You can use this as a roadmap
25:38
or a blueprint
25:39
to rest of your life and go back to it.
25:41
It's like incredible.
25:42
People said it's change their life.
25:44
If they want to change,
25:46
some people just like to be unhappy
25:47
every day and complain.
25:49
No problem.
25:49
Good luck with that.
25:51
You know, you get what you deserve.
25:53
Everybody needs an attitude adjustment.
25:55
So that would be the most important thing.
25:59
Right off the bat
26:00
that I would say regarding that,
26:03
you know, people have to look at things differently
26:06
because you look at something.
26:07
I look at something.
26:08
So what else we see the same thing
26:10
but we're react different.
26:13
You know what I'm saying?
26:14
Yeah, you know, it's so interesting to say change your mindset.
26:18
Well, yeah, I was going to change it.
26:19
If you want that,
26:21
the people who are thinking the most positive,
26:23
like the most positive
26:25
creatures on who's okay
26:28
or the most successful
26:29
and vice versa,
26:30
you're never going to find someone who's like
26:33
amazingly successful
26:34
and whatever level they're at,
26:36
who's negative.
26:38
You know, and success isn't always defined by money,
26:42
you know,
26:43
because everybody gets labeled.
26:44
We're all human.
26:45
We're all the same.
26:46
We all make choices,
26:48
you know,
26:49
but I think if you appreciate
26:52
and not get ahead of yourself
26:54
and have a lot of humility
26:55
and have a lot of pride in yourself
26:57
and never make excuses
26:59
because the answer every day
27:01
is just looking in the mirror.
27:02
It's so important to realize
27:05
that sometimes we get stuck in our own
27:07
like negative thought patterns.
27:10
It's interesting that you say
27:11
that some people don't want to be happy
27:14
because everyone's going to think,
27:15
well, that's silly.
27:15
Of course, I want to be happy.
27:17
But I think we really sabotage
27:21
like our own happiness more often than not.
27:24
And I would be curious
27:27
if you have a way of breaking out
27:29
of these negative thought patterns
27:31
because you're right.
27:32
Some people do like the struggle
27:34
and some people
27:36
and they're not even aware
27:38
that they are constantly feeding behavior
27:41
that creates this negativity in their life.
27:44
How do you get out of that loop?
27:47
Well, first off,
27:48
you have to want to change your routine.
27:51
If you can change your routine,
27:53
then you're going to become a machine.
27:55
You know, you got to want to change first.
27:57
Now, some of the things that you can do,
27:59
you need to have structure.
28:01
Okay.
28:02
Not that you want to not have,
28:04
you know, other things you want to,
28:05
but you got to have structure
28:06
so you're not wasting time.
28:08
You want to be around positive people.
28:10
You want to be around smarter people than you.
28:12
Okay, there's all these things.
28:14
You know, people rather go home
28:16
and sit on the couch
28:17
and you're the next train wreck on TV.
28:19
They just filter this negativity
28:22
so like you said,
28:23
they get caught up to all that stuff.
28:26
So nothing's better
28:27
that if you can put it in the right compartment.
28:30
Okay.
28:31
So I lead by example, you know,
28:34
and so with with all the kids,
28:36
you know, every day I get up at two o'clock.
28:38
I know that's crazy.
28:39
For the last 25 years, I run a half mile.
28:42
I put up the park every day at five.
28:44
I'm on the court at six.
28:45
I lead by example.
28:47
Okay, and so I got that
28:49
by show by example,
28:51
besides talking to the kids
28:53
and the way I do think,
28:54
but people have to want to change,
28:58
you know, that some people look to complain.
29:01
They just love to gossip.
29:02
Okay, and here's old saying,
29:05
if you don't have anything nice to say,
29:06
don't say it, you know,
29:08
but you got to change your environment.
29:10
Okay, you got to change your environment
29:13
the way you're looking at things
29:14
and kind of what you're doing.
29:16
But we do the exact same thing
29:18
and we say, okay, well,
29:20
there's a birthday that makes me happy
29:21
or a graduation or thank God is Friday.
29:24
My motto is thank God it's every day
29:27
and not just because I'm, you know, 69.
29:29
I don't, I've been that way.
29:31
You got to appreciate every day.
29:33
It's so hard.
29:34
Everybody thinks our worst day is Monday.
29:37
I never look at it like that.
29:39
You know, or all I'm glad it's Wednesday.
29:41
It's the middle of the week.
29:42
We get stereotype with days
29:44
and it's hard to look at it like that.
29:48
It's hard because we let our whole society affect us
29:51
and the ones that look forward to problems
29:55
and they look forward to failure
29:57
or the ones that keep going
29:59
and said, oh, the world's coming and then,
30:01
why me?
30:02
Why is this happening to me?
30:03
No, you got to look as an opportunity, you know,
30:06
and plus all that other stuff.
30:08
It's nothing else.
30:08
It's bad for your health, you know,
30:11
you know, when you're when you're just that, okay?
30:15
Because everybody, listen, we're all the same.
30:18
We all can pick and choose.
30:19
And choices is the most powerful thing ever.
30:22
Success story is part of the HubSpot podcast network.
30:25
In the network, there are other incredible podcasts
30:28
like the Ops Authority hosted by Natalie Gingrich.
30:30
Every week on the Ops Authority,
30:32
Natalie discovers actionable strategies
30:34
to move your business forward
30:36
and transformational stories
30:37
of powerhouse business owners who value operations.
30:40
You can't ignore backend pieces
30:42
that have to work together and flow smoothly
30:45
in order to build a brand,
30:46
grow a movement, or disrupt an industry.
30:48
If the operation side of your business is a mess,
30:51
putting out fires will always take priority
30:53
leaving no room for creative innovation,
30:56
visibility, or networking with powerhouse peers
30:59
or even wannabe powerhouse peers.
31:01
You got to get your house in order.
31:03
And to do that, you have to listen
31:04
to the Ops Authority wherever you get your podcast.
31:07
You, because I mean, like if you're dealing with,
31:09
like again, these are all lessons from people
31:11
that are the highest-performing people on earth.
31:13
And when you lose, you can't let it set you back.
31:16
It's like a learning opportunity, right?
31:18
And when you compete at that level,
31:20
I mean, for everyone else,
31:23
we get constant tries at that.
31:26
We get constant opportunities to, we fail,
31:29
we learn, we fail, we learn.
31:31
Can you imagine what it's like when you fail
31:33
at a world-class athlete, world-class championship,
31:37
wimble then, you know, it could be Stanley Cup,
31:41
it could be Super Bowl, like there's not many chances
31:44
to fail at that level.
31:45
But if you do, you still can't let it run your whole career,
31:49
or else you'll never get back up again.
31:51
And you got it the second you lose,
31:52
maybe you take a couple days off,
31:53
but then you're training for next season,
31:55
training for next tournament.
31:57
So you got to, yeah.
31:58
No, no one's going undefeated.
32:00
It's not where you start.
32:02
It's where you finish.
32:04
Airbus, understand that.
32:06
When you understand you're going to make errors,
32:09
you're going to make mistakes, you're going to fail,
32:11
you're going to have problems.
32:13
You know, there's going to be chaos, okay?
32:16
Just don't create more for yourself.
32:19
When you understand that's part of life.
32:22
Nothing's rainbow lollipop and sunshine.
32:25
It's not like that.
32:26
Okay, you could make it better, okay?
32:29
Like, people in the city, like,
32:31
Rick, why are you so happy and positive?
32:34
I don't get it.
32:35
Why not?
32:36
Okay?
32:37
How I, could I have,
32:40
I'll pick it up tennis balls.
32:41
I still sweep the sidewalk.
32:42
I pick up garbage.
32:44
Listen, I could go on and on.
32:45
We all have the same stuff.
32:47
How you deal with it?
32:49
Okay?
32:49
It's, it's all perspective.
32:51
And I've kind of always been wired like that.
32:53
And that's like been another gold nugget, you know,
32:56
in my back pocket,
32:58
as far as giving all those life lessons
33:00
and gems to people that I've taught along the way.
33:05
But anybody can do that.
33:06
It starts with a different mindset, the mental strength.
33:09
You got to understand.
33:11
We'll go, like you said, something like Michael Jordan,
33:14
you know, he got caught from his basketball team as a salt.
33:18
You understand the best quarterbacks
33:20
have probably thrown the most interceptions.
33:22
The best home run hitters have struck out the most.
33:26
A great baseball player,
33:28
hitter would bat like 333.
33:30
You know what that means?
33:31
Like he fails a lot.
33:34
Okay?
33:35
You got the best shooters in basketball
33:38
have missed the most because they shot the most.
33:42
But people don't look at it like that.
33:44
You lose.
33:45
I'm no good.
33:46
I failed.
33:46
No, it's an opportunity to plug in
33:50
and find a better way.
33:51
But you got to look at it like that
33:53
because you're going to lose and you're going to fail.
33:55
No one's going to undefeated.
33:57
Especially with kids.
33:58
And what I deal with, it's a junior development,
34:02
not junior final destination.
34:04
And I get kids to do things out of the box.
34:07
And that's why I build a pro game.
34:09
Even at an 8, 9, 10 year old,
34:12
if I have the thoroughbred with the work ethic
34:14
and the genetic base,
34:16
to do adult things as kids.
34:18
Because when they do adult things as kids,
34:20
when they become adults,
34:21
they do even bigger thing.
34:23
When you look at everyone who has talent,
34:25
because a lot of people have talent.
34:26
But only a few people really make it.
34:29
So what's the difference in somebody who just has talent
34:32
and somebody who has like the mindset
34:33
or the secret sauce to become best in class,
34:37
best in the world?
34:39
Versa, awesome question.
34:40
Everybody has talent somehow more.
34:43
It's what you do with the talent.
34:46
Listen, there are people that could jump higher,
34:49
run faster, shoot better than Jordan.
34:52
But he's still the leader in the clubhouse.
34:54
Grady wasn't drafted till the sixth round in football.
34:58
He's not the biggest, strongest fastest.
35:00
Bang, the mental strength.
35:04
The world's falling down on him.
35:06
He didn't realize he's having fun.
35:08
He's probably eating popcorn on the couch with his kids.
35:11
And people are trying to do bodily harm to the guy.
35:13
So listen, this is the most important thing
35:18
what you just said.
35:19
And people, it's perspective.
35:22
I know I keep saying that.
35:24
We can look at things.
35:25
However we're going to look at it.
35:27
And if I, if anybody can get anything out of this,
35:30
look at things differently.
35:32
You know, don't let things control you.
35:34
You control things.
35:36
When you, when you look at like the crossover,
35:40
I'm just very curious because as a tennis coach,
35:43
you're working with a neuroscientist
35:45
to put this book together.
35:47
What are some of the, as you're writing this book
35:49
and as you're going back and forth?
35:51
What are some of the things that you've discovered
35:53
even yourself that you may have not even realized
35:55
as a tennis coach in terms of neuroscience,
35:59
peak performance, maybe some of the biological
36:02
or psychological underpinnings of what works and what does it.
36:06
Was there anything that you even realized
36:08
that you didn't realize before?
36:10
Well, absolutely.
36:10
First off, Dr. Niva, people don't realize that she's a wizard
36:15
and she's one of the best in the world.
36:17
I mean, this is just like, you know,
36:19
an neurologist something like this.
36:21
This is prime time, you know, Hall of Fame type doctor.
36:24
You gotta understand.
36:26
So she goes deep under the hood
36:28
and a lot of my beliefs and stuff.
36:30
She just acknowledged it from a medical point of view
36:34
of how the brain works and receives and responds
36:37
and kind of puts all these things together
36:40
and how what we put into our mind is huge.
36:45
You know, I'm saying there's some people she works with.
36:47
They have a month to live, you know what I mean?
36:49
And they're the happiest people around, you know,
36:52
how she can get them to do stuff.
36:54
And people not just hearing it from that point of view,
36:58
from a scientific point of view,
37:01
it just reaffirms everything I've done, you know,
37:04
my whole career, how the mind controls the body,
37:08
the mind's never neutral.
37:10
It's either for you or against you, you know?
37:13
And we like you just said early.
37:14
We sabotage ourselves, we get ourselves in this.
37:18
But she just backs it up from a science point of view.
37:21
And, you know, it's all about the mental strength.
37:25
So no, I learned so much, but she really reaffirms
37:29
what I've been putting into, you know,
37:31
whether it be kids, adults, any age, any level,
37:34
my whole career.
37:36
What, you know, you just sort of touched on one thing.
37:39
You spoke about like what you visualize in the mind
37:41
and what goes into your mind.
37:43
And like the concept of visualization
37:46
is an interesting concept because a lot of, you know,
37:51
success books and mindset books,
37:53
they speak about visualization.
37:54
And I'm curious if visualization has anything to do,
37:59
anything significant to do with being a better athlete
38:02
or winning the match or winning the game.
38:05
Is there a piece of it that works well
38:07
or is this something that you don't subscribe to?
38:11
No, this is, it's in my wheelhouse for sure.
38:15
You know, there's an old saying, seeing is believing.
38:18
You know, if you've been there and done that,
38:21
okay, already in your mind, it will bring tranquility
38:25
and calmness and confidence.
38:27
You know, I tell this story all the time
38:31
and this isn't really visualization
38:32
and I'll get more to that in a second.
38:34
You know, Venus was playing in the semi finals of US Open.
38:39
She ran 10 feet off the course.
38:41
She's in a tiebreaker.
38:42
She hits his backhand angle cross court from outer space.
38:46
The most amazing angle ever.
38:47
Vince Verlay, a double false and Venus goes to the finals
38:50
to play Hinges and they asked her, how'd you hit that shot?
38:54
You were like 10 feet off ice stadium.
38:56
You hit an amazing angle.
38:58
I like the other.
38:59
She goes, well, ever since I was a little kid,
39:02
I was taught to run for a little ball.
39:04
I was taught to run for every ball.
39:06
So what that meant, she already was in that neighborhood
39:10
back in the day.
39:12
Way off the court.
39:14
And what I'm saying is if you've been there, done that,
39:16
it's powerful.
39:17
Now regarding the picture part of it.
39:21
Creativity and imagination are the most powerful artists
39:26
and writers and painters to have that creativity.
39:29
And they picture it.
39:30
They see it in their mind.
39:32
The reason why people don't do this and out front,
39:36
they rather run and sweat and more repetitions hit more balls.
39:40
That's a part of it.
39:41
You need repetition.
39:42
But the practice in your mind takes discipline.
39:45
And people don't have discipline.
39:47
They think it's boring.
39:48
It doesn't work.
39:50
See yourself hitting the perfect forehand all the time
39:53
or the perfect backhand or picture in your mind.
39:55
I tell people, this is the way I coach.
39:58
You call it the line.
39:59
You bounce it so many times, you take a deep breath,
40:01
you picture it over there, see it going in there.
40:05
Add the crowd, add color.
40:07
This is a way I teach and make it real.
40:11
And I make the kids at least have the discipline with me
40:15
to visualize.
40:16
Okay, how many times have you or anybody out there say,
40:20
oh, I play better after I watch a tennis match?
40:24
Because that imprint is in their head,
40:26
the moving and they're not being judgmental
40:29
and all that good stuff.
40:30
So visualizations important.
40:32
It's one of the most neglected things I think in sport.
40:37
When I think at the highest level,
40:38
the Joker, who is the goat, by the way,
40:41
you could go down the Elbrich Road,
40:43
all the best athletes I guarantee.
40:46
They don't maybe come out and say it.
40:48
They visualize so much when they meditate,
40:50
when they take a deep breath, they picture it.
40:53
And the mind is strong.
40:55
And one more story about that,
40:57
there was a guy who played basketball
40:59
and he broke both his arms, okay?
41:02
He visualized and couldn't shoot, okay?
41:05
He visualized every night, 500 foul shots,
41:09
shooting foul shots.
41:10
When he got the cast off and came back, okay?
41:14
He shot better than when he had two regular arm.
41:17
Wow.
41:18
Now I need everybody to understand that.
41:20
I don't have his name and address right off my head.
41:23
That's a true story, but they're like that all the time.
41:26
Navy seals, people in these situations
41:30
that go in in this crazy environment,
41:33
you know, to rescue people, fighter fires,
41:35
you know, if me or you went into a fire,
41:37
we'd be freaking out.
41:39
They've already done mind control.
41:40
They visualize besides the real thing.
41:43
People don't understand how powerful that is.
41:46
And it's probably not used enough in sports with juniors,
41:51
okay, or even adults, you know?
41:53
And then when you feel calm about the situation
41:57
because you've been there,
41:58
you're gonna have a lot more confidence.
42:00
You know what, I, first of all, amazing
42:03
that you've seen it work so well
42:05
and it makes a lot of sense.
42:07
And I'm wondering, you have a thought on this.
42:09
I'm just thinking about what is visualization doing?
42:12
It's allowing you to, first of all,
42:14
see that you can already do it.
42:15
So it's almost like a confidence thing.
42:18
And then it's like stopping your brain
42:22
from self sabotaging the action.
42:25
Because I think it's so funny enough,
42:27
I'm not even gonna pretend to be anywhere close to.
42:30
Why you have, have coached and done with your life
42:35
but I used to play tennis too.
42:37
However, the only time I ever screwed up my serves
42:40
is when I thought too much about the actual,
42:42
not visualized it,
42:44
but thought too much about what I was doing.
42:46
Like almost over thought and over judged myself
42:50
and got in my head and then I'm like,
42:52
then I jeopardize everything and I screw it up
42:54
and then you actually, like you hit the net,
42:56
you hit it out, whatever you hit it,
42:57
whatever it's not supposed to go.
42:58
But I always found that getting in my own head
43:00
as opposed to being in some sort of flow state
43:03
always screwed up the sport that I was playing.
43:06
I played soccer, I played hockey, I played tennis
43:08
and it was always when I was in flow state
43:10
and visualizing but not overly thinking the current action,
43:15
just visualizing the end result and focusing on that
43:18
when I felt I operated and played the best.
43:21
So the body for some reason self sabotages
43:23
if you don't give it anything else to think about.
43:25
And I don't know why that is,
43:26
but that seems to be,
43:28
that seems to be what happened to me at least.
43:29
I don't know if you see that.
43:31
Absolutely, you know, the mental part of anything,
43:33
I charge a body, the leader in a clubhouse,
43:36
you got to remember to forget.
43:39
Okay, that's the quote of the year.
43:41
If you cannot forget, now when you talk about tennis,
43:45
you got 20 seconds to flip it in your mind
43:48
that it happened 20 years ago.
43:50
And that's it, you look at, you look at Nadal,
43:52
Federer, you look at anybody at the highest level
43:54
or anybody you see on TV, they can do this.
43:57
But if you went to a junior tournament,
43:59
you could probably walk around and go,
44:01
they're winning, they're losing, they're winning,
44:04
they're, you would know just by looking
44:06
without even looking at the scorecard.
44:08
Okay, you can see how they let everything control them
44:12
where at the highest level it never even happened failure
44:17
or they hit it in the net or they missed three serves.
44:20
They're not going, they're not analyzing it.
44:21
Okay, that's not visualization,
44:23
but that's the mental strength of forgetting.
44:26
It's mind control.
44:27
These guys are wizards at the top.
44:30
Okay, and no one has done a better than the Joker.
44:33
Okay, this guy's unreal.
44:35
Even when the proud booze him, he's trained himself.
44:39
I want you to boo me.
44:41
Think about that.
44:42
Now that's really deep.
44:43
That's the ultimate.
44:45
Everybody wants to be loved.
44:46
He wants them to boo him because he knows they might
44:50
and he'll flip it and he'll not only beat the guy
44:53
on the other side, he'll beat everybody booing them also.
44:56
Now that's at a whole nother level,
44:58
but it's the same thing in the game of life.
45:00
You know what I'm saying?
45:02
Now you're going to just back to perspective
45:05
and understanding this is part of the deal
45:08
and this is what nobody does in the game of life.
45:11
Okay, nobody, you know, and you got like I said,
45:15
appreciate what you have, not what you don't have.
45:18
Problems are going to happen.
45:19
You should start responding to every problem,
45:22
respond to it, but in a positive way.
45:25
Some people yell, some people scream,
45:27
some people are still mad about things
45:29
that happened 20 years ago.
45:31
It's crazy.
45:32
You know, they can't let it go.
45:34
Time heals all, but with some,
45:36
they like to be like that.
45:38
So you get where you deserve like it.
45:41
You know, you mentioned something about
45:44
when you're working with juniors,
45:46
you're helping them operate and play like adults.
45:49
So you're obviously giving them stretch goals
45:51
and you're putting them in like these slightly stretched
45:54
environments where they're pushing themselves
45:56
to perform slightly, you know, in a more aggressive way
45:59
or more difficult way than they normally would.
46:01
And you keep like upskilling them that way.
46:05
How do you find that balance between stretching somebody
46:08
so that they upskill versus basically completely demoralizing
46:12
them because they can't compete at the level
46:14
that you're asking them to compete at?
46:15
Awesome question.
46:16
Anybody listen to this?
46:18
There is a fine line between courage and stupidity.
46:22
Okay, sometimes if I need both,
46:25
you gotta know who you're dealing with.
46:28
And I deal with all kinds of levels, okay?
46:31
Some of the best kids in the world, okay?
46:33
And I do have a couple that have best in the world.
46:36
And it's all about positive errors,
46:38
all in the trigger, you know what I mean?
46:41
Getting out of your comfort zone to go in the end zone,
46:44
but then again, okay, no one went to reset.
46:48
I'm always about the future because you got to understand
46:51
a few more inches, a few more pounds,
46:54
they would have got there and been set.
46:56
You know, people miss because they're immature
46:58
or they miss because they're little.
46:59
They got little arms or leg, you know?
47:02
Now to grow yesterday, she came to net like 16 times.
47:05
You know, she's 12 years old.
47:07
She actually just beat a girl who was 150 in the world
47:10
on the WTA tour five years ago.
47:13
She's 12 years old.
47:14
She's in the final of the battle bokeh right now.
47:16
And I should be watched by Twitter at a podcast.
47:19
So at the end of the day, she still had success
47:22
and she came to net 16 time.
47:24
Come in some day, she plays Savalika.
47:26
She's gonna, when she's up there, I want her comfortable.
47:29
You gotta get uncomfortable to get comfortable.
47:31
Now, if it's a level where they can't keep the long play,
47:35
okay, you gotta then teach them differently
47:39
to slow down, keep it in play.
47:41
But listen, it's a quality of the consistency
47:46
at the highest level.
47:47
Number 1,000 can rally back and forth
47:50
and look just like Jokabit or like Ega.
47:53
But when they play, it's like see a leader alligator,
47:55
you know, we know who would win those batches.
47:57
So it's not like that.
47:59
But you gotta be, that's the art of coaching.
48:01
You know, it's a fine line between courage and stupidity.
48:04
But listen, when you get kids to do stuff
48:07
and then they prove it to themselves,
48:09
not out of the basket, that's vanilla or hand feeding
48:12
or in a practice match, that's the next step.
48:15
But when they can do it in combat, in competition,
48:20
then they get the big C.
48:21
And while people get confidence, you know, as well as I do,
48:24
they can do anything, you know,
48:26
because they always do better in practice.
48:28
You know, I do better when you hand feed
48:29
or you scale it down.
48:31
You need to do it when it's 40, 30.
48:33
And that's why I create situations
48:36
that I try to get them to be uncomfortable
48:38
and I put pressure on them.
48:40
And some parents don't get it.
48:42
They say, oh, are you doing that and am I kidding?
48:44
I said, I want them to get better.
48:45
It's a real world, you know?
48:47
Like what I love, one more thing about Richard Williams,
48:50
he would go, Rick, can you get VW, Venus?
48:54
I want her to play someone who cheats a lot.
48:58
Okay, and I go, we got a lot of those here,
49:01
so take your pick, you know?
49:02
So no, he wanted that.
49:06
And he was, you can even tell the guy
49:08
when it's a line, call it out.
49:10
And he'd park his 57 Chevy next to court,
49:12
turn the radio up, she'd be serving, you know,
49:15
it's crazy.
49:17
And most parents would take your picking on my kid.
49:20
He made those girls rough and tough,
49:22
but he was a great father and loved him like no other.
49:26
Okay, it was like this and that.
49:28
And as quirky or maybe he did some things
49:31
that were out of the box, you can't argue with the success.
49:36
No, and I listen, if you want to be the best in the world,
49:40
you got to deal with every situation, every circumstance.
49:44
You cheaters, liars, distractions.
49:47
It's all real life, it's just real life.
49:50
You can't avoid it.
49:51
A lot of people, yeah, a lot of people,
49:54
they don't want to play with other people,
49:56
because maybe they're younger and better,
49:58
and you get into all these situations,
50:00
and then if they don't like it,
50:01
they go down the block to the next person.
50:03
You know, anybody, anytime, anywhere,
50:06
you know, a winner finds a way at the end of the day,
50:09
and that's the way people should look at the game of life,
50:12
because if you're not getting better every day,
50:14
and that's what people should do,
50:15
did I get better today, at whatever you're doing?
50:18
If you're not getting better, you got worse.
50:21
Just another thought on confidence,
50:24
because you know, you said confidence,
50:26
if you get that big seed, and you can do anything,
50:29
but when you start to, when you start to work
50:30
with the best people in the world,
50:33
talk to me about balancing ego versus confidence.
50:37
How can ego sideline a great athlete, a great player,
50:41
once they had confidence,
50:42
and they won a couple of times,
50:43
have you seen that happen too?
50:45
Absolutely, confidence, unfortunately, is a fleeting thing.
50:49
You know, you see these skirts,
50:51
like someone's on a roll, you know, like you got Rubla,
50:54
he lost four times in a row before this tournament,
50:56
then he wins the tournament.
50:58
You know, you think he's going the other way,
50:59
then he wins the tournament.
51:00
And people do this, and then they disappear.
51:03
There's a fine line, especially in tennis,
51:05
you take it a little earlier, you move a little quicker,
51:08
you have a little more confidence,
51:10
going after shots, confidence is huge,
51:12
and that's why you need this support system around you.
51:15
To remember all the good things you do,
51:18
and how good you are, because like you said,
51:20
you self-sabotage yourself, and I lost,
51:23
I'm not playing good, and then you get self-doubt,
51:25
and it's an effects of footwork, a few milliseconds.
51:29
That's the difference between winning and losing.
51:31
Take pull and they'll take it up the line
51:33
where you're staying in the cross court maybe too long,
51:36
or you just are more adventurous, like you just own it.
51:39
You know what I'm saying?
51:40
So confidence is, to me, the most important thing ever,
51:45
and it's hard to keep the belief.
51:47
Obviously, if you got high-level biomechanic,
51:51
it's much easier if you have that,
51:53
that's gonna hold up more into pressure,
51:55
but listen, it's not a beauty contest,
51:58
it's not who has the best forehand back and serve.
52:01
I tell the kids all the time, listen,
52:03
how many of you lost the people,
52:05
and they had a better forehand back and in serve,
52:08
you know, it's this feat, and you did,
52:10
you had a better back and forehand serve,
52:11
they run, they fight, they sweat, they shut up,
52:14
they're like a doll, you know, they just bow,
52:17
because they forget, they're so in the moment,
52:19
and that's what, that's the wild card
52:22
and all these people at the top, okay?
52:24
You gotta understand, that's already there,
52:26
and that's what I saw it earlier about Venus and Shreena,
52:28
Roodle, Wadi Cadet.
52:30
This guy was like a mosquito, man,
52:32
this guy would leave you alone.
52:34
He esters for competition was unreal.
52:36
I knew he'd be one of the best in the world.
52:38
I didn't know he'd win the US Open at age 20 or whatever,
52:41
but Andy was an incredible competitor,
52:44
even at a young age,
52:45
so that's gonna help you in the game of life,
52:47
that you don't take no for an answer,
52:49
you know you're gonna get knocked down,
52:51
and you try harder instead of feeling sorry for yourself.
52:54
But confidence is huge, okay?
52:57
It's a huge thing, but it can go like that,
53:00
but that's why when you have people around you,
53:04
like today, the little girl came up to my citizen.
53:07
You're the best player in the world at age 12.
53:10
I said, you can beat this girl if you play good,
53:12
here's the plan.
53:13
I want you to have the best day of your life.
53:15
I want you to have fun and smile and just let it fly,
53:18
because once you show what your school sees how good you are,
53:22
she's gonna get nervous, okay?
53:24
And Sophia actually won the match,
53:27
now she's in the finals, you know,
53:28
she'd ever beat someone that's good, okay?
53:31
Instead of thinking the school's better,
53:34
or what you, you know, her mind was so far away
53:36
from that, it was about her.
53:38
It's all about you,
53:39
though what the other ones bring into the table,
53:42
but it's always about you.
53:44
You know, when you think back at how you trained
53:47
Venus and Serena and even like how your coaching approach
53:51
has evolved and obviously it's silly to say
53:54
that you would do too much differently
53:55
because you see where they've ended up
53:57
and obviously they've had an incredible career.
53:59
But is there anything that you wish
54:02
that you would taught them differently
54:03
or train them differently based on how you evolved as a coach?
54:07
Well, first off, biomechanically,
54:09
because of my partnership with Dr. Brian Gordon,
54:13
is an expert in biomechanics.
54:14
He did his thesis on this stuff.
54:16
We partnered like 15 years ago.
54:18
As you probably know, cutting edge, you know,
54:21
we're way ahead of the curve.
54:22
Still are with biomechanics, okay?
54:25
I think any coach wants to give better.
54:27
You need to have a better understanding of that,
54:29
not just throw the word around
54:31
because there's principles that have to be applied.
54:34
Like I saw, there was a big change in Savalinkinsur.
54:37
The guy that worked with her did amazing job.
54:40
There was some flaws there
54:41
and he put up to be dumped together.
54:43
But yeah, I wish I would have technically been
54:46
even better back then.
54:48
I wanted Venus to do a few things differently
54:50
but her contact didn't deviate on her backhand.
54:53
You know, she dropped the racket and stuff like that.
54:56
But not really, you know, not really
54:59
because I would motivate more and work more on
55:02
the strategic part, you know?
55:05
And as you evolve, like I said,
55:07
you want to keep getting better.
55:09
Most, like some people would like,
55:12
my experience with Venus Serena,
55:14
they played no junior tournaments.
55:16
So as that mean Rick Macy says,
55:18
here's the blueprint,
55:19
no one played junior tournament, you know?
55:21
But Venus and Serena, they were so competitive.
55:25
If there's a piece of bread on the table,
55:26
they would fight for it.
55:27
They were so competitive.
55:29
So they didn't need it like people need to know how to win
55:32
and people need to know how to lose.
55:34
You know, that's part of the journey
55:36
as being an athlete in junior tennis.
55:39
So, no, I don't really, I don't look back.
55:42
But I had a lot of mental training with Dr. Jim Lair
55:45
and the way I was brought up
55:46
and that was the cornerstone.
55:48
You learn the knowledge as you go along.
55:51
And even today, I learned more from the students
55:54
every single day.
55:56
And if anybody could say,
55:57
hey, I've been there, done that
55:59
over 300 national championships
56:01
and all the kids have got the number one
56:03
or everything that's, you know,
56:04
I've been fortunate to achieve.
56:06
I don't look at it like that at all.
56:08
I just, I'm getting better every day.
56:11
So when, if you can look at it like that
56:14
and this should help most coaches, you know,
56:17
but it's easy to say, hey, look what I've done
56:20
and you know it all, no, you know,
56:22
when you think you know it all, you know nothing.
56:25
Yeah, amen.
56:26
What's the, when you look at all the junior athletes
56:29
that come in,
56:31
we spoke about so many different things here today
56:33
that are just mission critical
56:35
for being successful, reforming at such a high level.
56:39
What do you think people have the most trouble with?
56:42
You mean the athlete?
56:44
Yeah, athlete, yeah, athlete.
56:45
What is the concept that they have trouble wrapping
56:47
their hat around?
56:48
Oh, no, it's a, it's the mental part.
56:51
Listen, to teach someone ATP forehand or ATP backhand
56:55
or like I put some of the best serves together
56:58
in the history of tennis.
56:59
And even people just went to college.
57:01
People, you know, even O'Pelco when he was tip 12,
57:04
he'll say, Rick, I remember he told me,
57:05
step on the bug because he wasn't using the ground correctly.
57:08
He'll even come up to me.
57:09
Hey, Rick, step on the bug.
57:11
So to me, that's the easier part
57:14
and how to play the game is the easier part.
57:18
But how to deal with stuff
57:22
because people can't let things go.
57:24
When you, okay, I tell people all the time,
57:26
if you hit a ball into the net against Alcharez, okay?
57:30
Would you feel any different
57:31
if you hit it into the net playing a ten-year-old?
57:34
And 50 kids will say, yes.
57:37
I said, when you hit it into the net,
57:39
it's all, it's all the mindset.
57:43
Do you think Jokovic thinks any different
57:45
if he is in the net against Federer, okay?
57:48
Or a college player?
57:50
No, it doesn't think like that.
57:53
It's mind control, but kids, their brains aren't developed.
57:56
You can get that later on.
57:57
Their brain can't develop.
57:59
Some people get it sooner rather than later.
58:01
Let me share Pova.
58:02
She was in a bubble when I had her age 11.
58:05
A lot of shortcomings athletically, but mentally,
58:08
I said, this little girl will be number one in the world.
58:11
If she chipped enough boxes mentally, same with Kenan,
58:14
the scariest little creature I ever taught,
58:17
even though I have a new one that's scarier than her,
58:19
who's a named Vlada.
58:20
So at the end of the day, it's the mental part.
58:23
And when you have all that going on, you freak out.
58:27
You get nervous.
58:28
You know that if you're not relaxed
58:30
and having fun and just enjoying the battle,
58:34
that's why I said that about VW and Serena.
58:37
They were all about the competition.
58:40
Everybody gets nervous, everybody chokes.
58:43
Greatness is never afraid.
58:45
Everybody gets nervous and everybody's gonna choke,
58:48
but greatness doesn't as much.
58:51
They can stay near the ideal performance state
58:54
where they're really on, but very intense.
58:57
They don't deviate too far.
58:59
Where you got other people, great athlete, mon fees,
59:02
how many grand slam?
59:03
Cheerios, great athlete.
59:05
And I'm not knocking them, they're amazing.
59:08
But you see what I'm saying?
59:10
And it's at the level we're talking about,
59:13
the big three and these guys, that's rare.
59:16
People just take it for granted.
59:17
Sam person, guys like that.
59:19
But it's the mental part for everybody.
59:22
And to have a great attitude,
59:24
people say, well, I have a great attitude when I'm winning.
59:27
It's backwards.
59:29
The one thing you got control over,
59:31
maybe besides your ball toss, is your attitude.
59:35
Is your attitude?
59:36
Even though you're getting your brains beat out,
59:38
could you be having fun?
59:39
And most of them say no.
59:41
Yes, it's about the competition, you know,
59:44
and it's perspective.
59:46
And this is what I do, and I can probably present it
59:49
and explain it better than probably any sports psychologists
59:54
because I'm right there.
59:55
I know how to do this and get into the kid's head.
59:58
And it not only can transform their game,
1:00:01
but it transforms their life.
1:00:03
They treat people better.
1:00:05
They, I don't know, they clean the room better.
1:00:08
They get better grades in school.
1:00:10
They have a better work ethic.
1:00:11
They come back and they said, Rick, I passed that down
1:00:14
to my kid, even Christian Rude, who I taught him,
1:00:17
Casper's dad, okay, Norway's fight us
1:00:20
until his son took his blade.
1:00:22
He said, Casper lives by a winter finds a way
1:00:25
a loser makes excuse.
1:00:27
I learned that from my dad who was trained by Rick Macy,
1:00:30
you know, and that's the best feeling in the world
1:00:32
is he never said I helped his back hand.
1:00:34
It was all about his mind.
1:00:36
And to me, that's when you're changing people's lines.
1:00:39
I don't change strokes.
1:00:40
I change people's like mind.
1:00:43
I love it.
1:00:43
If, if people want to connect with you,
1:00:45
like I mean, like right now,
1:00:47
I didn't even realize this Jepan Boga.
1:00:48
So you're still, you're still working.
1:00:50
You're not, you're not taking time off yet.
1:00:52
You're still working.
1:00:53
So you have everything going off and yeah.
1:00:56
No, listen, I teach seven days a week, 50 hours.
1:00:59
I teach more privates than anybody in the United States.
1:01:02
Okay, if people email, I email them back.
1:01:07
My phone number is out there.
1:01:08
I'm on court one.
1:01:09
If you ever want to stop by,
1:01:11
we have like 80 tournaments a year.
1:01:13
We have a $10,000 prize money tournament every weekend.
1:01:16
The battle Boga anywhere from 120 to 200 players.
1:01:20
Three years ago, Shelton played it.
1:01:22
Okay, by eight people played it.
1:01:23
That played the US Open this year.
1:01:26
UTR from age five,
1:01:28
although I mean from UTR five to 14.
1:01:31
Okay, crazy.
1:01:32
The level and we have about $25,000 or UTR tournaments.
1:01:39
That's stream live on Amazon.
1:01:41
So those are going on there.
1:01:43
So we have a lot of activity all the time.
1:01:46
Coco Gough just did a commercial there a month ago,
1:01:48
which UPS rose, come out and practice.
1:01:51
And you can rent a court for $5.
1:01:53
It's a public park, Rick Macy Tennis Center.
1:01:56
It looks like Disney Land and Candy Land.
1:01:58
Motivational signs everywhere.
1:02:00
And then we have the Academy, all ages, all levels.
1:02:04
So it's South County Regional Park.
1:02:06
And it's a public park like no other.
1:02:09
But yeah, so we'll definitely do this again.
1:02:12
Well, I'm coming up.
1:02:13
I'm going to come play.
1:02:14
I'm going to bust off my racket.
1:02:16
But no, that's amazing.
1:02:19
Billion dollar mind, practical guide to the game of life.
1:02:22
So you can get that literally wherever you get your books.
1:02:25
Amazon, you can probably,
1:02:27
is it, do you have a website as well
1:02:29
that you want to send people to or social?
1:02:31
Yeah, you can get you can get billion dollar mind on Amazon.com.
1:02:36
If you want to go to the website, www.rickmacy.com,
1:02:40
I got the number one selling videos and structural stuff
1:02:43
in the country, Netflix, plus there's
1:02:46
some biomechanical stuff on there, Instagram.
1:02:49
I got a lot of content on YouTube.
1:02:51
I do like 30 to a minute tip free content for everybody,
1:02:56
especially at this stage of the game.
1:02:59
I just like helping anybody and people really,
1:03:02
they really like it.
1:03:03
They like it even more when it's free, OK?
1:03:05
But that's OK with me.
1:03:08
And I just like helping people and coaches
1:03:11
can even come and get certified.
1:03:13
I've certified probably over 2,000 coaches, 1,500, I think.
1:03:18
They come in, they get on the court with me,
1:03:20
whether it's a day, two day, three or four, they're blown away.
1:03:25
Like we said earlier, you don't read a book.
1:03:27
I mean, come a great coach.
1:03:28
That can help you have in your toolbox.
1:03:30
They freak out.
1:03:31
As you know, I have like a 10 year old, a 12 year old,
1:03:35
an 80 year old guy who's number one in the country, believe it or not.
1:03:38
I have a pro player than this, then the dynamics with the parents
1:03:42
and the number one kid in Europe.
1:03:44
And they see this how it's done, the mental, the technical,
1:03:48
the biomechanic, the interaction, the good, the bad, the ugly,
1:03:52
how to communicate, why to say it, when to say it, how to say it.
1:03:55
It's not the parents are involved, you know, they pick up the balls.
1:03:58
I let the parents involve, you know, because I learned long ago,
1:04:03
they're going to be involved anyway.
1:04:04
So I just, hey, haven't picked the balls up at least.
1:04:07
But no, you got to let them involve, but that's the way it's worked for me.
1:04:11
Maybe not for everybody.
1:04:13
And if anybody ever wants to come out and just kind of watch and see what goes on,
1:04:18
because all the coaches are trained in the methodology,
1:04:20
because we do have the number one teaching system,
1:04:23
practically in the world.
1:04:25
And it's all been spearheaded by my partner, Dr. Brian Orton,
1:04:28
who's like a true genius and biomechanic.
1:04:31
Amazing, okay.
1:04:32
I'll put a whole bunch of links for everything,
1:04:35
but your website links to the tennis club, everything in the show notes,
1:04:40
people can go check it out.
1:04:41
Obviously, if you're in in South Florida, go up and say hi.
1:04:46
I want to just, you know,
1:04:48
tee this up with one last thought, you know,
1:04:50
you've had an incredible career,
1:04:53
worked with some of the most notable athletes of our time.
1:04:57
If you go back and tell yourself, tell your 20 year old self,
1:05:01
one lesson, one idea, one learning, what would that thing be?
1:05:05
Say that one more time, one learning, what would one lesson for a 20 for your 20 year old self?
1:05:11
What would that thing be that you would tell yourself or a lesson to me?
1:05:16
Yeah, to you, to you, to you.
1:05:18
That's, you know, what's asked me that?
1:05:20
Why I said many times, I never looked back,
1:05:23
but at 20, I knew I love helping others more than helping myself.
1:05:29
And I love to analyze things, you know,
1:05:31
and I love, I've always had the passion to, to get better.
1:05:38
I don't really, I don't have any regrets, you know,
1:05:40
I really can't even answer that.
1:05:42
I would, I want to, that's the way to live life.
1:05:45
That's the way to live life.
1:05:45
Yeah, I don't, I don't have any regrets.
1:05:48
I've been blessed, I've been fortunate.
1:05:50
Like I said, you know, I grew up, me and my mom and my sister are small town, you know,
1:05:54
and, you know, it might be easier.
1:05:57
If someone wins Wimbledon, and I'm really the last of the Moheekens,
1:06:01
I started this in 1985, and I have a very different model
1:06:05
because the engine, I'm involved, you know,
1:06:08
I talk probably 2500 hours last year by the lesson.
1:06:13
That's crazy, you know, I'm saying, I, I do something very different.
1:06:17
We have 12 coaches, great fitness.
1:06:19
We don't do boarding, it's not a glorified boarding school,
1:06:22
but we get the best talent.
1:06:24
We put Humpty Dumpty together.
1:06:25
So I don't, I don't have any regrets.
1:06:28
I just feel I've been blessed and fortunate,
1:06:31
and I looked at, I look at it that way every single day,
1:06:34
and I love it just as much now, as I did back then,
1:06:38
even if I didn't have to do this now.
1:06:40
I can't wait to chip my phone to see how the girl did,
1:06:44
and then when I wake up tomorrow, I can't wait to get back to work.