Rick Macci - Williams Sisters Tennis Coach | Unlock the Billion Dollar Mind

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