‘Run Over Broken Glass to Get to a Ball’ – Coach Rick Macci Hails the Competitive Spirit of Venus and Serena Williams

Venus and Serena Williams’ childhood coach, Rick Macci, is one of the legends of the sport. With his supervision and coaching, the Williams Sisters learned how to win tournaments. The movie ‘King Richard’ portrayed Macci’s story beautifully and how he played a huge part in developing Venus and Serena’s game.

In a recent podcast, the legendary coach revealed what made the Williams sisters different from other tennis players. 

Rick Macci’s story and Venus and Serena Williams

Rick Macci recently appeared in the PBD podcast, where he talked particularly about Richard Williams’ unusual method of not letting Venus and Serena play junior tournaments. 

“When he (Richard Williams) said, we are not playing any junior tournaments, and this is in the movie. In the movie, it kinda had me freaked out, like ‘wait a minute you didn’t tell me that in Compton’. I was okay with not playing because Venus and Serena would run over broken glass to get to a ball and then they’d run back over to get the next one.”

Macci continued, “They were so competitive, if there’s a piece of bread on the table, they’d fight to get it. So, they didn’t need to compete to learn how to win and lose. So, I knew on Monday, we weren’t dealing with a junior tournament, why’d you lose? We are just developing.”  

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However, he also believed that not playing juniors is not a blueprint for success. According to him, it depends on the players. “I gotta feel the temperature. Some need to play more, some less,” he further said. 

Venus and Serena became the legendary tennis sisters

Venus achieved her goal to become the no.1 player in the world, and as for Serena, she is widely regarded as the greatest of all time. In their career, Venus won 7 Grand Slam titles and Serena went on to win 23 majors. 

While both sisters are still playing, it will be interesting to see when they decide to call it quits. It’s probably their competitiveness that keeps them going if we Macci’s words are anything to go by. Right now, both the sisters are preparing for the Wimbledon after missing the tour for almost over a year. 

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