‘Yelling at Her Like Its Craziness’: Rick Macci on Richard’s Mental Trainings to Venus Williams

In their initial days, Venus Williams and Serena Williams have been trained to the utmost perfection by their coaches Rick Macci and Richard Williams. The two coaches came up with unique methods to train the Williams sisters to withstand any circumstance while playing on-court. 

Remembering the early days, Rick Macci often comes up with stories about the training days of the two sisters. One such story is the ‘57 Chevy.’ Today, on 10th February, he took to his Youtube channel, narrating the whole story. 

The story was a narration of how Venus Williams’s father and coach Richard Williams came up with a unique idea to make her mentally stronger. 

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Star coach Macci starts narrating the story by potting the scene. He said, “Richard had a 57 chevy and he pulled it up by court 13 and he said –> ‘Rick, can you have Venus play a cheater today?” 

Venus Williams and the ‘57 Chevy’ story

Taking it on a lighter note, Macci agrees to it saying that everyone cheats, and that’s not a problem. However, it wasn’t as nice as it sounded to Rick as Richard elaborated, “Let her play a boy, 17, I want her to lose 6-0. Tell the guy if the ball hits the line I want the guy to cheat her on purpose.” Richard wanted Venus to be cheated on purpose. 

Macci then opens up on the match scene as Venus Williams plays a 16-year old boy. Macci says, “They go to court 13 and before it starts, Richard pulls his car right up next to court not even in a parking lot. He parks on the grass. He lifts the hood up because he keeps his foot on the gas revving the engine.”

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Opening up about the situation, Rick says, “He (Richard) turns the music on. It’s so loud it’s interfering with the whole academy. He takes, like six Budweiser beer bottles, throws them on the back of the court, not on the court and he says ‘V, Don’t back up. Rick wants you to stay near that baseline you keep going forward. You back up you’re going to get cut.”

He further adds, “he breaks broken glass there, he’s having someone cheat her on purpose. The music is full blast. They play a match, it’s like 6-0,6-0. She’s tossing a ball up, he’s going, “hey, VW’. HE’s yelling at her and it’s like, craziness.”

However, seeing the bigger picture, Rick understands Richard and his vision. He says, “Building fiber, building character, it’s building others. It is what it isn’t but it’s for the future.”

Appreciating Richard Williams’s thinking ability, sensational coach Rick Macci says, “The whole academy saw this what was going on but that was Richard Williams at his finest.”

Rick Macci and Richard Williams’ relationship

Even though there were early rumors about an unpleasant relationship between the two, Rick cleared the air a few months ago. In an interview, Rick said, “What people say or what they read, that’s tabloid stuff…. We were family, I wasn’t just Venus or Serena’s coach.”

He further opened up about reuniting with the Williams family on the red carpet of ‘King Richard.’ He said, “Everybody was laughing, (there were) a few tears, we went back down on memory lane. There was no problem whatsoever.”

Rick Macci and Venus Williams separated from each other in the initial years. However, his training helped Venus become one of the finest players in the history of the sport. Keeping in mind Rick’s lessons, Venus cruised through her formative years, winning her first Grand Slam just at the age of 20. Two years later, she also went on to become the World No. 1. 

Venus has a total of 49 singles titles, of which, 7 are Grand Slams. She has also held the top spot for 11 weeks. 

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