So, the other day, I got stuck on this whole Rick Macci and Williams sisters thing. You know, how he coached Venus and Serena when they were just kids. Read a bit here and there, but I wanted to kinda… experience it? Not like, actually train with him, obviously. But I wanted to try and get a feel for what made his training with them so special, hands-on, in my own limited way.
I started by digging up some old interviews and clips of Macci talking about their early days. Spent a good chunk of an afternoon just watching him talk. He’s got this real intense energy, even on video. He kept mentioning the open stance forehand. How it was kinda revolutionary back then, especially for young girls, and how Richard Williams pushed for it too.
Trying it Out
Alright, so here’s the “practice” part. After watching Macci break it down a few times – talking about the balance, the rotation, generating power – I thought, “Okay, let me try this.” Didn’t even grab a racket at first. Just went out in the backyard.
I tried to get into that open stance he described. Feet parallel to the baseline, load up on the outside leg. Sounds simple, right? Man, it felt weird. Super awkward. Tried to mimic the swing path he was showing.
- Watched a clip.
- Paused it.
- Stood up and tried the stance.
- Tried a slow-motion swing.
- Almost tripped over my own feet the first few times.
Honestly, just doing the footwork and the body turn without even hitting a ball felt unnatural. You need some serious core strength and balance, stuff you don’t really think about just watching pros play. Macci talked about drilling this relentlessly. Hours and hours. I spent maybe ten minutes trying shadow swings and my legs felt kinda shaky.
Then I grabbed an old racket, just to get the feel. Still no ball. Just swinging in the air. Tried to imagine hitting with the kind of power Venus and Serena had even back then. It’s one thing to see Macci talk about generating racquet head speed from that open stance, it’s another to actually try and feel where that power comes from. Felt like I was just flailing my arms compared to the smooth, explosive motion you see them do.
What I Realized
Okay, so what did I get out of this little backyard session? Mostly, a huge amount of respect. Not just for Venus and Serena, but for the sheer grind and the specific techniques Macci drilled into them. It’s easy to hear “they trained hard,” but trying even a tiny piece of the technical stuff, however badly, gives you a different perspective.
That open stance wasn’t just about looking different; it was functional, built for power, and needed incredible athletic ability even for kids. Macci wasn’t just teaching tennis; he was building athletes from the ground up, focusing on these core mechanics. My little “practice” mostly involved me feeling clumsy, but it definitely made me appreciate the foundation they built way back then. It wasn’t magic, just incredible focus on specific, difficult things, over and over. Way harder than it looks on TV, that’s for sure.
