One of the curiosities in the tennis game of Maria Sharapova is for her, on a rare occasion, to make shots left -handed. Where did this come from and how she puts the shot so well? Rick Macci, the renowned tennis coach-named “The Coach of Phenoms” by Bud Collins-Biedt A fascinating anecdote of how Maria Sharapova was almost a left-handed player in this fragment in his book “Macci Magic: greatness extracting yourself and others” (available here for sale and download: http://www.amazon.com/macci-magic-extracting-greatness-yourelf/dp/19375592544/ref=SR_1_1?ie=utf8&qid=1395497939&sr=macci+magic))
The situation with Maria Sharapova was very interesting because of the success of Venus and Serena and how well they played when they came to the Tour. Venus with that open attitude Backhand set fire to the world by just playing a more athletic game and bringing another playing style to men’s knowledge.
Yuri Sharapova, Maria’s father, contacted me when he was on the IMG Academy and wanted me to take a look at his daughter, who was 11 years old at the time. I said, “Yes, come down and I’ll take a look.”
They came down and within 10 minutes I had no doubt that she would become a world -class player, even at 11 o’clock, simply because of a few things I could see. First, her mother was quite long and her focus was great! So I thought that would be an advantage for her serve. Her backhand with two hands was already timed and synchronized at 11 am. Technically, it looked like poetry in motion. I was really impressed with that. But believe it or not, her footwork around the ball, her small steps around the ball, was creepy. The way she tried to get into position was really unique. I don’t see that part of it at a young age. But in general her movement was average.
In general I saw some good things, but what got out of hand was her forehand. It was very flat to say the least. It was probably one of the weaker forehands that I have ever seen on a good player or potentially good player ever. Her swing was quite large and the elbow kept coming in the body. The racquet was almost opened, the contact point would shift regularly. It was very, very problematic. I am talking about every fifth or sixth ball, she would make a mistake or the ball would fly away. She couldn’t grab the ball. Only the entire mechanics of the swing was incorrect. It was a problem, a big problem. Her father, for whom I have a lot of respect, felt that he did not get the attention at the IMG Academy to the point at which he would get a battle partner and move the street to the courts of high school. When Maria was 9 or 10, although there was a lot of potential, she was not the taste of the month. Although people knew she had potential and that she had a good appearance and there could be some marketing opportunities, he wanted more. He wanted Filet Mignon. He wanted in -depth technical help and he wanted anyone to really coach his daughter. He just felt that she just hit balls.
After the first few times they visited them a week at a time we discussed the possibility of changing her to play left-handed. Yes, left -handed! Yuri really wanted her to switch and be a Lefty player. He thought it wasn’t too late because she was 11. I have the video tape to prove it. We came to the conclusion that she would play left -handed. I said, “Yuri, this is a big leap. I know it can be unique, I know her serve might be a bit more an advantage”, so on. And the reason why he wanted her to play left -handed and switch was because when she waved the racket with her left hand, poetry was moving again. She hit the ball better, clearly not that difficult. Her contact point was always in front and there were no hitch. She was very flexible, very compact when she hit Lefty Forehand.
He said: “I don’t care. Let’s go for it. I only care how good she is at the age of 18, junior tennis means nothing. She must get a forehand or it will be a roadblock.” He looked at the right photo because she already had good footwork around the ball and would be a great competitor. She was wired to compete and concentrate. I saw that she already had a big determined attitude to reach. She was not fast and she was not too agile, but she could hit the ball hard and pretty flat, so that she could probably hide her lack of general agility. He just knew technically if she could get better in the Forehand things that could be of world class.
So here we are practicing, he sends me tape when he goes back to the IMG Academy. I look at tape, analyze it from her Splesty Forehands. Yuri is coaching there in Russian with the battle partner. It gets better and better. They come for the next visit for a week, a month, and this went on for almost a year and she gets a lot better.
Then I tell him: ‘Listen, I don’t think she should play left -handed, because when I feed balls on her backhand, which is now a left -handed backhand, her backhand now looked very uncomfortable. Her backhand looked problematic. She was scrunched and cramped when she hit the ball. Her contact was of course of course. So it’s almost like we have the same scenario, but on the other side of the body!
But it was a bit more forgiving because she had two hands and she could improvise. I told him that that was more a powerful thing. So we went back and forth about this issue. He really wanted her to play left -handed to the point at which he called her agent. And he thought we were 100 percent crazy, and at that moment they didn’t want this to happen. And I really didn’t want it to happen, but Yuri was completely busy making it happen.
I said: “We just do the best technical tweaks on this battle. It will never be great, but we can fill the holes and make it a bit of a solid blow. I don’t think it will ever be something special, but I think I can get it out of the liability phase.” She just hit so many balls in the wrong direction. It was just a bad muscle memory.
When IMG knew that she could change left -handed and that she came to Rick Macci Academy on a regular basis, Yuri told them they wanted to leave the IMG Academy and to close a deal with us. IMG did not want him to move to the RMTA Academy, but Yuri still wanted to work out a deal with me where it was all based on free coaching, free battle partner, free fitness and the benefit would have been percentages and bonuses until the point of around $ 1 million if she made it big. I knew she could be a great player and I saw the approval options because she was a cute little child. You could see that she had written Madison Avenue over her. You get somewhere near the top 10, it’s a good investment and a no briner! Plus Maria was a great, super sweet boy. Her forehand scared me a bit because I didn’t want it to break off every fourth. I saw Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario No. 1 in the world reaching with a very, very bad forehand. So I thought Maria with her size and strength could probably hide it easier. When IMG Wind became that she could play left -handed and that she could leave IMG, they flew to the RMTA within 24 hours. Yuri said that was more attention than she received in the past two years. Although they would still represent her, it was a bit disturbing because at the end of the day she probably didn’t want what was really the best for Mary, but was the best for them. Perhaps because of publicity, they wanted the entire cake because they own their own academy. But Yuri wanted a piece with Rick Macci and RMTA.
Yuri wanted to leave. Maria wanted to leave because they had personal coaching of world class and attention to detail, and it was more of a family environment. One led to the other, the weekend passed and everything seemed great. Yuri said: “We’re going back and we’ll pack everything and we’ll be back the next week, and we’ll move her permanently and we’re going to do the deal. We’ll work out all the details with the people at IMG.”
After they had left the apartment where they stayed, the housekeeper found a letter from Mary that she wrote to God and said she couldn’t wait to move. She wrote that she loved here and wanted to leave where she was and it was exciting. It was really interesting that an 11-year-old girl would write such a letter. There was a band that was created from start to finish and of course a mega deal that had to be done. It can be five, six or seven years later. Apart from what I saw in the Williams-Zussen, I knew that there was a lot of tennis and marketing because she had the appearance and would have the game! High -staddy wiring and focus was special. I could help to extract even more greatness.
A week passed and I felt a bit uncomfortable because I knew that once returned to the other side of the fence, there would be a full-court press not to leave. The moral of the story: Yuri calls me and says: “We can’t leave. IMG does not want me to leave. If I leave, I may not get wildcards in the future, I don’t want to get blackball. They give me more money to stay. They guarantee that I would get better hit partners.” It was the whole song and the dance.
I just said, “No problem. Everything you need.”
He said, “They don’t want me to come here.”
I said: “Listen, I love your daughter. She is a great, great child. You and your wife just understand that it is a trip and a long -term process and you have the thoroughbred to make it. This is what I recommend … You must get technical help. If they don’t let you do it, I don’t want the coach. You want you to give you the phone number.”
What I did. I said: “There is a man in California named Robert Lansdorp, I would call him. He can teach your daughter how to touch the ball cleaner and he can probably connect the dots better than probably everyone in the country. He is not going to make it perfect because I think too much damage has been done. But 24/7, she needs a beforehand.”
The moral of the story: she goes back, she stays there, floats every now and then to California, IMG picks up the tab because Robert has no academy and she just gets technical help. IMG Academy still gets the honor. They still represent her and that is how that whole thing happened. That is a story that was never really told because I have as many stories as this, not from people who have become megas super stars like Maria, who have all won four major tournament titles and have ended in the top 10 seven times, but it is just so common because of what I did. This is really the first time I said something about this situation, because we put it in a book. I don’t even talk about it because it’s really no problem. But I think it could have been a big problem.
“Macci Magic” is the entertaining and inspiring manual and the memoirs that helps to clear the way to great performance, not only in tennis, but also in business and in life. Macci, Known As the Coach of Five World No. 1 Players-Venus and Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova-Shares His Secrets to Success Both on and off the tennis Court Through Anecdotes And More Than 100 of His Famous Thamsop Core Role and Power of Positive Thinking In The Molding of A Champion.
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