Sports & Gaming
Making Of A Winner
Lesson time 12:08 min
Serena’s run of titles is otherworldly, but it all started with goals, heroes, and a lot of practice.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Early History • Writing it Down • Dealing with Publicity • Inspiration
Teaches Tennis
Step up your game with two hours of the techniques, drills, and mental skills that made Serena the best in the world.
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My greatest joy in playing tennis is those first few seconds when I walk out on the court of every match, and I see the stadium filled with people that watch myself and my opponent play. And for a moment, it hits me that they paid to see me do something that I love to do, and they love to watch us do. And that is really something that makes me want to perform better and makes me want to do the absolute best that I can while I am out there. [MUSIC PLAYING] I've achieved a lot of success, but I still work very hard, and what keeps me motivated to work hard is the fact that I love doing what I do, and I have a rare opportunity to get deeper into the history books. And that just kind of motivates me to try harder, to work harder, and to try to play a little bit longer. When I was getting established as a player, there were probably things that I wished I'd learned. I'd wished I maybe had taken more balls out of the air. But instead of always just thinking about that wish, I just learned how to do it. I asked my dad, can I work on this, or let's work on this. So if I wasn't able to do it, I tried to work on it and incorporate it into my game. My dad definitely did some unbelievable groundwork. He did different things. He was innovative. He watched a tremendous amount of film in different sport to make sure that we would be the best. He wanted us to have a whole different outlook on tennis. He's the one who started the open stands with us. No female player had a big serve, and Venus had the biggest serve, and I had the second biggest. We just did different things, and I did different things to make my game different and make my game stand out. It's difficult at times to play when everyone expects you to win, and it definitely proves to be very pressure-filled. And it is not very easy to do. Sometimes I do crack under that pressure, and I will lose a match. But I realize at the end of the day, I'm playing for me, and I'm not playing for anyone else, and I'm here to do the best that I can do and be the best that I can be on this day. And Serena Williams. When you enter on the court, one big way to bring out some extra toughness if you feel that you're lacking it is to focus on every point, don't think about your opponent, and try to win every point. If you try to win every point, then you will naturally be more tough than what you thought. And you're not trying to be tough. You're just simply trying to win every point. When I was younger, my father used to put up signs around the house and around our backyard of what we needed to do-- myself and my sister. And he personalized them. He would have one that said, Serena, you need to move your feet. And he would have one that said, Venus, you need to focus more. So it was really good and a good reminder. If we were outside just relaxing or hanging out, we always had that reminder in...
About the Instructor
Serena Williams, the world's #1 ranked women's tennis player and winner of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, teaches you tennis and reveals the secrets of her game. This is as close as you can get to a private lesson with one of the world's greatest tennis players.
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Serena Williams
Step up your game with two hours of the techniques, drills, and mental skills that made Serena the best in the world.
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