![]() ![]() If he spots me doing this, I know his confidence will only suffer. ![]() to do it your way.”Īs a spectator watching my own son, who’s now 15, play youth sports, on far too many occasions I’ve stomped a foot in frustration, or buried my head in my hands, after a disappointing play. “The biggest thing he and his daughters did was let me know that it is possible,” Corey tells TIME. While Corey never needed Old Whiskey’s services-he grew up playing the game-he’s also found great success coaching his daughter. “Give them a fighter’s mentality.”Ĭorey Gauff, whose daughter Coco stormed onto the tennis scene in 2019 when she beat Venus at Wimbledon, is one of the few parents to successfully copy at least parts of the Richard Williams blueprint. Before Venus turned 3, Williams moved his family from Long Beach, a block from the coast, to Compton. Richard learned the game by taking lessons from a guy named Old Whiskey, whom he said he paid in booze. Only two things were missing: the actual children, and any working knowledge of tennis. Long before the events of the movie begin, Richard hatched his plan to have two more daughters and turn them into tennis champs after watching, on television, Virginia Ruzici of Romania receive a $20,000 check for winning a tournament in 1978. The movie’s most searing scene involves Richard’s then wife Oracene Price, who in a fine piece of acting by Aunjanue Ellis gets her oft-overlooked due for helping keep Richard’s plan for their daughters on course, calling out her husband’s past failures and inflated ego. Though the film is a flattering portrait of the irascible Richard-to be expected for a movie in which Venus, Serena and their older sister Isha Price served as executive producers-it’s not without criticism of his unorthodox approach, nor does it completely sugarcoat his more maddening qualities. Not that anyone could really duplicate the Williams’ story. ![]() What kind of parents are we? And what kind of parents do we want to be? For dads and moms-of athletes, piano players, premed students and more-both the movie and the improbable real-life saga provide a chance to forget those guidebooks and “rules” for a few hours and take stock. Venus and Serena, played charmingly by Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton, respectively, offer plenty of inspiration for the kids. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, families are sure to take in King Richard together over popcorn or leftover stuffing. ![]()
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