Living legend Nick Bollettieri on his humble beginnings

“In order to do what I’ve done, you have to be a little crazy. You can’t listen to people that say you can’t do it.”

 The world’s most famous coach, Nick Bollettieri, guest stars on the TENNIS.com Podcast with Nina Pantic and Irina Falconi. He previews his upcoming book, A Coach’s Journey, which he wrote entirely himself—by hand with a pen on paper (01:23), and reflects on the Showtime documentary about his life and academy, Love Means Zero (04:37).

 Bollettieri has coached numerous world No. 1 champions including Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova. He explains how he reads different players and describes what he says is a God-given ability to predict which youngsters will become champions (05:32).

 The 87-year-old throws it back to his humble beginnings creating the first ever live-in tennis academy, in Bradenton, Fla., some 40 years ago (07:38) and updates everyone on his relationships with the players featured in Love Means Zero (08:31), particularly Agassi (11:10).

 Bollettieri also dives further into his book (set to release in February) and shares his mission of helping players, parents and just people in general (13:23). He even reads an excerpt (20:53).

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