Never Let Good Enough be good enough!

  Game plans are over-rated………if you are playing someone good!!! From time to time I work with other coaches. This is especially true when coaching doubles and I have to collaborate with another coach. This gets very interesting at times and here is an example. Coach A: “What is our game plan?” Me: “Huh?” We do not have a game plan. Coach A: “What-I mean are we going to hit ceiling balls, pass shots or attack a certain side of the court?” Me: “Yes!” Now coach A is very confused. They have a way of looking at the game that …

Some time ago I read an interesting take on practice and the article compared the practice green and driving range in golf to actual competitive play. The gist of the article was you can practice your skills separate from tournament play but there is not as much comparison a you might think. I thought about that and translated it to racquetball and the basics of setting yourself up and hitting shots. I do think you need these drills to sharpen up mechanics but to get better at play you have to (“duh”) play! Then you will incorporate the mechanics into …

Rules of surviving your first national tournament. Congratulations! You have entered the nationals. Are you spectating or do you want to win? Answer that one first. If you want to win, read on! Strive to be on a schedule. Eat properly, at a certain time, and eat wisely! A poor diet or too many adult beverages will beat you more than an opponent! Speaking of, carry energy drink and bars in your bag! Long matches eat into your glycogen reserves, and some sort of nutrition has to be taken during long matches. Water is your friend and hydrate every time …

My juniors at Worlds, 2024-Benjamin, Grant, Addie, USA, Yanna Mexico, and Hector Bolivia When I teach a junior player, and give them skills to work on, most of them intuitively know they have to go practice. This is racquetball 101. The more athletes practice the better they get. Seems simple but things get in the way. Life is one thing. School, work, family issues, and things of that nature make it difficult to compete. When athletes hit the courts to practice, they can practice what the coach gave them. or they can expand. Example: Coach gives the athlete a serve, …

Beware of Gun fighter syndrome! In the old West the young hotshot came into town looking to fight the old retired gunfighter. The old gunfighter was trying to live a quiet life with his young bride and family, but this young gun would not let him! What follows in the grade B Western is inevitable gunfight at the end of the movie. What does this have to do with racquetball? All of you veteran players reading this already know but will share this knowledge with the masses. From the club level to the pro level the young guns are coming! …

  A few days ago I ran across a post regarding coaching and my name was bantered about by several folks. First, I was flattered by people who recognized my long career of coaching. But the second thing that struck me was this question, “Can a non-player or someone who was not that good as a player be a good coach?’ That is a loaded question with many layers. Here is my take. Can Andy Reid run a pass pattern like Travis Kelce? (USA football Coach and player-look it up) Can Martin Scorsese act like Al Pacino or Robert Dinero? …

The big drive serve is impressive. The more power someone has the bigger the fear on the drive serve. But if you don’t have the big boomer, what then? What about cleverating your serve? Why not develop the knuckleball of drive serves? When you create a slow drive serve and learn to hit it at three speeds, slow, slower and slowest, you will frustrate opponents. Slow serves expose poor footwork. Since most players have poor footwork, the slow serve is very effective. You do not have to be a pro to hit a good slow drive serve. If you do …

So I walked into the club last week and got into a conversation with a top local basketball coach. This man is the real deal and is always seeking information regarding building great young men and women, more than building basketball players. Our head tennis coach is the same kind of person so it is always great to work with both coaches. So the topic of imitators came up. As all of us turn out great athletes, competitors steal or copy our information.The young basketball coach summed up what we all practice. “I really don’t care too much about all …

Easy 8 rules for serving pressure point play. 1. Never give an easy serve to kill-for this reason I do not like drive serves unless hit on the short side; not off the back wall! 2. Never “cleverate” yourself on serving. Many times the serve gets too cute; too smart-you do not trick a good player; you beat them! 3. Always take your time with the serve. You have ten seconds. Think and visualize the serve. 4. Always know the return options of your serve: an example might be If you serve to the backhand they have a “loop de …