Let's Talk Racquetball

11 tips for excellence: 1. Do not come to the coach to get help. Come to the coach to collaborate. 2. Do not take orders from a coach. Work with a coach. 3. Understand that the coach cannot get you better. You must get better by practicing skills taught to you. 4. Playing is fun, but play with a purpose in practice. 5. Do not “blow smoke” to the coach. If you tell them you are practicing and you cannot hit the front wall, they will know you have not practiced! 6. Come ready to learn. 7. Coaches can make …

How do you know if you are improving? Well, if you are killing every ball in practice you might be improving but remember these things….. 1. Almost impossible to simulate tournament conditions, especially the mental pressure. 2. There is practice tough and there is tournament tough. The latter means more tournaments needed! 3. Without tournaments, mental rehearsal is a must! 4. Speaking of mental rehearsal, are you hitting the ceiling? I mean, are you seeing yourself as a quarter-finalist? Round of 16 player? If so, what can you do to change that? 5. Upping the physical part of practice helps, …

Some time ago, after National Doubles I got a text from a colleague of mine that went like this: “Boy you had a rough day. You lost every match on center court! Below is my reaction to that! The funny thing is I did not see any of it like that. I did not lose anything because I did not play. I coach athletes and I did not lose every final. Men’s B doubles and women’s team championships were won by my athletes! So how did my colleagues know my athletes lost? On the internet broadcasts of the finals. So, …

What drives you to compete? Racquetball players are a unique breed. From best to worst in abilities, we are out there on display for everyone to see. There is no hiding your personality when it comes to crunch time in a match. External drive-This player plays for approval. It is all about external gratification. This player loves the attention and being on stage. Internal drive-this player plays for their own approval, and nobody else’s. This player can take a loss and learn a lesson. Combo player-both external and internal drive exist and this player plays for it all. They can …

Coaching juniors–In the old days, at a parents meeting I overheard a school football coach say-“Stay away from the field. I am the coach and I refuse to talk any of you until the season is over.” My thought was that Coach had better be winning. If not they will have some trouble. Here are some of the things that all team coaches, high school, college, and beyond should know. 1. Many times the parents can be your best advocate or your worst nightmare. 2. You cannot control parents by telling them to stay away. You also had better be …

I think I got this from my Dad. He was tough on us kids growing up and I always looked for taskmasters. For some reason in sports I liked the toughest coaches and did not like the easiest ones. In college I picked courses with the toughest professors, not the easiest. So racquetball players here is how to pick a coach and this is my best advice I can give to anyone. Pick a tough coach, not a cheerleader. It is okay to listen to people who watch your matches but put a filter on. Most of the feedback you …

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!” so goes the line from the movie, “Network”, back in the old days. Well on rball community within the past months I have seen several misguided and uninformed posts. Racquetball public–please take note. I wish I could go into specifics–I really do. If something seems one-sided or under-handed please investigate before you go posting your take on what went down. Worse yet, do not post someone else’s take on what went down without investigating. Often the smoothest talking, nicest person can be that “snake in the grass” …

(Editor’s Note: I just reread this post I wrote years ago and I have to say the instruction at the top levels has improved dramatically. One of the reasons is I have taught or influenced many of the coaches out there. I have collaborated with top pros’ coaching teams at times also behind the scenes.) So I got this asked of me awhile ago, “What kind of mistakes do you see top racquetball players making? 1. Poor bio-mechanical execution of movement and stroke mechanics. In our sport leading pros are teaching incorrect footwork, horrible stroke mechanics and inviting overuse injuries. …

Score more points by changing eye level! I am a baseball fan and love watching the games that go on with pitchers and hitters. The pitcher is constantly changing the location of pitches and creating confusion on the part of the hitter. So much confusion, the hitter fails at least 70% of the time! We can do the same with serves! We can change the height in racquetball also! Some coaches like to tell their athletes to lob or lob z on first serve. That to me is a waste of an offensive opportunity. I would rather have my athletes …