Never Let Good Enough be good enough!

Want to get mentally tougher? Why not build your own acronym? An acronym is a collection of letters that stands for something but forms a word. PUP-I put this on my shoe and folks thought I was an animal lover. I am, but PUP stood for Poise under pressure. Often in tight matches I would gaze down at that strong message! You can also do it with a mission statement for a tough match. Find your own “happy place” acronym and use it for mental focus and success ! DLFBY-Don’t let the floor beat you!! Mission statements are a great …

For three years I served on the Arizona State Board and I am now going on year 5 with a little break between terms. Prior to that I had stints as the NY State President back in the day and the NY State Board. Why do I do this? To give something back to the sport is the reason. So I began thinking about this and it does not matter if it is New York or Arizona, some things run true! For those of you who have never served on the board and or even if you have here are …

“Coach, stop giving away all those coaching points on your tip of the day!” This was one of the comments of a student of mine recently. This has come to me from more than one athlete from all levels of play. My athletes like the fact i teach differently than most pros and am always looking for an edge in instruction. Okay, so here is a message to my athletes. This is for my athletes only who pay me to set up programs, go over video, and coach them up. These are the athletes that get four hours per month …

Think like the old boy and girl scouts motto–“Be Prepared”! If you are thrown a curve when least expecting, it could create havoc with your concentration. I have seen almost every dirty trick in the book. From hitting a guy in the face with an overhead to win a seniors title, to walking across a player’s setups, to temper tantrums and turning the air blue; all these things can break your concentration and if you play long enough something will happen that could cause a melt-down if you are not prepared. Think of what could happen and develop a plan. …

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 …

This is a scenario that has played out again and again, in my classroom, on the athletic fields and on the racquetball courts. An extremely talented individual appears. They are so gifted I cannot believe my good luck! I know they will be a superstar! At the same time a seemingly ordinary person appears. They have “average” or “below average” written all over them. I naturally believe the first individual will be the super star. But their work habits are not very good. My natural inclination is to work harder with that talented person. Meanwhile “average athlete” is working hard …

You meet a lot of people in racquetball. In the 90s I met a young guy who was a decent player. He told me he thought he was going into racquetball business full time and I totally encouraged him to do so. Today that dude sits atop the RacquetWorld empire which is the largest racquetball retailer online. He has bought out other companies and is in the pickleball field as well. Pat Benardo was president of the NY State Racquetball Association and I was on that board for years while he was president. It was a great experience as he …

Some time ago I was doing my usual channel flipping in my man-cave in a man zoned out tv stupor when I stumble across this show called Undercover Billionaire. These billionaires get $100 and without their connections, name, etc they have to make a million dollars out of 100 in 90 days. This show had so many parallels for my experience with my online racquetball business. That is many parallels except the money! hahaha–so this guy started collecting people. Told them he could not pay them but they would be part of something really big. Without spoiling the show in …

Happy New Year! Today is the day we make all of these resolutions for the new year. Here are a few of mine-from last year–and happy to say-I was successful and here are eleven for this year!! Rather than go on and on about our accomplishments this year-I am saving it for a later date–needless to say we produced more champions than any other coach or program in existence at all levels–skill levels, age levels, amateur, junior and pro! More on that later….in the new year we will….. 1. Continue to work with athletes out here in Arizona. 2. Work …