Never Let Good Enough be good enough!

Above: Coach with the original string bean, RIP HOF’er, Charlie Garfinkle, 6’6” tall. Here is strategy 101 for playing the tall player. Author Steve Keeley called this athlete the “string bean”. These folks have a long reach. They may not be fast per se but their reach seems downright super-hero elastic-man stuff. When you cross court the string bean you hit to their strength but when you hit down the line you take away their leverage. Another option is to hit into the middle of the court. Front wall side wall into the middle takes away the leverage and actually …

The Racquetball Coach can be over-rated and under-rated. Here is how a pro coach like me can be over-rated. (statements overheard to illustrate this) 1. “Thanks to me this woman or man is now winning”!Nope-thanks to the woman or man believing in my coaching and with their practicing, they are now winning. 2. “This student needs more lessons with me.” Nope-student needs more practice of what I have already taught! 3. “This student needs me on the court so I can help them practice.” Nope-Student needs solo time and to figure it out so they can be independent of me-not …

Vision training for racquetball is something I ran into many moons ago! I was coaching a junior team and we played another club’s team. They spent 15 minutes practicing eye exercises while we practiced forehands and backhands. We annihilated them, but the losing team did see the aces better! I do not mean to belittle eye work. I can think of many players who used it and with great success. I just think it takes a ton of time. I had a long discussion with a young coach on eye work. Sports vision is a skill that is worked on …

I was watching a match in the recent past and the crowd is expounding upon the unbelievable excellence of the athletes. I did see outstanding excellence in athleticism, but poor execution. Is it possible to be fast and yet have poor footwork? Yes! When you have athletes going too fast they get to the ball early and pound it into the front wall. What does the opponent do? Yep-tries to hit it back harder! With doubles that is four people blasting away. It is great theater, but not great racquetball. When I see a great athlete, I want to make …

When should I call a timeout? This one I get quite a bit. The problem is, there are no definitive rules for this. Each game and each match is an entity of its own with its own set of rules. I think you have to “feel out” a situation. I like to have my athlete call a timeout when: 1. What they are doing is not working 2. If they need a new strategy or serve 3. If they are beginning to lose focus 4. If they have to I will never forget a match where my athlete won the …

Notes to a good player: 1. Congratulations, your name is out there and you have gone from nobody to somebody! But what is your goal? 2. No, seriously, what is your goal? I find many athletes get stuck at “good” rather than go to “great”! They could be great, they have the ability to be great, but for whatever reason they stop short of that level and stick to the comfort zone. There are lots of rewards for being good. Your picture is up there on a banner. Everyone who was not your friend coming up the chain is now …

Change the paradigm-think outside the box or better, think for yourselves! If you are coached by me the first thing you have to learn is not to do everything I tell you. There are times you must think for yourself and whatever happens in a match, you may have to do something counter to what you have been taught. Here is an example. My athletes work hard to get a drive serve just over the short line. We are so good at this we often get the shaft on aces which are called short. But I looked at a video …

I am a teacher, a coach and have been trained as such. Good teachers help students because that is part of the job. A teacher never really retires. Some time ago I saw an athlete who suffered a crushing defeat; head hung down, having a bad day. I do not coach the athlete and in fact, I coach against the athlete. The athlete had one of my many rival coaches in their corner. I went over and told the player to hang in there and it was not as bad as they thought it was. This player won a tournament …

Above: the Rochester Rocket in action I never realized this until I looked back at how I got into coaching racquetball. Upon reflection, I started at the bottom but very quickly got to the top! My first pro was Mike Levine and he is the one responsible for my coaching career. My first female pro was Fran Davis, yep, the Fran Davis. Another story for another time! Mike was in 6th grade when he begged me to play him. He loved racquetball and ended up in my English class too. We would do homework and practice during his middle school …