Believing without practice is dreaming, not believing

This one came across my desk. “Coach awhile back you mentioned a book titled, So Good They Can’t Ignore You” What lessons for racquetball can you draw from that book. The person who read the book plays racquetball I think and coaches it. How could you miss this blurb? “Chapter four-paraphrasing here: two mindsets-the passion mindset-quite simply says, what value does my job offer me? The craftsman mindset is “what value am I producing in my job?”. This explains the clash of many mindsets in our great sport. When people looking what they can get out of racquetball they will …

Recently I trained two national level players. I was amazed at how much they had improved in such a short amount of time. At one point in the session I asked them if they noticed I had not mentioned much in terms of mechanics. Then I asked them why I had not corrected them. They both sought answers that were really guesses. It never occurred to them they had improved so much I did not have to go back and correct mechanics like I did in our first lessons. Both of these athletes have left their comfort zones and embarked …

This one sounds so simple but it is true! Develop a killer serve and your game goes up at least one level. The Wintertonian glossary of terms defines a killer serve as: A serve that just gets over the short line, with about an inch to spare on either side of the court with great deception. The receiver will be unsure which side the serve is going to and thus, you will have a killer serve. The Killer serve does not have to be hit hard, and in fact a softer killer serve makes the receiver of serve have to …

I am often asked, “What in the world do you do for over six hours with an athlete on the court?” Every lesson starts the same-looking at forehand and backhand mechanics.This player is a top pro and the mechanics review sometimes finds a little flaw they had no idea had crept into their game. Most of the time at Pro level it turns into a routine drop and hit to set up and hit. (est time 45 minutes-1 hour) From there we head to serve and serve return. The little things that apply to technique can add to a poor …

Timing is everything according to actors and comedians. The same is true of racquetball. Watching some opportunities passed up in many matches. Here is an example. The score is 11-11 and we are in a pro match or an amateur, game one. Makes no difference as this is a PP situation(pressure point). Ref calls the score and the athlete serves-that is scenario one–Ref calls the score, athlete checks the wall, takes her or his time, and after what seems an agonizingly long ten seconds, puts the ball in play; scenario 2. Which situation to you think gives the server the …

ICE racquetball! (In Case of Emergency) In emergency mode-you know what I mean-nothing is working and it looks like a bad loss is coming. Every body gets bad days. If you figure that you play 100 matches a year, 10 will be out of your mind great, 10 will be terrible, and 80 will be in between. Therefore, since many points and matches are played at sub-par levels, you need a “winning ugly” strategy. Here are a few. One is to go up top and play the ceiling more. One is to hit more wide angle shots, and still another …

It is very tough on the ego to be a very good player and then meet the coach who informs you of weaknesses you did not know you had. Even worse is the fact your support group is slapping you on the back and jumping on your bandwagon, all the while telling you how great you are! Why should you change your game? You are the Queen or King of the world! I have to keep reminding folks they are great players. I know they are great but that does not mean an athlete cannot improve! Slight little errors in …

This is what i do for a living. Each day I log on my computer and gather the videos in my uplink box. I then take the video and go over it for my athletes. I am looking for positioning, shot selection, and movement patterns. I then slow the video down to go frame by frame and unlike some of the straight line things you see out on the internet my software is pretty cool. Some time ago I held court at the USA Nationals and had a pretty good crowd look at what I do. One of the cool …

Be yourself! It was hard for me to find my place emotionally when I competed in racquetball. I had an acquaintance who showed up at tournaments and between games would smoke cigarettes and drink beer, He was a great player and he was also a con artist. He only did those things at tournaments to bait people into thinking he never practiced. I tried that route and it sure did not work for me. I tried the “get fired up” route and that sure did not work. I was too tight and nervous. I tried the opposite way-get loose and …