Let's Talk Racquetball

  The difference in a match will often be the little things. Here are some “little” things that may cause a lopsided loss to a lesser or equal opponent. Little things-lead to big gaps in results! 1. Serve issues! Without a good serve, the athlete will under achieve! To develop consistency is a constant challenge. So many variables-height to hit, weight distribution, relocation footwork, and readiness for return to name a few! 2. Return of serve issues. Number one issue? Waiting to see the ball! Like baseball, it happens too fast so you must decide early! Stance-where you line up …

    So you want to be a coach! Join the ever expanding list of experts!! Racquetball players are competitors all so coaches hate to lose; especially if their athletes are playing another coach’s athletes. The best thing you can do as a coach is work as hard as you can for your athletes. Develop a coaching philosophy that has your athlete’s best interests in mind; not yours! An email comes in and this person wants to be a coach and get paid. How do I do that? I hope you do not do it the way I did! I …

  Okay, so here is the question posed to me. Should tournaments guarantee two matches? In most cases I say yes. Local, and regional tournaments emphasize play and competition so two matches should be guaranteed. This is not difficult. Have a consolation bracket, no refs and schedule the matches around the other brackets. Have as many round robins as you can. Now national tournaments are a different animal in my opinion. I entered national tournaments to see how I stacked against the best in the USA. I did not enter to play at least two matches. The prestige of playing …

Above: Nick Saban, former Head Coach Alabama Football ““If you’re an average player, you want to be left alone because you want to be able to slide by. If you’re a good player, you want to be coached. If you’re a great player, you want the coach to tell you the truth every day,” Saban said in the awesome video circulating Twitter.” So one of my athletes said to me that I was too serious during my coaching sessions. This reminds me of something that happened during my USA team coaching days. The players often said the same things to …

A while ago, in a conversation with one of my athletes it came up that he heard from a legend that he should play better players mostly. That works if your technique is good. Well shoot, that works I guess if your technique is not good either. But consider this idea: Most players should also play lesser skill level athletes to work on their mechanics and footwork. In two separate workouts I observed two of the best pros in the world, one male and one female play lower skilled athletes. In both workouts I gave no feedback on mechanics or …

  TODAY MARKS THE 4,840TH TIP OF THE DAY I HAVE PUBLISHED! For 4,840 consecutive days I have given you a racquetball tip of the day! Each day, I get up early, and post a tip of the day that has been written well in advance. To the athletes I coach: Special thanks. It is an honor to coach you and be involved in your careers on and off the courts! Your unbelievable achievements prove my coaching works and so does your hard work and belief in what I teach! To My Readers: Thanks so much for tuning in daily! …

  So I am wandering around the endless threads in facebook and I come across this snapshot and post. JT Rball posted this photo of racquetball courses offered by Udemy courses. I had to comment that this was part of two dumb financial deals that I made back 24 years ago. The video deal and book that I wrote came about in 1999. I think maybe the Sports Illustrated “faces in the news” thing about me retiring as USA coach caught some peoples’ eyes. Dumb-I cannot speak for the others; I’m betting they were smarter than I was. I signed …

  It is easy to be the critic! Nowhere is this more true than racquetball fans. There are many things fans do not know and fans can be brutal. Here are some examples of what you see may not be what is the total truth. This happened to me more than once. A few years ago in the college nationals I was working with a well know-player. Let’s call him player A. He was playing another well known player in the finals. A bunch of kids were watching when I got there. I walked over and asked the score-9-9 was …

Over 50 years ago I got out of the United States Air Force and decided to go to college. Those were weird days for me as I had been in Europe from 1966 to 1969. I used my leave time to visit Europe and experience life in other countries rather than coming home. It was about that time I set a goal to play college football. I was small and slow but I loved football and I did try so I had that going for me. Where am I going with this autobiography? The football experience I had at Brockport …