So Kevin asks this question of me a few days ago.
“How do YOU get players to “think on every shot??” (Or better yet, how do you get players to hit the right shot without even thinking??)
First, perfect is impossible. Nobody is perfect and the chaos of racquetball or any sport means dealing with failure. That said, read on please!
This is a great question and it is at the heart of everything I teach. What I teach and coach is not easy. If I had a magic pill you could take and have better results in your competition than you ever dreamed of. Would you take that pill? I have the pill. Think of any organized sport. Go to a practice. Well-coached teams practice the basic fundamentals at every practice and usually at the beginning of the practices. Every day.
Now think of racquetball competitions. At state and regional levels most players skip the basics and scrimmage. They play competitive games. They play and they practice to win. But they do not practice to improve.
A certain percentage of players are practicing the basics. But a majority of them are practicing inconsistent mechanics; namely forehands and backhands. Inconsistent basics means poor shot selection because of poor footwork and racquet skills.
Now we throw in the ego thing. I am in the top ten. I am in the top 20. I am city champ, or I am one of the three best in my area. There is a lot of satisfaction in that. But does that satisfy the upper reaches of your potential?
I will never forget my first racquetball lesson. He said to me, “If you lose 11-10 tiebreaker or lose 15-0, 15-0 it is the same. You lost. You play to win the tournament, not take second place.”
Those days are gone in the era of social media where everyone is important. I want my athletes to be the best they can be. Often that is not where they think, but at a higher level than they think. So Kevin, back to your question, if you practice the basics every day and practice correctly, you can execute in competition without thinking. My model is the military. They train you to do a job and if your time comes to do your job under the pressure of a foreign invader, you will not have to think; you will execute.
In racquetball if you have the good luck of having a good coach who hammers the mechanics and serve part, you will not have to think. You will execute and trust your practice!
Go get’em tigers!!