I want to promote our great sport of racquetball. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? I see this sentence in print quite a bit. However, some of the people who say this really mean “I want to make money without much effort.” Here are a few observations I have made over the years. If you truly do want to promote racquetball:
1. Do not try to control the sport. Promoting racquetball means more than one person doing it. The object is to grow the sport, first and your wallet second.
2. Strive to be inclusive of other instructors. If a club is inclusive, they are promoting racquetball.
3. Give up the immediate $ for long term gain in your program. Ex. -you do not want to join the league-okay by me!
4. Try to program for the players, not the Pro! That means Saturdays, Sundays, and odd hours. Not when you want to, but when the players want to play.
5. You put the programming ahead of your own game. Big one-players needing memberships, find a club to work at so they can develop their game, not the customer’s game!
6. You understand that the more people who make money in racquetball, the healthier the sport is. The fewer who make money by controlling their club; the less you grow the sport.
7. You strive to make your club an open club; where pros can teach and not a closed shop. (sidebar-of course within the organization of your club, and not rogue uncertified coaching or programming)
If you had three or four pros at your club making money wouldn’t racquetball be healthy? If one pro can handle all the business I understand, but why shut out people at the expense of not growing the game? Worse yet, are the chains of clubs with tons of potential players and they do not want pros in the clubs.
Why are there no people on the courts? Go back and look for the violations at your club. You be the judge!