Coach Tawk

Disclaimer: This is Coach talk! Two of my athletes were overheard talking racquetball. They were discussing training and improving but one thing I had not thought that much about was being discussed. “Each training session he (meaning me) changes the lesson! Did you ever notice that? “Yes, and each year he changes to work on […]

Racquetball Undeniable

Joe Buck, the sports announcer, had an interview show titled, “Undeniable”. He had in-depth interviews with athletes and sports celebrities. One theme has resonated with me. A general manager of a pro football team was quoted as saying, “I want to draft players who are afraid of losing more than they want to win.!” That […]

Racquetball or Self-Promo??

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 […]

Phar Lap

  Random thoughts on the men’s and women’s pro seasons. In both pro ranks one player has risen to the top and the others are chasing that athlete. The number one spot is not easy. Not only do you get everyone’s best effort but as the others struggle to get to the finals, the top […]

Problem-Practice or Mental ?

Mental toughness is a phrase bandied about rather liberally. I have had many athletes come to me with a reputation of poor mental concentration. In almost every case I found it was not a mental problem, but a practice problem. If you are not logging your hours on the court, you will not be performing […]

Need a Coach?

I need a coach or I cannot succeed. This is becoming a trend out here in racquetball land. I swear there were more coaches than players at the last junior tournament I attended. Let me take you back to a time where there were very few coaches in match play. in the 70s most junior […]

Game Focus

Every once in awhile I get one of these. Dear Coach–my opponent hit me on purpose. I got so mad and I am still mad. My opponent cheated, hit me on purpose, ran into me, and called my momma names. I hate (fill in the blank) because they got me off my game. They are […]

Steps to the Top

A few months ago I had an, aspiring pro visiting me for help. I am going over video now and developing a game plan for this young phenom. For any coaching plan to be successful, I need the answer to one question, “What is your goal?” Once I have the goal we can attack the […]

Best Coaches

This question threw me at first. I had to really think about it. The question was, Who are the best coaches you ever saw or coached against? Who is the best coach of all time? Wow, those are real loaded questions for sure. Let me illustrate with a story. When I was head coach of […]

I Hate The XYZ Ball!!

Help! I hate the ball we are playing with! I hate the court we are playing on. I hate the ref in charge of this match. I hate the (fill in the blank). When I hear this I can forecast what is coming. The athlete has their built-in excuse. I always use the xyz ball […]