Rhonda
I am sitting in my hotel room-it’s crazy-I live here in Arizona but if I have to drive from my house to the Hall of Fame Induction it is at lease an hour plus drive and that is there are no accidents! I have the honor of introducing Rhonda Rajsich into the Hall of Fame. […]
Top 10 Loss Excuses
Top 10 Excuses in Racquetball! Top ten excuses presented to me by athletes–oh and I may have used a few these in my playing days! 10. The courts were horrible (duh, did the opponent play on the same court?) 9. The floors were (fill in the blank) slippery, uneven, darkly colored, all white, cement…and see […]
Politics? Or Performance?
I hate it when politics trumps performance! A few years ago a young phenom beat everyone in his country. After beating the adults, juniors, and all challengers the powers to be decided there had to be another playoff two days after the playoff. Young phenom lost to a favorite in a tie-breaker. Now was it […]
Rally Scoring Strategy-is it a Thing?
Here is a question I get especially when USA begins to slowly switch to rally scoring. Does rally scoring change your approach to shot selection? Well, yes of course depending upon the player. A “rally warrior” who keeps the ball in play but does not skip will be able to function well until they meet […]
Backhand or Forehand?
Here is an article that popped up on my radar about the forehand. It read something like my forehand is better than my backhand. Then the author studied the statistics of forehand winners vs backhand winners and discovered to his shock that the backhand was often more consistent than the forehand. Now this is not […]
Shock and Horror
Oh the shock and horror! Some years ago yours truly was in a tournament in Columbus, Ohio. I remember the year because the Giants won the playoffs and were headed to their first Superbowl vs Denver. A friend shot some video of yours truly playing. It sat in a VHS cassette for years and last […]
Stats Man
My buddy Rob sends me some interesting stuff for my review. One such article was from a tennis beat writer in the NY Times. The title of the article was “Keep it Short” and it referred to short rallies. Apparently there was a study that showed the shorter the rallies, the more the server won. […]
The Guilt Trip Opponent
The guilt trip player. Let’s shorten that to GTP. The GTP plays on an athlete’s sense of fairness. The GTP knows their opponent wants to be perceived as fair. GTP takes advantage of that. Phrases like “If that is the way you are going to play…” or “I can’t believe you thought that shot was […]
Mad Coaching
I received this message in the not so distant past. Some of the words and events have been dramatized for privacy reasons! “Coach, I have watched you work with your amazing athletes at every level but I saw something in this tournament out of sight of the public. You were pacing back and forth like […]
Brain Training
“Do you work with mental skills as well as the mechanics of footwork and strokes?” Answer-I did not realize i did but from day one I employed a method of teaching that carried over from my classroom days. I received high ratings from kids and parents in my classes and the main reason was I […]