Another one floated across my desk at mission control recently,
Dear Coach Winterton,
I am a beginning racquetball player and aspire to play pro racquetball. Do I need coaching?
Signed,
Bertha Beginner
My response:
Dear Bertha,
Thanks for a great question. I will never forget the long drive back home from a crushing quarterfinal defeat in a tiebreaker in the men’s open. I was the only player to push the number one seed and I realized I could not have played better with the tools that I had. I knew I had to learn more to get better. Luckily I stumbled onto Dave Peck, legendary HOF player and coach and his camps. From there I got the knowledge to help me win and coach others.
So to your question–to reach the open level you can do it the way I did for 12 years-or do what I did the last 18 years of my career. Get help instead of losing year after year until you finally break through. Good coaching can shortcut that process. Get a calculator out and add up all the expenses of hotels, rental cars, flights, gas mileage, and tournament fees for five years. Then put down coaching expenses for one year. You will find that it is a bargain and a shortcut!
You also indicated you are bored playing the same people all the time.
Under my system you compete against yourself. Whether you win or lose I am taking notes to help you improve. You will keep improving and do it faster by competing against the process, not the opponent!
Onward and upward,
Coach W