Do the Right Thing
“Treat everyone the same!” Say what? My eyebrows went up on that one. My 29 years of experience in classroom teaching, football coaching, and tennis, not to mention racquetball has taught me the opposite. I do not treat everyone alike. Scenario: Coach has a rule–miss a practice and you do not play. Troubled youth, […]
Treated Like Dirt!! You’re Born a Racquetball Player-You’re Born to be Hurt!
q 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 under her breath so only i could hear. I hate (fill in […]
Game of Thrones Racquetball
Game of Thrones Racquetball! Use the Fire and use the Ice! Here is a simple way of thinking strategy. Use fire and Ice in your game. I am often trying to think of ways to explain game styles and mission statements to players in tough matches. One such way is fire and Ice analogy. […]
Pummel Poor Mechanics
From beginners to beyond serve returns. If you watch a beginner closely try to return serve you will see them make two common errors. One-they will move right at the ball. I call this an “arrow” trajectory; a straight line. The second mistake is they open their body so fast and drop the […]
Mental or Practice Problem?
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 […]
Junior Racquetball Rules
Junior racquetball guidelines: Full disclosure-this was written many years ago and these days I am coaching only seven kids and they are all at different skill levels. That makes some of these items I used to do, difficult. At the same time I am teaching racquetball there is pickleball in the gym and I […]
The Rest of the Story
The late Paul Harvey used to have a radio segment called; “The Rest of the Story.” In this segment he had interesting facts about historical events and people. Here are three of my recent “rest of the stories”! I apologize to the bulk of my audience who are too young to remember Paul Harvey. […]
Training Daze!
Dear Coach, Could you please set up my training every day from now until January? Signed Game Ball Dear Game Ball, Yes, if you can share with me your personal schedule day in and day out from now until January? Sounds like a tough job? Each day your schedule will change and have to […]
Twisty Wristy vs Flat Attack!
Rekill vs skip! Nothing is worse than hitting that perfect serve, getting a weak return and then putting it into the floor. My favorite saying I stole from the late Dr. Bud Muehleisen, “The floor beats most people!” Why the UE? (Unforced error) Top reasons– 1. Poor racquet preparation-Keep the racquet above your waist […]
End The Rallies!
Racquetball Rally…….End it or Extend it?? Stop being a retriever! Are you a retriever? A good retriever gets to everything and extends rallies only to frustrate their opponent into finally making an error. Unfortunately, just retrieving only takes you so far. To go to the top you have to end the rally, not extend […]