Never Let Good Enough be good enough!

Photo courtesy of RestrungMagazine! Hold your fire!!! Ever been in a match and had a serve really working for a game and a half only to see it not be effective the last game and a half? Like listening to a great song, over playing that serve gets old and loses its effectiveness. A good player will adjust on the serve return. Here is how to “hold your fire” and save the “ammo” of that special serve.   Begin thinking in sequence. One effective way to think sequence is to work on eye level. Hit a serve as low as …

So I am channel surfing the other day and I run across a panel discussion with an actor whose name escapes me, some business dude(I think) and two people I did recognize, Marcus Luttrel (of sole survivor fame) and Michael Strahan (of NY Giants football fame and recently everywhere on tv). Michael Strahan said something that I think all of us can learn from. He stopped worrying about winning and losing and focused totally on something he could control; his performance. He competed hard in practice and hard in games. Often when the team was losing(trust me-I am a Giants …

Don’t fall for the Guilt Move!!! Good competitors know how to play the guilt game; the game within the game. Move 1-Did you get that? Answer-yes-guilt thought-gee I hope my opponent does not think I’d cheat. Move 2-Come on, are you going to take that? Answer-yes-guilt thought-Gosh I sure hope my opponent does not think I’d cheat. Power move 3-I can’t believe you cheat like that-Answer-I’m not cheating-guilt thought–Wow-that player thinks I’m a cheater and that upsets me. Super power move–You know you’re cheating and everyone says you’re a cheater-Response -No Way am I cheating! and the super guilt response …

So I have these athletes moving up through the chain of excellence. Their games are getting better and better. They defeat someone they have never beaten before and folks are beginning to notice their improvement. Then they begin to think, “I have arrived.” I don’t need to practice as much and I can just play and work out. Worse yet, everyone around them begins to tell them how great they are and attempt to get close to them for some “racquetball cred”! When that happens their game begins to go south and stops its northern movement. The athlete has forgotten …

“Coach, my opponent’s talking trash to me and cheating! Every time I play this guy in practice he resorts to cheating and trash talking. Do you have any advice? It threw me completely off my game and I ended arguing instead of playing.” First-this happened in practice. Practice is just that. I think it is great that people want to win at any costs and cheat in practice. Why? That gives you more realistic practice and puts you under more pressure. That pressure is great for tournament play. Did you know that the heart rate is slower in practice than …

Jumping in on a social media argument can be dangerous! I suggest not posting anything without investigating. Things may not be as black and white as they seem. Here are the facts on a few of these entities. USA Racquetball-I have to say they try. They are not out to get you or me; but their policies might! If you investigate further you might find out their reasoning. LPRT-Organizes tournaments for the best female pros on the planet. During the Pandemic, due to their contacts, they have been able to have competitive tournaments. IRT-organizes tournaments–for the best male pros in …

Open, Pro play observations: it is my experience that the top athletes who come to me often put themselves in a category. (You could say this about most athletes at all levels now that I think about it)-that includes me in my heyday!) Mostly that category is qualifier. This self-limiting category hurts athletes mentally because they are doomed to be at the level they expect to be. Now admittedly it is more than mental. Many fans think players have a mental problem vs a particular player when those of us in the know tend to think like this: think that …

  So I am riding along with a player in the car who says this statement to me. “Racquetball is really hard to teach to players.” Naturally I respond, “Why?” He went on, “Because you cannot make one rule for everything. People ask me what is the right way to do this or that, and the answer is impossible because you cannot make one rule for a random movement sport.” I began thinking about the wisdom in this and came up with a few basic rules and why they are not always correct. 1. Start with the forehand and backhand …

  Here are a few games I invented back in the day. While I say I invented them I have to add that other people I have met have “invented” the same games and better games as a necessity to practice. 1. HBM–Human ball machine-simply find a practice partner with control and have them give you ten setups of your choice. You execute the setups and then return the favor. You and your practice partner become HBMs. 2. Rally scoring serve games work like this. You serve say a drive serve left. That is the only serve you can use …