What kind of player are you?

With a new year about to begin, you may be looking to make some resolutions regarding your racquetball game. To help you make your resolutions, we here at The Racquetball Blog would like to ask you a question: What kind of racquetball player are you?

Generally, there are three types of racquetball players: 1) power players, 2) shooters, and 3) what we’ll call all-rounders (borrowing a term from cricket), as these are players who not especially powerful or really shooters. How do you determine which category you fall into? Well, what do you do when you’re in trouble?

When someone is in trouble they will go to their strength - that is, bring out their big weapon, so when a power player is down in a game, he or she will try to amp up the power to get out trouble. Similarly, a shooter will try to shoot themselves out of trouble, going for winners with every swing of their racquet. That is, when people are in trouble, they will try to bring out their big weapon, whether that be power or shooting.

Now, all round players - those who are not especially powerful or a real shooter - don’t have a weapon to go to, so they don’t have a big asset to apply when they are in trouble. All rounders need to work hard during their matches to grind out wins. Being fit is important in sports, but it’s especially important if you have an all round game style, because you don’t have a big weapon that can serve as a “Get out of Jail Free” card.

Now, as you get better at racquetball, you’ll develop both skills of being able to play with power and shooting the ball. But still you’ll likely do one better than the other. If you can do both really well, then your name might be Kane Waselenchuk, who is great because he is both a power player and a shooter. But that doesn’t make him an all rounder.

Rocky Carson is a classic all rounder, as he has plenty of power and can certainly shoot the ball, but we wouldn’t call him a power player or a shooter. However, Carson is in great shape, and certainly grinds out wins. Indeed, he’s spoken more than once about how he loves to compete, so grinding out wins is exactly what he likes to do.

Once you know the type of player you are, then you next want to know the type of player you are playing. A power player versus a shooter will be a contest of who can take who out of their game: can the power player overpower the shooter so he or she can’t get set up to shoot the ball, or can the shooter put the ball out of reach so the power player cannot crush it like he or she wants?

A classic example of this happened in the Men’s Singles final of the 2016 Pan American Championships, when Daniel De La Rosa played Jake Bredenbeck. De La Rosa is a shooter and Bredenbeck is a prototypical power player. The match was in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, which is at altitude. Balls will travel further at altitude, so a player needs to adjust to that if they are unaccustomed to it. But San Luis Potosi is De La Rosa’s hometown, while Bredenbeck grew up in the relatively low lands of Minnesota. On that day, in those circumstances, the shooter beat the power player, and did so convincingly.

But the trickier match ups are when like plays like. That is, when a power player plays another power player, or a shooter plays another shooter. These are situations where fire is fighting fire, and it becomes a case of which fire is hotter, which is always tricky. So matches between players like Bredenbeck and Alejandro Cardona - both power players - or between De La Rosa and Andree Parrilla - both shooters are difficult to plan for, because each player is trying to do the same thing.

So, before making your racquetball New Year’s resolutions first ask yourself what kind of player you are. Once you have a good handle on that, then you will be in a better position to move forward and make plans for the new year.

Follow the bouncing ball…..

“Play your game!” But what is your game?

In coaching, a common piece of advice is to “play your game.” The idea being that you should play how you want to play, and not get lulled into playing whatever way your opponent wants to play.

In racquetball, this can be taken to mean that you should just do whatever it is that will enable you to hit a winning shot. So racquetball players are often trying to roll the ball out on every shot, because those are the shots that will be winners, right?

Well, yes, but racquetball involves two people (or four in doubles), so if you are trying to “play your game” without taking into account your opponent(s), then you are overlooking a key part of what is happening on court.

If you are a sports fan, then you are likely watching some of the 2017 US Open Tennis Championships now going on in New York. Consider the Men’s Singles match between John Isner and Mischa Zverev. Isner, at 6’10”, is a very tall fellow, which is a big advantage in tennis. But the thing about tall people is they don’t like getting down low, because it’s awkward and takes a lot of effort. All in all, they’d rather not do it.

Zverev, who at 6’3” is not short guy, turned Isner’s height, which is generally an advantage, into a disadvantage by hitting a lot of slice shots to Isner, so the ball was naturally low to the ground. Thus, Isner had to continuously go down to get it, and over the course of the match this took it toll and helped Zverez, the 23rd seed, upset 10th seeded Isner.

Clearly, Zverev had a game plan, and hitting balls low to the ground was part of it. When you play racquetball matches, you should also have a game plan, and you should “play your game (plan).” That plan needs to take your opponent into consideration.

Does your opponent like hitting the ball hard and low? Many racquetball players like doing that. If so, then would it be a good plan to serve hard and low to him or her? Maybe not. Maybe it would be better to serve slower shots to that opponent.

It’s good to know what you like to doing on the court, and good to know what you do well on court. But often what is going to win the match is doing things that put your opponent in an awkward position more than hitting the shots you like most.

Consider: if you like hitting the ball hard and low all the time, and hate ceiling balls, but a coach tells you if you hit a ceiling ball in every rally against your opponent, you will win the match, would you do it? Could you do it? What if two ceiling balls were required to win every rally?

It’s true that after the match people ask how many more often than how, so, for most people, saying Zverev over Isner, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6, will be enough (and then it was Querrey over Zverev, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1) without saying anything about how it happened. But, as a player, in order to get the result you want, you need to know how to do it. And that means having a game plan.

Plans can change during the match, of course. There’s a saying that all battle plans are perfect until the first shot is fired, and then they are all useless. But much of what is valuable about the plan is the thinking that went into it. That thinking will help you figure out how to get the result you want.

Then during the match you can just “play your game (plan).”

Follow the bouncing ball….

What training requires

One of The Racquetball Blog staff recently met up with a racquetball coach we know. Coach is a gruff old guy, and this is how the meeting went.

"Hey coach! How's it going?" 

"Still getting up in the morning," he said. "What are you doing to improve your game?" Never one to beat around the bush, coach.

"Well, you know, it's summer, so I'm running a bit and working out." 

"Do you not understand English? I asked what are doing to improve your game? Be specific!"

"Uh, well, I'm running a couple of times a week and ---" 

"How many times a week? For how long? How far? At what pace?"

"Well, about half an hour, twice a week, and-- uhhhh...." 

"You don't really know, do you?" Coach asked, and our guy sheepishly shook his head. "Well, then you're not training. Do you know what training involves?"

"Oh sure! There's doing cardio and pumping weights and all that stuff!"

Coach sighed, "yeah, yeah, smart guy. But what training needs is this," and he pulled a little book and a pencil out of his pocket.

"What's that?" 

"What the hell's it look like? It's a pencil and a notebook. Tell me you're not as dumb as you look."

"I'm not as d--- No, wait, how's that going make me a better racquetball player?" 

"If you're training, then you need to be making progress. It's fine to be going for a run, or doing yoga or pilates or whatever the activity of the week is now - lord knows more people should be doing something instead of sitting around on their backsides. But really if you're only doing that, then you're just treading water, because you're not making progress. Training means progressing. And to know if you're progressing you need to keep a record. That's where this comes in," he said waving the pencil and notebook in the air.

"Oh, I see." 

"Do you? 'cause it sounds like you don't. Understand, you need to know what you're doing this week, so that you can do more next week. That's what progression means. Doing more later than you are now. But you won't know if it's more unless you have a record of what you're doing now."

"Well, I can just remember. I've got a good memory." 

"Well, ain't you special. People forget stuff. Believe me; they do, especially stuff they do a lot, and if you're training, you should be doing a lot of stuff, which means you should be writing it down--"

"I got an iPhone! Can I use that keep my records?"

"Sure tech-boy, use your iPhone. Write in the clouds, if you want, or open a vein and write in blood. Whatever. Just keep a record."

"Sure, coach!" 

"All right. I'll want to see that record later. Make sure you're actually making progress not just piddling about."

"Sure, coach!" 

Coach's eyes rolled, and he said "right. Well, it's lunch time and I'm hungry, so I'm going to go eat. Good-bye."

"See ya coach!"  

Follow the bouncing ball…. 

How not to play doubles

Some of The Racquetball Blog staff was at a tournament on the weekend and we saw a very entertaining B doubles match between some younger guys. We've long known that watching doubles matches with people who've got the adrenaline going but aren't necessarily at a high skill level can quite the spectacle in much the same way that a demolition derby can be.

Part of the reason it was so entertaining was that everyone (all right handers) served to the left side. This meant that no one was entirely sure of where they were supposed to be. You sometimes see teams serve to only one of their opponents when there's a clear difference in skill between their opponents (for example, we'd advise anyone playing doubles against a team with Kane Waselenchuk on it to serve everything to the other player).

But to do so as the default strategy when your opponents aren't dramatically different can be foolish if not actually dangerous for lower skilled players. It's a questionable strategy, because that kind of switching can cause uncertainty and confusion between you and your partner as to where you should be and who's going to take the next shot.

It can also be just as confusing for your opponents, which is how it can be dangerous, because they don't know where to be to get out of your way and don't know where you are when they are taking their shot.

K.I.S.S.

The simplest way to play doubles is to divide the court into thirds lengthwise and have one player responsible for the left, the other for the right, with the middle usually going to the player on the left, as he or she can use their forehand (assuming the player on the left is right-handed). Communication is also vitally important to clarify who's taking what shot, especially for teams that haven't played much together.

That said, you should also move up or back to compliment your partner. Thus, if your partner is in the back court taking a shot, you should move forward to cover your opponent's potential pinch shot, and vice versa.

Also, you generally serve to the side that you are on, which keeps your partner out of trouble. The guys we saw on the weekend did have their partner on the right side as they served to left, so they weren't endangering their partner on the serve.

Still, constantly switching sides when serving can be unsettling to even an experienced team. With a less experienced team it's likely more trouble than it's worth.

Doubles is a team game, and on teams it's important to know your role, and play your role. Changing roles is just asking for trouble.

Follow the bouncing ball....

Which serve should you hit? A or B?

Recently The Racquetball Blog presented the following scenario to several racquetball coaches:

Your player is in a tough match that's gone to a tie-breaker. Your player has been using serve A and serve B effectively, and your player's doing those serves from the same place in the service box (that is, both A & B are drive serves or lob serves, so your player's not giving anything away by how they set up in the service box). Now, it's late in the tie-breaker, and your player's won four consecutive points using serve A to get to match point.

Question: Do you want your player to hit serve A or serve B?

The relevance of this scenario could be seen this past weekend when Alvaro Beltran played Rocky Carson. In the match, Beltran had been using his typical serving strategy of drive serving to the left (Carson's backhand) on first serve and then lob serving to the right on second serve.

But on his first match point opportunity, Beltran drove serve to the right. That is, Beltran essentially chose serve B in the above scenario. And he lost the rally.

The coaches we surveyed were unanimous in their opinion that they'd want their player to hit serve A, not serve B. General coaching strategy holds that if you've found something that's working, you should keep doing it and continue to do it until it's not working. That is, don't fix what's not broken.

That said, there's also the coaching belief that you should have some variety in your serving strategy. But our coaching survey suggested that effectiveness trumps variety in this scenario.

Yet those of us who have been in this situation know that there can be a feeling when you get to match point having hit the same serve several times in a row that maybe your opponent will have finally figured it out. That this serve couldn't still be working, could it?

Our survey says most coaches would answer, yes, it could.

So when you find yourself in this type of situation, you should stay the course. Keep doing what's working, until your opponent proves he or she has found the solution (and for a serve, your opponent hitting one good return of serve is NOT proving it; proof should be at least two good returns of serve).

What did Beltran do? The next time he got to serve he hit a lob to the left, which would be serve C, and he won the rally.

Follow the bouncing ball....

Racquetball yes; only racquetball no.

The latest Racquetball Magazine issue focuses on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) with interviews of the top four IRT players: Kane Waselenchuk, Jack Huczek, Rocky Carson, and Shane Vanderson. Three of the four - Waselenchuk, Carson and Vanderson - mention that they played other sports when they were younger. That is, they didn't specialize in playing racquetball until they were in their later teens. Jason Mannino also played other sports when he was younger.

The issue of specialization in sport at a young age is common with some people thinking that the more you play your sport the better you will be at it, even if it means not doing other things, including other sports. In Canada, you can now play hockey 12 months of the year, and there can be pressure - real or imagined - on parents to have their kids participate in off-season hockey camps lest their kids fall behind their peers.

But most sport experts now believe that early specialization is foolishness, because many physical skills are easier to learn at a young age. Thus, if a child doesn't play some sports, the child may not learn physical skills that could benefit them later. For example, if you haven't learned to skate prior age 16, then you're not likely to make the NHL regardless of how much effort you put into training.

Playing many different sports will allow kids to develop fundamental movement skills - skills applicable in all physical activities - that can later be honed with sport specific skill development as necessary. If Michael Phelps didn't throw a ball as a kid, then he'll find it hard to play water polo, because you have to be able to accurately throw a ball in water polo regardless of how well you swim.

USA Hockey has completely bought into this idea, and they have a brilliant video illustrating it, which begins with a series of scenes with kids playing various activities outdoors in bright sunshine and the tag line "This is hockey." The video is on the USA Hockey's American Development Model website.

USA Hockey developed this model, because they realized that some of their kids who were struggling at hockey couldn't do other physical activities either. Thus, they recognized that the kids needed to do more than just hockey activities.

We mention this topic as the USA Racquetball's Junior Olympics are going on in Minneapolis this week. All of the kids playing there will have played a lot of racquetball, which is why they are good racquetball players. But if they have not played other sports, then they probably will not be as good at racquetball as they could be.

Often we think of kids who are excelling at multiple sports as being naturally gifted, but maybe those kids are doing so because they have learned skills from those sports that help them excel in general.

Follow the bouncing ball....

RB instruction : Shot selection

Today's installment in The Racquetball Blog instructional series is going to address something that we learned from watching the pro men play. But we're not going to talk about how you should do what they do. No, we're going to talk about how you shouldn't do what they often do, and neither should they.

Yes, boys and girls, we're talking about shot selection.

If you want to win, then you need to take the right shot at the right time. You'd think the pros would always do this, but they don't. And it costs them.

A case in point came at the 2008 Motorola World Championships in Denver during the semi-final match between Jason Mannino and Rocky Carson. Mannino was up 10-8 in the fourth game, and needed to win it to force a fifth game.

Carson hit a ball that came high off the back wall bouncing far into the front court, and rather than doing the simple thing - a straight kill or down the line pass - Mannino tried a touch shot into the front corner, which he left up. That allowed Carson to get to it and win the rally.

Mannino did end up winning that game, but it took several more rallies and the energy Mannino used up in winning that fourth game (e.g., during one rally he threw himself towards the back wall in a futile attempt to keep the ball in play) meant he had nothing left for the fifth, which Carson won 11-1. Not taking the right shot could well have cost Mannino the match.

In general, the best place for you to put the ball is the back corner closest to where you are positioned. Thus, if you're on the left side of the court, you want to hit the ball to the left back corner. This would be a down the line shot.

There may be times when it's good to play the balls into the front corners, but that's a lower probability choice and misses will leave the ball in a good position for your opponent. Thus, down the line is the money shot. Period.

What's that you say? Down the line's boring? Too much like squash? You say you're playing racquetball, so you want to splat and kill and pinch the ball, 'cause that's racquetball! Boo-yah!

The Power of Seduction

It's true that racquetball is a power and speed game, and with no barrier to hit the ball over (i.e., a net or tin), it's possible to hit spectacular shots that roll away flat from the front wall. All the pro guys can hit these kind of shots, and you want to do that too. Fair enough.

But understand that they try to hit spectacular shots too often, as in every time they swing at the ball. This is a mistake, and it limits their success.

Spectacular shots are low percentage shots, which means that they are only successful a low percentage of the time. If you're trying to hit a spectacular shot every time, how much success are you going to have? A low percentage.

The possibility of a spectacular shot is the Siren call of racquetball. You're on the court, and the ball is moving close to the side wall, and it calls out to you: "splat me! splat me!"

When you hit a side wall-front wall shot, there are three things that can happen, as a coach we know often says, and two of those things are bad. Either the ball skips, or it comes off the front wall into the middle of the court giving your opponent a perfect opportunity to win the rally.

But occasionally you hit a winning shot. Splat! This successful outcome varies across the times that you try these shots, which reinforces the behavior in the same way gambling behavior is reinforced: the success sometimes happens but not in a regular pattern, so to get more of that success you increase the number of times you perform the behavior.

So all the pro guys try to be spectacular all the time, but none of them have the game style to back it up, save one. Kane Waselenchuk has a spectacular game style, so he can try a bunch of crazy shots and make them work a good percentage of the time. But as the saying goes, "don't try that at home."

In the 2003 US Open final, Derek Robinson hit a ball to the back left corner. Waselenchuk went over to retrieve it, but when he got close to it, it took an unexpected bounce. Most of us mere mortals would have been hooped, or perhaps flailed at the ball in an attempt to hit it off the back wall.

That's not what Waselenchuk did. He threw his left arm up, twisted around, and hit a pinch shot into the front right corner that rolled out flat. It was unbelievable.

But that's the kind of thing that all the pros want to do. Now, when I say "pros" here, I mean "male pros," because the women aren't seduced by power like the men are. That may be a function of them having less power, but nevertheless no man has the same game style as, say, Christie Van Hees, who pounds the ball straight in time after time wearing down her opponents.

But who among you wouldn't want to have Van Hees's success?

Psychology of shot selection

You might partly be going wrong due to the belief that you need to hit a better shot (read: more spectacular shot, read: lower probability shot) to win a rally than is really necessary. This can especially occur as you play more skilled players, because they're hitting more spectacular shots, so you think you need to do that too.

But it's better to win a rally hitting three 80% shots than one 25% shot, because too often you're going to be on the losing end with that 25% shot. Even if someone's retrieved your down the line shot twice, they might not get it the third time. Yet even if they do, the effort in doing so will take its toll over the course of the game and match.

Thus, patience is required. The best example of that is Rocky Carson, whose game style is to hit a number of loopy shots that put his opponents off balance. He's waiting for his opportunity to hit a high percentage winning shot.

It's a strange strategy, but Carson's successful with it, because it takes advantage of the fact that other racquetball pros aren't patient enough to wait for their opportunity. Similarly, Mannino's strategy of frequent diving to keep the ball in play works because in letting his opponents hit more balls Mannino's often simply giving them more opportunities to make mistakes that he can take advantage of.

Conclusion

You want to play the ball to the back corners, and do so often. Have confidence that this is the right strategy, because who among you wouldn't want your opponent always trying to hit the ball from one of the back corners 38 feet from the front wall?

Follow the bouncing ball....

RB instruction : Serve Variety

To begin today's installment in The Racquetball Blog instruction series, riddle me this, Racquetball Blog Readers, how many serves are you comfortable with? Ron Brown, one of Canada's National Team coaches, believes many intermediate players have only one or two serves they're comfortable with, and that's not enough.

"You need to have plan B, C, D and E," for serving says Brown, so players should have "four or five effective serves, rather than one or two pet serves."

Brown advises developing serves that "you can count on in any situation." Obviously, if you're playing with two serves rather than one, you can be more aggressive on the first serve. But your second serve in those situations shouldn't be a weak lob you have little confidence in that you hit only on second serve just because you're afraid to fault with anything else.

The time to develop these serves is in your regular, recreational games. Brown suggests making a rule with yourself - the person you're playing with needn't know - that you're only going to hit drive serves to the right, say, for one game. Then pick another serve to work on for the next game.

Alternatively, "say you can't hit the same serve twice in a row," suggests Brown, or "use a rotation of serves." You might hit a drive, then a lob, then a Z, all to the right side, and then do those serves to the left, rotating through those 6 serves regardless of what the rally outcome is.

In tournament play, Brown suggests changing serve "if your serve has been ineffective twice in a row." Thus, if your opponent has made two consecutive winning returns of a particular serve, it's time for something different.

Note, that you needn't give up on a serve after one great return by your opponent, because that great return might have been a fluke.

Brown likens serving in racquetball to pitching in baseball. A batter may be fooled by a pitcher's fast ball for awhile, but the batter's likely to catch on to it eventually. And the pitcher may tire out from bringing the heat all the time, so it's in the pitcher's best interest to vary what he's serving up to the batter.

All good pitcher's have a variety of pitches they're comfortable with, and they move those pitches around in the strike zone, giving the batter several different looks. That's what racquetball players need to do with their serves.

There are many serve possibilities: drive, lob, Z, half lob, jam, to the left or to the right. Then add in the variation of standing in different spots in the service box as well as hitting a serve backhand, and you get a very large number of possibilities, if not an infinite number of possibilities.

That said, if you find a serve that's giving your opponent fits in a tournament match, keep doing it until he or she figures it out. But be prepared for your opponent to figure it out. You'll be in trouble in situations where your opponent is returning your one or two pet serves well, and you have no other serve to go to.

If you can develop two more serves you're comfortable with this summer, then you'll be winning matches this fall that you were losing in the spring.

Follow the bouncing ball....

RB instruction : 80% footwork

Today in our instruction series for the intermediate player, The Racquetball Blog talked to Darrin Schenck, coach of the Arizona State University (ASU) racquetball team, former top 20 player on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT), and author of Racquetball 101 and Percentage Racquetball both available through his website www.rbguru.com and Amazon.com. He stressed the importance of footwork.

"All racquet sports begin with footwork," says Schenck, so he suggests racquetball is "80% footwork."

"Many people run at the ball, and get too close to it," according to Schenck, which means they are unable to properly execute the nice level swings that they've practiced. He coaches players to approach the ball correctly, so that they can take their shot from the right position.

Schneck likens the forehand swing to hitting a baseball. Your feet are shoulder width apart; you stride into the ball such that you are parallel to the side wall. Your lead foot should be at 45 degrees pointing toward the front corner of the side wall you're facing.

"Swing from the bottom up," says Schenck. Thus, the swing begins with the feet, and then flows through your body - the legs, the hips, the torso, the shoulders, the arm, the wrist, the hand, and finally the racquet.

He coaches players to pull through the swing with the opposite side of the body to their racquet hand. So, a right handed player should pull through with the left side of her body, and vice versa for a left handed player. You shouldn't be using just your arm.

For intermediate players, getting the upper body into the swing is a big accomplishment. With advanced players, Schenck tries to get them to turn their hips into the swing before the shoulders, as this will generate more power. But this "is hard and requires good flexibility," according to him, and not every player has that flexibility, so players need to work up to that level.

Slightly off centre

One difference in Schenck's footwork philosophy is to be slightly off centre when the ball is in the back court.

For example, if the ball is in the back left corner, he advocates being a step to the right from the centre court position. His rationale for this is that it will put you in better position to hit either a cross court shot, which should come right at you, or a loose side wall-front wall shot, which should also come right over to where you are.

You'll be better positioned, according to Schenck, because it will be easier to step parallel to the right wall to take your forehand swing. By positioning yourself right in centre court, people often take "a cross over step that results in poor foot position, and limits the choices you have for your shot," according to Schenck.

It might sound like you're putting yourself out of position if your opponent hits a down the line shot, but Schenck feels you should still be able to make a play on a good down the line shot, perhaps with a ceiling ball, and loose down the line shots that come off the side wall will not be a problem, as they'll be coming in the middle. A great down the line shot is going to be a problem regardless of where you are positioned.

These are some of the techniques that Schenck's used to coach the ASU women's team to an intercollegiate national championship and the ASU team to 2nd place overall in 2007 and in 2008 the ASU women to a second place finish and a 6th place finish overall. The ASU team has no scholarship players, so they have to improve the players they have, and improving their footwork is 80% of the battle.

Follow the bouncing ball....

RB instruction : Away from the ball skills

In the second of our series on improving your racquetball skills, The Racquetball Blog talked to Jo Shattuck of the Racquetball Academy (www.racquetballacademy.com) and a top 10 women's professional player. We asked her what she would tell a player at the C or B level, who's played some tournaments, and is looking to improve. That is, your intermediate recreational player.

In instructing players, Shattuck talks about what you do at the ball and what you do away from the ball. She finds people learn the at the ball skills much sooner, because they're the "fun stuff," and the away from the ball skills are "very neglected."

Away from the ball skills are about court positioning. Shattuck sees players often watching the ball or simply waiting after they've hit it, as if there's nothing to do until their opponent hits the ball. But there is!

You need to move back to centre court, and Shattuck's guideline is that you want to get to centre court before your shot is going to take a second bounce. Doing so should result in you being in the centre court position prior to your opponent hitting the ball.

Centre court is not the absolute centre of the 40 foot by 20 foot floor space, but rather can be identified by the intersection of two imaginary diagonal lines. One running from where the front of service box meets the right side wall to the back left corner, and the other running from the front of the service box and left wall to the back right corner. This intersection is in the middle of the court, slightly behind the dashed service reception line.

But you shouldn't blindly go to centre court, because "that could be a safety concern," according to Shattuck, as you could be moving into the path of your opponent's shot or swing. You want to think about your movement, not react without thinking.

What should you be thinking about? "Look for your opponent's windows to hit the ball," says Shattuck, as reading those windows will give you a sense of what your opponent's going to do next.

Some shots produce larger windows to hit the ball than others. For example, a ceiling ball has a relatively large window, because it could be hit at a high contact point, medium, or low. On the other hand, a drive Z serve has smaller windows to hit the ball.

Regardless, you need to be ready for whatever your opponent's going to do. Shattuck likes to see players position themselves in centre court with their hips toward the front wall slightly biased towards the side their opponent is on.

To do so, have the foot on your opponent's side slightly back of your other foot. Thus, if you're in centre court and your opponent is in the right back corner, your right foot should be 12-18 inches back from your left foot, as you look over your right shoulder at what your opponent is doing.

You need to be watching your opponent, because you don't want to guess what's going to happen based on what you think should happen or what you would do, or whatever. "Don't go until you know!" says Shattuck.

Summary

In summary, Shattuck's advice is that, first, after you hit the ball, go to the centre court position, but don't do so blindly. Second, when in centre court, have your hips facing forward with a slight bias to where your opponent is. Third, don't go until you know, so don't move from centre court until you know where the ball is going next.

When you're playing better opponents, they'll be able to make the next shot, even as your shots improve. Thus, you need to improve your away from the ball skills. In doing so, you'll improve your overall performance.

Follow the bouncing ball....

Changes in racquetball instruction

It's June 1st, and if you're a pro racquetball player, you've likely put the racquet down for awhile. If you're playing in the World Games next month, you'll likely pick it up again in a couple of weeks. But if you're not, then you might wait until July.

But the rest of us are likely looking to continue playing, and you may be wondering what you can do to improve your racquetball game. Thus, The Racquetball Blog will bring you instructional information from some of the best coaches in the world about what you can do to improve your game.

To begin, let's talk about how racquetball instruction has changed.

Marty Hogan's Power Racquetball was published in 1978 to a burgeoning racquetball populous that wanted to know what Hogan was doing to become the dominant racquetball player. In it Hogan describes his power racquetball swing as a pendumlum motion, and that's how he generates his tremendous power. Moreover, Hogan states "I get more than 50 percent of my power from my wrist!" (p. 49).

However, the pendulum swing is problematic and that Hogan got that much power from his wrist is simply false.

The pendulum swing is problematic, because if your racquet follows the path of a pendulum, there's only going to be one good point to hit the ball. If you don't hit the ball at the very bottom of that pendulum path, then it's likely going to go higher or lower than you intend. Higher will likely lead to a set up for your opponent, but lower will likely be a skip.

Thus, timing is crucial to this technique. Perfect timing is very difficult, especially when you're under pressure, as you're likely to be in any competitive match. That Hogan was so successful with it speaks volumes to his athletic ability.

Currently, instruction has changed from the pendulum swing to the flat swing. With a flat swing, the racquet moves through a horizontal plane rather than a vertical plane in, what we'll call, the contact zone, which is the area generally between the shoulders. The ideal contact point is at the lead shoulder, but you may want to hit it early or late in the zone depending on the shot you're planning.

Contacting the ball early or late when swinging flat will likely result in a pinch or cross court shot rather than an intended down the line, but not a set up or a skip, as with a mistimed pendulum swing. Thus, a flat swing is a more consistent method to hitting the ball than the pendulum swing.

Not all in the wrist

You may well have heard of the flat swing, but you might still be of the belief that much of the power in a racquetball swing comes from the wrist, as Hogan believed. To understand why that's incorrect, please lay your forearm against your thigh, and tell us which is bigger?

Unless you're an anatomical freak (perhaps like Wolverine, who was always drawn with huge forearms in those old X-men comics), your leg is bigger. So, dear Racquetball Blog Reader do you think your leg or your wrist/arm can generate more power?

What's that you say? You're holding the racquet in your hand not your foot so shouldn't the arm be more important than the leg here? Hmm, how can we put this? No. Not only no, but absolutely not.

Look, does a baseball player hit the ball using only his arms? Or a baseball pitcher throw with only his arm? No. Hitting and pitching, just like swinging a racquet, are whole body movements, and in such movements, most of the power is coming from the largest muscles: the legs, as well as torso.

The photos of Marty Hogan's Power Racquetball well illustrate this, as Hogan's legs are like tree trunks, and we're not talking popular saplings. Thus, it's easy to understand how Hogan generated such power in his shots with legs like that.

So, when you're on court next, try pushing off with your legs when hitting the ball, or alternatively consciously stepping into your shot, moving forward to meet the ball. The easiest time to do that is when drive serving. See how that goes. We bet you'll hit the ball that much faster, and in doing so gain little more advantage over your opponent.

In the coming days and weeks, look for more information on improving your racquetball game.

Follow the bouncing ball....

'Tis the season

We are in the holiday season, so you might be hearing those familiar tunes on the radio ("Fa la la la la, la la la laaaaaa") and in the shops. You might be wondering what to get your favorite racquetball player this season. The Racquetball Blog has some suggestions.

We suggest getting them a book from Human Kinetics, one of the largest - if not the largest - publishers of sports material in the world. Moreover, they have published two good racquetball books in recent years.

Racquetball Fundamentals is by Jim Winterton, a many time coach of the US National racquetball team as well as coaching the Mexican and Ireland Nationals teams.

New for 2008 is Racquetball - Steps to Success by Dennis Fisher, coach of the Brigham Young University racquetball team.

Going back to 1996, Human Kinetics also published Ed Turner and Woody Clouse's book Winning Racquetball - Skills, Drills, and Strategies.







In addition to these books, Human Kinetics has books covering all athletic topics, including strength & conditioning, fitness, wellness & exercise, sport & exercise science, recreation and coaching.

Moreover, if you order one of these books through The Racquetball Blog by clicking on the links above, you'll be supporting The Racquetball Blog and all our good works. And that would make our holiday season all the more merrier.

Follow the bouncing ball....