Bouncing back after losing a match is not easy to do, but it is a MUST if you want to be successful and build your championship game. It’s inevitable that we ALL win and lose matches, but it is what we do when we lose a match that counts the most. Losing should be a learning experience, NOT beating yourself up experience. (more…)
[caption id="attachment_1322" align="alignright" width="199"] Fran Davis[/caption] Just because some things may sound elementary doesn’t mean they are not important in intermediate and advanced levels of play. Some players get to the intermediate levels while ignoring the core strategies—which is why they plateau. Also, after you reach the intermediate and advanced levels of play, there’s more to know. Remember…when you strategize, you are being proactive, which is taking control of the match. You are in a much better position to win, which is your goal. Now I am going to give you a list of ADVANCED STRATEGIES to help you carry out your
[caption id="attachment_1742" align="alignright" width="385"] Photo by restrungmag.com[/caption] If you watch any sport, you'll see bad calls. Referees are human. Humans make mistakes. For the most part, you'll notice the athletes let it go moving onto the next play rather than harping on the bad call. Take a tip from those pro racquetball athletes: do not let a bad call affect you adversely. If you keep thinking about it, you'll lose more points because you couldn't let it go...a BIG, BIG mistake. Fran Davis shares how to move on from bad calls. (more…)
In sport psychology, we say there is only one time, and it is now. When are you going to start to focus? Now! When are you going to win your serve? Now! When are you going to start to play well? Now! In sports the past is gone and the future never comes, so in racquetball you have to learn that there is only one ball, one shot, one serve, and one point at a time, and that time is always now. That is truly the real beauty that every shot you hit only happens in the now. (more…)
Your ultimate mental toughness goal is to achieve “peak play”. Peak play is when you are playing your best and everything feels right. You are on automatic pilot and you just see it and do it. It is truly amazing what the body and mind can accomplish together. (more…)
Playing the percentages, or in other words, playing high-percentage racquetball, gives you the edge. When you play high-percentage racquetball, you make more shots than you miss; when you play low-percentage racquetball, you miss more shots than you make. If you play the percentages, you make it more difficult for your opponent, causing them to make more mistakes that lead to your easy points. If you shoot the ball prematurely or consistently try to kill balls that you cannot successfully kill, then you do not give your opponent the chance to miss. (more…)
This is a strategy that most people don’t think about. Often players either do not like their opponent for one reason or another or they are playing a friend who they like very much. Unfortunately, if they cannot get these thoughts out of their heads, they generally overplay, want to win too badly, or play too nice because they do not want to hurt their friend’s feelings. These thoughts are crippling. (more…)
Ideally, you want to get into a state of total concentration and focus on the court because that is when you play your best and develop a winning game. Concentration is total awareness, giving your undivided or fixed attention to the game. Focus is the narrowing of concentration onto a specific thought, idea, or object to a central point. In other words, you concentrate on the game and focus on the ball and your opponent. (more…)
In every sport, positioning is everything and racquetball is no different. In racquetball, being in the right place at the right time is critical to giving yourself the best chance of getting to the ball a majority of the time and doing something with it once you get there, whether to defend or to score. Generally, the person who owns and controls center court has a greater chance of winning the match. This strategy is key. (more…)
In sports, the past is gone and the future never comes, so in racquetball you have to learn that there is only one ball, one shot, one serve, and one point at a time. Time is always now. That is truly the real beauty: every shot you hit only happens in the now. (more…)
