Winning Racquetball by Woody Clouse

Winning Racquetball: Part 1 of 4
by Woody Clouse | www.WinningRacquetball.com

Every player who has ever walked onto a racquetball court has always wanted to give themselves a chance to play their very best. Beginning at this point, what follows is the single most beneficial contributing factor that will give you a chance to play up to your potential. This is the beginning -- without this, you will never play to the utmost level of your capability. This is the nucleus of where quality play begins and this is, simply, the most important factor in the sport of racquetball. As soon as you put this element into action you become a better player. That one, single thing is … PREPARATION.

There are many forms of preparation: mental and physical preparation, game planning, practice and many other forms that I will go into further along in this series. Right now, I’m referring to the preparation that each player should be doing right after they have struck the ball, as they defend against their opponents’ next shot and then prepare to hit their next shot. It is by far the most overlooked and vital ingredient in the success of every player, in every competitive match. The first step in executing proper preparation is to keep both hands up and in front of you 100% of the time when the ball is in play. There are a number of natural, beneficial responses that occur when you do this.

• Number one. Your intuition improves. With your hands up, your body intuitively has a desire to respond. You naturally become more proactive and your ability to respond improves 100%.
• Number two. You become a more aware player. Due to the body being intuitive about its responsiveness, your awareness dramatically improves. When this takes place, you automatically give yourself more knowledge of where the ball is going, thus allowing you a lot more time to respond to it.
• Number three. You instantly become a more difficult player to beat because of the amount of pressure you begin to apply to your opponent. Your opponent will make many more unforced errors, due to the pressure of feeling like they have to hit a more precisely executed shot.
• Number four. You will also become a more consistent player because your feet become set at an earlier stage. This allows more time to make any adjustments that will be needed to become more stable and balanced during execution.
• Number five. You will become a much faster and quicker player because your arms are so heavily involved with your foot speed. You now have the ability to pump your arms and legs harder and faster, which adds to your mobility and to your footwork. With your hands down you simply cannot move as efficiently, and you lose speed and agility.
• Number six. With your hands up, you benefit by having your racquet in a readied position whenever you turn your shoulders. This gives you the monstrous advantage of being able to swing at balls that you could only poke at before. You do not have to worry about getting your racquet into a readied position after you set your feet. Whenever you have time to turn and hit a ball, you now have time to swing at it. This improves your ability to keep balls down the line as well as hit balls back with greater control and consistency. All those balls that are currently getting pushed back can now be ripped back!
• Number seven. Your shot selection improves. With the increased amount of time you have – due to your hand being up – you now have a more time to hit the ball in an area that will force your opponent to move and that will allow you to get into, or stay in, center court.

So with all this in mind, enjoy the fact that you can walk onto the court from this point forward and know that you are giving yourself the first step to bringing out your best and getting one step closer to playing to your true potential. And know in your heart that you are now more PREPARED!

Check back here soon, for the rest of this series! – Woody Clouse