April 3, 2009

Racquetball Lessons

I'm fairly decent at racquetball, but I want to get better. This desire was sparked when I was absolutely destroyed by a semi-pro player I found online. Dana is sponsored by Head and plays consistently in tournaments around the country. He recently won the men's "B" bracket, so he has moved up to the men's "A" bracket, the highest competitive bracket. I don't understand the structure of professional and semi-pro racquetball, so I may be butchering what he told me.

Point is, Dana is good. Very good. And he's trained and practiced. That, I am convinced, is the difference between us. I picked up racquetball a year and a half ago, and I've never been told anything about my swing. I know to swing with my wrists and let the ball get between my knees and the floor before I hit it. Other than that, though, I'm flying blind. I hit what I think are good shots.

When we played, Dana gave me a few pointers about my swing. I really want to be extremely good at racquetball, so I took his pointers to heart. I've been experimenting with my swing, both on my own and in games with my poor, unsuspecting friends. I played around with a new serve on Wednesday, and A. said that trying to return it (and often failing miserably) made her feel "legit."

I don't know what else to do, though. I can't afford racquetball lessons. Everything I found online looks like it was cobbled together by a 13 year-old kid using Geocities. I can find detailed images of stretches to do before and after racquetball


but no definite resources for various types of racquetball swings and shots.

Any suggestions? How does one get better at a sport without knowing the proper technique? Where could I go to find out more without having to pay for lessons?

I'm playing this afternoon, and I'll keep experimenting. Hopefully I'll continue to get better. At the very least, I'll look damn good while doing it.

2 comments:

  1. haha... It really did make me feel legit! Is that crazy?

    Also, I really want to do all of those stretches before I play next time. Just another thing for Kerry to make fun of, I guess. :)

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  2. where is the first half of that stretching chart?

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