The Dyas Family

Ten Guidelines to Winning Racquetball

1. Come Prepared. Preparation for me entails eating properly before I play, being on time and stretching thoroughly. There have been days when I drank a soda or ate a big meal less than an hour before playing racquetball. I ended up feeling sick and sluggish and performing poorly. On days when I arrived late, I felt rushed to prepare and was exhausted before even the first serve! When I arrive on time, it gives me a chance to stretch thoroughly, which in addition to avoiding injury, enables me to reach more balls than I would have if I had not stretched.

2. Know Your Opponent. Now, this is usually impossible if you’re playing a tournament match, but do your best to watch him play his other matches or ask around if anyone knows him. For people you play regularly, get to know their strengths and weakness. Mitigate their strengths and exploit their weaknesses. For example, one of my regular opponents has a lethal forehand and struggles with ceiling shots to his backhand. You can bet I do everything I can to give him a steady dose of those, and hit only to his forehand when I’m confident I’ll hit a kill shot.

3. Return to the Basics. To get off on the right foot, I have to consciously focus on the basics – knees squared and bent, eye on the ball, racquet back, follow through, prepare for the next shot. I find if I do this consciously at the beginning of a match, my mind will eventually take over and do it unconsciously after a while, allowing me to focus on other things like my shot selection and game strategy.

4. Work. After consistently struggling against one of my regular opponents recently, I realized I wasn’t playing hard enough. I wasn’t working. There were balls I could have gotten to that I just didn’t run after. There were serves that caught me flat-footed because I wasn’t watching his delivery. There were balls I teed up for him in the middle of the court because my previous shot was ill-prepared for. Now, when I feel myself starting to lose focus or I sense I’m not putting forth 100% effort, I pause and tell myself to “Work.”

5. Don’t Give an Inch. There are few things more frustrating than leading a game significantly and then allowing your opponent to comeback or even beat you! Even if you escape with a win, you probably expended more energy than necessary which puts you at a disadvantage for the next game. Therefore, if you’re playing to win, you can never afford to let up. Racquetball is a game of momentum, and if you allow your opponent to build confidence by scoring 3 or 4 points in a row on you, you jeopardize your own confidence and it’s a downward spiral from there. As hard as it may be (even when you’re winning 12-0), remain focused, and do not allow your opponent back into a game because you relaxed.

6. Learn Some New Tricks. If you’re playing in a tournament, chances are everything you show your opponent will be new to him, so just bring your best game. However, if you’re playing one of your regular opponents, over time he’s going to be able to predict your shots if you don’t show him something different. For the majority of a game, I’ll focus on executing on my best shots. However, at times, I’ll take a risk and try to catch my opponent off-guard by hitting an experimental serve or taking a ball off the side wall I would have normally hit to the front. Sometimes, even if you end up hitting a weaker shot, the fact you caught your opponent a little off guard may give you an edge on your normal shot repertoire.

7. Control the Center. Sometimes I find myself in the midst of a rally and I realize I’m trying to hit passing shots from the rear of the court while my opponent is attempting kills on every shot from the center of the court. When this happen, you have to focus on getting your opponent to the back of the court, and getting yourself in the center. When you’re in the center, you have time to look back, get a good read on the shot your opponent is going to hit and be able to respond with a kill shot of your own from closer proximity to the front wall. I find you also have more margin for error when hitting kills from an advantageous position, because your opponent has more ground to cover to get to the ball.

8. Play a Variety of Opponents. If you play the same person all the time, your game is going to develop primarily in the ways it needs to in order to beat that person. Then, someday when you go to play someone else, you’ll find what worked before doesn’t work anymore. Try to play as many different people on a regular basis as possible. Play against different skill levels, people with different shot selections, and if possible, both lefties and righties. By playing a variety of people, you not only are exposed to more strategies that could be employed against you, but you have a chance to develop different aspects of your own game.

9. Watch Your Opponent’s Shot Preparation. This is one of my greatest challenges. You give yourself a tremendous advantage if you know what shot your opponent is going to hit before he hits it. By watching your opponent prepare to hit a shot you should be able to put yourself in a better position to return it. Sometimes this means looking back from the center of the court to the rear. Sometimes this is knowing whether your opponent is going to hit a touchy drop shot in the front of the court or wail away on a passing shot. The more you play someone, the more you should be able to predict their shot selection.

10. Relax. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the flow of the game and to get frustrated if you’re not playing well or if your opponent is playing exceptionally well. It’s important to take a minute to relax, breathe and compose yourself. Each point is available to either player even when your opponent has the momentum. Focus on hitting a great serve or a great return and then focus on hitting a great next shot. Even if your opponent ends up winning that game, hopefully you’ve gotten your game back on track to win the next one or at least feel good about how you’re playing.