Lance Winslow writes:

Did you win the Racket Ball Tournament or did you choke? If you did not win, why?

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Chris Knight writes:

A 19 year old from New Mexico won it, a 18 year old took 2nd and I think the 3rd place guy was a 15 year old.

The tournament was a chance to play each other and test out the new distinctions we learned from the pros during the previous 4 days of 14 hours of drills, lectures, video tape analysis, etc.

The reality is that I didn’t even qualify to be in this camp and I had to fight my way into it as it was for open level players only. The application asked which state or regional tournaments I was a champ at… Heck, I just started playing local tournaments and took my first real win 3 months ago in the Men’s C division.

This coming weekend I’m heading down to Chicago to go for my Men’s B division win. In racquetball, everyone sandbags, which means you have to be A level to win the C tournmaments; you have to be AA level to win the B tournaments, and you have to be a low-level Open level player to take an A tournament win.

I’m an A-level Racquetball player and damn proud of it…with my sights set on winning a true A level tournament within 12 months.

If I put in another 150-200 hours of practice, drills, more video tape analysis, get more racquetball coaching, by 2007 I could be playing in the Men’s 35+ Open level.

Long story short, I didn’t win this tournament. Why? I was in over my head… but I showed up at the hardest racquetball training camp in the country, did what the racquetball pro’s told me to do, and have a game plan to make up the difference in my racquetball mechanical deficiencies until I reach my peak potential. Blah blah blah… :-)

The pro’s said it takes 35,000 practice strokes of the perfect form in order to fully commit it to muscle memory. I just picked up this sport about 7 years ago and didn’t get serious with it until the last few years. Beats the heck out of running on a treadmill or elipitcal to burn off 600-800 calories in an hour.

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Dina Giolitto writes:

Great, but the question is, did you write an article on it. If not, why?

(little morning humor for you)

;)

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Lance Winslow writes:

Well indeed, this is worthy of an article on many subjects for instance; Self-Improvement, how to. You know learning from the experts. Also the differences between reflex and reaction times with muscles in high action sporting events. Perhaps how to live a well-balanced life in the high-stress Internet at the speed of Thought.

There are a lot of lessons in the answer to this question. For instance it is not always about winning, it is about the journey towards forward progression to perfection. Although, for myself I just like winning, so perhaps I should join in the potential of mastering, learning and growing as I move into the new endeavor of writing. Shouldn’t we all? What about all of you? Ah the lessons learned. Think on this.

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Rich Rojas writes:

That’s a great commitment to the sport Chris. Learning from the pros is a great way to accelerate your game. Whether it’s taking lessons from a golf pro or attending a basketball fantasy camp. It’s also good to play against others that are more advanced than you are, but hopefully not too advanced.

I’d have to put Racket Ball up there with full-court basketball in aerobic intensity. It’s definitely a heart-pumper, but please don’t knock the elliptical (don’t care about the treadmill). Unless you’re playing Racket Ball everyday, you may want to cross train on an elliptical on your non-playing days. Sorry, I couldn’t let a swipe at ellipticals go by without a response ;-).

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