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.

(little morning humor for you)

;)

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.

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 ;-).