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Dan’s Tips on Conditioning

December 14th, 2011 Comments off

AGILITY for a racquetball athlete can be most clearly defined as the ability to maneuver your way around the court as you are getting into position to hit the ball as it comes off the wall at different angles, heights, and speeds while having a sense of where your opponent is on the court. We can also call this “being light on your feet” or being “on the balls of your feet”, in other words being able to make adjustments “on a dime.”

If you can relate agility to a football player, it would best be described by a running back approaching the line knowing there are guys ready to hit him from all directions. He recognizes an opening and accelerates towards it, but finds a bigger athlete running towards him. In an instant he’s able to maneuver his body and feet to make the quick adjustment to avoid the collision.

By concentrating your efforts on maneuvering your body around the court and around your opponent, you will not only be able to get to more shots, but it will enhance your ability to perform the techniques and shots you’ve learned once you get there because you will have more time. With MORE time your shot selection will also be enhanced because you will be able to think…where am I, where is the ball, what’s the best shot to hit?

There are specific exercises that develop your agility and helps you to be “lighter on your feet” on the court so that when the ball is moving in excess of over 100 mph you can react to the ball in a split second.

Check out the exercises in our book, “Championship Racquetball.”

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Dan’s Tips on Conditioning

June 11th, 2011 Comments off

The techniques and skills of racquetball require five different speed motions:

  1. STARTING SPEED: getting up to the highest rate of speed as quickly as possible so you can get into good center court position or have better return of serves.
  2. FOOT SPEED: to negotiate balls that are hit at different angles and come off the wall at different angles, speeds and trajectories.
  3. HIP SPEED: (or rotation) is often necessary to turn and run as well as used to generate more power which we outlined explicitly in Chapters One and Two, Forehand and Backhand techniques.
  4. BACKPEDAL SPEED: is to relocate back into good center court after the serve or move back to the back court from center court to hit a ceiling ball or move back from the front court to center court after you retrieved a great pinch or kill shot.
  5. CHANGE of DIRECTION SPEED: is an often overlooked element of movement skills, but THE MOST important in racquetball. There are four types of change of direction speed that we’ll work on, side to side, forward backward, turning and running, and jumping.

***Conditioning, five different speed motions, can be found in our book Championship Racquetball.

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