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Perfect
Practice
A competitive match can be a form of practice.
It is possible to compete while "working out" certain aspects of
your game. In fact, there are some lessons that can be learned only
through competition: anyone who ever scraped to save a match point
knows that the urgency of the situation cannot be simulated. A
competitive match, however, is NOT the time to work on your strokes.
Suppose you have a black belt in karate and you
are attacked in an alley by a gang of thugs. Will you worry about
correct form, or will you simply kick their lights out? When time is
limited, thinking is a big mistake. Likewise, a match is not the
time to think about or experiment with your strokes, and this is why
planned practice is so important. Practice is the time to
experiment, but mostly, it is time to rehearse your strokes so they
become familiar and dependable in a game situation.
In any discussion of a racquetball stroke, it
is important to distinguish between a rehearsed stroke from an
improvised stroke. A rehearsed stroke is acquired through practicing
at a controllable pace with a simple objective of hitting reliable,
effective shots. An improvised stroke is a spontaneous reaction that
occurs during match play when the objective is doing whatever it
takes to win.
An improvised stroke is usually inefficient,
but it may be the only way to save a point. While relying entirely
on improvised strokes is an impractical approach to winning, one
rarely wins a close match on rehearsed strokes alone. Work to avoid
match situation where an improvised stroke is the only option, but
accept that those situations are bound to occur. When you see no
other option, don't hesitate to improvise unless the attempt runs
the risk of injury. Resorting to an improvised stroke does not
insult your talent; it complements your will to win.
In order to develop and maintain efficient
stroke production, you must create a routine of rehearsing your
strokes in a noncompetitive atmosphere. Of the thousands of excuses
for not practicing, the most absurd is that too much rehearsal will
make you an unimaginative, human-ball machine type of player. I have
never heard a player say, "I'm tired of hitting one terrific shot
after another."
The least imaginative thing you can do is to
continually rely on your ability to improvise. Improvisation is
necessary when the situation controls you; imagination is necessary
to control the situation. Rehearsing your strokes will never make
you unimaginative. To the contrary, the more situations you
rehearse, the more imaginative your range of options. Rehearse your
strokes in a wide variety of situations using different planned
drills to work on your fundamentals and it will be your opponent who
will have to resort to improvised strokes.
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