When I first started playing racquetball, I was getting my lunch handed to me. But, you keep playing in hopes of getting better. I was a good athlete, so if I can improve my game then I should be winning a lot more than I was losing.

But, I still was losing.

So, now you start eliminating reasons why I was losing.

  • Well, my racquet wasn’t necessarily top of the line. Okay, so I invested in a good racquet.
  • I needed the right glove to grip the racquet correctly. Changed that up and bought a good glove.
  • My shoes were a little slick and I was sliding on the court. Invested in some good court shoes that are great for change of direction.
  • The other players were just in better shape than me. Um, this one is completely false. I didn’t have to improve my fitness level. I’m in better shape than everyone playing in this league.
  • I sucked. My skill wasn’t as good as the other players. And this is the problem that I haven’t rectified. Let’s discuss this further.

In order to fix the fact that my racquetball skill is not up to par with the others, the obvious solutions would be:

  1. To find a coach and practice more.
  2. Then play more frequently to develop the skills that I’m working on with the coach.

By process of elimination, my only excuse left to why I wasn’t good was my last excuse. All I need to do to be the racquetball player I desire is to improve that. Easy solution right?

I have not done either one of those. Yes, I would like to win, but it doesn’t bother me that much yet to where I feel I need to pay money and do racquetball lessons to improve my game. I feel that my athleticism will make up for my faults and I can remain competitive to where eventually I will start playing better.  (Does that make any sense at all??)

I also don’t play more because on the other days I exercise with weights and do different cardio. On the weekends, I like to unwind and spend time with my family. Thus, I don’t exercise or play racquetball unless absolutely necessary. That is more important to me than playing more racquetball to improve my game.

Basically, what I’m saying is by not practicing my game and only playing once a week, if that, I hope to improve my game and start beating the upper echelon players on a consistent basis. Even though, that same mentality has gotten me anywhere for the last, I don’t know, DECADE.

Isn’t that the definition of insanity?? Continuing to do the same thing getting the same result hoping to get a different one.

Let me ask you a question? Are you insane too?

Why do you continue to do the same exercise routine hoping to drop 20 pounds, but it isn’t happening? You have the same couple excuses.  Change it up. Stop the insanity!!

Or are you an athlete who continues to complain about lack of playing time, or the bad coach, the team sucks, or you’re not in the right system. Do you do something to better yourself as an athlete?  Are you doing something to improve your athleticism or skill at the sport?

Flip the script! By not doing anything, what you are really saying is I don’t like this sport enough to care if I improve or not. I like playing racquetball. I’ll just have to deal with the continual losing because I don’t care to do what it takes to really improve my game.

You must not really care about getting better either. And that certainly is A-OK. But, don’t give me the excuses why things aren’t going your way. Just say, “I’ve accepted that I will get cut from the team or ride the bench because I like playing, but I don’t want to do what it takes to improve.”

In the words of the immortal Judge Smails from Caddyshack, “The world needs ditch diggers too!”

Photo courtesy of Nimish Gogri on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gogri/