The Mental Game

I discovered racquetball as a freshman in high school. I moved from California to Phoenix, where every high school and most parks had 3-wall outdoor courts. I played outdoors for 10 years before converting to indoor racquetball when I moved to Albuquerque in the early 1990s.

I played my first tournament at age 20, placing 2nd in the “B” division. Within a couple years, I spent every waking moment either playing racquetball, or cross-training in preparation for tournaments. I was seldom the most gifted athlete on the court, relying on speed, front court control, and a unique playing style to even the playing field. I don’t pretend to be some sort of amazing player, reaching only the highest levels of amateur play, and only playing in a few tournaments a year; however, I recognize my success on the court was more than a sum of my parts.

I developed my training program in my early 20s. Counter to most advice, my training method was virtually unchanged over the course of my 30-year career. In fact, my court play suffered when I strayed too far from my tried and true methods.

I self-taught myself in every aspect of racquetball, never taking any lessons of any kind. I picked up the game naturally, working on various parts of my game for 5 years before starting tournament play.

Racquetball has a couple elements all players must deal with. Match games run about 20 minutes, and the sport involves repetitive motions, with serve, backhand, forehand, and footwork motions happening hundreds of times a match. I centered my physical and mental training on these two facts.

I would start training for tournaments about 5 weeks out. Ideally, I would play 4 or 5 days a week, cross-training for an hour after each playing session, whether or not I felt up to it. The better I held this regimen through 4 weeks, the better my tournament results.

All my cross-training involved 20-minute increments. I started the Stairmaster, beginning at 10 minutes and a lower speed level, then working my way up to twenty minutes at the highest speed level at the end of 4 weeks.

Weight training was split by body parts, with legs, chest & back, and arms split over three days, with stomach work added to every workout. Each of my primary workouts was just about 20 minutes long. Stomach work, also 20 minutes in length. Stomach work ranged from 800 to 1000 total reps and took 20 minutes to complete.

All weight training and stomach work was high-rep, low-weight, matching the repetitive nature of racquetball. I would do one set of 30 rep on any given exercise, and then move to the next exercise. I did three exercises on each body part, so chest was one set of upper, middle, and lower chest muscles, followed by one set of flys. That was 120 reps on chest, preceded by the same number split between upper and lower back.

The physical 20-minute exercise increments trained my brain to focus in 20-minute increments.

During play, a standard strategy was to pick an opponent’s body part, normally the backhand, but also footwork at times, and attack it, over and over. I mentioned in a “Glory Days” post that I knew an opponent (Ken Goldstein) was done because he stumbled moving for a serve return.

I left out I had pounded that side of the court and Ken’s body for a game and a half, forcing him to repeatedly execute a cross-over step. Ken’s first misstep was followed by many more as I continued to create the weakness, expose it and attack it some more.

Jessie Harden was a little different. I discovered by accident that Jessie didn’t fit in certain parts of the court due to his size. I found I could place balls in those spots often enough to gain an advantage. I also knew Jessie was a beast when he was allowed to set up on a shot. Therefore, I hit the ball early and often against Jessie, not allowing him to set up for the next shot.

Realize, opponents were trying to impose their will and attack my weaknesses at the same time I was implementing my strategies. That is where the mental preparation came into play. One secret weapon I liked to utilize was video games, usually racing games.

Video games put me in positions where I had to be clutch to get the victory, whether pulling off a pass on the last lap, or fending off challengers. Unlike humans, video games did not make mistakes, allowing me to gain an advantage facing error prone humans.

Divisional play also contributed to my mental training. The Open Division in racquetball consists of two divisions, open and Elite. Elite players are on a slightly lower tier than open players, normally due to a dearth of serve weapons. Just like the Open Division, anyone could in Elite.

 I was usually one of the top favorites when I played Elite. People questioned why I played Elite due to my superior talent level, but I thought it was important to play as the underdog and the favorite. I am convinced winning when expected to win contributed to my ability to win as the underdog.

I used to play in a February tune-up tournament to get ready for State. I purposely trained soft for this tournament. I used the tournament as a barometer for where I needed to get for State. At the same time, I wanted opponents to get a false sense of my playing level going into State. This strategy worked to perfection against Jessie Harden in 2006.

I played Jessie in the February Super Bowl Tournament, losing 15-14, 15-14. I came back and beat Jessie at State, 15-13, 4-15, 11-10. I knew I had another gear after the Super Bowl tournament. Ken Goldstein told me someone came up and told him Jessie, the defending state champion, had lost.

It was Branson, wasn’t it?

I had told Kenny after Super Bowl that I felt pretty good about playing Jessie so tight 6 weeks out from state. Leading up to State, I hit on all training, played 5 days a week, cross-trained after playing, stuck to the 20-minute training regimen per body part, played video games for training purposes, and broke training 5 days before my first match.

 I do not remember these details per se. I just know whenever I had greater success than expected on the racquetball court, I executed my training program without fail.

Before a big match, I went in my trophy room and looked at some of my hardware. I would reflect back on certain matches, and the mental strength required to persevere in key moments. I called the practice, "Praying to the Racquetball Gods". When I executed my training in its entirety, the prayer part of the program was just a formality.

Mark Branson MBA, MSL