1. Warming up the proper way for racquetball can make a huge difference in your game. The best exercise to start with his hitting ceiling balls. This is fairly easy on your arm and gives you a good gauge of where you need to be hitting the ball. Next I recommend going to the backhand as this is for most the next easiest swing on the arm. From there move on to your slap shots and splat shots. Lastly work on your serves you plan on using in game and finally finish with a drill forces you to get to the ball and be in positions repetitively. For all swings do not move on until you are confident in your accuracy for the variations of the shots you are practicing. You also want to build the power of your swing up slowly allowing the muscles to warm up properly. This is one of the most important steps in becoming a skilled player is mastering your warm up process. The whole idea of these exercises is to become as confident in your swings as possible before you play.

2. Use move and hit drills more frequently than drop and hit drills. These drills are all about footwork. Focus on moving to the ball rather than lunging with your body. This is very important not only for proper set up to hit the ball but also to put you in position to move for the ball.

3. Use the drop and hit drill to focus on developing power through your lower body. Doing completely stationary drop and hit drills is a great way to develop good muscle memory for generating power from the lower half of the body where it should be coming from. When incorporating movement it increases risk of cheating with your upper body.

4. Take care of your equipment. Make sure you are conscious of your racquet health. Its a good rule of thumb to get your racquet restrung and re gripped about every year or so.

5. Be conscious of your wrist movement in your swings. Twisting the wrist during your swing greatly increases risk for errors. Consciously make an effort to flatten out the forearm and backhand throughout your swings.

6. Turn matches lost into matches won. One of the biggest challenges, particularly in an individual sport, is overcoming a loss. Whether it is a friendly game or a competitive match it is important to learn from your losses. Consider filming your matches and practice sessions and analyzing your losses. Facing better opponents and facing the flaws in your game consistently is where true growth comes from.

7. Know your weak side and how to handle it. Many people consider their weak side to be an obvious flaw in their game that they simply have to tolerate just like everyone else. This weakness well known by you may not be obvious at all to your opponent. Rather than shy away from that side, consider playing it right off the bat. If you can kill a few shots this may throw your opponent off and get them playing your good side. While this is a risk it has paid off for me in the past and I highly recommend trying this tactic once you feel comfortable playing your weak side.

8. Be conscious of your footwork during rallies. Your footwork solely dictates how hard of a shot you will be able to hit once you get to the ball. Leaning forward will through off your base of power. Consciously drill rallies and make a conscious effort to keep your weight back on every shot.

9. Short jam your drive serves. When hitting the drive serve; try hitting tight angles on the corners that oppose your opponents strong hand. The ball slides down the wall and is very difficult to get off the drive serve. This is known as the “short jam” drive serve.

10. Play away from the backhand. The typical strategy is to play everything to your opponents backhand. A good player however will adjust get around on a good portion of the shots. Instead of playing the backhand, play their forehand and then hit to the backhand. For example; a ceiling shot to the forehand is good shot to start and then hit to the backhand. What this tactic does is create more room for error in their movement and it will become more difficult to get around to hit forehands.