Aimee Ruiz Wins 2009 USAR National Singles Championship

Known all over the world for her racquetball doubles play, Aimee Ruiz proves she can play singles with any top professional racquetball player when she wins the 2009 USAR National Singles title, beating the defending champion Cheryl Gudinas 15-5, 15-7.

Aimee came into the 2009 USAR National Singles Championship as the #10 seed and it was all upsets after that.

Aimee would start off by defeating the #7 seed, Aubrey O’Brien, in an 11-0 third game tiebreaker. In the quarterfinals, Ruiz would defeat #2 seed Kristen Walsh Bellows in two games, and then three-time National Singles Champion (one US Team Qualifier and two Open Singles) Rhonda Rajsich in an 11-2 tiebreaker to play Cheryl Gudinas.

Aimee has competed in a couple of Women’s Professional Racquetball Organization’s (WPRO) events during the 2008-09 season, both times losing to eventual winners.

Here are her accomplishments as a top doubles player:

-Two-time World Doubles Champion

-Two-time Pan American Games Doubles Champion

-Five-time Women’s National Doubles Champion

-Six-time Mixed National Doubles Champion

-She wins her first National Singles title as she defeated Cheryl Gudinas at the 2009 USAR National Singles Championship.

Her racquetball resume continues to grow and so does her fan base, as you can hear from her fans that visit on the racquetball forum at Meet and Play.  Many people are hoping she competes more in the Professional Women’s Racquetball events because this left-hander brings a different style of game that would add to a growing racquetball organization.

The WPRO have most of their events live online, and the fans are shouting they want more Aimee!

To beat the women’s number two-, three-, and four-ranked players in the world would easily say that this young lady has a lot of untapped talent.  What would happen on the WPRO tour if Aimee played full time?  She has proven she can battle with the best of them.

On March 9, 2009, Ektelon signed Aimee to a contract because they could see the talent that she possessed as well as the marketable side she brings to the table.

“Aimee is a well known, well respected racquetball champion and advocate whose enthusiasm, organization and sheer passion is going to help take our promotional and player development programs to new heights,” said Scott Winters, Vice President of Indoor Court and Paddle Sports at Prince Sports, Inc. “We are obviously thrilled to add her to what is, in my opinion, already the best team in the industry, and to have her overseeing our sponsored players and programs in the region and growing the brand will be exciting to watch.”

Why doesn’t such a talented racquetball player play the women’s pro tour?

“I would love to play the tour, but I just don’t have the time from work to do it,” Aimee says. “My dream job? To find a flexible job in racquetball (or not racquetball), where it can allow me to work from home so I can travel and go to these stops, and be able to train the way I want to.”

Mainly a doubles player, Aimee had to get out of her element and change her focus in preparation for the National Singles Racquetball Championship.

“Coming in to Houston, I just focused on singles only. Normally I play a lot of doubles, but for the past month leading up to Houston it was all about singles. I played about two to three times per week, and played Men’s Open Singles at Allentown Regionals where I placed 2nd. I also played Men’s Open Singles at a local tournament where I lost in the quarters. And then the Saturday before I left for Houston I headed up to NY to play with top open guys where we focused on them serving me serves that I knew I would be seeing from the women in Houston.”

Aimee continues with how she feels after such a big win:

“This win feels amazing. It’s such a different win than any doubles titles I have had. I came in to Houston with a motto “Go Big or Go Home”…And I definitely went big. To not play the pro tour and then beat the #2, 3 and 4 players on the WPRO Tour is awesome. Everyone has told me they knew I could do this, but that I just needed the confidence in myself.”

With her husband, Felix, by her side this loving couple witnessed fans all across the USA embrace them with open arms and cheer one point at a time as Aimee put on a performance that will be talked about in sports for years to come.

The event was live all week on www.racquetballonline.tv and fans all across the world got to witness such an incredible performance.

Three Ways to Improve Your Ceiling Game in Racquetball

Here is my most recent skill improvement article I have published that you would find at certain areas online include meet and play forum and ezine articles:

Three Easy Ways to Improve Your Ceiling Game in Racquetball

If you play racquetball to win then a good weapon to have in your arsenal is a good “ceiling game”.  Hitting the ball to the ceiling is a defensive strategy that many players use to get their opponent out of center court.  Remember this; the player that controls center court is the player that wins.

When should you hit the ceiling?  A good rule of thumb is to hit this shot when you don’t really have a good offensive opportunity yourself.  Your goal is to get your opponent out of center court position.  Your opponent hits a shot that you can barely get to….take it to the ceiling with the intention of getting your opponent to shoot from the back of the court where most mistakes will come from.

So, as you are working on developing a consistent ceiling game remember to stay in the now.  Your focus is hitting it to the ceiling? Put your techniques and thought process into hitting accurate ceilings as you practice this skill.

Here are three easy ways to improve your Ceiling Game:

1.  Warm-Up with ceiling shots

When you first warm up before play begins and you have your stretching out of the way or you are in between stretches but ready to start hitting the ball.   First, start hitting the ball to the ceiling over and over as you warm up your shoulder.  You don’t want to step on the court and right away start banging the ball as hard as you can.  This is not good for your muscles as they are not warm and ready for such activity.

By warming up with ceilings you get to practice consistently hitting it to the ceiling.  Make sure you drill your backhand just as much if not more than forehand.  The more you drill your backhand the more confident you will have in game play. Your goal is to move yourself close to the back wall where you would be forced to hit another ceiling after ceiling and not have an offensive opportunity off of your ceiling shots.

Do this warm-up/ceiling drill for 5 minutes.

2.  Commit 15 minutes a week to developing your ceiling game

I honestly believe that in anything you do, with practice and commitment, you get better.

Same holds true for developing your skill level and perfecting the shots needed to win in racquetball.

Commit 15 minutes a week to developing your ceiling game, you can’t go wrong.

Get on the court, hit the ball to the ceiling over and over.

You could do this is three, five-minute increments over the course of a week.  Do it around your schedule.  If you have to do it in one day commit to 15 minutes to improving your ceiling skill.

3.  Offensive vs. Defensive Drill

This is a drill you could do with a drill partner or against an opponent.

With Drill Partner:

Scoring:

Find what works for you but generally short games to five is a good number to start off with.

First one to five wins and someone scores every rally.

The Server is the Offense:

The server is the offensive player. They will drive serve to start the rally off and you play to win. The offensive player is taking advantage of every offensive opportunity to win the rally.

The Receiver is the defense:

At the same time, the player receiving is the defensive player and their focus is to hit everything to the ceiling with the intention of keeping the offensive player in the back of the court when hitting their shots.

The Rally is the skill builder:

Once the server serves the ball into play the rally begins.  The offensive player wants to win the rally right away.  The defensive player wants to keep the rally going as long as possible until the offensive player makes a mistake to lose the rally.  The defensive player wants to keep everything in play and move their opponent/offensive player to deep in court as that is where many, many mistakes are made.

The rally is where you will build a lot of endurance and strength.

There will be some long rallies where your legs and arms will be tested.

The rally is where you will make multiple mistakes but get a chance to do it over and over and over to improve your skill level.

You will increase your stamina to compete at higher levels as this is a great cardio workout.  You and your partner will see an increase in both of your offensive shot ability along with ceiling shot skill level.

As the defensive player during the rally, make sure your continued FOCUS is to keep the ball in the back of the court without bouncing off the back wall.  Basically, hit the ball so it bounces two times before the back wall hitting the back wall less than 20 inches off the back wall from the floor.

The Scoring

The server serves the whole “short” game to five then switch sides and becomes receiver.

In other words, if server loses rally they continue serving till someone scores 5 then both receiver and server switch sides.

You and your partner decide how you want to score to have winner.  You can do a 60 minute play or first one to win 5 games win by two games.

Ceiling drill while playing an opponent

This drill should be done when your focus is about improving your ceiling skill level.  I would recommend finding a drill partner who would do the above drill with you but in the case you can’t here is a good way to improve your ceiling skill level while playing an opponent.

It is up to you if you want to let them know your focus is a drill but you will be playing to win.

In this drill, what I’m going to describe can be done as part of a game plan to beat an opponent as you will make a lot less mistakes and give up a lot less easy points.

When you are playing an opponent in a fun game at the club try to beat him on pure ceilings.  Go to the ceilings almost 90% of the time.

Here is what I mean:

Everything your opponent hits, return their shots to the ceiling with the intention of driving them to the back of the court and making them take their next shot.  Keep doing this UNTIL they give you an offensive opportunity that you will hit and put away to win the rally 9 times out of 10.  This means that they give you a shot that you KNOW there is no doubt in your mind….you WILL win the rally.

There will be some adjusting as you may not know all your strong points but remember…your focus is ceilings.  Take all your opponent shots to the ceiling until they give you the “set up” you won’t miss.

If you follow these three steps to improve your ceiling game you will take your racquetball game to the next level.

Coach Manny

Hello Racquetball World

Well it’s time I get into blogging! I have a ton of great racquetball tips, tools and strategies I use to coach my racquetball teams. You can learn a lot about me through these blogs. I will try to post something weekly time permitting of course.

Bookmark this blog and come back often as I am going to give you a TON of great stuff to help you become a better player and athlete.

Manny Rodriguez