A Racquetball Champion in the Making: Jose Rojas

Jose Rojas, Stockton, CA, just finished winning the 18 and under Boys Gold division at the 2009 USAR Junior Olympic Racquetball Championship in dominating fashion.  He didn’t lose a game through the whole singles draw.

This up and coming junior sensation is the talk of the racquetball world as one to watch. He is above and beyond the rest of the up and coming future players.

The 2008/2009 season was a strong indication of where this young player is headed.  He has beaten top pro racquetball players including #5 on the International Racquetball Tour Jason Mannino, #6 on IRT Shane Vanderson,   #14 on IRT  Travis Woodbury, #15 on IRT Hiroshi Shimizu, #18 on IRT Anthony Herrera,  and #21 on the IRT Tony Carson.  This kid is the real deal.

What can a junior racquetball sensation player really understand that helps him compete at the Professional Level? Jose says that he needs a good ceiling game to compete in the Pro’s.

“Having a good ceiling ball game which I know I need in the pros. The biggest difference that made was it taught me to be patient and take my shot when it was necessary and not to force them. I used to be very aggressive and always went for the kill no matter where I was.” Jose Continues, “Hitting a good ceiling ball helped me be patient, force my opponent out of the middle, forced him to take a tough shot or hit a ceiling ball right back, then hit the shot I want to hit.”

In March, Jose won the 2009 USAR National Intercollegiate Championships as a freshman playing for Delta College.

As an amateur, Jose Rojas is ranked sixth in the United States Racquetball Association ranking.  His match record since June 2007 is 51 wins and only 10 losses in sanctioned events.   One of the losses came due to forfeit so that he could focus on his pro draw that he would have won a match or so and he could be prepared and not out of energy.

In 2007 Jose Rojas was recognized by SI LATINO, a Spanish version of Sports Illustrated, for his accomplishments at the 2007 Junior Olympics where he won both the boys 16 and under and the boys 18 and under divisions.

Jose comes from a state that takes their junior racquetball very serious.  California, Oregon, and Missouri are the top three states when it comes to competitive junior racquetball participation.  When I asked Jose what does he sees the future looking like for California Junior Racquetball he doesn’t hesitate to say very positive things:

“California is actually hosting many one day shootouts for fundraising for California Junior racquetball. I see it possibly growing and getting stronger just because we have so many resources we have here such as John, I, and many other people who are willing to help the Juniors get better at the sport.” Rojas continues ,“As of right now, our Junior program is stronger than ever and is just getting stronger with my younger brother Marco, who won the 16’s, coming up Jose Diaz who took second place, my little cousin Antonio Rojas who just won the 6s and 8s, and many more (too many to name).”

Jose Rojas is a product of what California Junior Racquetball is putting out there and he is definitely one to watch.

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