Lessons From The Court: Losing Versus Beaten By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D I suspect most people would say that losing and getting beaten is one and the same: either way, there’s a mark in your Loss column and you’re watching the rest of the tournament from the cheap seats. In my mind, however, there is a…
Lessons From the Court: Basic Conflict Management By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D I’ve written before about my role at the 3WallBall tournament desk in Vegas. With the 2023 Outdoor World Championships fast approaching, now is a good time to review some basic conflict management techniques. These techniques work equally as well both on and off the…
Lessons from the Court: An Eye-Opening Experience By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D Racquetballs have historically been blue in color. Nowadays they come in a variety of additional colors as well — green, purple, black, red, and pink, to name a few. A number of years ago, I ended up with two cases of pink racquetballs that…
Lessons From The Court: Measuring Bandwidth By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D As you might imagine, I play a lot of racquetball. I know, however, that I cannot play every day. The body has physical limitations. The lack of rest and recuperation leads to dehydration, fatigue, microtears, and a host of other overuse injuries. The brain has…
Lessons from the Court: Effective Preparation By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D Today I’d like to take you away from the court and into the nerve center of a racquetball tournament: the tournament desk. Almost everything happens at the tournament desk. Players are checked in, courts are assigned, scoresheets are returned, questions are answered, issues are…
Lessons from the Court: Hidden Errors By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D I think we all have a tendency to want to bury our mistakes. This may be especially true when those mistakes don’t adversely affect outcomes: I mean, if a mistake ultimately didn’t cause any problems, what’s the point of calling attention to it? On the…
Lessons from the Court: Adaptive Leadership and Strategy By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D. As Winter turns into Spring, there are only two words on my mind: Beach Bash. The annual premiere outdoor racquetball tournament is held at the historic handball courts in Hollywood, Florida. The courts are literally steps from the beach, and the full slate…
Lessons From the Court: One Step at a Time By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D. The first thing I do when a tournament draw gets published is look at the teams in my division and assess which one will be the toughest opponent. Having decided which team is ‘the team to beat,’ I then want to gear…
Lessons From the Court: Making a Team Work By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D. Let’s talk today about teams: how to think about them, how to create them, and how to make them work. Many racquetball players prefer to play singles (ie. one on one against an opponent) rather than doubles (ie. with a partner against a…
Lessons From the Court: Acknowledge the Success of Others By: Jen O’Meara, Ph.D. The score is close. One more point and the match is yours. You serve the ball and — the serve is terrible. Your opponent slams a return that zips right by you. At this point, you can either hang your head and…