Had an interesting customer call me up last night. He basically wanted to stop by and wait for his racquet to be strung. I was like ummm...No. I usually start stringing after 10 PM after my boys are sleeping.
Anyway just wanted to see if other stringers have people that want to wait.
--Joe.
I usually play over at Cook/Douglas at Rutgers University and they have some fast concrete walled courts. Yesterday went over to Busch campus which has panels and I had a lot of trouble besides being out of practice and shape. Lots of dink shots that normally wouldn't work on concrete just died up front and I was usually too far away to get before the second bounce.
Passes and other shots that ran deep were great, I felt like I was flying around the court getting shots. Anyway guess I could use some advice playing on panels besides playing on those courts more often.
Anyway love the pace and sound of 'crete.
Later,
--Joe.
Hi,
Supposed to give someone a lesson tonight on racquet stringing. Have no idea what to charge, any suggestions?
Thanks,
--Joe.
Hi,
I've been stringing for about seven years and developed a few things to help make my stringing easier in both Access and Excel. Business has picked up since then and I find doing the same repetitive thing each time annoying and a waste of time.
I have my own laundry list of things I want to include, but wanted to get some ideas and feedback from people.
I plan on doing it first as an Access database and then porting it to the web and other devices. I also want something small and entry level that can help other people like me and then scale up.
Thanks,
--Joe.
Saw it for around $17 used in Gamestop over the weekend and thought why not. Had a bunch of other party games, but wanted to see how Racquetball played. Well it was pretty sad, but I can say it was better than the last racquetball game I played for PS1 called Street Racquetball.
Couldn't move the player around and some of the shots were weird. Was able to hit the ball cross court and DTL as I wanted. Serve was basically straight back. Ball was probably a bit too bouncy.
Overall it was a pretty sad game, but still my son (5) had fun playing it and it handled up to four players. Needs a lot more elements from EA Grand Slam Tennis, but not bad for a mini-game.
--Joe.
Just got the alert. Can also use a camera instead of the Wii remote, but reviewer said the camera was just ok.
http://tinyurl.com/yb9783r
Hey Guys,
Did an Ektelon O3 White last night and I guess being sleep deprived I didn't look at the other patterns in the USRSA book. I did the racquet with the 12x17 pattern. I told the customer to give it a try and if he didn't like it to return it on Monday for a free restring.
Anyway I told him that he'll probably get more power from this pattern since the cross strings can flex more with one less main on each side, but honestly don't know what the different patterns do for people. Anyone have a take on the different string patterns and why you use them?
Thought the power plugs and patterns were both very innovative ideas. Sorry Head--just speaking as a stringer here.
Later,
--Joe.
Spoke with a customer on the phone about redoing his racquet with E-Force Oxygen 17 that I expect to carry soon. It's a pretty pricey string at about $14+ so I've been following the USRSA guidelines for pricing double the price of the string and add $10-12 dollars. So when I said it's going to be about $40 he said "What?!" Eventually explained about my costs, etc., but he said that he normally takes the racquet to Store "X" and all he has to do is buy the strings and they'll put it on for free. Just seems like another example of the big corporate chain sticking it to the little guy.
Not sure how I can compete with that and was wondering what other stringers were doing about it. Something I read on an old friend's and I guess competitor's website was that you don't want some part-timer kid doing your racquets. I also would stress you don't want a stringer that doesn't play racquetball recommending strings and tensions for you, but still have to compete with free.
Anyway was up against the ropes on this one as a sales person and would appreciate any advice.
Have a good weekend,
--Joe.
Hi,
Lately I've had a couple of my customers ask if I had an E-Force string for their E-Force Racquets. I'm not sure what to buy that offers a good price, power, durability, etc. I would like to buy a reel of it so I can just take off what I need.
Thanks for any advice,
--Joe.
I wanted to share with everyone on Meet and Play my company's first shareware application called ELOCalc Lite. It's pretty much like the online version of my ELO Calculator at http://www.eqp.com/pubs/rb/tools/elocalc.php some people have used, but now it's installed right to your Windows desktop and has some cool features like Undo and Copying ranking data to the Clipboard.
Can take a look at a screen shot, documentation, and how to install at: http://www.eqp.com/apps/ELOCalc_Lite/help.php
I'll appreciate some feedback on how to make the application better. If you like it please refer to the website to see how to register and get some additional benefits.
Thanks,
--Joe.
Hi,
I've been stringing for a few years and developed a pretty good customer base for the amount of time I devote to it, but I was wondering how to reduce the cost of my inventory.
Basically I've been buying items like grips, string, etc. at full retail price. :oops: Was wondering what some of the Pro Stringers out there do to keep costs down. So I can make my business more profitable and worth more of my time.
Thanks,
--Joe.
Hi,
I developed an online calculator based on the ELO Ranking System used for my leagues. Here's the link http://eqp.com/pubs/rb/tools/elocalc.php
Enjoy,
--Joe.
Hey,
Was thinking...and it's probably a weird topic, but what if there was a sudden burst of interest in racquetball and I'm talking big. Like Pro events on Prime time TV, commercials, talk shows, and lots of big corporate sponsors throwing money to be on the walls, sponsoring players, and the like. Seems like we're getting closer.
What do you think would happen to all the existing Pro's? The clubs and racquetball in general? Suddenly we have everything we ever wanted for the Sport.
Later,
--Joe.
P.S. Didn't search to see if anyone had a similar post in the past. Sorry if was already posted and beaten to death.
Hi,
I uploaded a couple of old videos recently and one of the options was to charge $1.99 for a permanent download. I know the Internet used to be free for a lot of things and videos are popping up all over the place, but if iTunes can do it why not other sites? It took me a long time to click the button for $1.99 and I'm not sure how popular it'll be. We're all used to watching stuff for free between You Tube, Google Video, and the now dead Stage 6.
Can't really go beyond a simple camcorder and a wide angle lens if there's no money coming in. So just thought what everyone thought and would it be a good way to bring in some extra cash. Somehow I don't think so and it might anger some people.
Would $1.99 be easier to swallow if it were Open/Pro's playing? I know watching a D level match would probably be boring except for the people involved.
Later,
--Joe.
P.S. I know when I want a song, I just get it from iTunes and don't think about the $0.99 anymore. So who knows.
Played Mixed B/C Doubles at NJ State Singles this past weekend. It was a great tournament with lots of giveaways and good food, etc. My partner basically walked away with an Office store worth of stuff. We also played very well for the first round and won in straight games. My partner, Tina, was basically taking all the shots from the guy in stride and she played great.
I was doing pretty good too, I guess, and he couldn't get much by me on the serves, so he served to my partner. Which resulted in a big time "No, No." from the Ref and a replay. Anyway the ref, Melanie, referenced something called the Gentlemen's rules. A quick Google search pointed me to http://ncracquetball.com/Tournaments/MixedBCDoublesRule.aspx
Just wondering if there's anything else to it? From the site it basically says the guy serves to the left side of the court. Before I read this I thought what about if the man and woman switch sides do the servers have to switch sides to? Naturally if the guys are on the left side the side to exploit would be the right after the serve. Just like in regular doubles.
So it's my first time playing mixed at a tournament. I thought it was pretty interesting dynamic. Lost the second round by hitting bad cross court shots off my opponents serve that his partner just dinked in the corners, but still was a nice first round. Don't know why my opponent was playing B/C after placing second this year in a Men's A Doubles, but I'm not going to point fingers. I could have played better.
Later,
--Joe.
P.S. Thanks for the Grill Cheese Panno. You did a great job on the food.
Hi,
A couple of people, suggested that mdhills and I start a new topic on mental toughness. So here goes. Think most of us have heard the phrase "In the "Zone" that magical place where no one can touch us, everything flows, returns and serves are razor sharp, all the planets line up and we are the center of the Universe. Thought it would be interesting to see how many people get there, stay there for a match, maybe even a tournament, and what they do to keep it from slipping away.
During recreational play, I may have seen the inside of the Zone. In tournament play, I think nerves made it unreachable. Well...some doubles games with my partner Leigh (DK) I may have seen it. Brad Gilbert in his book "Winning Ugly" wrote that `10% of the time you can't be touched. 10% of the time it's the other guy. 80% of the time it's up for grabs. Sure must feel good to be in that 10%.
In James Loehr's book, The New Mental Toughness Training for Sports, he wrote that players can only get there a couple of times during the season that the "stage" needs to be set for this to happen between training, rest, and competition. I don't think I even know where the stage is, yet alone how to set it up. ;-)
I don't remember much about "Body Mind Mastery" by Dan Millman except for a paragraph about him watching his young daughter playing and he noticed that all the mental and physical obstructions adults have were missing. That his daughter just had fun. That kind of struck me as true, I think I make it a winner take all death match instead of a game.
I know it's a fragile place because the second I realize I'm playing well...I'm tossed out.
Later,
--Joe.
Hi,
I posted three more videos from the NJO Event at Woodbridge NJ. That's all folks.
Men's 40+ Singles Final. Tom Keogh (Team Wilson) vs. Greg Galbornetti (Team Head)
Men's 40+ Doubles Final. Wayne Suggs/Jim LaSala (Team E-Force) vs. Steve Aguirre/Mark Kane.
Men's 50+ Doubles Final. Billy Captain/Frank Luchetto vs. Wayne Suggs/Jim LaSala (Team E-Force).
Check out http://www.eqp.com/pubs/rb/video/0708_NJ_NJO.php for all the links or search racquetball on DivX's Stage 6 (stage6.com)
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays.
--Joe.
Hi,
Took video of five matches at the NJO at Woodbridge. I have two posted so far at http://www.eqp.com/pubs/rb/video/0708_NJ_NJO.php
Men's Doubles Open Semi-Final. Ruben Gonzalez/Pat Bonanno vs. Jason Sylvester/Ken Roberts. (36:44)
Men's Singles 50+ Final Bob Caime vs. Peter Holden. (27:38)
It's in DivX format (http://www.divx.com)
Too big a crowd to get the Open Doubles Final between Ruben/Pat vs. Aimee Ruiz and Sanjay LaForest. :-(
Happy Holidays,
--Joe.
Hi,
I played my first tourney of the Season, it was a round robin and started off really well winning my first two games, but then I sat for a while. Long enough where I felt cold and maybe even a bit frustrated. Next three were loses: 6, 1, and 6. Then I started to get warm again. The next day was Doubles and I wore my warm-up jacket and it helped a little, but I could use some advice on how to stay warm and avoid "club head".
Thanks,
--Joe.
