Joe Delgado's Racquetball Blog Love racquetball. Here's my blog about it. When I get to combine things that I love like computers and racquetball, my kids and racquetball. My friends and racquetball. There's no better place for me to be. Previous Blogs Years » Home. Current Blog, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, or 2005.	732-917-0549. (Icons courtesy of IconsPedia)

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2011 Blogs

08/13/11 Toughness is a Funny Thing

Sorry I haven't been around been working on my new application every free second that I get, since I'm exhausted from yard work and carrying stuff I decided tonight was a good night to blog. The new app has nothing to do with racquetball or ELO Rankings, but with money. Money has been a theme around here for a while, still following Dave Ramsey's plan and we'll be going on vacation soon without debt on a credit card. That's never happened in my life. Anyway looking to hit a mark next June to get one step closer to the next level...being debt free except for the house.

On to the title. I played Racquetball Tuesday and I guess it looked like racquetball. I had a racquet, attire, glove, goggles, etc. But I wasn't there. I broke the strings on my Gearbox GB 125 and was pretty unhappy switching to a slightly heavier racquet with dead strings. I played like crap and the guys had a little too much fun beating me to a pulp. The next day I had to hear about it from One Lee, since a little bird told him about what happened. Grrr. Anyway I also played the next day and was preoccuiped on how I felt (sore) and how I played with a heavier racquet. I switched to another racquet with better strings and crawled to the gym. To get more lumps or so I thought...

It was pretty funny. I won all my doubles games. My serve and shots were much better. I didn't really care about the racquet, my soreness, or what side of the court I was on. I wanted to beat this old rival of mine and surprisingly the body shut up and let me play. So I get these glimpses into focus and toughness that leave me awe struck. Whatever we truly set our mind to, I bet we can achieve. The trick is to really click in and not be artifical. If we need a pep talk, think we're already dead in the water.

07/04/11 Good Doubles on Friday.

I had written off doubles after that fiasco at Hillsborough with my past doubles partners about six months ago. At first, I chalked it up to their personality or whatever, but after six months I honestly don't care. I'm basically tired of feeling like I'm the only one that can't get angry with how people treat me or what they fail to do.

Anyway played doubles with Neil, Rob, and Ronny on Friday and it was actually fun again. Neil and Rob made a great team and I was pleasantly surprised by Neil's ability. He said he's been playing since he was three years old with his Dad. So he's looking for some tournament play in New Jersey. It was good to see and play with Ronny again. Happy 4th Everyone.

06/16/11 Third in A's. About right for my Effort.

Playing once a week, having a poor diet, sleeping like crap, and not lifting weights or drilling let me squeak by with 3rd place. It's been a long time that I actually put any effort into racquetball. I think back to the semi-final against Dave Pollak and my match going to a tie-breaker and losing 11-10. I remember the point where I hit the wall and thinking a little more fitness, a little more practice, and I could be in the finals or maybe even won the whole thing. As League Manager, I kinda frown upon that, but hey I've been taking a beating by these guys for a long time. I'm willing to return the favor any which way possible.

I've made plenty of excuses in the past and wrote about working out or eating a more sensible diet and that's ok. Follow through is the missing piece with all of it. Follow through and a blind beserker rage to get it done could work. Also think I don't get angry enough and either control myself or surpress it. Surpressing anger just leads to despair and a host of other bad things. I'll tell you, I'm very tired of not going after my dreams, sick and tired of my current job and the management there, and angry that I let so many years go by being so financially stupid.

05/15/11 Happy 6th Birthday Jason

Jason's been growing up so fast (turned 6 on Friday) and its hard to believe he's almost done with Kindergarten. Reading and Writing pretty well and playing games on his iPod. We imagined last night wandering in the forest killing goblins and other monsters. He always likes to imagine things. So it's been good for both of us.

I'm determined to get him to swim this Summer and ride a bike without training wheels. It's really sad that I can't focus on simple things with him. Seems like something is always going on and having both my wife and I work really cuts out his free time. So racquetball and other stuff can wait. He needs to swim and ride a bike.

He's still kinda shy and often gets out of his shell a bit. Sometimes he wines a bit too much, but he's pretty determined to get something done in his games, always helpful, and a great son. I love you, Jason.

05/01/11 Focus on the Great

Finished another one Rich Dad/Poor Dad books "Before your Quit your Job." With everything that's been going on lately losing my job could be a distinct possibility. Of course, I've written about that for a long time and looking back should have just left Rutgers when things went south.

Pretty much impossible to have an opinion without ruffling someone's feathers or doing business and not having a couple of problems. Anyway in the book, they wrote that in a bell curve there's a third of people who are great fans of you or your business. There's a third that's undecided and there's a third that just don't like you. Over the years been sensitive to the third that didn't like me. I even had trouble writing for a time trying to please everyone. Well...what's the point? It's not going to change their minds anyway and takes my focus from the other 2/3 that I can help.

Anyway like to think there's people that read my blog for being honest about my life, racquetball, etc. So thanks to the 1/3 that supports me, my leagues, and my business.

03/09/11 Clarity, Guilt, and Performance.

Played last night and actually Monday too at lunch time. Might have gone today, but going to try to get Ashes (Ash Wednesday). Overall played a pretty relaxed game focusing on my shots and favoring my knee a little. Gets kind of boring writing the same thing each time. I need to hit the gym and end my stupid belief that I don't need to work out or that working out hurts my game. Don't think my game is hurt, think it's dead. Need to re-tool and re-condition just about everything.

Guess I'm a bit depressed about my Mom. She's been slowly getting worse with her confusion and memory. Both my parents don't do anything outside of the house and I can only think how that affects them. They've basically kept me at arms length with all the Doctors and stuff, so I know what little they tell me. So it's real easy to feel the failure as a Son and guilty for not going more for my parents. I can't force them to live a more active life, take care of themselves, or even be happy.

I still think the confusion is caused by uncontrolled diabetes (maybe Type II), but no one listens to me about it. There's a couple of times I've caught myself being not exactly focused or totally clear headed. Maybe stress, sleep-deprivation, whatever. Playing Monday and Tuesday (and playing racquetball in general) made me feel pretty good, so maybe I need to watch my own sugar levels more closely and if I can solve the riddle for myself...I can help my Mom. One of my biggest fears is to get old...well older...and not remember my life. I know how much it hurts me with my Mom, would hate to put my family through that. Hell, I don't want to lose myself either. Anyway I know it's not the usual stuff, but it's been running around in my head for a while and blocking other projects. So might as well get it out there and move on.

02/20/11 Reality Check? That hurts!

Nick Holerca has been showing up the past couple of weeks and been giving me a good old fashioned beat down. I get close sometimes and others it's pretty ugly. I also gave Rob a couple of tips on his backhand and after some practice he came back to win a game against me. One Lee, always honest and to the point, said it's your reality check. Then he gave me some encouragement and said go change it.

Still didn't feel right think I have a cold or recovering from the flu. Anyway still played pretty hard and illnesses aside I still don't think I would have won. I've lost a good deal of weight since January, so hopefully put one excuse to bed when I reach 208 or lower. I haven't been 208 in probably ten years or more. Next excuses to tackle is of course lack of practice and strength training.

Cutting out soda helped me drop a lot of weight. Cutting out candy and other crap made up the rest. Thought I would miss it and I cheat a bit on the weekends, but I feel guilty about it since I'm just moving the bar backward a bit. Then the Wii Fit gives me a weird reading and I get pissed.

Anyway the goal is to play my best without excuses. Don't remember the last time I actually did that.

1/16/11 Double Kill Reunited Briefly
My old friend and doubles partner, Leigh Marshall, came to visit the States around Christmas time and stayed for a couple of weeks. Was fun to see him, but with two kids the old times of playing Unreal Tournament most of the night was replaced by Mario World on the Wii and Jason joining us for a bit. What's the old saying? Can never step in the same river twice.

We did manage to get some doubles in and even a round robin over at Hillsborough called "Partners in Crime". It's been almost four years since the last time and he hasn't had a chance to play any racquetball and we all know I've been playing umm...less, but still caught Leigh making some of his shots and with some power. Caught him breathing heavy after a couple of long rallies. So was going into the robin with the sole purpose of having fun.

When I was calling up to register. Gloria was kind of concerned about me playing the recreational Doubles instead of Open/A. I was like really? Me? I've been getting spanking in Open Doubles at Hillsborough for as long as I can remember. Anyway Leigh had to leave Monday, so it was rec' doubles or nothing.

I admit a couple of times things got a little ugly especially when we played my ex-partner. Sometimes people are just too similar and start off on the wrong foot. Anyway I shutdown that game and wanted it to be over. Since no one was having fun and both sides had some bad calls. So much for rec' doubles.

Think it was a couple of games later when things meshed together and we played a lot better without any BS. Leigh's family showed up to cheer us on and I think it cooled Leigh down to play his best. It also rev'ed me up to play better. After we won that game, I told Leigh that's how I remember us.

There were a couple of juniors in the robin and I was pretty impressed with their play. Leigh occasionally pulled out most of the stops on his shots and the kids answered back. So I didn't want to over power the kids just place my shots and have fun. I also thought I might be embarrassed to see my best drive serve get rolled out.

On the topic of Rollout, saw a couple of people wearing some Rollout shirts and heard from Gloria Jon Clay was working with them. Anyway pretty cool and keep going!

The best part of the night had to be playing Scott Mateyka's son in doubles. On a point, I served only to look back and see the kid with his racquet up. I laughed pretty hard since it was a cool use of the rules and that I was being re schooled by a kid. Also some good shot power from the kid.

It was great to see more kids playing racquetball. I was surprised at how serious they were playing. I also saw some anger and frustration...which I don't think is good for kids to get in the habit of doing. There's plenty of adults doing that already.

1/7/11 Might as Well be Honest
Happy New Year! Sounds a little weird seven days late, but better late than never. I didn't even write anything for Christmas or my 39th Birthday last month. I was pretty worried about my youngest, Matt, and even myself, since late 2009 my son had to go to the Hospital for three to four days...then I followed him for a few. Anyway happy to report it was a regular Christmas, Birthday, and start to the New Year. I was also pretty focused on my first Mac application and it came down to the 31st to get it out there. Had to fight for that one every inch of the way, but I got there.

What's this year going to bring? Hope good things. I think a lot more honesty on my site. Been slowly conditioned not to write about a couple of things related to racquetball and that's not ok. I saw someone's post on FB about a criticism "someone" wrote. I quickly scanned my past posts and didn't see anything, but the fact I did that shows how whipped I've become. I don't know if I was the intended target, but it's happened before. That's ok too, but if certain people are going to use their imaginations about some of my posts. Then might as well go for broke and spice things up. After all, not sure if they are really on my side anyway. As I've had painfully repeated in my life if there's a doubt in a relationship, there's a big problem.

Figured I need to get on the ball and posting when my friend, Alex, called me up to see how I was doing. Thanks dude.