One Hundred Straight Victories and the Power of Focus

Salt Lake City, Utah was recently the venue of the first ever Tier One event by the International Racquetball Tour (IRT). As you may recall, Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002, and world class skiing events are frequently held here, but this was the first time that the best racquetball players in the world came to Salt Lake to compete. Racquetball is not a huge spectator sport, and there weren’t tens of thousands of spectators in attendance, but I felt this event had all of the elements of a great sporting event.

I first became active in this sport (as a very amateur player) because my seventeen year old son loves the game. We play racquetball together, and even though he is beating me consistently, I would not trade the one-on-one time with my son for anything. 

This three-day event culminated with the Pro Finals at 5:00 pm on Saturday.  Most of the players and spectators gathered courtside to watch these amazing athletes go head-to-head for the prize money and bragging rights.  Kane and Rocky, the number one and number two players in the world, would square off for the best of five games.  At first it was the speed of the game that blew my mind, then the athleticism and the amazing shots that were hit and returned. But during the third game with Kane leading I started to notice something that really caught my attention.