http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/sports/self-taught-racquetball-player-kane-waselenchuk-in-a-class-by-himself.html?scp=1&sq=Racquetball&st=cse

To understand how Kane Waselenchuk became the dominant player in
the history of racquetball, one must embrace the teachings of the Bulgarian
psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov.

At least, Waselenchuk’s coach thinks so.

No one else seems able to explain how Waselenchuk does it. How he won 137
consecutive matches, demolishing the record of 54 set by Marty Hogan during the
1976-77 season. How he won an unprecedented seven US Open Racquetball
Championships. How he has held the sport’s No. 1 ranking since March 2009. Or,
simply, how he hits shots that seem to defy physics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/sports/basketball/the-evolution-of-jeremy-lin-as-a-point-guard.html?_r=1&hpw

The most captivating strand of the Jeremy Lin mystique is that he
came from nowhere, emerging overnight to become a star, after being
underestimated and overlooked, disregarded by college coaches, ignored in the
N.B.A. draft and waived twice in two weeks.

The narrative is well-established, factual in its broadest strokes and
altogether flawed, or at least woefully incomplete.

Jeremy Lin’s rise did not begin, as the world perceived it, with a 25-point
explosion at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 4. It began with lonely 9 a.m.
workouts in downtown Oakland in the fall of 2010; with shooting drills last
summer on a backyard court in Burlingame, Calif.; and with muscle-building
sessions at a Menlo Park fitness center.

It began with a reworked jump shot, a thicker frame, stronger legs, a sharper
view of the court — enhancements that came gradually, subtly, through study and
practice and hundreds of hours spent with assistant coaches, trainers and
shooting instructors over 18 months.

Quite simply, the Jeremy Lin who revived the Knicks, stunned the N.B.A. and
charmed the world — the one who is averaging 22.4 points and 8.8 assists as a
starter — is not the Jeremy Lin who went undrafted out of Harvard in June 2010.
He is not even the same Jeremy Lin who was cut by the Golden State Warriors on
Dec. 9.