Best Shot, Who Inspired The Shot, How the Shot was Developed
WPH Press, Tucson
The WPH is thrilled to bring you the Race 4 Eight Rising Stars Corner, your chance to get to know the sports rising stars playing on the most exciting handball tour in the sport.
We can all vividly recall the greatest shots of the Race 4 Eight Legends; Naty Alvarado Jr. ‘s unreturnable serve, Paul Brady’s unmatched power pass, Mando Ortiz’s thirty-eight foot flat roll outs and so many more. Today’s Race 4 Eight Rising Stars grew up watching and idolizing the Race 4 Eight Legends and have been inspired to develop those shots into their games.
On this edition of the Race 4 Eight Rising Stars, we asked the rising stars to discuss their favorite shot, who inspired the shot and how they developed the shot.
Jab Bike
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #15
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: fifth
Favorite Shot: pass shot with a natural down the left side wall
Inspiration for the shot: My dad (John Bike, Jr.) used to do it, but I also think a lot of pros are really good at pass shots down the walls. It’s good to mix in kill shots with pass shots at the same speed and intensity
Developing the shot: I started to develop this shot as I started to play more and get experience. I started to see what works and what doesn’t. I’ve had some success hitting hard passes with my left hand down the left wall. I’ve found that if I hit it hard enough, it doesn’t have to be a perfect shot but it gets me in a good position to win the rally.
Ivan Burgos
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #10
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: fifth
Favorite Shot: Right corner kill
Inspiration for the shot: Lucho and Danos Córdova
Developing the shot: Many repetitions in practice until it became instinct
John Chapman
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #22
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: eleventh
Favorite Shot: straight kill down the right avoiding the right wall
Inspiration for the shot: My dad flew me down to Tucson eight years ago. I stayed with David Fink and we practiced and trained a bit and I played in a qualifier. But in those practice sessions we worked on that shot and I have always thought it was a great shot, even if it doesn’t win the rally it puts your opponent on the far right and front of the court.
Developing the shot: Especially this past year, I have been practicing this shot a ton with my right (and my left down the left wall) by myself in the court and translating it in practice matches. I’ll decide to work on a particular shot for the whole match. For example, for this shot, I’ll work on kill shots and shoot everything from everywhere on the court for the whole match and work on that shot from all angles. Then when tournaments come around I have been increasingly confident with this shot and can use it to end the rally and gain momentum.
Andres Cordova
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #23
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: tenth
Favorite Shot: Side wall front left kill shot
Inspiration for the shot: Comes naturally
Developing the shot: Playing matches and see that it was doing effective and keep shooting again and again
Mark Doyle
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #12
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: sixth
Favorite Shot: Paddle Kill / Re-Kill
Inspiration for the shot: David Chapman and Robbie McCarthy
Developing the shot: I just started to hit it in practice games and then once I became familiar with the different ways to hit the shot I started to practice it in the court on my own.
Niamh Heffernan
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #9
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: third
Favorite Shot: Low serve down the right hand side
Inspiration for the shot: Paul Brady
Developing the shot: Practice! I would hit 20 serves before and after training, trying to get the ball to die in the corner!
Aoife Holden
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: n/a
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: seventh
Favorite Shot: Right kill shot
Inspiration for the shot: Ducksy Walsh
Developing the shot: When I was younger Ducksy Walsh did a few coaching sessions with a group of us from Kilkenny. I practiced this shot in my own training and games.
Eilise McCrory
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #2
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: second
Favorite Shot: back wall kill
Inspiration for the shot: Paul Brady was my first real pro that I loved watching. Growing up with Killian, he has his influences as well
Developing the shot: practice practice practice. The only way to do it.
Diarmuid Mulkerrins
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #19
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: seventh
Favorite Shot: pass shots and my picking (retrieving) game
Inspiration for the shot: watching Martin and Killian growing up might have influenced me. Martin hits great pass shots and Killian of course has an excellent ability to pick nearly any shot.
Developing the shot: Any shot I have I developed is through time in the court practicing. Being six years younger than Martin, and playing him a lot growing up, I think I learned to pick the ball well because he was much stronger than me and it forced me to try very hard to keep a rally alive and I think that influenced my picking game as I can remember days where he’d just keep hitting pass shots making me work very hard. I think that developed my picking game a lot.
Clodagh Munroe
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #3
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: second
Favorite Shot: Ceiling shot
Inspiration for the shot: I don’t believe any pro inspired me to develop this; it was more developed through Irish handball being more defensive at times.
Developing the shot: I try to perfect the right power to hit on the shot so it dies and the back wall, through practice.
Albert Pizano
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #34
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: thirteenth
Favorite Shot: Side front kill
Inspiration for the shot: Dad
Developing the shot: I developed the shot by watching my dad play
Daniel Relihan
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #21
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: sixth
Favorite Shot: Tomahawk corner kill
Inspiration for the shot: I was watching Robbie McCarthy and Charlie Shanks in the 2017 All Ireland final and I just took note of Shanks aggressive play in that final. He had this overhand drive shot straight down the walls and it was really effective
Developing the shot: The McCarthy/Shanks match is where it started, and I just developed it into an overhand slam into the corner. It works really well in glass side wall courts as players can lose track of the ball along the side wall. Some people don’t react to it until it hits the front wall, and because it’s so low it’s too late for them to get to it. It’s a high risk shot and I don’t get them right all the time, but when it works it’s not retrievable. I’d play a lot of challenge games against my doubles partner Michael Hedigan, and he’s one of the best out there at retrieving shots. So I’m trying different shots that are unpredictable and high risk in order to force rallies against him and put him on the back foot. So I think playing him has definitely helped me develop this shot.
Ray Ure
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #28
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: fifth
Favorite Shot: Back wall kill
Inspiration for the shot: watching all of the people who helped teach me growing up such as Kyle and Riley Kloss, CJ Laffey, Erik Matiasek, and Tim Cohen. A lot of people who grew up in Don Quinlan’s program loved the back wall shot.
Developing the shot: I developed this shot through lots of practice as well as favoritism toward it during rallies
David Walsh
Current Race 4 Eight ranking: #14
Best career Race 4 Eight finish: sixth
Favorite Shot: Hopping the ball
Inspiration for the shot: Daniel Cordova and Colin Crehan were the two I would have watched the most on this shot particularly. Both incredible at it.
Developing the shot: I remember when I was around 14, Don Carroll, my club coach got Charly Shanks’ coach, Merve ‘The Swerve’ to show a group of us how to do it in Tyrone at a feile competition. I remember when I got home from Tyrone the same day after the six-hour drive I went straight to the court to practice. I haven’t looked back since.
Thank you to our Rising Stars for sharing their thoughts on their best shot and inspiring all of us.
Do you have a question for the Rising Stars? Email David.fink@wphlive.tv
Stay tuned for more Race 4 Eight Rising Stars Corner throughout 2024
Race 4 Eight Rising Stars Corner Edition 1: The Pros That Inspired the Rising Stars HERE
Race 4 Eight Rising Stars Corner Edition 2: First Pro Win HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer