SPORTS

Mind Game

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Sports Writer

D

ynasties were once very com-
mon in professional sports.
'Ibams such as the Yankees or
the Celtics were perennial champions.
Locally, the Red Wings won seven
straight regular-season titles in the
`40s and '50s. Joe Louis still holds the
record for the longest reign as world
heavyweight boxing champ.
Today, such dynasties are rare.
But the sport of racquetball is an ex-
ception. Marty Hogan won four
straight national titles, from 1978-81.
He almost added a fifth in 1983, but
a young man from Southfield, Mike
Yellen, won the final four major tour-
naments of the season to take the
championship.
Yellen, now 28, owned the title for
five seasons, through 1987, an un-
precedented racquetball feat. Yellen
placed seventh this year, although he
stayed in contention for another
crown until the final tournament.
Yet, Yellen does not consider
himself the most talented player in
pro racquetball.
"A lot of the guys are stronger

than I am. They hit the ball harder
than I do. They may be quicker than
I am. They might have nicer-looking
forehands, backhands, whatever it
might be. But when it comes to the
mental approach to the game, that's
where I out-shine the rest of them. I
have that mental advantage. That has
won me numerous, numerous mat-
ches over my career. It's allowed me
to win major championships time and
time again. Without that mental ap-
proach to the game, I certainly
wouldn't have won the titles that I
have."
Yellen explains that his mental
approach, taught by his long-time
coach, Leonard Karpelis involves not
looking to the future. Instead he con-
centrates on where he is and what he
is doing.
"I've always tried to just go out on
the court and play the best racquet-
ball I'm capable of playing. I never
went out there and said to myself 'I
have to win this tournament, I have
to win this match, I have to do this!
Because I feel when you do that, you
put added pressure on yourself and all
you're thinking about in your mind is
that 'I've got to win this, I've got to

Dobransky Places 30th

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Sports Writer

D

ana Dobransky will not be in
South Korea when the Olym-
pic Flame is lit this year. But
her competitive fire is burning as
brightly as ever, despite a 30th place
finish at last weekend's USA Na-
tional Gymnastics Championships in
Houston.
Dobransky, 16, needed to place in
the top 24 to qualify for the Olympic
Trials.
"It is disappointing;' she admits,
"but life goes on. I'm gonna try next
year again. I'm not gonna stop or
quit. I'm gonna work probably twice
as hard or even triple as hard, because
I really know what it takes, and it's
a lot of work!"
Dobransky, who returned to her
workouts this week, was hurt by a
mistake in her cumpulsory balance
beam routine and two falls in her op-
tional routines. She also suffered from

46_

FRIDAY, ,IDLY :15; 1988 •

a sore heel, although she says, "that's
not why I did badly?'
The Sterling Heights resident
characterized the meet as "very, very
tough. It was a hard competition. It
was probably one of the hardest com-
petitions I've ever been in:'
The pressure Dobransky faced
was "more than I think I've ever ex-
perienced in my life."
Dobransky's goals now include
working for a college scholarship. She
also plans to try out for the 1989 In-
ternational Maccabiah Games in
Israel,. Dobransky won the all-around
gymnastics title at the 1985 games.
The tryouts are next March in Penn-
sylvania. Then, there is the 1992
Olympics.
"1992 Olympics is a long way
away;' she says. "I have to see how col-
lege goes. I haven't totally put it out
of the question, but college is the most
important thing." Dobransky will be
a senior at Sterling Heights High
School this fall.

Bob McKeown

Mike Yellen, a racquetball
dynasty in the '80s, is
concentrating on the present
and his future

do this, etc! And when you do that you
really take away from what you
should be concentrating on out there,
which is where to hit the shots at the
given times on the court, where to
move into what positions. Those are
the things you should be thinking
about, not any other factors.
"That was something I learned
early in my career, thanks to my
coach. He basically taught me (to) just
concentrate on going out there and
playing your best racquetball. Forget
these other variables and the winn-
ing kinda takes care of itself."
Yellen adds, "It's like anybody in
any job. If you're gonna do your job
well, you need to have your mind 100
percent into what you're doing .. .
The same thing with anybody in any
business. And this is a business. I'm
not out there giving points away and
giving games away, because it's gon-
na cost me in the long run?'
Despite the high speed of top-level
racquetball games, Yellen says the
players have a little time to think
about what to do. "Definitely a lot of
it is reaction time, but a lot of the
reaction time is something that I call
habit-formed. In other words, when I
hit a shot from a certain position on
the court, it's habit-formed that I
move into the proper position on the
court. I don't have to say to myself,
`Get to that position.' It automatical-
ly happens, because I know where I've
hit the shot, I know where my oppo-
nent is and it's automatic that I get -
there. The only thing you really have
time to think about out there is where

to hit the next shot. When my oppo-
nent hits a shot, I make my necessary
moves to get there and the only thing
I have to say to myself or think to
myself is where that next shot
belongs."
Yellen says that pro racquetball
players require strength, to power the
ball, as well as stamina. Pro matches
can run over three hours. Tournament
finalists generally play five matches
in four days.
The Detroit-born Yellen first
played racquetball at age 13, when
his family lived in Southfield.
Yellen played basketball, football
and baseball at Thompson Junior
High. At Southfield-Lathrup High
School, he played football and basket-
ball through his sophomore year
"then I started fading out of the team
sports and concentrating on racquet-
ball!"
The individual sport appealed to
Yellen because "winning and losing
were all dependent on me . . . There's
a little more pressure there, but
there's also a little more glory if you
win. I used to be a pretty good athlete
in the junior high and high school
sports I played in and seemed to be
one of the top players on the team.
And I always felt a little disappointed
when I would have a great game and
a great performance, yet my team
would lose!'
So, aided by Karpelis, Yellen went
all-out to polish his racquetball skills.
"From the time I was 13 to 15," he
recalls, "the first two years, you
couldn't find me anywhere else but on

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