For this week, I decided to review what you’ve all been waiting for, my blogs header picture. Before I begin, I’d like to make something very clear about this sport: it’s freaking awesome, period. You are literally trapped in a windowless white box and are made to smack a ball around utilizing any surface at your disposal, and I mean ANY. What really gets me going about my header picture is that the ceiling is a perfectly acceptable playing field. I mean come on, what other sport utilizes a plane that is not the floor or a plane perpendicular to the floor, (and yes I realize that a table in a game like table tennis is a plane not in either category but that’s not what I’m trying to get at). I really could not be happier with the existence of this game of planes.
Now, you may think that I’m speaking too highly of my header picture, that its multi-planer usage isn’t all that great, and I totally respect your opinion. You’re probably right, but to be honest you feel really cool when you bounce the ball off of multiple surfaces, really fast, making your opponent look stupid trying to hit it.
My header picture is a sport comprised of many sports. It’s a combination of squash, handball, and paddleball, so yea, technically it is even more unoriginal than disc golf. But my fondness of this sport is not hindered by this like it was for disc golf. You see, the unoriginality is besides the point when you combine cool, adrenaline-pumping, sports like squash or handball into a badass sport such as racquetball.
Now for the rules. The rules of my header picture are, again, a combination of squash, handball, and paddleball. To start the game is the most complicated part, but after that its smooth sailing. The server must stand in a designated server zone between the front service line and the back short line. They must serve a small rubber ball with a racquet hard enough in which the ball bounces off the front wall and lands behind the server in the designated receiving zone which is between the back wall and the receiving line. If that unnecessarily complicated maneuver is successful, then you can actually begin to play. You take turns with your opponent hitting the ball off of the front wall until someone is unable to keep the ball from bouncing on the floor more than once, which means you lost the rally. If the server wins a rally they get a point, if they lose a rally they are no longer the server.
You can use any planar surface to your advantage, doing whatever you please with your hits, you just have to make sure the ball doesn’t hit the ball more than once on the floor before you hit it and hits the front wall at least once before it hits the ground after you hit it. You play for the best of three games and up to 15 points in the first two and up to 11 in the last game.
So as you all know, unless you don’t, the IM building has a whole bunch of courts for the sport depicted in my header picture. I went this week with a friend to try it out. As you have probably gathered from this blog, I had a great time. We played an overly-competitive three games and then just messed around with the court afterwards, which was equally as fun. We would just hit the ball as hard as we could every time at the front wall, maximizing its air time and the amount of planes the ball hit.
So, overall, I would definitely recommend the sport of racquetball, unless you have really bad claustrophobia, in which case you should probably not enter these courts.
I’ve never played racquetball but I’ve heard people speak highly of it, I’m definitely semi-interested in trying it after reading this. I think I might need to learn about how to actually play otherwise I don’t know how much fun it could be.
I tried playing racquetball for the first time in the IM building a couple of weeks ago and I loved it! I went with two friends, though, so it’s probably better with either one or two people. It was quite confusing and not as spacious with three people playing at once. Because of that, my friends did not enjoy it, but I would go by myself to play. I think the idea is super cool too, you’re in a room and you just hit the ball on the walls! I was never allowed to hit/throw balls against walls in my house as a kid, so I feel like this allows me to do all I’ve ever dreamed of and not get into trouble for it! Great blog, very humorous as well!
I feel like every time I went to the gym back in my hometown, there would be some middle-aged men or women vigorously playing racquetball. They were always going all out, squeaky shoes and all, so I honestly thought it was kind of an old person sport. However, hearing your take on it and hearing about your experience actually playing it I am honestly considering trying racquetball. I can definitely see the fun in just chucking a ball super hard at the wall and seeing where it goes (hoping it doesn’t knock you out) as I have most certainly done that in the gym during indoor lacrosse practices. I do agree tho that the room does feel extremely enclosed and uncomfortable and actually really loud, but I think playing for a little could be good. Maybe I’ll have to bring some of my friends down to the IM building and give it a try soon!
I totally agree with you! I LOVE RACQUETBALL!! I played last week in the IM Building and now I hooked! Your explanation of the rules was so much concise than the way my friend explained it to me the first time I played haha. I am a tennis player and it’s so fascinating the contrast between racquetball and tennis.
I liked and disliked that you saved the name for the end. I liked it because it kept a mystery going for the whole time. I disliked it because I knew what the sport was, so it got old quickly. Other than that, I thought it good because you mentioned the rules and how to start, plus you added a personal experience to your blog. I’d just review your posts before you post them, because I found a couple grammatical errors.
I’ll have to try this out next time I’m at IM. It seems like racquetball requires a lot more athleticism than I originally thought so that means it’ll be more fun as well. I never had an explanation of the game before either so this really helps.