Finding the racquet that fits you

The racquet you play with is integral to your game. It needs to fit you and your game.

If you work with the pro at a club then that pro may be able to let you try different racquets. If you are given a choice then take each racquet in your hand and swing it a couple times. See how it feels. If it feels too heavy then you might not want to play with it. Swinging a too-heavy-for-you-and-your-arm racquet might well cause you to dislike the sport because your arm may start to hurt causing you to change your mind about playing racquetball.

Racquets come in different weights. Some players like a heavier weight racquet. Others prefer a lighter weight. Often the weight can be found on the side of the round part of the racquet.

Experiment with different weights and brands of racquets before purchasing one that will be yours until you tire of it or become enchanted with a different racquet. You want to find a racquet that makes you feel as if every shot is your best. You want to use a racquet that enhances your game and ultimately makes you have more fun playing.

See if different people will let you borrow a racquet to play with so you can find the racquet best for you. Racquets cost a wide range of prices. You may find you can get by playing with a less expensive racquet from a sporting goods store while you are starting out. Eventually you might want to try a racquet that sells for a couple hundred dollars. Actually if you’re gong to spend a couple hundred dollars on a racquet then you definitely should try the racquet out before spending that much money.

Try out different racquet balls. The balls do come in different colors — green, blue, purple, black, and, yes, even pink. The pink racquet ball came into existence to show support for fighting breast cancer. Is there a difference between the colors? Well, some people say yes, some people say no. Me, I think there is a difference. My husband says no difference.

I’ve played with people who prefer certain color balls and I’ve played with those who don’t care what color the ball is as long as they can play racquetball. Racquet balls should bounce. Once the ball starts feeling dull when your racquet hits it then it’s not a good ball and should be replaced.

Spring Thoughts Turn to Outdoor Sports

We’re halfway through Spring and playing an outdoor sport may be something we think we would like to participate in until the weather turns nasty again.

For racquetball players, the mind may turn to thoughts of playing tennis. It is a racquet sport played on a court. But tennis may not be the best of choices for of an outdoor sport for racquetball players.

I played tennis before I knew anything about racquetball. I enjoyed tennis, but playing was dependent on the weather.

In New Mexico the biggest weather factor is the wind. We have lots of wind in the Land of Enchantment. I took up racquetball and continued to play tennis. Then my husband and I decided to quit tennis. We decided together because we found ourselves using tennis shots in racquetball and racquetball shots in tennis.

At first we missed tennis, especially on those really nice days that make it a joy to play. Then we both began appreciating the differences between tennis and racquetball that make racquetball more fun. (at least for me).

When you play racquetball you are in an enclosed place. If you hit a ball hard and high, or even soft and low, the ball stays in the enclosed space.

When you hit a tennis ball high and hard on the court, it can go into the parking lot where you left your car, the fenced property on the far side of the court, or bounce off the fence around the court to return to you.

It seemed like I was always chasing tennis balls. I chase racquetballs, but those balls rarely leave the court and are easily located.

So we return to spring fever and exercising outdoors. I’m going to take a long walk when the weather is just right, not too hot, not too cold, no rain, no wind.

Listen To Your Body When Injured

You’re spending your lunch hour playing racquetball. You’re ten minutes into the first game. The score is 12-11, you’re the 12. Your opponent wants to even the score. She stands in the service box and calmly looks at you to be certain you are ready. Then she bounces the ball and sends a low drive serve into the backhand court.

Your body is ready for the serve, but you think the ball is going to go just a tad to the left . Then you track the ball as it goes even more to the left and you stretch your arm to reach the racket out to hit that ball.

You stretch so far that you miss returning the serve. You sigh as the ball passes the racquet and then you wince because when you reached to return the serve your hip didn’t quite follow your arm. You hip is telling you, with a just tad of pain, that you shouldn’t have stretched so far and so uselessly.

All sports are filled with minor and major injuries. The first decision to make after injuring yourself is to figure out whether it’s minor or major. Then you must decide how to deal with your injury. Do you need to go to the ER? Will a dab of analgesic stop the throbbing? Do you stop playing for the day or can you manage to finish the game interrupted by the injury?

Pain is always an indicator of how much damage has been done. Excruciating pain is not good. Treat your body with care, and consider calling 9-1-1, if you are experiencing that type of pain when injured. There’s the glancing blow of a ball that might leave a slight bruise that could be considered the least amount of pain. An ice pack could lessen the bruising and settle what minimal amount of pain is felt.

And then there is everything in-between. There’s as many variations of how to deal with middle-of-the-road pain as there are types of this pain. Analgesic that can be spread on the area that hurts remedies are too numerous to detail. But once you spread a remedy on the aching area how long do you wait to play or when do you decide to call a medical professional?

Like many other experiences in life pain can be relative. You may be one of those people who has a high pain tolerance. Your hip still hurts after turning the wrong way, twisting a muscle, and then continuing to play. You’ve put on a hot therapy pain reliever. Now you play another two games of doubles.

Or you may wimp out immediately after you twist that hip muscle. You hobble around the court area seeking sympathy. Finally someone loans you an analgesic you’ve never heard of, but you put it on the area that aches. Your opponent asks if you want to play more racquetball. You beg off, saying you are injured, but you really wish you could finish the game.

Whether you play two more games of doubles or you sneak in those final points you have to know your body. Sounds kind of weird, doesn’t it? Knowing your body. All of us need to have a working knowledge of how our bodies react and what we need to do to keep them functioning so we can play racquetball even when we are in our nineties.

That’s the first priority, isn’t it? Being able to play racquetball. We’re supposed to care about our bodies and we do, but we care about them to make sure we are on the court when we want to be.

But we also need to heed our body’s signals to take care of ourselves when we are injured. The sudden pain in the hip that remains after a few weeks may need a look by a physician. On the other hand, the twinges of pain may just mean sitting out a game rather than playing continuously

Your body wil tell you what you need to do to recuperate from injuries but you need to listen. It’s a difficult concept, but one must learn that concept in the sports world. It’s all too easy to think we are invincible even if we are pushing into our eighties.

When it comes to injuries your body knows what you need to do. Listen to it!

The Back Wall Is Your Friend

Your opponent hits the ball hard into the front wall and that ball starts to come back to you. You can see the ball is above your hips, maybe it’s even above your head. What should you do?

You should let the ball go by and return the shot by hitting the ball off the back wall.

But you’re afraid to take it off the back wall. So you hit that ball without waiting for it to go by you. And instead of hitting it to the front wall, you hit it into the ground. You’ve lost your serve or given the point to your opponent. What went wrong?

What went wrong is that you forgot that the back wall can be your best friend.

Hitting a ball off the back wall can be scary. You think it will bounce funny and you’ll lose track of where it’s going. You think you’ll miss it coming off that wall. You think your chances are better if you don’t wait for it to come off the back wall. You believe your chances are better if you stop it mid air.

Stopping it mid air often results in the ball being slammed into the ground mostly because of the way a racquet is held while hitting the ball. The ball may be high up and you jump, causing the ball to go straight into the floor. Or the ball is flying so fast through the air that you can’t hold the racquet correctly while you make contact with the ball. Again that ball slams right into the ground in front of you, instead of making it to the front wall so your opponent has to make the next move.

Patience is the key when dealing with the shots that should be taken off the back wall rather than in mid air. The patience comes from watching the ball as it goes past you and hits the back wall to bounce back to give you the perfect shot.

Taking that shot off the back wall can be very scary the first times you do it. It still seems so much easier to take the shot in the mid air. That’s the shot that will go into the floor. Taking the shot off the back wall gives you the opportunity to hit a winner right into the front wall, one your opponent might well not be able to return.

Have the patience to take shots off the back wall. Give yourself time to learn this skill. Start slowly by throwing a ball to that back wall and hitting it. Practice hitting the ball hard to the front wall so you can take that shot off the back wall.

You’ll be a much better player when you know the back wall is your friend.

Racquetball Helps Deal With Life

Well, I missed the Women’s National/Senior Racquetball Association 25^th National Championship at Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club in Fountain Valley, California, due to a family member’s illness.

I know the women who went had a great time and I’m looking forward to 2015’s tournament.

My sister was in the hospital for four weeks. She’s now at home continuing to recuperate from a serious illness. And I want to tell you that I did not give up racquetball even though I visited her for several hours every day and did a variety of other things.

I couldn’t quit racquetball because it is my release from the pressures of life.

There are racquetball players who look at playing as therapeutic. It helps them deal with their emotions, jobs, relatives, spouses, etc.

Several years ago my friend showed up for our weekly match. As she chatted before we started playing, she mentioned she was aggravated with one of her coworkers, so much so he made her angry, This from a woman who was usually very calm.

When we played our first game her strokes were right on target. She hit the ball hard and swiftly, so much so that before I even realized how well she was playing she won the game 15-4.

As we sat outside the court after that game, I complimented her on her finesse.

She smiled and said, “I think I was visualizing the ball as the head of that guy. Made it much easier to hit.”

She played just as well the next game. In fact I noticed her strokes were even stronger. Something psychological about her play that day, or perhaps therapeutic. She did mention the next week that she was over her mad at the coworker. I didn’t ask if that was because she had mentally mutilated his head.

But for the game to be therapeutic one has to concentrate on the play. Some days I’m good at concentrating. Other days I allow my life outside of racquetball to interfere with my play.

For instance, my sister’s illness tended to invade my brain even though I told myself to focus only on the game. In the back of my head I know I was reflecting on her stay in the hospital rather then where the ball was going when my opponent hit it back to me.

I suppose we can’t help letting real life interfere with our sports. The brain is a magical tool and sometimes we just can’t stop it from going to places that it should avoid.

Be well, keep playing, even when your brain interferes with your concentration.

Bye for now.

Anyone Can Play Racquetball on the Enclosed Court

When I played tennis invariably someone in the group would hit the tennis ball not just out of the court area but also out of the complete tennis court facility. Eventually someone would have to walk outside the court and retrieve that ball. Often this happened more than once in a game or a match. If we were lucky we had other tennis balls to play with. Sometimes the ball hit was the last one of a trio that had been sent out of the court. Then everyone else waited to continue play while one person found all the balls and brought them back to the court.

Racquetball is played in a confined court measuring 20 by 40 feet. Depending on the court a ball can go outside where it will need to be retrieved, but this doesn’t seem to happen as much in racquetball as I remember it occurring in tennis.

And that is another reason I like playing racquetball. It is played in that confined space rather than the open wide space of a tennis court. Some racquetball courts are totally enclosed so a ball cannot “escape.” Other courts may sit below walkways that provide a viewing area and a ball may periodically bounce high enough to leave the court across the walkway, but it doesn’t go anywhere near as far as a tennis ball will stray once hit out of the court.

People of all ages can play racquetball, from those young enough to barely hold a racquetball to those who are ninety with hands that shake while holding the racquet. There is no set age or shape or sex that is a requirement to play the game. And that is something that makes the game fun.

One woman I know began playing in her eighties. When she suffered a slight stroke, she slowly returned to the court, playing with a woman who patiently worked with her so she wouldn’t hurt herself, but would still have fun. This woman has now turned ninety.

Another woman started in her early seventies and loves the game so much that she will play any time with anyone, including her husband (more about couples playing racquetball in a later blog).

How young can a kid start playing racquetball? I’ve seen kids not much taller than a racquet out on the court. They aren’t playing a racquetball game because they are too young to comprehend the rules, but they are learning to hit the ball with a racquet. I’ve seen a kid watch the ball bounce across the court and manage to at least strike it a glancing blow because they have learned that watching the ball is the most important aspect of the game.

Anyone at any age can play racquetball. Beginners may start slowly, will probably have trouble figuring out where the ball is going to go, and may fear what they think is the speed of the game. But patience is the key. Keep playing no matter how clumsy it feels. The clumsiness will go away to be replaced by the knowledge of the game acquired by continued playing.

I especially like to see women playing racquetball. It’s a great aerobic exercise without a lot of hype. Women can play at different levels depending on their skill and athleticism. (Of course, so can men). I strongly encourage women of all ages to try racquetball. Well, more than try because trying it once might not be sufficient to understand it and keep playing.

Try racquetball several times. Get on the court with someone and play. Take a lesson. Take a class. Give yourself a chance to fall in love with racquetball. Okay, maybe not everyone who tries racquetball will fall in love with it. But at least try it enough to find out if you even like it.

I like it. No, I love it. I hope I’m playing when I’m ninety.

Bye for now!

P.S. Whenever you are on a racquetball court you must be wearing protective eyewear. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Even a slow ball could cause damage to your eyes. A fast ball in your eye could well mean loss of that eye. There are all types of protection for your eyes including prescription eyewear. Put the protection on before entering the court, keep it on while on the court, and don’t take it off until you are completely off the court.

Try These Tournaments

Anniversaries kind of sneak up on people. One year you’re celebrating the first anniversary of an event, a wedding, forming an organization. In what seems like the blink of an eye, or in this case, the stroke of a racket, twenty-four years have passed and it’s time to celebrate the 25^th anniversary.

I’ve been playing racquetball about fifteen years. This year I’ll help celebrate the anniversary of racquetball tournaments that are older than that.

The Women’s National/Senior Racquetball Association will hold its 25^th National Championship in January 2014 at Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club in Fountain Valley, California.

The World Senior Racquetball Championships will be played in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the week before Labor Day 2014.

Both tournaments have 35 as the starting age for entering.

A few people have played in these events since they began. They travel from home or whenever they may be to participate not only to win, but to be with the other players.

These anniversaries show that the sport of racquetball continues to draw people, albeit “seniors,” but seniors playing is great. I am a senior, have been for many years. I firmly believe that racquetball is a great sport for everyone, including women who are older. We older women can play at whatever speed our body dictates.

The women’s tournament is wonderfully organized and great to play in. It starts with fun doubles on Thursday afternoon with singles play on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you work for a living you can fly in Wednesday night or Thursday morning, play several matches, do some sightseeing, and leave Sunday afternoon. If you can combine racquetball with a mini or longer vacation then you can do more touring.

Because 2014 is the 25^th anniversary of the women’s event, the organizers have promised lots of racquetball and a great time. Check out http://myplace.frontier.com/~kdtutsch/WSMRA/2014Flyer.pdf for more information. I’ve played in the women’s event twice and had a great time.

World Senior Racquetball has been held in Albuquerque since it began thirty years ago. (the Women’s Master’s changes its site every year, often switching between East and West coasts).

For many years World Seniors was only a singles event. Now mixed doubles has been added. Many participants play singles and mixed doubles so they can play as much racquetball as possible.

Before I go further, a disclaimer – I’m treasurer of the World Senior Racquetball Council.

The World Senior Racquetball registration includes lunch for five days and a banquet as well as a shirt (the women’s includes a banquet and shirt). There are other amenities also at World Seniors as well as for the Women’s Masters.

As the time gets close to August in 2014 look for information about World Seniors on R2Sports.com.

Tournaments can be fun – for the play, camaraderie, and touring of different areas.

And if you are afraid to play in tournaments because you think others might be better, don’t be afraid. Racquetball tournament offer different levels of play. And a racquetball player learns something every time she plays.

Bye for now.

Three things I love about racquetball

What do I love about racquetball?

I love everything involved in the sport.

But I especially love the exercise, my fellow players, and the clothes.

I’d rather play racquetball than ride a bike (stationary or down the road), walk on the treadmill or in the streets, or any number of other ways to keep the body moving in the ultimate goal of physical fitness.

I like the movement of playing racquetball. There’s a stop and go to it that seems to have its own special rhythm. When you are running to get to the ball there’s that fast-paced movement of the feet. Sometimes I stop to hit the ball. Sometimes I hit it on the fly (in this case not always successfully).

Before I or my opponent serve I can take up to ten seconds to ready myself. If I’m receiving the serve I may saunter my way to the back of the court. No rushing. I’ll save my rushing for chasing the ball during play. If I am the one serving then I’ll take my time getting to the service area, maybe I’ll even bounce the ball a few times before serving to my opponent. All this is another part of the movement of the game.

The exercise of racquetball varies in intensity. Some younger players like to hit the ball very hard, sending it zooming across the court. There’s the mental exercise of trying to calculate the best place to be to return that ball and the physical exercise of getting to that point.

There is a difference between hitting the ball that hard and hitting the ball with strong flick of the wrest. The exercise level may increase with the softer touch because you have to go farther to get to the ball for the return.

A ceiling ball might just caress or bounce hard off the ceiling to return to the floor and then perhaps bounce back out again. There is a knack to calculating where that ball will end up and calculating how much energy to put into getting that ball returned. That knack also includes how much energy to expend keeping the ball in play so your opponent makes the mistake ending the rally instead of you.

I love my fellow racquetball players because they are generally nice people. Most of the men and women I know through racquetball rarely speak ill of each other, are kind and considerate to fellow racquetball players, and are great to be around when playing or not.

I have played against people who are better players than I am and worse players than I am. The games and/or matches have mostly been friendly; sometimes competitive, other times not so competitive; and usually fun exercise.

Talking to my fellow players in between games and/or matches can be delightful and informative. That’s another reason I like racquetball – learning information from other players during the down time between playing.

You can also watch racquetball and chat without missing a beat in the competition or the conversation.

Then there are the clothes? Yes, the clothes.

Previous to playing racquetball I occasionally played tennis. I don’t remember buying very many tennis “outfits.” I wore shorts and tops that were suited to the game, but not necessarily designed for the game. Now I buy those tennis-designed outfits to play racquetball in. But I don’t just walk into any store to buy them.When we travel we looked for the outlet malls and the sporting outfit stores in those malls. The brand I prefer shall remain nameless, but I do prefer and can usually find something I like and can wear in that brand. The outfit makes me feel somewhat special when I play. Maybe it’s because those outlet malls are far from where we usually play. I don’t see my fellow women player in the same costume.

There are other things I like about playing racquetball, but I’ll talk about those later.