Tag Archives: racquetball

Cataract Surgery Makes the Game Better

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a column, but life happened!

My sister died last year. I spent time with her before she passed away and then had to deal with her estate. My husband and I did some traveling during the fall. And last month, January, I had my eyes fixed.

Yes, I had cataract surgery. It makes me feel “old” to say I had cataract surgery. It used to be cataract surgery was for really old people. Fortunately some definitions of old have changed. And cataract surgery is not only for the old.

My husband had his cataract surgeries when he was 50. My ophthalmologist operated on a 38-year-old for cataracts. So it’s not necessarily age-related, but a lot of “older” people are having this surgery.

What about racquetball and cataract surgery? I’ll give you my personal experience

Cataract surgery is not like when people had to stay in bed for many days and be invalids. My husband had hard lens placed into his eyes and that process is also gone. In my opinion, cataract surgery has become a modern medical miracle.

The surgeon now replaces the lens with the cataract with a soft lens that is the prescription of the glasses that you no longer have to wear. I no longer wear glasses for long distance vision. I wear glasses for close up work, reading and using the computer.

And on the racquetball court I wear right-off-the-shelf, store-bought rec specs.

I couldn’t play for three weeks. Now I thought that was almost forever. However I now realize it really was a very short time.

I didn’t even try to play racquetball until I had the doctor’s permission because one of the instructions is no running or jumping. Well, racquetball certainly involves both.

My first time on the court after the doctor okayed my return I played horribly! That was not surprising. My eyes needed to adjust to no longer being affected by the cataract and to having two new lenses providing sight.

The second week I played better. I could see the ball, something I had not done very well before the surgery.

I’m easing in gradually. Eventually I hope to play four or fives time a week. Just I used to play, only better, with the cataracts gone and the new lenses.

 

Standard

Racquetball Is A Great Indoor Sport

It’s been a rough winter in many sections of the United States of America. Snow has blanketed the eastern states so much that residents are saying “enough already!” After drought conditions plagued California, enough rain has fallen periodically to cause floods and mudslides. The average February 2015 temperature at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport was 14.6 degrees.
And what do these reminders of Winter 2015 woes have to do with playing racquetball?
Racquetball is played indoors. We can play the sport we love any time despite the cold temperatures of winter or the humidity and heat of summer.
My husband and I once played tennis in the Williamsburg, Virginia, area in July. After years of living in New Mexico I had forgotten what humidity could feel like, even at six in the morning. It was miserable, to say the least.
Racquetball courts are cooled or heated, according to the season and temperatures. That’s the nice thing about being indoors. Sometimes the heating and cooling may not be everything we thought it would be.
There’s a court I know that is colder in the winter then it might be if the HVAC had been properly ventilated. At least it’s winter and working up an exercise sweat can warm the body. Somehow the court seems more comfortable during the warmer seasons. Haven’t figured out how that is.
A fellow racquetball player is a tennis buff. Now that she’s retired she can play in the winter on Albuquerque courts. Except she’s a warm weather tennis player. If the temperature dips below forty, then she doesn’t go out for tennis.
So I am grateful that I love to play a sport that is inside where the temperature is regulated rather than depending on Mother Nature.
Something new in Albuquerque: The World Senior Racquetball tournament has expanded to include doubles as well as singles and mixed doubles. The 31st annual tournament will be held the week before Labor Day. The host hotel is the McM Elegante, which provides great amenities and hospitality. Play will be at various Sports and Wellness Clubs.
Play is in five-year increments. The registration fee includes five lunches (and they are plentiful and taste great!) and a banquet as well as lots of playing. If you’ve never been to Albuquerque with its tram and hot chile then this could be your perfect opportunity.
You can enter on R2 Sports.com.

Standard

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.

Standard

Racquetball Helps Deal With Life

Well, I missed the Women’s National/Senior Racquetball Association 25th 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.

Standard

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 25th 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 25th 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 25th 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.

Standard

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.

  Bye for now!

Standard