I played racquetball (racketball?) for the first time...

[xboxist]

Wow! What a fun sport. It's super intense and fast-paced. Unlike tennis, you can super whap the sh*t out of the ball almost every time, and it will still be good for a point. It's a great place to take your aggression out. I recommend it to anyone who's even remotely competitive. Awesome workout.

Use eyewear though! I took a bullet right on my left eye... well, I would have if not for the goggles.

 

[Izzo]

how did you get hit in the face? you didn't look back to watch your opponent's shot did you?

 

[bootymac]

I've always wanted to play racketball. Was it hard at first?

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: xboxist
Unlike tennis, you can super whap the sh*t out of the ball almost every time, and it will still be good for a point. It's a great place to take your aggression out.

Mark my words: you will not be able to lift your arm when you wake up in the morning.

 

[xboxist]

Originally posted by: Izzo
how did you get hit in the face? you didn't look back to watch your opponent's shot did you?

heh... I did actually. It was early on, and I'll never do that again.

 

[xboxist]

Originally posted by: bootymac
I've always wanted to play racketball. Was it hard at first?

I picked it up fairly quickly. But I think that depends on your general athletic talent. The walls make for a very frustrating obstruction, so you have to adjust your approaches to the shots constantly. I'm generally conservative, so I had a hard time letting my racquet scrape against the walls. You just have to, otherwise you won't stand a chance.

And the rules are very simple - it's easy to pick it up and start playing.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: xboxist
Wow! What a fun sport. It's super intense and fast-paced. Unlike tennis, you can super whap the sh*t out of the ball almost every time, and it will still be good for a point. It's a great place to take your aggression out. I recommend it to anyone who's even remotely competitive. Awesome workout.

Use eyewear though! I took a bullet right on my left eye... well, I would have if not for the goggles.

I played for three years in HS (time issues kept me from playing this year).


Its a great way to develop better reflexes. When you get beyond just smacking the ball at the front wall (or, when your OPPONENTS get beyond that point) you need to be able to react instantaneously. And that is just to get to the ball before it bounces twice. Then you need to figure out where to hit it so that your opponent doesn't have enough time to get a kill shot it.

I mean, when you are waiting for a serve and trying to anticipate where it will be coming from you just get so wound up . .
I love the game. I'll need to get back in practice before I go down to college so I can have a good time with my friends.

When you get a rally of 20+ hits going and you and your opponent are playing really well and hitting good shots, its just incredible. There is no way to describe how much crazy energy gets going in that game.


About getting nailed by the ball. It will sting if you take a liner to face, but the ball is soft enough that it won't hurt . . . permanently.
What you need to worry about is getting hit by a racquet. Which does hurt, but doesn't happen often. Most injuries come from running into a wall while chasing the ball.

Funniest injury I ever saw - I was playing a real hothead, and beating him. He would bang the wall with his racquet everytime he screwed up, and as he got angrier he got sloppier (you have to keep a cool head to play well) so I was really trouncing him.

Well, you get a little rope that ties your racquet to your wrist so you can't throw it all over the place, and I got the perfect kill on him, so He threw his racquet at the floor.

Well, it whipped around on the rope and nailed him square in the back of the head. He got ever worse after he did that. BWAHAHAHAHAAH!

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

PSA:
Squash > Racquetball > Tennis > Ping Pong

That is all

 

[LethalWolfe]

I love racquetball, but I haven't been able to play much sense college (played 2-3 times a week back then).

One of the hardest things for beginers to pick up on is learning to anticipate where the ball is going to go. You shouldn't be scraping your racquet against the wall on a regular basis. If you are you might need to attack the ball sooner before it gets that close to the wall. And "super whapping" the ball might get you by if you are playing someone who doesn't play much, but anyone who's played for a while will eat you alive if you just drill the ball. Racquetball is more about placement than power. A ball that dyes right after it hits the front wall and has absolutely no chance for a return is a perfect shot.

I wish I got to play more. It really is a great sport.


Lethal

 

[SaturnX]

Raquetball's ok, but I prefer Squash a lot more. Just as, if not more, faced paced, and a bit more challenging in my opinion.

--Mark

 

[rh71]

The ball is too easy to break. Great sport to play with the opposite sex, BTW.

 

[GrouchyLadybug]

my husband and i love to play racquetball. we learned how to play in college (took it as a class for PE credit).

 

[randomlinh]

rball kicks ass. particularly doubles. When we play, it's very fast paced and lots of running... there's always someone to pick up the ball so the games last longer than singles and more exciting Whenever I play singles, it tends to be one sided, either way.

 

[iotone]

raquetball!! woohoo!! i love the game, can't play at the moment cuz of tendinitis in my wrist, but once that's all better, i'm hitting the courts again!!

anyone in the irvine, ca area wants to play sometime, let me know, hit me with a pm!

 

[mitaiwan82]

sweet...I just played some racquetball today before working out. If you ever have a chance to take a class, you ought to check it out. The basics you learn, while trivial to a pro, can improve your game tremendously.

 

[vexingv]

i played raquetball for my high school gym elective...its great for beginners who just like to whack the sh!t out of everything. but it does take finese and a good serve. i remember playing this guy in my class who happened to be the number one squash player (i think the 17 yr old division at the time) in the country and he thoroughly whipped my butt and i didnt even get a single point of him cuz he knew all the shots and angles....

 

[KokomoGST]

If you're decently good at tennis you can superwack the ball all the time... I see a lack of running at my gym... most of the players are at a level where anything that's killable... is killed.

I like tennis better... run around and wack the crap out of the ball.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: KokomoGST
If you're decently good at tennis you can superwack the ball all the time... I see a lack of running at my gym... most of the players are at a level where anything that's killable... is killed.

I like tennis better... run around and wack the crap out of the ball.

Generally speaking very good tennis players do not make very good racquetball players. If you are a long time tennis player you can run into issues playing r-ball (depending on how good you want to get of course) because some of the basic mechanics are completely different. For example, when you swing in r-ball you "snap" or "flick" your wrist to put the heat on the ball unlike tennis. I regularly played people in college that had tennis backgrounds and they weren't able to "unlearn" their tennis tendencies. They could play good games but they were never able to get to the "next level."

You can also have a more "powerful" style in tennis and be successful. But if you try and "power" the ball past your oppenent in r-ball it is just going to come off the back wall and be an easy setup for the other guy.

Playing w/ 3 (cut throat) or 4 (doubles) people is a blast, but I'd never want to do it w/a noob. Especially doubles.


Lethal

 

[xboxist]

Sore as hell this morning... but ready to go back to the YMCA tonight for another go. I love finding interests like this - makes your day so much better due to anticipation.

 

[ggavinmoss]

Originally posted by: xboxist
Wow! What a fun sport. It's super intense and fast-paced. Unlike tennis, you can super whap the sh*t out of the ball almost every time, and it will still be good for a point. It's a great place to take your aggression out. I recommend it to anyone who's even remotely competitive. Awesome workout.

Use eyewear though! I took a bullet right on my left eye... well, I would have if not for the goggles.

I wasn't wearing goggles once and took one just left of my nose and just right of my eye. That learned me good. I wore goggles from that point on.

-geoff

 

[Ausm]

The 1st and last time I played raquetball was back in '80 when I was 16 with my old man. He goes this is how you play raquetball. He proceeded in firing a kill shot that I did not even see the ball coming. The next thing I felt was a searing pain of the ball sub dividing my testicles...

My old man stood over me laughing when I was on the floor writhing in pain for 20 minutes!


Sysadmin

 

[xboxist]

^^^ heh... best dad ever.

 

[BigJimSlade]

Originally posted by: Sysadmin
The 1st and last time I played raquetball was back in '80 when I was 16 with my old man. He goes this is how you play raquetball. He proceeded in firing a kill shot that I did not even see the ball coming. The next thing I felt was a searing pain of the ball sub dividing my testicles...

My old man stood over me laughing when I was on the floor writhing in pain for 20 minutes!


Sysadmin

HAHA...Thanks for the laugh.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Reaquetball is great! Just know the ball won't hurt you too bad, but catching your opponents racket can really cause problems. I suggest you use a generous hinder rule, unless you like getting the crap beat out of you.

:beer:

 

[Modeps]

You dont wanna smack the ball as hard as you can all the time in Raquetball, it's stupid to. If you constantly just hit the ball hard as you can, chances are you're just gonna tire yourself out while giving the other person an easy shot or an easy reaction play.