My return to racquetball began six months ago, shortly after my 42nd birthday. After a session in the 4-wall ping-pong chamber, I was quickly reminded of why I love this game. Values. Speed. Assault. Strategy. Lateral movement. Body shots. Trash talk… Racquetball has all of that – plus a great cardio workout. After an hour, he was exhausted.
The next day, I also remembered why I stopped playing. Oh. Pain in places I forgot I had. However, within a few weeks of playing regularly 2 times a week, and with a diligent warm-up routine, my body quickly acclimated.
I’m not a doctor or a professional athlete, but I love playing sports and staying active, and I’ve learned what to do to support my aging body. If you want to get back to racquetball (and come on…I know you do!), here are three areas you need to focus on to keep playing…and winning.
1. Don’t write checks your body can’t cash
The adrenaline of the game can motivate you to make plays that will punish your body. The two most common body wreckers are: diving for the ball and crashing into a wall. Add to that hyperextending your joints and hitting the ball too hard and you have a recipe for a seriously depleted body after your short session. If you play multiple times a week, these annoying bumps and pulls can turn into serious injuries that take a long time to recover from. If you’re over 40, you probably have a few more LBs than when you were playing in your 20s. The added weight combined with hard impacts and lunges will lead to heel bruises, knee strains, or back strains (or all of them!). I’ve had them, and the only way to recover is usually to do NOTHING for a long time, and that’s just not fun.
Don’t let your pride get the best of you. I’ve lost a lot of game mates who put up a good fight for a game, but couldn’t come back the next week to play again.
Use your head. Stretch for at least 15 minutes before you play. Precede your stretch with a short jog. Play against the side walls for at least 5 minutes. Practice playing low to the ground – it’s low lunges that lead to muscle pulls, so warm up that muscle behavior before you play.
Treat your post-game battle wounds as soon as possible. Don’t be a hero and limp for a week; if you do, you’re starting down the road to long-term lingering injury. Ice it, hot tub, vacuum it, wrap it, etc. Sleep so your body can heal. Take glucosamine for your joints. If you take care of your body, it will acclimatize…just don’t expect it to bounce back like it did when you were in your 20s!
2. Prepare
Goggle, shoes, racket glove and knee pad. This is your required battle gear.
Yes, glasses can fog up…but eyeballs can’t be replaced. Every time I contemplate taking off my glasses, I end up shooting the mug. A compressed racquetball hitting the eye socket can suck out the eyeball. Enough talk. Bring 2 pairs and rotate them when one gets tarnished.
Shoes. You need good shoes that fit snugly. Don’t grab your old Nikes, get some new shoes. You don’t need to spend a fortune. Get 2 cheap pairs that you can rotate so the shoes have time to recover. If your ankles are a bit out of practice, you may want to consider basketball shoes for extra support. If you sprain an ankle, you’ll be on injured reserve for quite a while. Or, you can wrap your ankles before you play. Hears! It’s not about looking pretty… it’s about winning!
Racquet glove. It prevents your wrist from getting carpal tunnel and straining to grip the racket. It is worth the small investment.
Knee support. I’m not a big guy… 170 pounds, 5′ 10″ – and I’m in pretty good shape. But, I wear knee braces, and I’ll tell you why. Because my knees were taking a beating. Yes If you want to play hard , you’ll end up diving for the ball or jumping off the ground. You’re a warrior, you can’t help it! In the heat of battle, your knees will take the hit, but the next day they’ll hurt. And every game after that… they’ll get worse every time Soon, you’ll have to stop playing for a while. Let’s face it, you’re not in your 20s anymore. Your body needs time to recover. Plus, you need to go to work on Monday and still be a pack mule for all the junk! of your family!Make sure you have enough body for your family!
Don’t show up with velcro knee pads…you’re not laying tile! Simple breathable latex knee pads that are not so tight as to restrict movement will help your knees survive.
3. Winning strategy: placement and positioning. Especially important if you are playing with young males who have energy to burn. To conserve your energy, you need to play smart. Playing smart involves putting the ball in the right place and positioning your body in the right place on the court. Hitting the ball hard doesn’t win games. Putting the ball where your opponent doesn’t. Make the bastard run. Make them dive. Make them beg for mercy!
Here are some gaming tips I’ve learned that increase your chances of winning.
1. Quiver of portions. You should have 3-4 good serves in your arsenal. Vary your service. Look behind you before serving to see where your opponent is. Hitting the backhand corner is good, but get him to play against the side wall before he lands. Hit one that goes to your opponents ankles, fast. Toss in a dying lob in the high corner that can’t play on the back wall. Include a fast ball backhand that sticks to the wall. Once you get your opponent to strike out with your serve, he keeps varying and fueling serves quickly. Don’t give them time to settle.
2. Body positioning. Generally, regarding position, try to stay in the middle of the court. If you’re up against a wall, take a cross wall shot to bring the ball back to where you are, forcing your opponent to stick to your wall. Don’t hinder the ball. If your opponent is up front on the court, drive them back with a first hit from the ceiling that forces them back. If you find yourself in a corner, get out of it and return to the center as quickly as possible. Stay in the middle.
3. Wait for the ball. When you land a good forehand, don’t screw it up. If you see a lane where you can hit the ball, be sure to be ACCURATE on your shot. If you’re full of energy, you’ll hit it too hard and the ball will bounce too high, allowing your opponent to recover with a back wall.
If the ball passes you, nothing happens. Turn around and play with the back wall. Play your game, not your opponents game.
4. Find the Achilles Heel. Play a variety of shots early in the game to find your opponents weakness. But don’t experiment when you have a kill shot. Take the kill. Play with your opponent when you can afford it.
5. Keep up the service! You can’t score if you don’t have the serve. If you’re returning a serve, it’s time to GAME ON. Recover service at all costs. Don’t let your opponent raise a tab. How do you do this when they have bad service? Learn to read the body language of your opponents. Typically, a server will ‘telegraph’ your move with a flick of the feet, a twist of the wrist grip, a drop of the shoulder. These little ‘reads’ will give you that extra millisecond to jump on that serve and get that motherfucker out of the server box.
6. Placement, Placement, Placement. Make your opponent run, fight, dive. EVERY shot must be hard to return. That doesn’t mean it has to be a kill shot or a hard ball. In order to place the ball where your opponent is not, you need to know where he is! Which leads to my next tip.
7. Watch the ball and watch your opponent. Develop your kung fu senses. If your opponent is fighting, he will generally get weak returns (except for the occasional LUCKY killshot!). Try to anticipate where your next shot will go.
8. And finally, my favorite tip. If you really want to improve, play at least 2 times a week and play with someone who is better than you. My regular partner beats me pretty much every game. He is just good Ninja. A huge arsenal of deadly services. A wicked kill shot (forehand and backhand). And an excellent strategic player. This kid played competitively when he was younger and never stopped. BUT, I am getting closer to him and have beaten him a couple of times. I prefer a challenge to a victory. I also easily beat other racquetball players.
BUT… I don’t recommend obsessing and playing more than 5 times a week. You will hit your body and burn your thirst for the game. Find some regulars you can play with and stick to a schedule.
Have fun, cross train, play hard and keep those youngsters RUNNING!