Ahh, the good ole days. I was a young lad, going to the park with my dad, but not to play on the playground or the swings, but rather to be introduced to the fun, energetic sport known as Racquetball. It’s a pretty simple game, really. You have a racket, a ball, and a wall in front of you. Hit the ball to the wall, passing it to your opponent (dad) and have the ball returned back to you, and try to get your opponent to miss. Being that me and my dad were fairly new to the game, we instead simply tried to keep the rally going, rather than getting each other out.
Emphasis on “tried”. We mostly ended up having to chase the ball that got behind us, or when it went over the wall to the other side 😶…
But that was the good ole days. I’m a big boy now. Through the years I’ve become what many would consider a “lazy person”. Working on my computer, gaming on my computer, watching shows and movies on my computer, with eating and sleeping somewhere in the mix. Long story short, I’m out of shape.
So, as many before me have done, I recently signed up to a local gym. After a few sessions on the cardio machines, I come to learn that my gym has a racquetball court indoors. A wave of childhood memories flow through me, remembering those days with my dad on the outdoor court, and also remembering that we probably have those old rackets in our attic somewhere.
The next time I come to the gym, I bring a ball and my dusted-off racket with me. I walk into the racquetball court area, expecting to see a few people playing, and… the lights were off. It was empty. Deserted.
After a brief moment of confusion, I turn on the lights, and enjoy myself a session of true racquetball. There is one main difference between indoor and outdoor racquetball. And that is that the court is fully enclosed. You have 6 legal surfaces for the ball to hit, unlike the 2 that you have in an outdoor court (the wall in front, and the floor for the courts I was playing at). This is a true regulation sized racquetball court, at 20’ high, 20’ wide, and 40’ long. Obviously I am terrible at it. However, I still got myself a good workout.
I go home and do some research. I had a lot to learn about this newly re-found sport, and how to properly play, and I was also curious why no one was at the courts by my gym. I go on YouTube, expecting to find some niche influencer YouTubers shilling the sport with videos covering every topic, piece of gear, tips, tricks, etc you can or probably can’t imagine, just as YouTube has offered me with virtually every other hobby of my past. But what I find instead rather surprised me. There were no videos that have recently been posted covering educational racquetball content, at all. The top videos were over 10-14 years old! The quality on these videos are 240p(!), maybe sometimes 480p max, with dated and antiquated visuals and audio coming across the screen from time to time. Videos on the basics of racquetball were there, but they were YouTube relics, rather than the bustling hobby that I would have expected from YouTube.
I was, to be honest, saddened, and curious to know what happened to this sport. An empty court at my gym, and now a “dead” sport online too? After further research, it seems that the sport was a big thing in the 1960’s-1990’s, but since then it’s been on a decline in popularity. People say that since the sport never got a footing on TV, or in the Olympics, it just never caught on in popularity. Many blame this on a camera’s inability to track the ball at its high speeds. The ball is small, and with the low camera quality of decades past, it couldn’t become a visually appealing sport to watch on TV. But these days that’s no longer a problem, with camera quality being what it is today.
Some multiyear-old Reddit conversations also explain that due to the courts being quite spacious, but only allowing 1-4 players play at a time, many gyms that offer them slowly took them down over the past few decades, and continue to do so, to convert the spaces to a yoga classroom, or to fit more fitness machines, etc. This lessens the availability for those who would play the sport to actually have a court to play on locally.
Today, the sport feels as though it’s on its last legs. There are tournaments, but those who play the sport professionally don’t seem to be doing much to grow the sport. There’s also not enough money for these professionals to live off of playing the sport either, and instead they still need a regular job to get by. The companies that offer the gear to play the sport, such as Penn, Gearbox, Head, etc. don’t seem to be doing much to save the sport either.
The future looks bleak, and I’m deeply saddened by it. Because the sport is hella fun, and it’s a great workout, especially to those who could use an entertaining exercise that isn’t just walking / jogging on a treadmill. People can truly become good at this. You don’t need to practice for years to become competitively good at the game. Costs aren’t too high; the barrier to entry is fairly low if you can locate a court near you (here’s a link to help you find one), and the gear is relatively affordable if you want to get into it. A full setup of racket, balls, safety goggles and glove would set you back only $150 or so if you buy decent equipment. And a gym / club membership would set you back anywhere between $15-$100/month, and they usually offer many other benefits to make the cost worthwhile. [If you’re interested in outdoor courts, such as one-wall or 3-wall Racquetball, you can click here to find a public court to play on, for free!]
Some of you may disagree about the barrier to entry. And for those who will certainly find difficulty finding a court near you, I agree. But let’s be honest with ourselves, we all splurge every once in a while on things. $150 on a setup for a sport you’d enjoy for a long time isn’t that much, and there’s a chance many of you are subscribed to a gym / club that offers a court already.
Other hobbies can easily be more expensive. Take fishing for example. Fishing would require you to buy a quality rod, fishing line, bait, tacklebox, and more to just get into it. Not to mention driving / sailing out to the nearest fishing spot. And that’s certainly more expensive than a racquetball setup.
All I can say is, go and look into Racquetball. Go and play Racquetball. Give it a try. Bring some friends with you. Make some friends at the court. (And please make some YouTube videos reviewing newly-released rackets and other gear, and tips and trick videos; the world feels empty without such content 😐).
Racquetball is a blast, but unfortunately, it’s on it’s last legs. With COVID shutting down many gyms and courts, the sport can’t last much longer. Even when it deserves to. The only way to keep it alive and hopefully be revived to it’s former glory is for you to:
Go and play Racquetball!
You won’t regret it.
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