Racket Ball Rules to Improve Your Skills
Racquetball can be an extremely fun sport to play. The mental and physical
aspects of the game challenge the players while providing a great aerobic
work out. Knowing how to play and how to maximize your shots and
strategies will make you a better player and you will have a much more
enjoyable experience.
Racquetball has long been described as a sport for those of us that don't
like the restrictions of tennis. One problem with tennis is that you need
to keep the ball within the lines. This problem doesn't really affect the
game of racquetball. The key rule in the game is that the ball may only
bounce off the floor once after hitting the front wall.
To start the game the first player must serve between the two red lines on
the floor towards the front wall. Then the ball must bounce between the
back red line and the back wall. If it is short or long the serve must be
done again. Two bad serves in a row makes it the other person's serve just
like in tennis. Serving low so the ball bounces quickly or towards the
corners of the court generally makes the serve tougher for the other
player to get.
The ball can only bounce once off the floor after served before the other
player must hit it. Then the other player must hit the ball back to the
front wall without hitting the floor. Each time the ball may only bounce
on the floor once in between being hit.
Keys to fielding the serve of the other player include placement of your
body in relationship to your strong side. If your backhand is weaker than
your forehand, generally try to stay towards that corner of the court to
field the other person's serve. Getting the ball back quickly off the
serve, maybe out of the air without waiting for it to bounce may catch
your opponent off guard and win your side-out more quickly.
There are a couple key ways to increase your efficiency and ability to win
in the game of racquetball. Placement, timing, and how you handle your
racquet are three good areas to focus.
Placement involves how much finesse you play the ball with. Trying to hit
the ball back to the front wall low to the ground so that it hits the wall
and bounces quickly is a good strategy. However, many people try to get a
little greedy and hit the floor because they are trying to get the ball so
low on the front wall that they give up an error. Focusing on hitting the
ball low, but staying a foot or two off the front wall will allow for a
lot of victories with giving up less errors. Placement of the ball really
brings into the game the mental side of the battle. Knowing where your
opponent is and putting the ball where they are not will make it tougher
for them to run down the ball.
Finesse in playing little drop shots that gently bounce off the front wall
and don't rebound back too far into the court is a good quality to have.
Knowing when to play the drop shot with relation to your opponent being
too far back in the court will allow you to get more winners.
Timing the ball to hit it out of the air and perhaps off of a few walls
will make the ball tougher for the other person to keep track of. Playing
into the corners makes people play the backhand and forehand from a
running position most often and forces them to come up with better shots.
Another key way to increase your ability of playing better racquetball is
to focus on how you hold your racquet. By making sure the racquet is
perpendicular to the floor you make sure that the ball will travel to the
front wall without hitting the floor. Many novice players don't hold the
face of their racquet up enough with the top of the racquet being slightly
angled to the back wall.
By holding your racquet with a slight upwards angle, less errors on your
part will be made by hitting the floor before you get to the front wall.
Let the other person make the errors and force them to play a stronger
game in order to win. Someone who doesn't focus on how they are holding
the racquet with respect to their surroundings is more likely to make more
errors and lose more often.
Learning more tricks and keys about form of how to hold your racquet and
where to place the ball are both important keys to focus on in becoming a
better racquetball player. Another great way is anticipation. Knowing
where your opponent generally hits the ball to from where they are
standing will allow to start moving in that direction sooner to allow to
be there before the ball is. Watching your opponent and their angle before
they hit the ball will allow you to know where they are planning to send
the ball to. Less running and scrambling on your part will allow you to
make higher quality shots and win more games.
Enjoy the game and stay focused on the basics and you will come out the
victor.
Written by Wayne Whicher
Title: Racket ball rules to improve your skills.
Description:Racket ball rules that will help improve your skills, or pick
up the game again after not playing for a long time.
Copyright 2001 by PageWise, Inc.