subject: Racquet Sports For All Proclivities [print this page] As kid's growing up on the Jersey shore we were all playing handball, finding any convenient surface and always having a tennis ball on-hand to play the game. Sometimes someone would actually come up with a 'real' handball, which made the game slightly harder because the ball was MUCH harder. I usually wore gloves if I had them. Tender hands, don't you know!
Then, years later, I became acquainted with handball as it's meant to be played, in a full-sized court. This was quite different and so much more geometrically complicated than the game I learned as a kid. Adding three walls and the ceiling as additional playing surfaces really speeds up the game (compared to the old one-wall version).
For this new version gloves were mandatory, at least for me. And even with a good pair of specialty handball gloves I still felt the pain, right through the leather. And those shots I missed by reaching too far would inevitably leave welts on my wrists and forearms. Very manly, eh? Ha ha.
Racquetball, I learned, is played in the exact same court as is used for handball but is somewhat 'gentler' because you get to use a racket (or, as our cousins would say...'racquet'). No more hitting the ball with the hands sounded good to me, plus, the ball itself is softer. Getting hit by the opponent's shot shouldn't hurt as much, right? Getting hit with their swinging racquet can sure smart, though.
Squash was next on the list as I noticed both the court and the equipment were both different than the other games I'd been playing. A friend had a spare squash racquet and offered to take me through the basics. It was fun but I still liked racket ball better.
Tennis seemed like the next best step and, fortunately, there's a court right in my neighborhood. The local sporting goods outlet has a wide array of rackets and I got to see how a tennis stringing machine works while I was there. I opted for a fairly inexpensive piece of equipment to begin with, paying just less than $30 for the racket and a tube of balls. It wasn't difficult to find an opponent willing to teach me the rules and demonstrate some different swinging techniques. I really enjoyed this new game.
Now I've 'graduated' to ping-pong. This game is fun and easy and the whole family likes to play. The table was simple to set up and the equipment very reasonably priced. We have a lot of fun
