Anyone who has played tennis or squash before will have little trouble learning to play racketball. Perhaps the majority of racketball players have played squash in the past and have no trouble in adjusting to the minor rule differences for serving and already have a pretty good basic understanding of game strategy. Tennis players will have the necessary hand eye coordination and will soon get used to the bounce of the ball. Their main difficulty will be judging the bounce of the walls and how the ball squirts out of the side wall nicks. While in tennis movement is towards the ball in racketball it is sometimes necessary to move away from the ball to allow for how the ball comes to you of the walls and to give yourself enough room to play a controlled and accurate stroke. Also the serve is completely different and the racket swing is shorter and punchier. For these players the tips and routines for beginners will be very useful but will quickly lead to competence if not mastery!

For some people however racketball will be their first racket game and for some who have played before it will be so long ago they will be pretty well starting from scratch. Racketball is no doubt easier to learn than any other racket game, certainly easier then squash or tennis, but nonetheless it requires pretty good hand eye coordination and timing and, as your game improves a good level of fitness and stamina. The basic requirement to play racketball is to be able to rally with another player. For the U3A we have tournaments suited to beginners and we only require them to be able to serve and rally. At the very beginning however even serving is not necessary as long as you can hit the ball against the front wall of the court in the general direction of your partner.

This video give the basics and the following documents will give more details on how to play and how to get going.

Equipment – a description of the racket and balls

The grip – a description of the all-purpose ‘shake hands ‘ grip (recommended) and variations.