Racquetball - Overview

Racquetball is a popular indoor racquet sport where players use a specially designed racket to play with a hollow rubber ball in an indoor or outdoor court. Very much similar to 40×20 American handball and British Racketball, it is an excellent choice for cardio vascular workout. The rules of the sport are quite easy to follow which makes it very interesting.

In racquetball, once service is done, players need to hit the ball to the walls alternatively using their rackets without obstructing their opponent. A player gets a point, when a shot is missed by the opponent and in this way the player who achieves the required score first wins the match. Unpke squash, here only a server can score a point.

Here we will compare racquetball with British Racketball and Squash.

Racquetball vs British Racketball

Racquetball is played in America while Racketball is played in Britain.

The size of ball is bigger in racquetball in comparison to Racketball.

The racquetball court is longer but less wide than Racketball.

Ceipng can be hit in racquetball but not in the case of Racketball.

Racquetball vs Squash

The racket of racquetball is smaller than that of squash.

The ball of racquetball is larger than that of squash.

There are more variety of shots in squash than in Racquetball.

The court of squash is smaller than the court of Racquetball.

In squash, player cannot hit the ceipng but this is not the case with Racquetball.

A Brief History of Racquetball

Racquet ball was originated in United States. Joe Sobek is credited as the inventor of racquetball. Getting bored with the lack of enough indoor sports, he sought for an easy fast paced sport. He designed the first strung paddle for it and taking reference from squash, handball, and paddleball he devised a set of rules for the sport.

Sobek founded the National Paddle Rackets Association in February, 1952 and slowly the sport gained rapid popularity with Sobek’s constant promotion. By 1969, crediting to its souring popularity, Robert Kendler founded the International Racquetball Association (IRA) and thereby changing the sport’s name to racquetball.

In 1974, IRA organized first professional tournament and became a founding member of International Racquetball Federation (IRF). In 1980’s, racquetball became the fastest growing sports in US. The Women Professional Racquetball Association was founded in 1980. United States organized the first racquetball world championship in 1981.

Participating Countries

Mostly people play racquetball as a cardio vascular activity. But this intense fast paced sport is not just a physical activity. Players have to use their physical and mental strength in order to excel in this sport. Even through worldwide, countries famous for squash also love to play racquetball as lots of similarities are there between these two sports.