1531 Racquetball Chronicles

2-5 has been sick, but TA stepped into the gap and we got to play about an hour and 45 minutes tonight.

The first game started both well and poorly; well because the game was close, poorly because that is how we were playing. We were both skipping easy shots, muffing easy set-ups...two or three times I commented, "That rally was who wanted it less."

As usually, though, it was my game to lose. He traditionally does a lot of lob serves...well, okay, does lob serves exclusively the first game.

Not that I kill every lob serve..I do not. But when we are playing similarly bad, me getting points off serves and him not turns an otherwise close game into something that looks like a rout, about 15-6 or so.

It was not a game either of us should be proud of, though. A handful of points were earned...most were off the opponent's unforced errors.

Game two he started doing real serves and sure enough, a couple times he reeled off 4 or 5 consecutive points. My return was off and it was a struggle. He scored about 8 points off his serve and at one point was ahead 10-4.

I fought back to make it respectable, but still he won handily 15-8.

It shows how important the serve is. Again I feel neither of us played very well...but he scored off his serve and I did not off mine.

Finally, game 3 was the one we have been looking for.

His serve was ON, but so was my return. My serve was nasty, so was his return.

In fact, both of us returned sidewall pinch serves multiple times each.

I was moving very well both side to side and front to back. I actually got a half dozen kill shots and several successful passing shots. So did he.

And we had several rallies of me trying to blast it past his backhand while he tried to get an opposite wall passing shot while we were both in center court. Numerous times I was able to chase down passing shots and hit such good shots off the back wall they served as solid ceiling shots, changing our positions.

Meanwhile, he was making effective use of the ceiling shot and the passing shot.

He scored first. I scored the next two. He took a 4-2 lead, I reeled off 4 straight to take a 6-4 lead. He returned the favor, going up 8-6. We tied at 8. I took a 10-9 lead. Tied at 10. Every point was a war, every shot important. It was awesome.

Sure, there were a couple service exchanges and points off unforced errors, but the bulk of the points were won off the serve or off hitting winners.

Finally I closed him out about 15-12. It was an excellent, excellent game.

The next game started super bad for me. Suddenly I could not handle his serve. He had 4 points before I got in a return.

We had a couple service exchanges and he still led 4-0.

Then it was like a switch flipped. I was up 10-4, 12-4, 14-4...it was a rout. He scored a couple, but there was no chance I was losing that one.

I have no idea what happened. I went from not able to handle ANY serve to returning everything in such a way I was able to seize advantageous court position and, while my passing shots were still poor, and I was not hitting a lot of good kill shots, I was able to move him around enough that my mediocre passing shots were better because of position.

There was also a slight improvement in them. All night my cross-court passes were coming off the wall too far to center court. This game I kept them down the line. Made all the difference.

Anyway, we were going to play one more to 11.

Again he jumped out to an early lead, but I tied it at 6 and took the lead 7-6. We decided it was such a good game we would go to 15. Big mistake.

Suddenly serves he had returned all night were aces or winners. My poor shots he was hitting winners off were returned poorly enough I was able to get to them...and while he scored a couple late in the game, it was something like 13-6 and then 14-8. He got to I think 10 but it was not that close.

All in all a very fun evening. I need to get back to working on my positioning. I was getting up front, trusting my reflexes, jumping back to position, and hitting EVERYTHING. When he did get one by me at the wall, I generally had time to at least get to it and keep it in play.

I do need to work on my low pass shot and my kill shots...they have regressed markedly. But 3 of the 5 games were great games, lots of fun. It was a good night.