1533 The Racquetball Chronicles

When TA and I get a chance to play, we pretty much always do. Tonight I was fortunate enough to have an early court time so off we went.

I had a few minutes to practice and worked on keeping my shot low and hitting the proper angles to keep the ball off the wall and thus into mid-court. It would pay off as I hit the ball well all night.

Typically in the first game he exclusively does lob serves. As I mentioned a couple of posts back, we are similarly skilled, though at this point in time I believe I have a few advantages. Well, if I am serving low, hard and nasty and he is lob serving...it is seldom going to be a game.

So I determined to engage in lob serves myself.

At first it was a good, solid, competitive game. he actually held a 5-3 lead and I was struggling to score. Then the switch came on.

Suddenly everything was clicking; for a couple weeks, I have been waiting for the ball to drop, then mis-hitting. Tonight the ball would drop and I would put away a winner. Forehand, backhand, ball high, ball low...did not matter. And the game turned into a rout. I was up 14-5 before he scored again. He ended up with 7 or 8, but the game was not close once I started playing well.

Game two he was serving to score but my returns were nails. He could not get much past me. But he was winning rallies as he was hitting winners when they were presented. He took a 2-0 lead, I stormed back to tie it, then took a 6-2 lead...then he scored 8 straight.

I could not do anything. I was returning every serve, but poorly, and he was not missing. I missed a couple serves. I missed a passing shot. he got to a couple of good shots. It was soul-crushing...

Then the switch flipped again. I started using ceiling shots, seizing the middle, hitting kill shots, hitting good passing shots, getting to every shot he hit.

With him playing well I ran off 9 straight points. He took his last lead at 11-10, he tied it at 12, and then I ran off 30 straight points.

That is not a typo. I won the last three points, then skunked him 15-0. It did not matter what he did. If he hit a ceiling shot, I hit one in return until he hit one a little too soft. If he hit a passing shot, I returned the favor. If he hit a kill shot I got to it and hit a better one.

I was hitting sidewall pinches, front wall pinches, passing shots...my court awareness, my position, my shot planning, my execution were superior. He could not score, he could not stop me from scoring.

After the 15-0 rout, I jumped out to a 12-0 lead. By this point I was junk ball serving to get rallies because even when he was returning my tough serves I was just taking the return and putting it away. It is as well as I have ever played.

He scored 6 or 8 points, but it was not that close and was never in doubt.

Game 5 was more respectable but still not close...another 12 or 13 point lead. We decided to play one last one.

I jumped out to a 3-0 lead and it was looking grim. Then he stepped it up. He was playing at the top of his game and I was playing well. He built a 6-3 lead. I took an 8-6 lead. He took a 9-8 lead. I took a 10-9 lead. 10-11.

Most of the points by both of us were earned. These were not the cheesy "I set up for a kill shot, have an easy shot and just muff it". The closest to that was my speed and ability to get to ball after ball after ball was making him adjust his play; if I over hit and he had a shot close to the wall, he had a tough choice; if he hit it soft, I was getting to every one and then he was out of position. If he hit it hard, I was running down most of those unless he hit it perfectly. So he mis-hit a lot of those, and when he did not, I scored...so it was a no-win situation for him.

This, by the way, is almost exclusively a function of my conditioning. I can run, run, run and am quick enough to cover almost the entire court.

Anyway, we were tied at 14. I broke his serve with about as good a return as I have ever hit. We then had a spectacular rally where both of us thought we had hit winners only to see the other guy return it somehow someway. Finally I hit a beautiful cross-court passing shot that eluded his racket by a quarter inch. 15-14.

Whereas typically this ends the game, he likes to play win by two.

We had a good rally that ended in a hinder.It was probably advantageous to me as I had hit a poor attempt at a corner kill but he felt he had been in my way, then I stumbled into him from my over swing.

The last serve was nasty, he got a great return, I had to plaster it off the back wall. I do not want to say i have mastered a defensive shot there, but I have certainly gotten very good at it. I hit it so hard and at the right angle to force him to the back wall and it comes off soft so he cannot generate power or a kill. He tried a ceiling shot, it was a tough attempt but all he could do.

It bounced moderately high just pass mid-court, I waited, dropped low, timed it, and hit what would have been a great passing shot if it had not bounced twice within 6" of the front wall. Great finish to a great game.