Do people still play racquetball ?
Posted by ConversationDue737@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 72 comments
I remember racquetball was everywhere in the late 80’s, early 90’s and I had my own racquet and I remember getting my racquetballs at Kmart because there weren’t any sporting good stores where I lived. I played in an intramural league in college and it was huge. You don’t hear anything about racquetball anymore, but it was so fun! Did anyone else play?
Galactic_WiFi@reddit
daily at the uni rec center there's a good handful of regulars
RambleWeed@reddit
I'm in a local tournament playing singles and doubles this week. But it's a dying sport, and at least where I am, COVID played a big part in taking out highschool teams. It's still hanging in there.
fuckfredflintstone@reddit
Loved it. Back in ‘85-‘87 we were playing 3-4 nights a week.
bavindicator@reddit
Yeah, now it's called pickleball
86a-@reddit
I played and liked it. I see old guys playing at the Jewish center now.
Ecstatic_Substance@reddit
My Dad was part of a club and played a lot. I practice against the garage door. In college in the 90s we had courts. One guy had a ball hit his “family jewels” and he lost one of his jewels. I don’t know why I can’t find my keys, but I totally remember that story 30 years later.
moosedontbounce@reddit
My friend and I were playing last year. Never saw anyone else at the court and the fitness center changed it to something else. Of course we are in our early 60’s. Haven’t see anyone younger play in a long time.
97_gEEk@reddit
Our local fitness center started as a racquetball club and expanded from there. Still has the 6 courts and regularly hosts tournaments.
daydreamersunion@reddit
Pickleball is the new racquetball, it seems.
Thirty_Helens_Agree@reddit
Part of an old mall by my office has been converted to pickleball courts. The evolution of that space went: 80s mall —> Linens N Things —> Pickleball courts
daydreamersunion@reddit
We used to call it Sheets N Shit
cw99x@reddit
Not to be confused with the Shit N Sheets store.
4WDToyotaOwner@reddit
Not to be further confused with Bloodbath and Beyond.
Stratoblaster1969@reddit
Spirit store during Halloween? Dollar store?
AlterNate@reddit
Best shape of my life playing racquetball. You always get a complete workout.
rr1965@reddit
We had 2 courts at work at our associate center - played every lunch during the week. Fun game and great exercise...just had to watch for the newbs when playing doubles! Hard to find courts nearby unfortunately.
KellyAnn3106@reddit
My dad played semi-competitively in the 80s and 90s so I'd tag along. If there was an empty court, I'd go play by myself.
When I moved in to an apartment complex in 2002, it was clear that it had been built in the 80s as it had 2 racquetball courts. I'd come home after a horrible retail shift, write names on a ball and go smack the hell out of it for an hour. It was exercise and therapy in one. They eventually converted them to basketball courts. Boooo!
I'd love to play again but courts are scarce and usually are part of athletic clubs with very expensive dues.
DanDanDan0123@reddit
lol! Haven’t played racquet ball since I graduated high school in 1983!
Columbia_Guy001@reddit
I don't think I have played since the 90s. It used to be a regular thing to rent a couple of courts with a few friends. I remember my feet always getting blistered. After I tore my ACL in the late 90s, I essentially gave up on court sports. Save the odd game of floor hockey.
HappyFatLabs@reddit
From 1987 to 2015, it was like my church. It started to get difficult to find good places to play, and people who were still interested in going. But when it was happening, it was a happening.
Jay4usc@reddit
Wished I still can, miss playing. Played too many years and now my knees are trashed. I even switched gyms so I can’t play
Jmast7@reddit
I actually just started playing once a week with a buddy of mine. It’s a fun thing to do to shake up the routine and the courts are almost always available at our gym.
LazyOldCat@reddit
Squash, baby! Pickleball is for old people.
very_free_and_easy@reddit
Used to play every Saturday afternoon with my Dad and brother during the winter months in PA until tennis season in the spring. Did well enough in a bunch of regional tournaments to be nationally ranked when I was 13, but then the local club shut down and that was it.
New-England1_boy@reddit
I have been playing every Thursday morning for the last 22 years. That's my only cardio workout
DNC1the808@reddit
I still remember the bruises. They had a bare spot in the middle of the circle. Hurt like hell but it wasn't a real injury. You had 2 choices after getting hit. Stop playing and and attend to the stinging. The other choice and better choice. Keep playing and forget about it.
Ute-King@reddit
My dad played it fairly regularly at the community rec center in the Denver suburbs in the early 80s, but we moved to a small town with no such facility and don’t know that he ever played after that.
However, at some point, for some reason, he had cut a racquetball in half and showed me how you can turn one inside out and toss it to the ground so that it would bounce wildly off in a random direction. Or, pop it inside out and set it down and watch until it popped itself into the air. Cheap and easy distraction for this Gen Xer.
VegasBjorne1@reddit
Could use it as a diaphragm too!
125acres@reddit
Nope, the racquetball club turned into a strip club.
cw99x@reddit
What a racket, but I bet they’re having a ball.
naazzttyy@reddit
ERADICATOR!
ShookMyHeadAndSmiled@reddit
Does Thursday work for you?
c0ng0b0ng0@reddit
There are still courts in Minneapolis - both the Y and a couple of the Lifetime gyms have them. But you really only see older guys playing and it’s super easy to get court time.
spillingstars@reddit
I miss it. It was so great for stress release. I played constantly in the 90s but the courts I played at closed because of liability issues.
redcarpete@reddit
Racquetball 1 and 2 were my physical Ed electives in college. Great sport.
nopost23632@reddit
I couldn’t have avoided it if I wanted to. My mom was a manager at 3 racquetball clubs in the 1980’s And got some sponsorship, which included free tennis shoes sometimes for me. She taught me to play as fiercely as she did. When I was part of a day camp for kids in the summer, I would tear through the other kids in the tournaments because I could do kill serves.
Another interesting story about her racquetball exploits: she played in one tournament and got him on one of eyebrows, which split the skin (the ball could travel up to 150 mph). She dried off the blood, went back into the match, and still beat the other player.
A terrible mother, one helluva racquetball player.
bizzylearning@reddit
I would love to find a racquetball court and play. I'm SO bad at it, and everything hurts for days afterword, but it's so much fun!
Neophile_b@reddit
I do, every Friday
Serious-Mongoose-387@reddit
I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a racquetball court or known anybody who played it.
Crafty-Farm-8470@reddit
Boy I played a lot of racquetball 96-2006 or so, VA, MD and MA. Had so much fun playing with friends and it was a great way to stay in shape. I think squash took over, and then pickle ball I guess. I don't think that even if my gym had courts I could play, the way my shoulder is right now...
pokey-4321@reddit
Fun game, disappeared about 20 years ago. We had four courts in our gym and you had to sign up a week in advance of hoping to get an hour. They were on second level, I am not sure I have seen anybody up there in ages.
Working_Farmer9723@reddit
I loved racquetball. I loved that the ball always comes back unlike tennis. Super fast game. Very finesse game where the difference between a winner and an easily returnable shot was like an inch. A great workout unless you were a much better player than your opponent.
ConsultantForLife@reddit
I remember being in college and watching a fit college aged dude - who wasn't experienced at racquetball - getting completely destroyed by a guy in 70's who knew every trick to making the ball go where he wanted it to go.
MysteriousApple135@reddit
There used to be a Unique Racquetball right across the street from my house when I was a teenager. They had a special where membership was like 10 bucks for the entire summer. So me and a bunch of my friends got memberships.
The funny thing is none of us ever played Racquetball. The membership basically gave you access to the weight room and locker room, but you were supposed pay to rent a court. We would lift weights in our tight jeans and Metallica t-shirts . Since we never paid, the lights were never on in the courts, but there was enough light to play handball, which we did. No one ever said anything word to us. Good times.
Every-Mousse6228@reddit
No. Only time was in college. We also played wallyball which was basically volleyball in a racquetball court
Fish-Weekly@reddit
Had a blast playing wallyball, we had a group that played once a week until Covid shut things down. Those walls hurt when you run into them though 😁
blackpony04@reddit
They took too much inside real estate I would guess. Look at the racquetball courts in the gym where Clark Griswold is shown playing in Christmas Vacation, they were absolutely huge. My dad actually played for a time in the 80s, but I'm not sure where.
Thirty_Helens_Agree@reddit
Clark Griswold playing racquetball?
Guilty_Eggplant_3529@reddit
I started playing squash, then when I came back to the states I got into racquetball. I still prefer squash.
yanknga@reddit
I started playing squash while living overseas. I really enjoy it too.
i-am-jjm@reddit
Racquetball from college 1988-92, then work 92-97. Stopped after that. Became too busy to continue. Now it is the gym daily and tennis on the weekends.
Beautiful_Arm8364@reddit
Yeah, we played all the time back in college. Beats the hell out of pickleball.
JaguarNeat8547@reddit
Obviously on the younger side of GenX. lol...don't worry, kid. You'll get here. Pickleball is the shit.
Beautiful_Arm8364@reddit
I'm square in the middle. I'm actually pretty good at pickleball. But nothing is as satisfying as knocking the living shit out of a bouncy, blue racquetball.
JaguarNeat8547@reddit
i hear you. i didn't really mean it, just thought it was funny. The internet seems to be where i go to amuse myself (and often only myself. Oh well).
No-Lingonberry-7128@reddit
Yessir! 🤩
ConversationDue737@reddit (OP)
I know, right!!!
quackman2025@reddit
Late 90s, my old apartment complex had a racquetball court. We would play cutthroat every Tuesday night.
Sufficient-Pin-481@reddit
Our complex had one in the early 90’s and I don’t think anyone else used it except my roommate and I. Played again about five years ago and hitting the wall for the first time was a wake up call to my 50 year old body.
Obwyn@reddit
They all play pickleball now.
I never played racquetball then and I dont play pickleball now.
ONROSREPUS@reddit
Agreed. To much damn running for me.
robscomputer@reddit
I laughed at pickelball until I played it and how slowly the ball would run away. I'm terrible at tennis and the entire game is 90% running after the ball, this small little change greatly improved my experience.
Caliopebookworm@reddit
I would go to the student center and play every morning before class. Moved to Canada in 1999 and haven't played since. People kept telling to try squash and I never did.
Upstairs-Hope4392@reddit
Love playing Racquetball. Such a fun game.
ToxicAdamm@reddit
There's a new take on racquetball called Padel. Check it out. Places to play are starting to spring up in bigger cities in America.
pacmaanfever36@reddit
I played racquetball last week for the 1st time in 20 yrs
The68Guns@reddit
It was a big part of the short-lived TV series Cavemen.
R67H@reddit
I think the racquetball demographic has transitioned to pickleball.
OddSignificance9742@reddit
Played a lot at college, haven’t played since. Don’t live close to a court is the main reason.
Upper-Shoe-81@reddit
I LOVED racketball and played all throughout the late 90's and early 00's! Like you, I still have my racquet and not long ago went in search of racketball courts in my area. I'd heard one gym had them and I was SO excited to sign up, so I went down to take a look... and got the unfortunate news that do to low-use, they converted the entire area into a basketball court. I was so sad.
shawncollins512@reddit
I played all through college (88-93) and it was so fun - tons of courts at school and we could borrow racquets and balls.
I played again 7-8 years ago at my gym but it wasn’t as fun with me not willing to throw my body around like the old days.
No-Hospital559@reddit
Yes