The Corporate Challenge racquetball tournament was fun, but went down pretty much as I expected.  I had a great first match, defeating my opponent 15-2, 15-5 and pretty much controlling the pace of the play.

The second match, against the doubles champion I mentioned below, didn’t go so well.  He annihilated me in the first game 15-0 with a level of power and accuracy I’ve simply never faced before.  He hit one backhand passing shot that I could theoretically have gotten to, but by the time I could get my racquet around on it the ball was already past me.  I’ve never faced someone who could shoot faster than I could react — reaction time is kind of my thing in racquetball.  Not against this guy.

I don’t know if it was fatigue or charity — probably a little of both — but I did manage to score 5 points against him in our second game.  I suspect that if he had gone full out he’d have held me scoreless in both games — he was that good.

I had my folks down for the weekend as it was Thomas’s birthday, so my folks and Robin and Thomas got to watch me play.  Thomas was pretty pumped afterwards and wanted to hit the ball around some, so we did.  He’s got good natural talent; it didn’t take long for him to be hitting the ball pretty reliably with the racquet.  We’ll have to see about getting him some lessons at some point.

Anyway, it was fun and very educational.  Mainly what I learned is that I need to step up my playing a lot if I want to get to a point where I can even make this guy break a sweat against me.  Maybe when I get 100% confident in my knee again I’ll try to sign up for another league.

Tags: Racquetball

I won my match against Stan, so I will be competing in the Corporate Challenge racquetball tournament for the first time in at least 3 years.  I’m looking forward to it, despite the fact that the opponent I’ll face in the second round (if I get that far) is a former national doubles champion and plays singles at the nationally-competitive level as well.

So unless he shows up injured, or drunk, or (hopefully) both, or he’s been fired or is out of town the day of the tournament, I’m not likely to last beyond the second round.  But I am looking forward to playing against someone at that level of skill.  It should be very educational!  Probably humbling, too, but certainly educational!

Tags: Racquetball

I’m back on my feet, my knee is getting better all the time, and it’s Corporate Challenge time!  I’m not sure where last year’s representative Scott went this year; I was expecting to have to face him again.  Instead I am playing a couple of guys I’m less familiar with.

I had my first match today.  The guy I played, Brett, was a very good player.  He’s a lefty, with a very powerful forehand smash and a pretty good backhand.  As long as I drove hard for the balls and remembered to shoot to my forehand (which is far from natural for me) I had good success.  When I tried to play my standard game, shooting down the left side, he’d put shots away with regularity.

I beat him in straight sets, but he was a great sport and we had a good time discussing our strengths and weaknesses after the game.  It’s fun to play someone with a radically different style than you’re used to, and since I basically only play one guy anymore, everyone has a radically different style than I’m used to.

Next up is Stan, and if I beat him I get to play in the actual Corporate Challenge tournament for the first time in at least 4 years.

Tags: Racquetball