Racquetball is a fun and
exciting sport for people of all ages. It involves many of the same
skills required for
tennis, but has very few of those annoying "
rules." Here's how I play, although the actual
rules might be a bit
different:
First, you need a racquetball court, which consists of a big room with some lines drawn on the floor. These lines consist of a rectangle about two shoulder-lengths wide which stretches all the way across the middle of the room. This rectangle has two very small rectangles inside of and perpendicular to it. These are positioned very close to the walls. The line marking the back edge of the big rectangle also travels halfway up the side walls.
The serve occurs from anywhere within the big rectangle and between the two small rectangles (which I will call the serving box. That means it's legal to serve from the middle of the room, but not from very close to the wall. The serve must hit the front wall, but it may not hit another wall, the floor, or the ceiling before it clears the back line of the serving box. The serve may not hit the back wall before the ball bounces. The server may commit two of these faults before the serve is lost.
The receiver must hit the ball to the front wall before it bounces twice. Other than that, there are no rules governing how many walls the ball can hit after the serve has been successful. The ceiling is also fair. After he returns the ball to the front wall, the other player becomes the reciever. This exhange, from serve until the ball bounces twice, is called a rally.
I believe that the accepted way to score is much like the method used by volleyball, which means the server serves until he commits two faults or allows the ball to bounce twice. Then the other player gets to serve. Points are only awarded to the server. However, this can take a long time for two evenly matched players, so I prefer the ping-pong method of scoring, in which the players take turns serving, each getting 5 serves per turn. A point is awarded on every serve to the person who wins the rally. The game is generally played to 15, but the winner must win by 2 points.
Other Stuff
If it's hard to tell whether or not the ball hit the floor first before hitting the front wall, a good rule of thumb is that the ball will squeak if it hits the floor first, because it is generally spinning towards the players. If you get hit with the ball while you are the receiver, your opponent wins the rally. If the receiver hits you with the ball, you are free to beat him savagely in the head with your racquet. Then, you both must agree whether or not the ball could have made it to the front wall had you not been standing in the way. If there is any doubt, the rally is redone. If there is an open observation port at the top-back of the room and ball goes out, the rally is also redone.
Have fun!
Pro raquetball rules require that you wear goggles, and if you're serious about raquetball, get some! Ironically, as I write this, my left eyelid is bruised to look like I did a lousy job putting on eyeliner. Since I'm a non-transvestite guy, though, that's kind of embarassing. I'm lucky that's all I've got, though. I could've lost what sight I have left in that eye. I thought I'd mention this since this writeup has come to my attention just a few days after this injury!
Wear Goggles, dammit! I don't care how stupid you look in them!