Understanding the Background of Racquetball

Played inside and outside with a hollow rubber ball and racquet, racquetball is a unique sport that has been growing in popularity year over year. It’s a fast-paced, action-packed game with very specific court dimensions and rules.

Easy to pick up and fun for everyone, racquetball doesn’t require much more than the proper racquet, ball, and athletic shoes. While there are certain rules players must follow, anyone can pick up the game and play for fun.

So where did the sport originate?

In the late 1950s, a resident of Greenwich, Connecticut was looking for a way to increase his exercise. As a professional tennis and squash player, Joseph G. Sobek was looking for a fast-paced and enjoyable game.

After recently quitting his job at a rubber manufacturing company, Sobek started attending the YMCA where he eventually invented the game that we know as racquetball. However, it looked a little different. Instead of the traditional equipment we see today, wooden bats and squash balls were used, creating a very inefficient game. Sobek had an idea and began to work to improve this equipment into what he believed could be an amazing game.

Evolution of the game

Sobek had a strong vision for what he wanted the racquet to look like. He hoped for it to have a specific weight and strength with strings that would provide additional bounce to the ball when playing. With his vision, he created a prototype of this one of a kind racquet and brought it back to Greenwich from N.J. Magnam Corporation in North Attleboro. Everyone loved it.

With the racquet complete, he found an old model that A.G. Spaulding, a sporting goods company at the time, had manufactured in the early 1900s. The ball appeared perfect for the game, but after manufacturing 200 dozen balls, Sodek came to realize that the ball was too lively when played. Luckily, Sodek decided to fabricate the balls with rubber from the Seamless Rubber Company in New Haven and that model is what we see today.

Today, instead of the original wood paddles, many of the racquetball paddles are made of metal and fiberglass and Penn Racquet Balls Inc. manufactures the majority of the balls.

How did racquetball become popular?

To promote his new game, Sodek began playing the game consistently at the Greenwich YMCA, gaining a lot of fans and players of the game. He officially wrote the rules in 1951, evolving from the handball rules players were used to.

A couple of differences include a smaller court, the ball can only hit the ball once, and the courts were enclosed with glass to protect spectators. The sport, however, didn’t take off within Greenwich initially but became very popular outside of it.

Sobek founded the Paddle Racquet Association in 1952 and began distributing his new rules to all YMCAs across the nation. Colleges, country clubs, and other organizations gained traction of the sport and eventually, racquetball was becoming popular all across the country.

In the 1980s, the popularity of the sport began to fall. Some of the newly created racquetball clubs were closed and country clubs tore down their courts. However, many players still maintained loyalty to the game and devoted themselves to the sport. This kept the game and the spirit of the game alive.

Later on, for his incredible game, the American Racquetball Association created an award named after Joe Sobek as he made the game what it was today. At the time, the sport had 8.5 million players around the world and played in 91 countries. That was in 1998.

Where is racquetball today?

Today, there are over 20 million players of racquetball in the world in over 95 countries. The rules of racquetball are much more established than they were back in Sobek’s day, but they can still vary slightly by country or region.

Americans, for example, play in a court that measures 40 ft by 20 ft while Australia measures by standard international squash courts which are 32 ft by 21 ft. World championships for the sport have been held every year since 1981 and enthusiasts have high hopes that racquetball will soon join the Olympics as an official sport.

The objective of the game is to simply win rallies by returning the ball or serving so the opponent can’t keep the ball in play and all you need is a racquet, ball, athletic shoes, and protective eyewear.

These days, racquetball is a concentrated sport for the many health benefits it provides. Unlike jogging or cardio exercise, racquetball doesn’t strain the body but still delivers a great workout. The sport provides both aerobic and anaerobic benefits and sustains a high-level heart rate which is good for cardiovascular health.

Racquetball also burns tons of calories and works almost every muscle in the body. For a typical game, a player can burn between 640 and 822 calories per hour and works at a constant rate of 75 to 85 percent of their maximum heart rate. Not to mention a player will run more than two miles in one hour just by playing racquetball!

The sport of racquetball

After answering the question “what is the origin and history of racquetball,” you can see how amazing this sport is. Starting in Greenwich, Connecticut, Joe Sobek developed a game that is a strong workout and a fun time. While the sport reached peak popularity between the 1950s and 1980s due to Sobek’s consistent promotion and the increased interest in fitness, racquetball is still a hit around the world today.

He made the sport what it is, transforming the equipment and building a loyal fan base that will carry this sport year after year (and maybe even into the Olympics!) With many, many tips, tricks, and guides out there, anyone can play and enjoy the game of racquetball.