Racquetball Strategy: After Serve Positioning

Series Summary

Racquetball is a racquet sport played with a hollow rubber ball in an indoor or outdoor court. Unlike most racquet sports, such as tennis or badminton, the court's walls, floor and ceiling are legal playing surfaces. Normally, a racquetball game is played between two opposing players, although three and four player variations exist. To start playing the game, a server must bounce the ball on the floor once and hit it against the front wall, resulting in the ball rebounding beyond the short line and landing on the floor, either with or without touching a side wall. After the racquetball bounces behind the short line, or passes the receiving line, the ball is in play and the opponent may return the shot.

Much of a racquetball player's success in scoring points is due to their ability to react to an opponent's shots and to take advantage of an opponent being out of position. In this free video series, a professional racquetball player will teach you how to gain an advantage in racquetball with proper positioning on a variety of shots and returns. You'll learn how to be in position after serves, when returning serves, in front of your opponent, and in back of your opponent. You'll also learn how to get in position to return kill shots, pinch shots, and strategy for playing doubles. With these tips and strategies, you'll be ready for any racquetball shot that comes your way!

Video Transcript

"alright, we are going to talk about court positioning after you serve. After you serve, whether it is a drive serve or a lob serve, you always want to put yourself in the best court position possible to be in the best place to retrieve their return. So, let's say I serve a lob serve, for instance. Here is the lob serve. Now, I have a choice to make. I can either stand right here and see what the guy is going to do or, I can backup and get into the position. So, the best thing you want to do is back-up and stand center court. You are going to see a formula here when we talk about return to serves. The pattern is to always get back to center court. There is a few ways to do that. So, as I serve the lob, instead of turning all the way around and exposing myself to getting blasted. If I going to get hit, it feels much better to get hit back here then it does up here, for many reasons. But, the lob serve happens. I am over my shoulder, protecting myself as much as I can. If he is going to hit a low shot, I can lift my leg. If he is going to hit a high shot I can cover. I don't want to turn all the way around. I want to be in the center court position and waiting for him to hit a shot to see what he is going to do. If he is lining up like he is going to hit a hard shot, then I will anticipate forward. If he is going to the ceiling, then I will back up a little bit and get ready for the ceiling ball. So, court position is key. That is what it looks like after the serve."