Twice a week, Tom Dunham hits the racquetball court — the same as he’s been doing for 40 years now.
Players partner up as participants trickle into these sessions, and the group tries to make things fair as they pair up for doubles play.
“If it’s lopsided … like if there’s two slow guys against two fast guys, it wouldn’t be fun, so we just change it up,” Dunham said.
Dunham, 64, plays mostly at Recreation ATL in Lilburn, but he’s played a lot over the years on LA Fitness courts, too. This is a fast-paced game that usually takes place in an indoor enclosure, and players use teardrop-shaped racquets to ricochet shots off a front wall.
The nature of the game
Basic rules, according to racquetballrules.us go as follows: Games begin with a first serve against the front wall, and a rally begins. In singles, before two bounces of the ball, the other player must hit it against the front wall. The other player can hit the ball, either after one bounce or in mid-air, against the front wall. Play pings back and forth like this in rallies, which end when a player lets the ball bounce more than once. Each rally won means a point scored. The game goes to 11 or 15 points.
Like Dunham, Kelly LeBlanc, also in her 60s, picked up the game earlier in her life. Her brother introduced her to it in college, and she continued playing after she got her first job.
Credit: Contributed by Kelly LeBlanc
Credit: Contributed by Kelly LeBlanc
When she married and had children, racquetball ended up on the back burner. But she picked it back up in 2011 after attending a tournament in Atlanta.
“I started practicing, met some great people and started competing,” she said. “And from then on, I was hooked as far as competitions went.”
She competes regularly — usually every other month. LeBlanc said few women play now, so outside of competition in Georgia Racquetball-sanctioned tournaments, she often ends up playing — and winning — against men at her level. She’s played regularly over the years at the same spots Dunham has used.
She uses the game to get her cardio in.
“I’ll get 10,000 (steps) pretty much every time I play or close to it,” LeBlanc said. “On a weekend where there’s a tournament, there could be 12-13,000 steps, just because you have more matches throughout the day.”
Dunham, who played tennis before racquetball, likes the contained nature of the game.
“The ball can’t get away — you can hit it as hard as you want,” he said. “It’s a great sport to learn hand-eye coordination. You don’t have to keep running six courts over to collect your ball.”
He prefers the ball action on concrete-walled courts as opposed to paneled ones.
“I’m not a hard hitter, so I need that fast response — that full energy — to rebound the ball,” he said.
Dwindling numbers
Although they’re both die-hard participants, LeBlanc and Dunham cited challenges for staying involved in a sport that’s facing dwindling numbers.
Racquetball exploded in the early 1970s, and Forbes has called its rise the “biggest sports phenomenon in the country” at that time. That story cites expenses in facility construction, to which fitness clubs have to devote valuable indoor square footage, as the reason other activities are replacing racquetball.
LeBlanc recalled seeing around 150 participants at a typical tournament around 2011. Now, she said, that number is more like 40 or 50 for the entire event.
“It’s very sad,” she said. “It’s such a fun sport.”
Dunham has been playing with approximately the same group of eight for about 20 years at different clubs, some of which are now closed. For him, new faces are a welcome sight.
“I like to see new, young players,” he said. “I like to help them if they’re agreeable — if they’re looking for help. I’d love to see the sport keep going. It’s a fellowship.”
Credit: Contributed by Recreation ATL
Credit: Contributed by Recreation ATL
Making changes
Both players have also had to make adjustments to their game to continue playing as they’ve aged.
It’s become harder on Dunham’s knees.
He was playing three or four times a week four months ago, but the schedule proved too much, so he picked up trail biking and now plays racquetball in between rides. One strategy he’s used to offset aches and a slowing game is to play more doubles.
“When you get to our age, doubles is more fun — more rewarding if you’ve got a partner,” he said. “You both can have an opportunity at the ball … If one’s not moving well that day, sometimes the other guy steps up.”
The doubles strategy has proven effective for LeBlanc, too, although picking the right partner is key.
“I’ve tried to play singles, and that just takes so much out of me as I’ve gotten older. You’ve gotta cover the whole court,” she said. " (In doubles,) if you’ve got somebody that takes all your shots, you don’t get as many shots, but typically, it’s pretty fair.
Despite challenges, the two persist with a game that’s seen them through several stages of life.
“I’ll take my ibuprofen and go play five or six games,” Dunham said. “Maybe I was a golden retriever, lab or something in another life. I just love chasing that ball around the room.”
