Self Refereeing

By Ray Cornell In general, playing racquetball without a referee occurs much more often than not. Virtually all recreational play is “self-reffed” and some tournament formats are designed to be self-officiated. In other cases, court design doesn’t allow the viewing access needed for a referee to call a match. So,…

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Myth or Fact?

By Ray Cornell Over the years, these articles have covered many aspects of the rules, from playing, refereeing and equipment, to court layout. So let’s test your recall. Can you separate fact from myth or local lore? See how well you can spot “fake rules … !” Following are 10…

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Court Markings

Have you thought about all of the court markings for racquetball – their appearance, locations, and purpose? Official court markings (lines) are required on every court, and we’ve touched on each of them in previous articles; but let’s address them all at once now for perspective. The diagram below is…

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Legal Equipment

We often focus on the rules of play, so let’s take a look at rules governing approved equipment. Heading into a new season is a great time to review what’s required or allowed, specifications, and how equipment is validated within the rules of play. Three items of personal equipment have…

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Hinder

Today we’ll review the types of hinders that can cause a rally to stop immediately: the replay hinder and the penalty hinder. In officiated match play, the referee determines which type is called. In self-officiated games, the players should agree on which call is appropriate. But making the determination is…

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Out of Bounds

Do you know how to rule when a struck ball goes out of the court? Does it constitute a replay, or loss of rally to the hitter? In his “What’s the Call” column published in the Fall 2016 issue of Racquetball [pg.28], National Rules Commissioner Otto Dietrich addressed similar questions…

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Referee Duties

Fall is traditionally the start of the racquetball season, and that means we get busy with tournaments after a little “quiet time” during summer (unless you competed in the Rocky Mountain State Games, or World Seniors). Anyway, the release of a new season calendar seemed like a good time to…

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Serving in Doubles

In my last article, I covered a key aspect of the serve, which was the receiver signaling “not ready.” It’s a communication tool between receiver and server, and helps to promote safety during the serve. One aspect to the rule that I did not mention is how that rule applies…

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