Hi All,
I'm helping a friend of mine with a small research project. It's a brief (5 min) survey on perceptions of athletes' male body image. If you wouldn't mind, would you all spend the time to fill it out please? There's no age limit.
Here's the link.
Male Athlete StudyThanks in advance!
Tim
Hi All,
I'm posting this because I thought some of you might like to participate. It's a survey (admittedly will take some time) about your body image etc. It's specifically for males only - sorry ladies. Upon completion you have a chance to win $50. The survey is open to anyone playing/competing regularly in sports aged 18 or over. Feel free to pass the link on!
Body Image SurveyBest,
Tim
I'm probably going to get slaughtered for this but has anyone considered merging the rules of racquetball and racketball? Racquetball is a fantastic sport full of power and speed and racketball is a sport full of longer rallies. Both are not ideal for an audience whether TV or courtside.
I wonder what you would all think if the rules of racquetball were altered to include a "tin" of about 4 inches high (instead of a squash tin height) on the front wall to eliminate the kill/rollout. We'd see a lot more hard, fast rallies that will exceed the sub 10 second rallies we see racquetball but be much shorter than the minutes played in racketball. I suspect we might even see more diving as balls are a little more retrievable. It would also make officiating SO much easier as it would eliminate the skip/no skip issue.
Of course I'm writing on a die hard racquetball forum but if we're seriously realistic about improving the sport, surely we have to follow in the footsteps of other sports that have organically grown over time.
Thoughts?
Bracing myself for the hurricane...
Tim
Hi All,
Just wondering if anyone has a contact in LA Fitness. I noticed that there are quite a few based in England, yet none of them have racquetball courts. I would like to see this changed if possible but need an "in". Any ideas?
Thanks,
Tim
Hi All,
Just wondering if any of you have ever seen or heard of a court that was designed to accomadate both squash and racquetball? I've heard it's been done before, but I've never actually seen one or the designs for one.
Thanks,
Tim
Hi All,
Anyone able to help me find a good source for Dri-Fit (or similar) shirts? I'm looking for something like this http://www.6pm.com/product/7595970/color/178838 but don't want to pay the name brand price if at all possible. Is there a generic brand out there that anyone knows of?
Thanks!
Tim
Hi All,
Just a quick question to find out how other states do this. In AR a non-AR resident is allowed to compete in our state doubles if partnered by an in-state resident. Do other states follow this ruling?
What's your take?
Thanks,
Tim
Hi All,
Just wondering if there are any British players around such as myself? Surely I can't be the only Brit not playing squash!
Feel free to get in touch!
Tim
Hi All,
So my facility were supposed to refinish my courts for an upcoming tournament in a couple of week. Citing weather (which we've had none) they've postponed until March!
Regardless, I would like to clean the courts well before the tournament. Does anyone know of any cleaning product that would work well on courts? Any assistance would be appreciated.
Tim
Hi All,
I'm planning a tournament for next month and am hoping to get some local sponsors involved. I'm wondering if any of you have a "standard" letter that you present to businesses. I’m very new to this so would appreciate it if anyone could send me a copy of what they use or have any other good ideas. Please e-mail any docs to tbaghurst@live.com
Thanks,
Tim
Hi All,
I'm sticking my neck out here but as a researcher (and educator) I'm quite concerned by the lack of scientific research supporting the sport of racquetball. Literally, there is virtually zero scientific research on racquetball. This is a concern if we, as players and supporters of the sport, want to see it become more succesful than it is.
If someone who doesn't play racquetball asks you how many calories on average you burn during a match what do you tell them? If they ask about water loss do you know? Can you tell them how much distance players cover during a game? What are the actual benefits of playing racquetball with respect to health and sporting aspects? Why should an athlete use racquetball as a means for cross-training? What is the incidence of injury?
How can we expect sponsors to loosen their checkbooks when we don't really know too much about our sport.
If anyone has any scientific data to support these questions I'd love to see it. Tennis is widely used in research and the USTA has dozens of grants available for various types of research involving tennis. If we are to promote racquetball as a fun, safe, and healthy sport, we need numbers to support our claim and finances to support the development of this research. Otherwise, the average public trying to get healthy will turn to the treadmill or something similar as a means for losing weight.
I'm writing this post as a challenge to all of us to consider the importance of scientific research in developing our sport. This period appears to be a period of change and possibilities for racquetball. The USRA and IRT need to seriously consider allowing and promoting research to highlight the many, many benefits of this sport.
If there are others out there interested in either assisting in conducting research or assisting as a participant then let's get in touch and get this sport on the map!
Thoughts welcome,
Tim
Hi all,
I'm running my first tournament in January and need to aquire probably a case of balls. Any ideas where I can get the cheapest case?
Thanks!
Tim
Greetings All,
Although Penn seem to dominate the racquetball market (maybe because of their deal with the IRT), over the last six months I've been breaking far too many for the moths in my wallet. This includes both their blue and purple balls.
I recently started trying out other balls just to break the mold and maybe if others do also it'll provide motivation for Penn to address the problem. Competing companies is rarely a bad thing for the customer.
So far I've tried:
Slazenger black - terrible - broke 2/3 with paint still intact!
Ektelon black - okay - only tried once, didn't break on me but felt a touch heavy
Wilson blue - love them - have played with about 5 cans and only broken 1 so far. My only complaint is that they tend to lose their bounce more quickly than the Penn blue.
What have you experimented with and recommend/don't recommend?
Tim
Forgive me for my ignorance but how do I attach pictures to my post?
Thanks,
Tim
I've heard that the next US Open won't be in Memphis. Does anyone have any idea whatsoever where it is going to be held? I've heard somewhere in MN, OH, or Vegas. What's the scoop?
Tim
Can anyone help me out please? I'm trying to persuade my university to build 3-5 outdoor courts. They're interested but want an estimate of the cost. Has anyone built an outdoor court recently? Specs would be great too!
Thanks,
Tim
The IRT Tour website states that we can watch the Motorola World Championship presented by Verizon Wireless - Sep 9-13 live on irtnetwork.com... all I get is a page asking me to provide my e-mail address for future updates... am I missing something?
Hi all,
I've got a friend of mine who'd like to buy a couple of Gearbox racquets. He'd be a very good and I suspect a frequent customer and is looking for a rep willing to work with him. If you are or know of a Gearbox rep can you please get in touch with me so that I can give you more info? E-mail address is appreciated as I'm travelling over the next week.
Thanks!
Tim
Can anyone recommend some frames in which to get my prescription glasses inserted? Thanks!
