There is a new partnership with the US Open Racquetball Tournament! UnitedHealth Care, a Twin Cities-Based health insurance carrier has agreed to become the Title Sponsor of the tournament for the next 3 years.
Good news for the Sport of Racquetball!
I'll preface this and say I'm an E-Force sponsored player. And I string on a Babolat Star4 machine.
E-Force- Heatseeker 2.0. Eforce hasn't really changed its stringing pattern for a few years so Eforce racquets are pretty easy for me.
Head- Head's stringing patterns are pretty consistent over the past few years as well, although I'm curious who pulls the string back over the cross string opening (kinda bending it back to tension) or do you lock your table and pull all the way across the string bed (pulling from the opposite side)????
Wilson- Around here, there's only a couple players that play Wilson, those racquets are a little more challenging as one needs to make sure there aren't any cross-overs as the string goes down the handle.
Gearbox- Now that I was clued in that the bottom cross string isn't actually strung and tensioned with the rest of the crosses, it's pretty good.
Ektelon- I'll be candid and say, this is my least favorite racquet to string. Ultimately I only have a couple customers with the Re-Ignite, it's kinda a PITA to lock the table each time withe O3 speedports to maintain the integrity of the string holes.
Anyone see things differently?
Ok, hats off to Doug Gamin and Chris (and his Mrs.) and his crew, all of the MN organizing committee and volunteers and a special shout out to Big Nate for all of his back busting work to make the event successful!
Another one in the books and #7 for Kane. Wow...
Just a couple observations and comments I saw and heard. This year was run even MORE smooth than last year (and last year was very smooth). The food was fantastic (again...)
Here's my feedback for constructive purposes:
1. If we're going to do a 'party w/ the pro's', let's have it be for RB folks and not open to the public too. I was a little disappointed in the party. HOWEVER, this wasn't anyone's fault w/in the organizing committee. The club hosting the party double booked the night and really did the RB event a disservice. A lesson we'll learn from.
2. I was expecting the Target Center club to be remodeled to look like the SLP club.
Those are the only 2 things that I recognized as 'could have been better'. Neither were within the organizing committee's control.
It just so happened that the MN Lynx were in the WNBA Championships being held Wednesday night in the same building as the tournament and CONGRATS to the MN Lynx as WNBA champions!
Anyone else have any insight, feedback or comments about the event? Only one request, if you're going to beyoch and rag about the event, save your energy. If anyone has comments to make it even better next year, I'd love to see them here and I'll be bringing them to next year's organizing committee.
We're a week away from arguably the biggest racquetball tournament of the year and I haven't seen any/much bruhaha about it.
Are a lot of people from this site attending? Being a MN local, I get to benefit from the location and I'm playing 3 events. I'm looking forward to watching all of the matches (not just the Pro matches but some of the age groups too). I'm also looking forward to Tuesday night's challenge court on the Pro court (as I'm writing this, I guess I'm assuming they'll do the same thing as last year).
In advance, I'd like to throw out some accolades to Doug Ganim, Paul Ryan, and all of the volunteers that make the event happen.
If anyone has any very old Ektelon Frames like a composite 250g or the like and looking to get rid of them, I'd be interested in talking to you. I'm building a 'nostalgic wall of old frames'.
I've already got a couple Torons (one's an rts version and one's not), a ceramic 250g, a couple mid-sized CBK's, a mirada (oversized) and an old Magnum.
Some of the frames I'd be interested in are:
Composite 250g
smaller CBK
Strobe
Emenince
Then some old racquets I used to hit with:
1st edition PK Kinetic
Ektelon Quantus
Ektelon Nemesis
E-Force Terminator.
Thanks for looking folks.
I'm headed to Farmington Hills today till Wednesday and curious if anyone on here lives/plays at either the Lifetime or LA Fitness? I'm a low open/A player.
Thanks,
Terry
I just strung one of these racquets for the first time (here in MN, Wilson doesn't have a huge presence). I noticed there is a considerable 'run' from the last outside main at the head of the racquet to the hole where the 1st cross string starts.
Just wondering if anyone else has considered altering the traditional main string pattern to have the last main string end closer to the 1st cross string... the short side as well as the long side would both be a little different from each other on which sides skip which holes at the head and throat?
I'm interested in the reactions from folks that were here in Minneapolis for The Open. I'm intersted in hearing positive and constructive feedback.
I was a volunteer that helped set up the Show Court, the all the curtains, and some of the IT network cabling. I was able to see most of the pro matches; which were amazing to watch. My hat's off to Doug Ganim and his crew of workers that made the event amazing. The LFT venue is 2nd to none for an event of this magnatude. I would like to call out Chris Jorgenson, Operations Manager, for the tourney. I always saw Chris running around getting things done... dude, you rock. And your super-cool SO that helped w/ all of the food catering... she rocks too!
The only thing that could be better, and this was something that was brought to me, and not that I saw directly; game-day ticket sales were confusing for non-player spectators. A sign that says, "Ticket Sales" would have been helpful.
And that's truly the extent of the constructive feedback... and from my perspective, if that's the only improvement needed, the event was a raging success.
Looking forward to the 2011 event already!
Terry
Let's let the smack talk begin! Any predictions? Pro event? Any of the other divisions?
Looks like the Mens A division is gonna be a battle! Mixed 40's has some interesting parings!
Ok, my prediction... and I'll go out on a ledge on this one... I'll say Kane over Croft in 4 games. (yeah, the ledge is calling Croft in the finals).
Who's next?
The thread about the Pro's tensions got me thinking. I've been stringing for over 15 years (closer to 20 but I'm in denial about my age), and I've never deviated too far from the recommended 30-35 that most racquets manufacturer's recommend. Once I strung my own at 43 pounded (E-Force Stun) but cut it out after a couple days out of fear of frame integrity.
So Rocky had been stringing his Ektelon stick at 55 pounds, and his Head stick is way above the recommended range, I'm curious about other stringers practices on stringing ranges. Do others string their customer's racquets at what I would characterize at extraordinary tensions and I've just been a conservative OR is the Pro info just a one-off 'this is what he does but don't do what he does'?
My other question would be if I WERE to string at that level, and aside from the guilt I'd suffer, what if the frame did crack? Would the manufacturer deny the replacement because I voided the warranty?
I'm looking for a woman... (ok, let's be more specific; a woman racquetball player to play racquetball as my partner at the US Open in Minneapolis in October. Nothing more, nothing less).
I'm left handed, pretty fast for my age (41) with a good forehand and a decent backhand. Here in MN I consider myself a low open or above-average A player. I'm open to the idea of an age-group or skill event.
If anyone's interested, let me know.
Thanks,
Terry
Does anyone have or know of any good stringing software that will help me track customers information, history and specs? I've looked at Stringing Pro v4.0 and Racketjob.
I'm a little reluctant to spend the $80 for stringing Pro and Racketjob functionality is rather weak. Anyone else have anything that's good (and cost effective?)
Thanks,
Terry
The Prairie Athletic Club is hosting the Summer Open in 3 weeks (+/-) in Sun Prairie Wisconsin. Paul and the gang always throw a 1st rate show! The competition is terrific and the hospitality is fantastic!
Be there or be square!
Or if you're from Washington DC and play baseball, it's Pro Natinals... Where is the chatter about the Event going on in Chicago right now? I'm also curious about R2Sports not being involved with the draws and stuff. Have I missed the discussion about it? Is there a link to find the amateur draws for the event too?
Oh and btw, my money's on Kane this weekend. I know, I'm going out on a limb.
While I'm not trying to start any crap or anything, I remember a thread months ago that talked about whether Kane would run the gauntlet and remain undefeated for the season.
I've tried to keep an eye on the tourneys each week, but can anyone tell me if anyone has beat Kane yet this year?
And we're coming down to the Pro Nats being a few weeks away, just curious if that bet made between some folks was actually gonna get paid out and if so, which way it was gonna get paid.
I'm looking for some help. My club has 10 courts and is one of the 'meccas' of RB in my part of town. Bad side is the front walls are pocked and diveted by years of play, bad upkeep over the years and faulty ceilings and some water damage.
The solution the club is considering is to build a 'new' front wall with panels in front of the existing front wall.
My head spun around 360 degrees. I told them I was concerned about altering the dimensions of the court. Although it's only 2-3", it's still no longer a regulation sized court.
Am I being over sensitive or does anyone agree with me about this?
I was planning on going to WAMBO but the dates got goofed up between which weekend it. I'm looking for a tourney the 13th-15th and saw on the WI website there's a tourney in Waukesha.
Paul and his group have set the bar pretty high for my experiences for WI racquetball (as well as Howie at Supreme in Madison), so I'm interested in some feedback on how things are there.
http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageACASH-ASHLIB.htmlThis happens to be a link from the first store online I found that carried the Ashaway Liberty string. It is a simple monofilament synthetic gut string that has an outstanding pricepoint. The down side is that it only comes in 38 foot lengths. For racquetball racquets, that's not quite long enough. I spoke to the VP at Ashaway, Mr. Steve Crandall inquiring if he'd be interested in marketing a very decent string to the racquetball community. The challenge is the string package lengths. For many of the racquet frames (E-Force or example) needs at least a 40' length. Mr. Crandall was skeptical of the viability of the Liberty string being embraced by racquetball stringers.
My motivation here is to get a US manufacturer of string to offer a decent string to racquetball. I'll be honest and say that this string isn't meant to compete with Tecnifibre or E-Force Oxygen or Gamma Livewire, but it's a good string for the cost-conscious player.
www.ashawayusa.com
So, my question is this, if Ashaway were to manufacture the above string in lengths (40') that made it accomodating to racquetball frames, how likely would you be to add this string to your inventory?
