This is Harder Than Golf!

Growing up as a kid in New Jersey we were all playing handball on a wall for fun and exercise. It didn't cost any money to play and the only gear required was a ball and a wall. The wall could be anywhere, as long as the surrounding area was relatively flat. We played for hours on end.

Then, years later, I became acquainted with handball as it's meant to be played, in a full-sized court. This was quite different and so much more geometrically complicated than the game I learned as a kid. Adding three walls and the ceiling as additional playing surfaces really speeds up the game (compared to the old one-wall version).

For me, gloves became mandatory for playing handball. Even with the gloves there was still pain when executing many shots, but at least the sting was minimized. I still usually walked out of the courts with welts on my wrists from all the shots I'd 'just missed'. This seemed like a pretty macho game and was good exercise too.

I later learned about the availability of racket ball (or racquetball), which is played on the same court as handball. Using rackets instead of one's hands alleviates most of the pain of the game. Of course, getting smacked in the face by someone's fast-moving racket will smart but that's a risk players must take. It's a good idea to wear protective glasses.

I noticed the court next to the one I usually used was different than its neighbor in that it had more lines painted on the walls and seemed smaller. This, I found out was a squash court and I was subsequently asked by a friend if I wanted to try it out. He lent me his extra squash racquet and we gave it a whirl. It was okay but not nearly as much fun for me as racquetball.

Back in the corner, just past the tennis stringing machine was a large display of all things 'racket'. They even had ping-pong stuff in that section. I guess ping-pong is a racket game too, in a sense... sort of a mini version of tennis.

Now I've 'graduated' to ping-pong. This game is fun and easy and the whole family likes to play. The table was simple to set up and the equipment very reasonably priced. We have a lot of fun.

George Battles has been writing articles since 2006 and is an expert on squash racquet, however he also likes to write about tennis stringing machine