Racking Up the Racqueteers

The ranks of the racquetballers are swelling with each day; we've gone from just PigPen and me to around 11 or 12 people Singles and Former Singles who want to play. On the one hand, it's cool that there are so many people to play against, since they all have vastly different playing styles, forcing me to adapt my game accordingly. Also, with such a large pool of possible opponents, I don't have to worry about not being able to play because PigPen and The Anti-Cap'n have softball practice or the like. On the other hand, when the courts are busy, having such a large group can reduce the amount of time I get to play, as we try to accommodate everyone. And of course, there's also the "oh, great, now here come even more people to kick my butt" factor going on. I can still hold my own with most of the crowd right now (on Tuesday night I won 3 and lost 3), but I can see that the newcomers' skills are improving quite rapidly; Cap'n Bumper, who had never even touched a racquetball racket before a few weeks ago, handed me one of those aforementioned defeats. I told PigPen that I was worried that everyone else was progressing while I had plateaued. His response? "Oh, Todd, you haven't plateaued." And then, before I could thank him for his words of encouragement, he continued with, "you're actually going downhill."

I then chastised myself severely for not only leaving myself wide open, but for not even seeing the blow coming . . . which is a pretty good example of how most of our racquetball games go as well, I suppose.