But, what about how dangerous racquetball is? I don’t want to play racquetball because I’ll get hurt. This is something that I’ve heard time and time again when trying to get new people to try racquetball and there may be something to their unwillingness to step into the court. It can be easy to injure yourself playing racquetball, as you’re in a small room that has hard walls and a hard floor with one or more people swinging a racket at a ball that can be moving at upwards of 150 miles per hour. According to a study published by the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine the most common types of injuries that occur playing racquetball are lower body muscle strains, sprains, and ligament injuries (Nhan et al.). Is due to the frequent acceleration and deceleration in the sport. Also occurring but to a lower degree were rotator cuff and head/neck injuries from swinging a racquet repeatedly. The vast majority of these injuries did not require a visit to a doctor’s office or emergency room and healed on their own with rest. Many of these types of injuries can be avoided with proper stretching and warm up before heading into the court. Other injuries that could occur in the racquetball court are players being hit with a racquet or a racquetball. While these are rare they do still happen from time to time. This is why is mandatory to wear protective eye goggles or eyewear in most Racquet Clubs. Over the years, I’ve been hit with a racquetball dozens of times and while it doesn’t feel very good, I was always able to continue playing the game. When that happens I would usually get a small bruise that lasted about a week. Most players will agree before play starts that if there is a “hinder” (opposite player accidentally interfering with a shot) they will hold up immediately to prevent possible injury. This is a safety measure and happens quite a bit during a game.
While I agree that racquetball can be dangerous at times, with proper warm up, safety gear and players agreeing to hold up if they get to close, you can mitigate those dangers allowing the game to be fun and safe. I believe the health benefits far outweigh the negatives.
Works Cited
Nhan, Derek T., Walter Klyce, and R. Jay Lee, “Epidemiological Patterns of Alternative Racquet-Sport Injuries in the United States, 1997-2016”, Orthop J Sports Med. 2018 Jul; 6(7): 2325967118786237. Published online 2018 Jul 23, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6056792/
Splat Racquetball Blog 
I never felt inclined to play raquetball for that exact reason! I’ve heard from friends that play that it’s similar to paintball. Once you get hit, you’re hit, but its nothing earth shattering. Being such a high paced game with a ball flying that fast I would’ve assumed more injuries would result from getting hit, but as a volleyball player, I’m well aware that just because a ball is travelling fast towards you doesn’t mean you’re likely to get hit, as long as you know what to do and have confidence.
LikeLike