We’ve discussed in my previous blog “Is racquetball a good sport for losing weight and getting fit?” that racquetball can burn a tremendous amount of calories. But for those out there that are new and have never experienced what that feels or looks like, I’ve found a video of two top ranked players at one of the US Open Racquetball Championships. It’s only a 46 second clip but as you’ll see, there is non-stop action as the ball is hit 22 times. This is only one rally, folks! Amount of energy is takes to continuously chase the ball, dive, hit it, and then get back up just to do it all over again is enormous. There were seven dives in this one segment alone and you can see that each player is constantly moving. The average amount of steps taken per minute in racquetball is 212 (Bumgardner) and most matches last 30 to 40 minutes so we can extrapolate that out to between 6,360 to 8,480 steps. Based on the research completed by Wendy Bumgardner in her article for verywellfit.com, 1,500 steps equal 1 mile (provided you’re running at an 8 mile pace) so these athletes are essentially running 4 and a half to 5 and a half miles each time they play a match. Pair this with the fact that racquetball is a total body sport, meaning all muscle groups are used during play. The quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and calves are used to accelerate, stop, dive and squat down to hit the ball low. The abdominal muscles are used with each twisting swing of the racquet. The arms are used to hit the ball, stop yourself from running into the walls and picking yourself up after you make a diving play. As you can see in the video, racquetball is not only challenging but a very fun sport to play.
Source:
Bumgardner, Wendy. “The Average Steps per Minute for Different Exercises”, verywell fit, FEB 2018, https://www.verywellfit.com/pedometer-step-equivalents-for-exercises-and-activities-3435742
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