What is the most important discipline?

12 views
Skip to first unread message

Admin

unread,
May 31, 2008, 4:15:22 AM5/31/08
to The Racketlon Chat
2007-09-19 13:59 "Keith" wrote:

What about this topic? What is the most important discipline? Is it
the one that is the most tiring, the one that is first to ensure a
good start or the one that is last so a steady hand can ensure victory
with a tight finish?

Admin

unread,
May 31, 2008, 4:20:05 AM5/31/08
to The Racketlon Chat
2007-09-19 17:02 "Majetic" wrote:

Keith, thats hard to say I guess. In my oppinion each of the sports
are equal. Maybe squash is the best sport to be good in, in my eyes
its easier to win big against a bad player, but since im not a good
player in squash I might be the wrong person to say this :) At least
you dont have any net balls or edge balls to count in squash, neither
any strange pimples to take care of!

Admin

unread,
May 31, 2008, 4:21:49 AM5/31/08
to The Racketlon Chat
2007-09-19 18:43 "MJ" wrote:

Sorry, but it's one of the easiest to get lucky shots, as most of the
shots are taken above the height of the tin. This means a lucky shot
will more often than not hit the front wall. The other sports you have
to get it up and over the net and down on the other side.

Also you are at ooposite ends of the court with the other sports, half
the time in squash you are battling against a novice squash player
just to get to the ball.

H

unread,
Sep 14, 2008, 5:20:48 AM9/14/08
to Admin, rack...@googlegroups.com, m...@blueyonder.co.uk
Not sure I agree with you on that one MJ. I think that if you go
through all Racketlon results you will probably find that squash is
the one of the four where it is on average most common to keep the
opponent on a low score.

Another indication, I think, is the length of the rallies in elite
squash. I heard someone claim once that the ball hits the front wall
about 40 times per rally on average in elite squash. How is an amateur
going to be able to kill the ball against an elite player if not even
his elite colleague is able to do it in 20 shots? (None of the other
three sports come near that length of the rallies.)

One more indication: Marco Deeg kept Eliasson at 3(!) in squash in
Vienna two weeks ago. I don't see that happening in any of the other
sports.

No, in my humble opinion squash is the easiest one to win by 21-0.
Then I would say tt (which happens to be the only discipline where I
have personally lost 0-21. Remember that Mats?) and third badminton.
Tennis is definitely the hardest one. I don't think I have ever seen
21-0 there. Not even world top 10 tennis players (Edberg, Gustafsson)
seem to be able to achieve that. There is always the occasional double
fault or small mistake that makes the ball fly a little longer than it
should...

My verdict:
1) sq
2) tt
3) ba
4) te

...but I am sure there are many - not only you MJ - that disagree. And
I would, as usual, love to be challenged!

Lloyd

unread,
Oct 14, 2008, 10:57:16 AM10/14/08
to The Racketlon Chat
Hans,

Taking you at your word..."And I would, as usual, love to be
challenged!"

Presumably this kind of debate will only be a short term thing? When
racketlon rules the world and (all) people regard it as a sport
(rather than 4 joined together) then it will be judged as follows...
(this from the Encyclopedia Britanica of 2028)

RACKETLON: Table tennis comes first. Perhaps the easiest to make
errors in, it is nonetheless played while pressure is least. Badminton
and squash (and squash to a much greater extent) can be played with
poor technique as long as length is good and fitness high. These two
provide a high endurance middle section. Only a player of superior
conditioning will play these two to a high standard and be ready for
the high pressure tennis to follow. In the early days of racketlon,
tennis players were considered at a disadvantage because of the
difficulty of winning 'their' sport 21-0. However, with time, two
things were realised. First, that so-called tennis specialists got to
play the sport they were most naturally 'groved' in when the pressure
was on (and therefore the othjer sports under relatively less
pressure) and that this accounted for a certain advantage. Second, as
one of the acknowledged forefathers, gods, pioneers and legends of
racketlon Hans Mullamaa put it 'In racketlon all the points are
available to both players and the true advantage is the player that
remembers that fact and they are, first and foremost, a racketlon
player'.

Interestingly the Encyclopedia Britannica for that year has an entry
under Mullamaa:

'Hans Mullamaa racketlon guru (etc) established many of the
metaphysical premises of the world's favourite game including the idea
that racketlon must be regarded holistically and not, as in its early
years, as an atomised collection of sports. His faith in this
essential unity was stretched in the final of this year's Racketlon
over 60s World Championships where he lost to Lloyd Pettiford of Wales
21/14, 21/9, 0/21, 20/19 Pettiford +1.'

And there is another entry under 'World's favourite game':

Racketlon has been the world's favourite game since 2018 when it
replaced football (soccer). Following the English national team's
World Cup victories in South Africa 2010 (Final 1-0 v Argentina with a
hotly disputed hand ball goal), in Brazil 2014 (Final 6-3 v Brazil)
and 2018 in London (4-0 v a combined EU side composed mostly of
Germans and Swedes) football fell out of favour with the rest of the
world who had got used to the idea that England were total s*** and
didn't much like it when they weren't anymore.

Finally, when the pain stops and I don't need the painkillers anymore,
not only will such gibberish be beyond me, but I'll have to go to work
and won't have the time to write it either.

Best Wishes, Lloyd
> > > > with a tight finish?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

H

unread,
Oct 14, 2008, 12:48:28 PM10/14/08
to The Racketlon Chat
Interesting glimps into the future, Lloyd! I generally agree with
future me.

Keep taking that medication! It makes for an interesting read. :)
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages