Racketlon – Something Different and Something New!
What is Racketlon?
Racketlon is the sport in which you play your opponent in each of the four racket-sports: table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis one after the other. You play the same number of points in each sport, giving equal weighting throughout. The rules of each sport are kept within each individual set and every point counts. The winner is the best all-round racket player.
What’s the link between racketlon and table tennis?
It’s funny because I was at the Nationals at Ponds Forge a couple of years ago and I counted a good 20 people in the crowd who I knew that had played racketlon and around half of which had got involved in table tennis through racketlon. Clearly it is possible and probable for people to retain interest in their principal sport and also enjoy other sports and keep a varied sporting journey.
Andy Petersons was a great advocate of the sport and was a previous Over 55’s World Silver Medallist. Andy unfortunately passed away last year and is missed by all within both table tennis and racketlon circles.
I have played mostly table tennis and a bit of the others, am I good enough?
Definitely, racketlon works very much like the TT circuit and there are bands for different levels of play.
Who are the best TT players in Racketlon?
There are a few racketlon players who play in the ETTA Senior British League. These include Fabien Mauroy and Keith Lesser. A group from Teeside recently invaded a racketlon event and did pretty well. Bryn Drinkhall won an event on his debut and although was a bit rusty at squash, he showed good all-round skill within the four sport concept.
I like it, what next
Have a look at the website englishracketlon.org – there may be an event close by and there is also a practice partner finder facility. The premium British Open and English Open events are coming up later this year and allocate world ranking points to all players.