Saturday 5th April saw Hinckley Squash Club host the inaugural UK Racketball Skills Camp.
Led by Mike Harris, head of UK Racketball and the UK’s number 1 player and current British Open and Closed 2024 champion with assistant coach Ali Mutch, British Open and Closed O35s champion 2024, a group of 14 male and female players between the ages of 23 and 71 years old from as far as Dover, Norwich and Doncaster were put through their paces with a fun warm up followed by a solid morning session focussed on length hitting with structured practice and condition games.
The lunch break provided an opportunity for some rest, relaxation and rehydration as well as an opportunity to reflect on the session and pick the brains of the top player in the country. It was lovely to get a chance to speak to everyone and a great opportunity for regulars of the UK Racketball tour to catch up.
The afternoon session focussed on the short game, a tricky aspect of Racketball given the extra bounce from the ball but again, the drills and structured games helped everyone hone their skills with Mike and Ali chipping in with specific technical guidance to each player.
The camp closed with a stretching session and reflections on the day before a short interval leading to the mini-graded competition, where a bunch of fresh faces, and bodies(!) arrived to take part in the mini-graded competition. The 22 players were graded into A, B and C categories to battle it out in a minimum of three 15-minute timed matches with whoever was leading at the bell taking the win!
RESULTS:
- A Grade Winner – Elliot Smith
- B Grade Winner – Vince Holden
- C Grade Winner – Lewis Day
The cherry on the cake closed the day as Ali Mutch and Mike Harris took to Court 4 to entertain the crowd with a highly anticipated exhibition match. After a fast paced and gruelling 45 minutes Mike took the win, in 5 games (11-9, 8-11, 5-11, 11-9, 9-11) that really showcased the sport and not to mention the skills they’d been telling us about all day. The recorded livestream of the match will be live for 30 days on the UK Racketball Facebook page for those who want to catch up.
Thanks to everyone who took part across the camp, it was great to welcome you all to our club and we hope you all enjoyed the day, congratulations to the mini-graded winners and it was fantastic to see so many down for the exhibition.
Special thanks go to Ato Stephens for the late-night court glass cleaning, and Ali Nicholls, Terrie Godden and Paul Goodwin for their support with the hospitality. The food and cakes were delicious! Also thank you to Aidan Hicks for his physio work keeping bodies refreshed and going after hours on court, Ali Mutch for his coaching assistance and effort throughout the day and the exhibition and finally Mike Harris and UK Racketball for organising the day, coming up from Devon to our club to put this day on.
We hope it is the first of many!