Racketlon Change my mind ~~

Playing one racket game is tough enough. Especially with all the trainings on footwork & strokes. I still recall those challenging younger days training for squash. It wasn't a game of checkers but a game of chess. Every individual players were different and they had their own strengths.

When I was exposed to the game of Racketlon, I thought it was the same. I still recall my first Racketlon opponent, a Kenyan who was both a table tennis & squash player.

In Racketlon, we were supposed to play from the smallest racket to the biggest racket. We had to play Table Tennis, Badminton, Squash and lastly, Tennis.

My opponent was able to play 'screw' ball for table tennis and that was quite a mental stress for me. As that was my first time playing competitive table tennis, I've only managed gather 5 points and I was virtually down by 16 points.

In our second game which was badminton, I knew I had the advantage as badminton was my second strength after squash. In badminton, my strategy was just to tire my opponent and not kill the ball as I knew stamina & endurance was one of the major challenge in racketlon. That game, the score was 21 - 5 and we were tied again.

It came to squash, a game which both of us were better at. Initially, it was tough to re-adjust the strokes as the racket face for both badminton & squash were entirely different. My opponent was a hard hitter & his stamina was admirable. Probably because he was from Kenya. Thankfully, I had the upper hand for ball control & I managed to edge him out for squash. Finally, I had the score advantage & the mental pressure was soon on my opponent.

Tennis was an interesting match for both of us as we have never touch tennis racket before before we came to Dunlop INTI Racketlon Challenge 2006. We were both making a fool out of ourselves as it soon became a game of baseball! Well, it all turned out a tight game and I won by just 5 points (21 - 15).

That was my first ever experience and that was all that was needed for me to become a Racketlon fan for life.

I look forward to playing Racketlon 2010. For a nation which is strong at both badminton & squash, I believe Racketlon will soon be a big hit at Malaysia!