Why do people wear a glove to play racquetball, but not tennis?
December 13, 2009 by
Filed under racquetball gloves
Grip is important for both of these sports, so why the difference in glove usage?
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A good racquetball swing requires a hard snapping of the wrist. Because the racquet is light and small, this wrist snap not only generates alot of speed but also increases accuracy. Wearing a glove, especially a tacky one, aids the player in holding on to the racquet while snapping the wrist. This is also why racquetball racquets have a strap – to keep the racquet from flying off if one loses one’s grip. Tennis, on the other hand, requires a greater variety of grip pressures and grip “feel” for different shots – drop shots, overheads, lobs, topspins, etc. Snapping the wrist is not necessary, nor effective, with most of these tennis shots and a glove would reduce the “feel” of the shot. Also, tennis is most often played in warm temperature conditions and perspiration could easily become an issue while wearing a glove.
Actually, tennis players wear gloves – effectively. Almost all tennis pros use tacky grips to cover the synthetic or lather grips that come with the rackets. So the real question is: why do tennis players put gloves on the rackets and racquetball players put gloves on their hands. (why is racquetball not spelled racketball??). Among other good reasons, I think there’s some practical reason behind it — I’m not a racquetball player. It seems to me tennis players play longer (3+ hours for 5 setters) and under hot/humid conditions whereas the racquetball is played in A/C 20 degree C, ideal condition. If Pete Sampras (boy he sweats alot!) played racquetball for 3+ hours in hot/humid condition he’ll have to go through about 50 gloves.