As racquetball claws its way back into mainstream sports media, Rhonda Rajsich is scheduled to be interviewed in ESPN News to talk about dominating performance on the women’s pro tour this season. If any is successful recording this, I’d love to have a copy to post on the site! Here’s a press release from Shannon Feaster of the WPRO:
#1 WPRO Pro Rhonda Rajsich will appear on ESPNEWS’ “The Pulse” this Saturday (May 3) between 1-3pm ET to discuss her recent victory in New Orleans at the 2008 Chemtech WPRO World Championship presented by Ektelon! Rhonda will also talk about her career accomplishments and how she got to be #1 in the world for the third straight time. Rajsich won the last four major WPRO events to close out the 2007-08 season. We will try to send an update on the approximate segment time if we can but please set your VCR’s, DVR’s and Tivo’s to record the show! For more information about Rhonda, visit her Web site at www.rhondarocks.com.
Next season’s schedule will be posted on the tour’s Web site the first week of June, so please check out www.wpro-tour.com to see when the top WPRO pro’s will be in a city near you! On behalf of the WPRO, thanks for your support an d we hope to see you soon.
The 2008 IRT Pro National Racquetball Championships finished this weekend, with defending champion Jack Huczek(2) defeating Rocky Carson(1) in a LONG 5-gamer. Although a BIG win, Rocky Carson still sealed the deal for a year-end IRT #1 ranking with his second place finish. There were TWO huge additions to this year’s event - a new portable court with 4-wall glass, and LIVE video streaming via www.espn360.com.
The court looked great (from what I saw on the live ESPN feed), and it appears the front wall was covered with the IRT Pro Nationals logo. There were also two logo banners on either side wall of the court. The commentators made some comments about “the dark left wall”, where players were having some troubles immediately seeing the ball. It will be interesting to hear further reports from players who spent some time on the court this weekend. From what I understand, this will be the court used for all future IRT Grand Slam events.
The streaming on www.espn360.com was great! As with any internet feed, there was some intermittent “pauses” in the audio/video, but the overall quality made it easy to follow the action. It was exciting to see the ESPN logos around the video score banners and other areas This could be a HUGE relationship for the IRT, and I hope to see ESPN bring racquetball to people who haven’t experienced the sport. The matches from this weekend are currently available in the “archive” section of www.espn360.com, and I HIGHLY encourage anyone to spend a few minutes checking them out!
Although my posting habits have been lacking this season, I’ve been continually thinking about ways to make www.doubledonut.com better for when I’ve got more time to really start posting again. As luck would have it, my time will start to free up right around the 2008 USA Racquetball National Singles Championships. This is going to be a special event, as USA Racquetball is planning some BIG things for the Saturday night banquet in honor of the Hall of Fame members. With the help of some new tools, I’ll be able to cover this event in a whole new way.
One tool that has been taking the web by storm lately, is Twitter. Twitter allows groups of people to communicate easily and efficiently with small bits of information, which are sent via the internet, or SMS text messages. A really cool (and short!) movie describing Twitter is here:
By having the ability to update to my site with these “mini posts”, event coverage at big tournaments will see a whole new light. Now, instead of having to log into the internet to post a blog entry, I can easily send an SMS Text with score updates, or anything else happening at the club. This info will automatically get sent to anyone who wants to receive it.
I’d love to see someone at EVERY SINGLE big USA Racquetball, IRT, or WPRO event with a Twitter account, keeping the rest of the racquetball community up to date on the action.
If you’d like to get updates from Double Donut Studios, just go to Twitter, get an account, and “follow” me here www.twitter.com/doubledonut. If you set up your phone, you’ll get text messages for any updates I post. You can also subscribe to the included RSS feed to get the content automatically in your RSS reader (like My Google, My Yahoo, etc), or just check out www.doubledonut.com periodically (my “Tweets” are listed on the right hand side as “mini posts”).
Even if you don’t “follow” Double Donut, I would HIGHLY recommend Twitter to keep up with friends and family!!
Anyone watch the first match aired last week on the Tennis Channel? It was the 2008 quarterfinal match between Alvaro Beltran and Shane Vanderson. IMO, it turned out great! I will admit the (non racquetball related) commercials got a little tiring, but it awesome to see our sport on TV. I know an HD broadcast is a little much to ask for at this point, but I have my fingers crossed if we ever make it on ESPN.
Tomorrow night, Wednesday Frebruary 27, 9:00PM EST, is the next match. I would HIGHLY recommend tuning in if you have the Tennis Channel!
The matches are located under the USAR tab. Among the matches available are the Women’s Pro Final between Rhonda Rajsich and Angela Grisar and the Men’s Pro Final between Rocky Carson and Jack Huczek. They also have one of the Men’s Pro Doubles semis featuring John Ellis and Double Gold Medalist from the recent Junior Nationals, Jose Rojas.
Two matches from the 2006 IRF World Junior Championships in Tempe, AZ USA will be broadcast on the US-based Tennis Channel in April.
Make sure to view those premieres on the following dates: Singles Final – April 3rd at 4:00 PM EST. Doubles Final – April 5th at 4:00 PM EST.
This is awesome news! I’m not sure which video production of the event they intend to air, but I would think it would HAVE to be the efforts of Pablo Fajre of www.racquetballonline.tv who was at the event providing free live internet broadcasts. The fruits of his labors just keep rolling in! The exposure that Pablo (and his crew?) have brought to the sport this year is UNMATCHED in any recent history.
I seriously think that Pablo Fajre should receive some kind of award from USA Racquetball this year during the banquet. His innovative ideas to bring this high level of play into any household with a computer are reaching are allowing an unprecedented level of spectatorship for the sport. KUDOS PABLO!! Thank YOU!!
I was just noticing how few of the current pro players have a presence online. With the a plethora of social websites like MySpace, it seems a little strange to me that this is the case. I guess I’d like to see every single top player have *something* online that gave their fans a little insight as to what they were doing / planning / thinking about the sport of racquetball. It seems that all information regarding pro players surfaces on the internet as rumors, followed by some kind of announcement months later at an event.
Does anyone have a pro website to add to this list? This could be something as intricate as hosted domain, or something as simple as a MySpace page ..
Well, it looks like the powers at be on the IRT couldn’t hold out any longer. This weekend’s Tier 1 event in Lynmar will feature FREE live video feeds a la www.racquetballonline.tv. There was much talk at the begining of the season about live racquetball for boththe IRT and WPRO, with each organization choosing a slightly different model. After half the season ending with no feeds on the men’s side, it looks like they adopted the Women’s model. In my opinion, this is another huge step forward for the promotion of racquetball. Providing this free service allows both hardcore and casual racquetball participants to see the sport played at its highest level. Sponsors, newcomers, and anyone with a moderate internet connection are just a click away. AWESOME!
After having the pleasure of watching this season’s WPRO tour broadcast live on the www.racquetballonline.tv website, Double Donut Studios decided to get the inside scoop on the present and future of Pablo Fajre’s awesome new live racquetball video streaming venture. Pablo was gracious enough to answer a few questions that are on the minds of MANY people in the racquetball community who have watched his broadcasts.
DD: Pablo, where is your hometown?
PF: Santiago, Chile.
DD: Tell us a little about your background in racquetball, like number of years you’ve played, etc.
PF: After practicing tennis for 7 years, and track and field for other 7, I moved to racquetball when I was 25 years old. The first year I participated in local tournaments, I had the chance to go to Costa Rica to play in the Friendship Cup. It was there I met Jeff Leon who was Fabian Balmori’s and Tim Hansen’s coach. He invited me to Miami to train with him, and from that point on I never stop playing and competing. I haven’t played much the last 2 years though, because I really injured my back. Next April, Chile will hold the Racquetball Pan-American Championships, and most likely I will then say good bye to racquetball.
DD: You have a racquetball video website, so we’re assuming you watch a lot of racquetball. Who are your favorite professional players (men and women), and why are they your favorite?
PF: My favorite woman player is my wife, Angela Grisar, #3 in the WPRO right now. I have coached her for 10 years and I hope one day she becomes #1.
For the men, I like Alvaro Beltrán’s talent, Jack Huczek’s strategy, Rocky Carson’s fair play, Jason Maninno’s dives, Ruben Gonzales’ intelligence and Shane Vanderson’s backhand.
DD: How did you get started with streaming video?
PF: I always thought Racquetball had to have more exposure to become a bigger sport. I never believed the idea that televising racquetball was impossible and the reason why it would never grow again like it did in the 80’s, so I started searching for new technologies to make racquetball broadcasting real. Today the internet connections around the world are still developing in comparison to where they can get in the future, so if we can already watch a match on our pc, imagine where this technology can take racquetball in the near future.
PF: Racquetball fans just have to log in the webpage, enter their e-mail address and decide on a password. The website will then take them automatically either to the live feeds or to the videos on demand posted on the site, for free. This is an advertisement business. It is a platform for enterprises to expose their services and products. Viewers, instead, just have to enjoy the videos and check out the products advertised on the webpage.
DD: Can you give us some stats about your viewing audience? How many people typically watch a match?
PF: During the last IRF World Junior Racquetball Championships we had more than 16,000 hits. Every weekend we broadcast the WPRO, we have approximately 4,000 viewers.
DD: What tournament has had the most viewers?
PF: Until now the international events we have broadcasted have been the most successful, because we get viewers from all over the World: Korea, Japan, USA, Canada, Costa Rica, México, Ireland, Bahrain!
DD: What single match has had the most viewers?
PF: I think the 18 & under men’s finals during the IRF Junior Worlds. In a Mexican club they put a big screen and the club members got together to watch the match.
DD: What parts of the world have the most viewers?
PF: Most of our viewers are from the United States. Then come the Mexicans.
DD: How are you able to provide such a GREAT service to racquetball fans without having to charge them a fee to watch?
PF: When you want to let people know about a new product, you have to incur some costs in the beginning. Also, this is an advertisement business that should be very attractive for racquetball enterprises, considering that they reach a captive market that consume racquetball products, so we’ll start selling sponsor slots pretty soon.
DD: Will www.racquetballonline.tv always be free?
PF: For the viewers yes, unless we offer our services to a person or company that believes has a very attractive product that can sell pretty well. An example of this is Russ Mannino who decided to start the USA Challenges the World Racquetball Tour, which will consist of singles matches between Jason Mannino and players from around the world. The first one will be a rematch of the last US Open finals between Jason Mannino and Rocky Carson.
DD: We’ve seen events broadcasted for WPRO and the Junior Worlds from the IRF. Do you have plans to broadcast events for USA Racquetball (Singles, Doubles, US OPEN, Pro Nationals), IRT or WOR? Do you have future IRF events planned?
PF: www.racquetballonline.tv will broadcast the USA Racquetball National Singles in May. We have also offered our services to Doug Ganim for the up coming US OPEN, and to Dave Negrete for the IRT Tour. Many IRT players have asked us why we don’t stream their tour. They understand it could give them big exposure. We are working on that!
DD: Do you have any other planned features you’d like to talk about?
PF: www.racquetballonline.tv is our pilot project. We want to continue with other sports and hopefully one day become an IP-TV channel with all kinds of content, 24/7.
DD: Can you give some information about the advertising spots on your feeds for racquetball goods providers?
DD: Pablo, it’s been a pleasure hearing about the future of your awesome venture. Good luck, and we hope to see MANY more events available on your website!
The post I wrote about resources for racquetball videos seemed to be pretty popular, so I though I’d follow up with some info about racquetball photography as well. Of course the Double Donut Studios Racquetball Blog is *the* premiere source for racquetball photos ;), but there are some other good links available as well.
Double Donut Studios is the official Racquetball Blog of photographer, Geoff Thomsen. Geoff covers many events for USA Racquetball / Racquetball Magazine, including: National Singles, National Doubles, and the US OPEN Racquetball Championships. Geoff also covers several local events such as the NW Regionals. The Blog portion of the website features ongoing coverage of the Men’s and Women’s Pro tours, national events such as the USA Racquetball National Singles and Doubles championships, the International Racquetball Federation, and any other national / world event news. Automatic updates for news items on this site can be retrieved by adding the RSS feed address into your favorite feed reader. The racquetball photo galleries for Double Donut are:
This is the upgraded photo gallery for Double Donut Studios. All new event coverage will be posted here, and eventually, all of the old events will be migrated. Unfortunately, it is going to take a significant amount of time to move the thousands of photos, but it will eventually happen.
This is the original hosting spot for the photos on Double Donut. There are photos from MANY events on this site, which date back to May of 2004. Included are USA Racquetball National Events, US OPEN, Pro Exhibitions, and events local to Portland, OR.
Once upon a time, I had enough free time on my hands to slice and dice some of photos on my site into some cool graphic designs. This type of work is alot of fun, and one of these days when I have some free time again, I’ll post more. When will that be? Who knows.
A while back I made a post regarding a racquetball photo group which I created on Flickr. So far, there hasn’t been alot of new posts from other people taking photos of racquetball - which I guess is understandable due to the challenges in taking good pictures. I have a goal to post a short how-to guide in near future, and I’m hoping it will motivate some enthusiasts to start bringing their shiny new DSLRs to the club with them. It’s nice to have something to do while waiting for your turn on the challenge court
Ken Fife has done a great job covering local events around the Commonwealth of Virginia. He has professional gear, and has some excellent shots from several recent events. Ken is in the process of posted a lengthy tutorial, which seems to be geared toward currently seasoned photographers wanting to hone their skills for the racquetball court (link coming when available).
Feel free to leave any other good racquetball photo / racquetball photography links in the comments!!
I seem to be getting alot of requests lately for racquetball videos. I spend all of my time on the photography side, but there are many resources available!
Starting in the quarterfinal rounds, all of the matches from the US OPEN racquetball championships are produced for airing on The Tennis Channel. Set your TIVO up now to search for racquetball related content, or check out the up-can-coming broadcast schedule for the 2006 US OPEN Racquetball Championships.
Did you miss the action on The Tennis Channel? USA Racquetball sells the official broadcast from the Tennis Channel, on a set of DVDs. These official racquetball videos are available for several different years of the event, and if you’re a member of USA Racquetball, don’t forget to log in to the site for your discount.
ProRacquetball.net is one of the official video partners of the Men’s Pro Racquetball Tour (www.irt-tour.com). Available on this site are individual matches from MANY of the past IRT events. DVDs can be ordered, and there are some free racquetball video streams on the site as well.
The new era of live racquetball event coverage has arrived. The Women’s Professional Racquetball Organization has partnered with www.racquetballonline.com to provide live (FREE) video coverage of every single stop on their tour. Users are required to register for a free account, and then can log in to watch the live racquetball video feeds. The span of coverage for www.racquetballonline.com seems to be growing, as they’ve also broadcast for the 2006 World Junior Racquetball Championships, and are scheduled to provide coverage for Jason Mannino’s USA vs. The World exhibition tour.
Want an easy way to get some content straight to your computer / iPOD / PSP? Check out Google Video! www.proracquetball.net has uploaded some of their coverage to the site, and there are also a few games available from the Tennis Channel broadcasts.
www.youtube.com seems to be THE up-and-coming provider of internet videos. There is *some* racquetball related content on the site, but alot of it seems to be people with video cameras just messing around on racquetball courts. One exception to that is the Promo Video for the World Outdoor Racquetball Association (WOR). These hardcore players have no problems diving on PAVEMENT to make some gets! (It looks like there is also some footage from various regional events, etc. .. might be worth taking a closer look).
If anyone has resources to add to this list, please let me know!!!
Looks like the 2006 IRF World Racquetball Championships are being broadcast LIVE via the internet!!! Check out http://www.racquetballonline.tv/ for more info ..
In case you missed the banquet at the 2006 USA Racquetball National Singles Championships in Houston, TX, here is a link to the promo video by Royster Productions that was shown at the beginning of the ceremony to promote the World Outdoor Racquetball Tour (picture pro-caliber players diving on concrete):
As racquetball claws its way back into mainstream sports media, Rhonda Rajsich is scheduled to be interviewed in ESPN News to talk about dominating performance on the women’s pro tour this season. If any is successful recording this, I’d love to have a copy to post on the site! Here’s a press release from Shannon Feaster of the WPRO:
This could be a HUGE relationship for the IRT, and I hope to see ESPN bring racquetball to people who haven’t experienced the sport. The matches from this weekend are currently available in the “archive” section of 
Although my posting habits have been lacking this season, I’ve been continually thinking about ways to make 
