About Racketlon

The History of Racketlon

The origins of racketlon can be traced back to Finland in the mid Eighties, where four people representing each of the four racket federations got together to form a game they called mailapelit - i.e. "racket games". The first Finnish Championships were held in Helsinki in 1986 and the sport rapidly grew to a size that made it possible to attract almost 400 people to some tournaments. Since then it has been made clear that mailapelit is a sport that will stay around. Finnish championships are still organized on a yearly basis although the venue has been moved from Helsinki to Lahti.
In Sweden racketlon can be traced back to - at least - the end of the 1980:s. That is when (in May 1989) the "Mr Racketlon" of Sweden and twice national champion, Peter Landberg, organized the first competition. The following year, in 1990, the first Swedish Championships took place and attracted considerable interest from start; no less than 218 people participated. Since then, Peter Landberg has organized national championships every year and the sport has become fairly well established. Still, after more than ten years, about half of the participants in the national championships are people that have not taken part before. This is a reflection of the fact that racketlon is a sport that is spreading to an ever wider audience. At least among racket players in the Stockholm area, where all national championships so far have been played, racketlon is no longer an unknown sport.

During these initial years Swedish racketlon has gone through a number of interesting developments. During the first couple of years the name "racketlon" was not yet invented. Instead, "racket championships" (Swedish: racketmästerskap) was used. Also, the rules were different. For some time in the beginning the ambition was to keep the characteristic rules of counting in each of the sports meaning e.g. that the tennis set was played to 6 games, the badminton set to 15 points where only the server can get a point - and so forth. This method of counting, however, required some fairly complicated mathematics involving conversion tables and much scratching of heads. After a tight match, often it was not clear to the players who had actually won until the mathematics had been done. Then, in 1994, the present rules of counting were introduced thanks to an unexpected discovery. It was found out that a similar game, mailapelit, was played in Finland. The Finnish game contained the same sports but the counting was different and much simpler; "each set to 21 points - most points is the winner". These rules were straightforwardly imported and the 1994 Swedish Racketlon Championships were using the Finnish counting, which has been the case ever since.

Another interesting story from the history of racketlon is the idea that Peter Landberg had a few years ago of an alternative, more spectacular, way of deciding the best racket player in the country. The idea was to let a traditional tournament decide the four best racketlon players, and then to invite the top national player in each of the four sports. These eight players would then compete for the title. This was arguably a fantastic idea that had the potential to raise great interest from media, especially since Sweden has a tradition of bringing out racket players of high international standard. Former table tennis World Champion Jan-Ove Waldner, former badminton (doubles) World Champion Thomas Kihlström, former squash European Champion Fredrik Johnsson and former French Open (tennis) finalist Mikael Pernfors were invited - and accepted. Swedish national television were invited and were planning to send two hours of racketlon on prime time. All was set for a major media sports event. Imagine the media value of super stars Waldner and Pernfors fighting it out on the badminton and squash courts. Or, perhaps even more interesting, imagine Waldner in a situation where he needs to win only two points in the final tennis set against top international tennis player Pernfors. Although a huge difference in tennis capabilility both players would be fighting for every point...
Unfortunately, practical matters like injuries and conflicts of interest got in between and the event never happened. Instead, the championships were carried out the ordinary way. But the idea lives on and is probably good enough to turn into reality sooner or later, perhaps on an international level... - but my personal opinion is that I doubt that the stars of the individual sports would have much chance against the top racketlon players of today. While racketlon has matured as a sport the players have had time to train and the best have reached impressively high levels in all four sports. It is no longer as easy as it used to be to acquire a ranking among the Swedish top ten. Magnus Eliasson, Swedish national champion of years 2000 and 2001, to take the best exampel trains, according to one of his closest competitors, 5 hours a day, almost every day of the week (2-3 hours according to his own humble estimate). Magnus Eliasson, by the way, is a special case since his main background as an athlete is not in any of the racket sports but in ice hockey(!) (- which he has played professionaly in the US, Finland and Germany). This emphasizes that the racketlon rules give advantage to the all-round player rather than to the specialist. Unlike several of the other best racketlon players Magnus Eliasson never ranked among the Swedish national elite in any of the individual sports. Although he has moved up the Swedish squash ranking in a speed probably unprecedented for someone over thirty. At present he ranks among the top hundred.

 

The Internationalization of Racketlon

The main centre of Swedish racketlon is undoubtedly Stockholm and to be more specific Enskede Rackethall in southern Stockholm. This is where the Swedish National Championships have been held every year (usually in May) since 1990 and this is also where another tournament of similar size, Racketlon Cup, have been played every year (usually in January) since 1994. Another Swedish racketlon centre has developed in the small town of Karlskrona in the south-east of Sweden. This is the venue for the yearly Racket Virtuoso (Swedish: Blekinge Läns Tidningars Racketvirtuos) tournament. In Karlskrona a different counting system is used. Here, the sets are not played to 21. Instead, 50 balls are played in each set meaning that the set score will end up at something like 30-20 or 45-5. An extra ball is played in one of the sports to make sure that the total score will not become 100-100. At the beginning of the match lots are drawn to decide in which sport this extra ball will be played.

As already mentioned racketlon also emerged in Finland - under the name of mailapelit (eng. "racket games"). Interestingly, the Swedish and Finnish developments seem to have occured independently(!) at around the same time - although the Finns seem to have been a couple of years earlier. It was only after several years of activity that the movements got to know about each other with the result mentioned above that the Finnish rules were adopted by the Swedes. Various indications have also reached us saying that activities similar to racketlon are going on in many places of the world. In Germany, for example "Schlägerturniere" (Eng. racket tournaments) involving 3, 4 or even 5 rackets seem quite common. (The fifth Schläger being a golf club...) In England there are vague traces of something called quintathlon covering squash, tennis, rackets, real court tennis and (again!) golf. From France, also, we have been reached by rumours that similar experiments are going on. But it does seem as if it is only in Finland and Sweden that these experiments have turned into established sport.

A significant step towards the internationalization of racketlon was taken in the autumn of 2001 when the first ever international racketlon tournament took place. Gothenburg Racketlon World Open was played in Gothenburg, the second city of Sweden, on the Swedish west coast 2nd-4th of November, 2001. This was when the Finnish and Swedish racketlon elites first faced each other and the result was no less than a shock to the somewhat conceited Swedish racketlon community. The Finns won both the prestigeous Men's and Ladies' Elite classes and a final victory in the Men's Veteran class made it painfully obvious to the Swedes that they had been the victims of a clean sweep - and totally unexpected too.

But never mind the narrow-minded Swedish perspective! From an international racketlon perspective Gothenburg Racketlon World Open exceeded almost all expectations. Players from six different countries took part. Apart from Finland and Sweden; Scotland, France, Germany and Bulgaria were represented. Before World Open international racketlon did not exist. After World Open it did. Since then one milestone after another have been reached, such as:
- the first international racketlon tournament in Finland was played in May 2002.

Report kindly supplied by Hans Mullamaa

Local History

Racketlon found its way into South Africa July 2007 in the form of the first Racketlon tournament at the UCT. The 1st Cape Open drew 40 entries from all communities and various levels. The reaction amongst players was positive and Racketlon South Africa was born.

In 2008 a further 3 tournaments were played: WP Open, SA Open and the 2nd Cape Open. The participation levels increased in numbers aswell as standard of play was raised considerably.

In 2009 Racketlon SA formed its first committee and Constitution with the aims of growing the sport to a higher level and spread the sport across the nation.

In 2010 we saw a rise in participants and more evolved and better run tournaments.

In 2011 we aim to go higher, wider and bigger. Nationalisation and developing under privelaged and grass roots.

 

FAQ

Q: Do I have to play all 4 sports?

A: Yes you do, all 4 sports have to be played one after the other in order, like a triathlon. The order is smallest/lightest racket to biggest, i.e.: table tennis, badminton, squash, tennis. The final score is then tallied with each leg consisting of first to 21points. Exception to the rule is if one competitor has a lead of 22 points after the squash leg then he has already won.

Q: What if I cant play one of the 4 sports?

A: Then this will be a perfect time to try, you wont be the only one with this problem as there will be many who cannot play either of the 4, but at least you have fun. Many people have played in a tournament and held a badminton racket for example for first time and ended up loving the game

Q: What if I don’t have all the rackets?

A: most of the tournament will have some rackets spare to borrow, otherwise there are cheap enough rackets on the market to first try. Or borrow from friends, but this should never hold you back.

Q: What category would I play in?

A: A brief guideline to what category is for you: A section is for players who play 1 or more sports at an exceptional standard i.e.: National or Provincial or high league level. Plus are able to play the others relatively well. B section is for players that play 1 sport at a reasonable level and can play the others a little. C section is for social players who play 1 or more sports occasionally, i.e.: any social players.

Q: How do you decide the winner?

A: Each sport is scored equally to avoid confusion. Each leg is played to 21 points much like table tennis, and also like table tennis each person has 2 serves. Every point counts. At the end of the 4 legs the one with the most points wins, not the one who has won the most legs.

Q: What if all points are equal after the tennis?

A: then the Gummiarm rule applies. The 2 opponents spin for who serves, winner decides to receive or serve. To offset the advantage of a server, they only get one serve (no second serve as usually given in tennis).the winner of that point then decides the overall winner.

Q: What’s the basic rule when serving in Table Tennis?

A: In singles the server can serve to any side of the table he likes as long as it bounces once before the net and once over. It can come off the side of the table. The complication comes on the servers side, he has to cup the ball in the palm of his hand allowing view of the ball, he may not spin the ball with his fingers before hitting it. He must throw the ball up slightly in the air. he must serve from behind the table, not over it and not from the side. He may put any kind of spin on the ball with his bat then. If he misses the ball completely trying to serve it is then a point to his opponent.

In doubles you have to serve to adjacent sides, after server 1 has served twice the serving couple swaps sides and then the opponents server 1 has a turn to serve twice and so on.

Q: What’s the basic rule of serving in Badminton?

A: The racket must connect the shuttle at waist level or lower. The server may not serve in 2 movements, i.e.: swing back and then forward.  They must start with the racket already in the backswing mode. They may hold the shuttle anyway. Both feet must be in their service block and serve to opposite sides alternating after each serve.

 Q: Is on the line in or out?

A: on the line is in for table tennis (this will no doubt come of the edge of the table), it is in in badminton and also in for tennis. Only difference comes in when you play squash and the rule states that on the line is out.

Q: What happens when my opponent gets in my way in Squash?

A: We can discuss this one till we blue in the face, but basically explained: The person about to strike the ball need full access to the ball, if the opponent is blatantly in the way or does not attempt to give way, a stroke point is awarded. If he attempts to get out the way and has left access for the ball to travel to the front wall then a let will be given.

If however the person going for the wall asks for a let, but there was no way they would have gotten to the ball, no let is given. Generally when you are not sure then always play a let, this is sportsmanship.

Rules of Racketlon

Set Order

The sets are played in the following order (from smaller to larger rackets): table tennis, badminton, squash, tennis

Scoring

Each set is played to 21 points. Every rally results in a point to the winner of the rally - just like in table tennis. Also, like in table tennis, the winner needs to have a margin of at least two points to win the set. A set can thus end e.g. 22-20 or 25-23 but never 21-20. The winner of a racketlon match is not the one that wins most sets but the one that scores the most points in total. This means that it is possible to loose three out of the four sets and still win the match. If any of the players so wishes the match shall be stopped as soon as (a) the winner has enough points for the match to be decided - AND (b) the rest of the points have no other significance. (Note that group play is sometimes decided through counting total points difference. In that case (b) might apply and the rest of the points might still have significance for the result of the group in which case each match shall be played to the end.). If, after 4 sets, both players have exactly the same number of points, then the tennis set is extended with one single point. The winner of this single point tie-break is also the winner of the full match. Server is decided by the drawing of lots. The winner of the lot chooses whether to decide who gets to serve or what side to play on. To off-set the server's advantage there is no second service in the single point.

Serving & Sides of Court

At the beginning of each set lots are drawn. The winner of the lot chooses whether to decide who gets to serve or what side to play on. After every two points the serve goes to the other player. At the first of these two serves the server can choose from which side to serve. Then, the server shall switch from side to side every time. If any of the players so wishes sides are switched at the time when 11 points are first reached by one of the players. After 20-20 the serve switches hand at every point until the set is decided. In tennis, the server has two chances - first and second service - just as in normal tennis.

Time Intervals & Continuous Play

A maximum break of one minute shall be allowed at eleven (i.e. when 11 points is first reached by any of the players) in each set. The break between sets shall be maximised at "3+3" minutes meaning: (a) Warming up at the next sport has to commence within 3 minutes after the end of the previous set. (b) The next set has to commence within 6 minutes after the end of the previous set Play must be continuous at all times (as far as can be reasonably expected). Umpires and referees have the right to penalise players under the misconduct rule should they breach this. Players may pause for a brief drink and to towel down every five points only (so after 5, 10, 15 points, etc), if this is breached the umpire may penalise the offending player. If sweat has dripped onto the table tennis table, badminton court, etc, then of course the player may use a towel to wipe that away at any time.

Extended and precise version of Racketlon rules provided by Racketlon.com' word doc

Squash Rules Provided by World Squash Organisation

Badminton Rules Provided by Badminton.org

Tennis Rules Provided by International Tennis Federation (ITF)

Table Tennis Rules Provided by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)