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I brought a tape of the latest
US Open and in it was a brief snippet where Pro Mike Guidry defines the
different shots of the game. I think racquetball viewers are too
game-savvy to be subjected to a kindergarten presentation of mundane
shots of the game.
We want history, tips, sidelights, highlights, and
some jazz! Jazz up the broadcast with radar gun speed readings like they
have in tennis, jazz it up with more colorful stats, like what
percentage points is lasting longer than three shots? Who is winning
more front court points? Who has faster foot speed on the court? Why is
Sudsy hitting more drives to the right?
Setup story with commentary on
story of interest like a qualifier’s dream of making it to the main draw
of the Open, because answers to such questions would better help
commentators tell the audience what’s happening on the court that
delights all of their senses-sight, sounds, and feel.
Tell us how hard
these players are hitting by comparing it to something we can relate to,
like going four times the minimum speed limit on the highway, shows us
how loud the ball is with ‘Focus Cam’ like they have in tennis, and
shows us how much the string compresses before releasing the ball,
demonstrate using a decibel meter on how loud they actually hit time and
time again on every shot!
The biggest thing racquetball can do
is updates its television technologies. We need technology more than ever in
this sport versus tennis, football, and basketball, because of the speed of this
game. We need technology to slow down the game and provide interesting facts to
spice up this velocity demanding sport.
We can use online polls just before
the match to get a gauge on who the audience thinks will win. We can use instant
replays like they do in football, to replay big or controversial points. Let’s
face it we don’t have the professional referees like they have in tennis,
football and basketball, and Instant Replay is a tool to help the amateur refs
to make calls on ball traveling over 190 miles per hour.
To add more numbers to the colorful
commentary, we can use Lucent Vision heat map technology of the court, showing
areas that players most and least favored, and where they won or lost points.
The statistical possibilities can be endless.
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