League Information

 

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Note: Only Non JCC members need to fill out the payment information. Payment can be submitted either by Credit card information on the form or provided by a check made out to the JCC. Also, JCC members are not required to fill out the JCC Waiver/Agreement and Release of Liability.

 

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League Information

 

Reporting Scores

Please report any official match results (including full scores) by e-mail to Scores@capitalsplats.org  . We will be maintaining the league standings, which will be sent out every two weeks to all league members. Updated league standings and results will also be posted each week on the bulletin board in the racquetball court area.

League matches do not have to be played at the JCC court..  If you or another member has access to another facility that has racquetball courts such as the YMCA, you can play your matches at any available location.  Just be sure to report your scores in to Jesse so that they are included in the league standing towards the playoff.

 

Playing Matches & Reporting Scores:

Matches are played the best two out of three games. The first two games are played to 15 pts.  If players must go to a third Tie-breaker game the game, it is played to only 11 pts.

Remember after your match is down, if you want the results to count towards your standing in the season end playoffs, report the  match results to the email address Scores@capitalsplats.org

 

 

League Organizers/Contact Info 

The Capital Splats / DC JCC Racquetball League is organized by:

·         Art Thomas - arthomas58@gmail.com - 202-489-5836

·         Mark Storey – mstorey@igc.org – 202-905-8422

·         Jesse Singh – admin@capitalsplats.org -  202 5561537

 

Art, and Mark are members of the JCC fitness center and can assist with any issues related to your membership passes for the league. Any one of us can also answer questions related to the management of the league (scheduling, questions about rules of play, etc.).

 

The Washington DC Jewish Community Center (JCC)

The JCC is located at 16^th and Q Sts. NW. By metro, you can take the Red Line to Dupont Circle. Exit at Q Street (North entrance). Walk east on Q Street, crossing over Connecticut Avenue. The Center is located four blocks away on Q Street at the Southeast Corner of 16th Street and Q Street. You should use the entrance on Q St. to enter the building and access the fitness center.

 

The Racquetball court hours are:

·         Mon-Thurs: 6am-10pm

·         Friday: 6am-6pm

·         Saturday/Sunday: 8am - 10pm

 

Please keep in mind that they observe Jewish holidays and thus may be closed for those occasions.

More info about the JCC can be found on their Web site at:  http://www.washingtondcjcc.org/

 

Passes for Non-JCC-members

If you are not a JCC member, fpr each league season, you will receive a pass from us with the dates covered for that particular season. If you do not already have your pass, you will need to arrange for Art to give it to you in person or to forward  it to you by email.

. You should present this pass when entering the JCC, but you may be asked to sign in at the front desk. If the front desk person, doesn’t recognize the pass, just explain that you are a member of the JCC Racquetball League, but not a member of the JCC and that Lynda Espada  has issued these passes to non-JCC members playing in the league. The league organizers are not officially affiliated with the JCC so the front desk person may not be familiar with us or with the Capital Splats name.

With your league passes, you are welcome to come in as often as you want, but just be sure that you are only using the racquetball courts (and locker rooms). And if, by chance, any of you decide to join the JCC, please be sure to list the Capital Splats as a referral!

Locker room Access

The locker rooms are located on the basement level. Your passes are not equipped with the electronic scanning chip needed to access the locker rooms, but there should be an attendant by the locker room entrance desk who can let you in. If no one is there, you should just wait a minute or so for the attendant to return or for a JCC member to let you in. If using the locker room facilities to change and/or shower, make sure that you bring your own lock. There are half and full sized lockers available on a first come first serve basis.

 

Court Locations

There are two racquetball courts (and one squash court) located on the 3^rd floor of the JCC. You can access these courts by the elevator or by taking the stairs up two flights from the ground floor. When reaching the 3^rd floor, you need to turn right and go to the end of the hall. Court 1 is the first court on the left side, Court 2 is on the right of that court (currently court 2 is not usable due to earthquake damage and is awaiting repair). The two squash courts are located on the right side. Please be cautious about leaving valuables sitting out unattended.

 

Making a Reservation

Court reservations are free. The JCC makes reservations for one-hour blocks beginning every half-hour. If you are a current JCC member you can make reservations by sending an e-mail to jilla@washingtondcjcc.org or by calling 202-777-3275. (E-mail tends to be the more efficient method in my experience.) Jill from the JCC will usually confirm within 24 hours.

If you are not a JCC member, we will coordinate with the JCC to make reservations for you. You should put in your request a few days in advance by going to: http://www.holdmycourt.com/reserve/dcjcc. This is a reservation system that we (the Capital Splats admin team) are using to track your requests. We will be sending in the reservation requests at lest twice a week, (usually on Mondays and Wednesdays) and we will confirm with you after we hear back from the JCC that the court is available for the time you requested To better coordinate with the JCC Reservation you will need to submit your reservations for Court 2 to start on the Half Hour. (5:30, 6:30, etc)  That is how the Reservation Book at the help desk is set up and we need to work around JCC members who do not have access to the Hold My Court Site Reservations can be made as much as a week in advance.

 

Playoffs

At the end of each regular season, each division will conduct a playoff series. All league members are eligible to participate. We will try to schedule one evening for each division to play the early round matches (1-2 matches), and then those who advance will play the semifinals and finals on another evening at a later date. For those unable to participate on the official playoff nights, we will allow you a grace period of about a week to try to schedule and play the matches on your own.

 

Happy Hours

The Capital Splats has scheduled a monthly happy hour as a way for current and past league members to socialize and get to know each other a little better off the court. The happy hour are scheduled to be held on the 4^th Thursday of every month at Nellie’s Sports bar. Future happy hours will be announced on the league mailing list as well as on our Capital Splats Facebook page.

 

Racquetball Clinics

Although none of our current league members are certified racquetball instructors (to my knowledge at least), several of us have many years of experience playing in leagues and tournaments. Several of you who are relatively new to racquetball have expressed interest in participating in clinics, and we are hoping to try to organize periodic clinics on various topics (e.g., overview of the rules of play, serve types, general court strategy).

We will send out a schedule of clinics and happy hours for the winter season as soon as possible.

 

Local Racquetball Tournaments

There are a number of local tournaments that take place throughout the year. These are officially sanctioned by the U.S. Racquetball Association, and they support players of all skill levels. Just recently, Scott Trump, the runner-up in our summer league’s B division played in his first such tournament and brought home a championship trophy! We will be sending out occasional announcements about upcoming tournaments and you are welcome to ask for advice if you have questions about playing. By the way, some of these tournaments include pro divisions, and if you play you can spend the weekend when you are not playing matches watching the pros play, which can be quite fun.

 

Match Rules and Code of Conduct

We are playing standard US Racquetball Association matches – with a best 2 out of 3 game format. The first two games are played to 15 points, and you must win by only one point. If the players split the first two games, the third game (the tiebreaker) is played to 11 points, in which you also need only win by one point.

The official rules of racquetball can be found here:http://www.usra.org/Portals/18/pdf/officialrules2007.pdf

 

A couple of rules and codes of conduct worthy of note:

• Start of play: rather than tossing a coin, you can do what is called a “lag” for serve. This is when you stand at the back of the court—an arm’s length from the back wall, and hit the ball to the front wall so that it lands as close as possible to the back line of the server’s box. Whoever is closest may choose to serve or receive for the first game. For the second game, whoever served first in the first game will receive to start the second game. If you go to a tiebreak, whoever has scored the most points in the two games, gets to serve first. If the total points are tied, then you can do another “lag” for serve.
• If a player hits the ball out of the court, the ball is dead and the player who hit the ball out loses the point if he is the receiver or loses serve if he is the server. Also, if the ball hits the back wall above the lower edge of the viewing ledge, it is also out.
• “Carrying” the ball means that the ball does not make a clean, direct hit to your racquet (or frame) and instead slides on your racquet during your swing. This is illegal, and you should call this on yourself and forfeit the point or your serve when you do it. Often, you can tell when you or an opponent carries the ball by the sound the ball makes against the racquet.
• Court hinders – if the ball hits the ceiling lights or the door (sometimes a problem in Court 2 at the JCC in particular) in such a way that it does not bounce naturally, the point should be replayed.
• Safety hinders – if your opponent is in the way of your making your shot (either in the way of your racquet swing or standing in front of your shot), you should avoid trying to make the shot and call a hinder and replay the point.
• Avoidable (penalty) hinders – there are times when your opponent can get in the way of the shot in a way that is considered avoidable. You are required to allow your opponent to hit a straight shot as well as a cross-court shot. Generally, for our league play, we will not be dealing with avoidable hinders and will just replay the points. However, it is a good idea to read the rulebook (Rule 3.15) so you have a better understanding of what you should try to do to stay out of the way.

Timeouts – For official matches, you are allowed 3 30-second timeouts for games to 15 points and 2 30-second timeouts for tiebreakers to 11 points. Timeouts are often an effective strategy to help break an opponent’s momentum or simply to help you refocus or get a needed rest.