International Racquetball Federation Officially Sanctions Racket:Next | Hacker News Reader

International Racquetball Federation Officially Sanctions Racket:Next

racketnext.com

32 pointsvictorbond47 comments

Their home page: so much information, but so little information. I guess it's one of those situations where you're supposed to know the thing before you go there.

Is it VR? Or confusingly is it virtual instrument racks?

Equally confusing is the English word, "sanction". Sanction is a very bad thing, unless it's the sanction which is a very good thing!

This native English speaker is with you, I thought RacquetNext was some new-fangled racquetball racket that was banned because it has carbon fiber plates that…do $SOMETHING, ala the Nike Vaporfly/Alphafly running shoes. You know, “sanctioned”.

Instead, it turns out to be some poorly-designed web page that tells me little about what they’re trying to sell.

> I thought RacquetNext was some new-fangled racquetball racket that was banned because it has carbon fiber plates that…do $SOMETHING, ala the Nike Vaporfly/Alphafly running shoes. You know, “sanctioned”.

This was exactly what I expected as a best guess from the title.

We'll try to do better on the page... but I admit, this is the first time that we have been criticised for telling to LITTLE!!! :-) Thanks for commenting... your feedback matters.

Oh, the pages tells plenty, it just doesn’t tell me anything that I found useful. I mean, I even scrolled down for more than the page deserved, IMO, and I still can’t tell you what is on offer, exactly. Some kind of racquet game, with the implication being that I can play it at home, too.

But, hey, you’re here reading feedback, so that’s appreciated. :-)

You are counting the number of words which is not the problem. The many commenters here are pointing there is little value in the content because it is unclear and disorganized, not that there are physically too few things on the screen.

I agree with them. I just went on the site and have essentially zero idea of what this is trying to do / sell me.

Confused by this too. I assumed some Racket:Next was some Russian raquetball something-or-other.

Being HN, my first thought was some Nextjs for Racket language :). But the sanction bit didn't fit that.

Russians PLAY it, but it was MADE in Tel Aviv. And it definitely IS a "something-or-other" Thanks for commenting.

Yes... it is VR. The site was designed to appeal to those who do know what Racket:Next [aka Racket: Nx is, and those who want to know a LOT more. And "sanction" is one of those crazy words... but it's the one the International Federations use... the good kind. Thanks for commenting.

> There are more racquet sports players in the world than soccer players.

Are there? I (or at least I think that’s being played) only know it from US American TV shows, where business people or mobsters usually play it. But I’m in Germany, maybe it’s very regional, but massive in regions it’s big in? Does anyone have some information for me?

If you're talking professional, there are at least 100,000 professional football players in the world

https://colors-newyork.com/how-many-professional-footballers...

There's fewer than 10,000 professional Tennis players, and that's far more popular professionally than squash and other racquet sports so at a professional level you're talking more than 10 times football than tennis.

https://tenniscreative.com/how-many-people-play-tennis/

For non-professional, Based on 2019 data, 87 million play tennis worldwide, and far fewer squash players (20-30 million)

https://squashezine.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-many-people-pla...

But them together and you're less than half of the 250 million football players

Team sports generally support larger numbers of professionals. In part because viewers are simply watching more people at the same time, but also because teams need redundancy.

If you're stepping away from organised activities, practically every kid in the world plays football, all you need is a ball, clearly that outnumbers sports that need equipment - Tennis and especially Squash.

By that metric Tag is probably the most popular sport.

Anyway you need a ball, several people, a goal, and a large open field to play something vaguely close to soccer. So it’s popularity varies wildly by area.

Good start... but everyone leaves out BADMINTON, with over 200 million players. Badminton ALONE is almost as large as world football [!!!] As I said above... who knew? Thanks for commenting.

I was hoping that someone would challenge this, There are around 50 million more racket sports players than world football players [!!!] Who knew? And tennis is not the largest... badminton is, dominated by China and India. This is true even if you don't count table tennis, which is also a racquet sport. I was floored when I realized this. Football probably has more SPECTATOR/FANS... I don't know. but the player numbers? Not even close. Thanks for commenting.

I'd never heard of 'racket:next' and their website seems to be down, but here's a video from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMmB1VDFwc

Seems to be a VR game where targets light up and you hit balls at them using the VR controller.

It doesn't look like there's any force feedback, or measurement of how hard you hit, which will avoid the problems suffered by things like Zwift where issues like poorly calibrated power meters limit the possibilities for serious competition.

Thank you. Your few lines of comment gave me infinitely more information than the linked site.

It means Racket:Next is now a sport, in the current political theater, the title can be read quite differently. I also did not know of Racket:Next.

I was assuming, in turn, it's something to do with Lisp.

Fair error... but no. Thanks for commenting.

It's Racket:Next aka Racket: Nx, the original name and still out there. Check www.racketnext.com Thanks for commenting.

racket:nx is the one VR game that everyone like.

Some games easily trigger VR sickness, other can be scary for the (younger) player for various reasons (fear of height, monster, etc.) not this one.

Racketnx is basically the vr version of arcanoid.

The strong point of the game is that the learning curve is extremely low. Almost anyone can pick the remote, put on the helmet and start hitting the ball.

Someone mentionned there is no feedback. There is very natural and well done haptic feedback. Speed of the swing matter in game. That is of course tracked in game (has to be).

100% CORRECT, SIR! Thanks for commenting.

The good kind of sanction.

VERY. VERY. GOOD. Thanks for commenting.

Found this other article more informative and with better videos to get an idea of what this looks like: https://www.vrfitnessinsider.com/racketnext-officially-sanct...

I agree. That's a great article, and Sonya Haskins is a great writer and person. When you have a minute though, hover on "Images and Video" and dive in to a cornucopia of Racket:Next delights... Thanks for commenting.

What do y'all think are the odds VR Racquetball is the next big thing? I could see it happening -- it's a pretty clever idea. It might just be a niche thing like drone racing though (or is drone racing catching on?). These "future sports" are an interesting market.

Multiplayer Wii tennis was fun. I've never tried multiplayer VR anything, but I imagine racketball in VR would be fun too.

However, having slammed myself (too) hard against walls playing, I wonder how dangerous it would be to be flailing around blind in a normal room...

Multiplayer WII was the best 2D racquet sport simulation. Racket:Next is THE VR next BIG step... and the best way to play it is to set the stationary "Guardian" about 2 meters, so you don't crash the lamp! Thanks for commenting.

Actually, Racquetball simulations don't work in VR, nor any other racquet sports simulations except table tennis. Racket:Next is an ANALOGUE of conventional racquet sports... have a look at www.racketnext.com/playing. Thanks for commenting.

March 15, 2022 For Immediate Release

International Racquetball Federation [IRF] Officially Sanctions Racket:Next

Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA: In a decisive vote of the IRF Board of Directors, Virtual Reality racquet sport game Racket:Next [aka Racket: Nx] has become a fully sanctioned sports discipline of an IOC-Recognized global sports federation, effective April 1, 2022.

With this action, Racquet:Next becomes the first electronic game of any sort to become an official global sport.

IRF [Colorado Springs, USA]; Racket:Next developer One Hamsa [Tel Aviv, Israel]; and the Metaverse Sports Association [San Francisco, USA]; signed a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2021. At that time, the IRF endorsed Racket:Next and committed to progress toward full sanctioning of the game as a sport.

IRF Secretary General Luke St. Onge said at the time: “When we realized what this combination could mean not only for our federation but for all of racquet sport, we jumped all over it. This will be a game-changer both for us and for world sport. We look forward to sharing so much more as this exciting partnership unfolds.” As St. Onge predicted, the partnership has unfolded and “the game” has changed. Dean Schear, IRF Chief Financial Officer and Chair of the IRF Virtual Sports Committee, added, “Bottom line, we have a great vision, a great team, and the sense of urgency and commitment to act now.”

The IRF has been asked to participate in the E-Gaming Pavilion at The World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, in July. The IRF is also a candidate to participate in the Olympic Virtual Series later this year.

Metaverse Sports Association CEO Victor Bond, who drove and facilitated the agreement, commented, “This is a marriage made in future-sport heaven: a world-class developer and a unique, successful, and wonderful game with a fully global international IOC-recognized sports federation that has the vision and the grit to not just look around the corner but to go there.” Bond added, “This is one big step in our collaboration and one gigantic leap for the new technology of sport.”

One Hamsa CEO Assaf “Usul” Ronen added: “This first-ever sanctioning act supports Racket:Next’s core design principles as a fully athletic and visceral game, allowing players of all racquet sports – not only racquetball – to make every racket sport move, except for those that would not work in the average living room (like a racquetball dive or a clay court tennis slide), immersed inside a lighted, responsive, audio-filled dome, in a game that is purely skill based.” Ronen continued, “Racket:Next has already surpassed 300,000 players worldwide, led by the fastest-growing VR headset, the Meta Quest 2, in which it’s been a top-rated title since its launch in 2019. Since 2021 we also witness a surge of players on emerging China-based platforms. Racquet sports, all together, is the largest sports category in the world, eclipsing even world football.

For more information: web: www.racketnext.com email: racketnext@gmail.com International Racquetball Federation: www.internationalracquetball.com One Hamsa: www.onehamsa.com Metaverse Sports Association: www.metaversesportsassociation.world

###

International Racquetball Federation: The International Racquetball Federation is the governing body for all internationally sanctioned racquetball events. Racquetball is an extremely fast sport where balls can travel in excess of 150 mph in a 40 ft. long, 20 ft. wide, and 20 ft. high court.

One Hamsa: Born to the deserts of the middle east, One Hamsa is a game design studio formed to craft quality VR games. We care about unique content, and unreasonable levels of polish.

Metaverse Sports Association: The Metaverse Sports Association is dedicated to the development of high-quality athletic virtual reality games into officially sanctioned global sports. Racket:Next is our and the world’s first success. There will be more.

Now we just need Snooker Plus. Because Snooker could be better.

Snooker is wonderful. Thanks for commenting.

The headline is really confusing, I thought “sanctions” meant “apply penalties” and that racket:next was about the Racket language.

In fact it seems to be a VR game recognized as an official sport?

Sanction is such a strange word. It can mean both "giving permission or approval" as well as "giving a penalty for noncompliance with a rule or law"

I also misread the headline as the latter instead of the former, likely because of the latter type of sanctions being in the news as of late.

You've mooted a very good point. The English language is full of contradictions and condones many deceptive spellings.

Ah! Contronyms! Words that can mean a thing... and it's opposite (or nearly so).

Dust, cleave, overlook... many others. One of those enjoyable corners of the language.

Weird quirks of language (English and others) usually have interesting histories too.

For anyone else that was confused, apparently there is an alternate usage of the word 'Cleave' that means 'to adhere' (rather than 'to cut' or 'to separate').[0]

I hadn't heard of that one.

[0] https://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-co...

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cleave#:~:text=De...

I almost feel like that specific usage should come with the 'archaic' tag, but it's reasonably common in slightly older novels, I think? Things like "He still cleaves to the imagined ideals of his forefathers".

It definitely tends to be used in a more philosophical sense than the very physical "cleave a block of wood in two", though.

The Amelia Bedelia series of children's books get tons of mileage from these types of words.

"Biweekly" is a good one (half as often as weekly, but also twice as often as weekly).

All totally correct. Thanks for commenting.

I know... "sanction" is one of those words that means it's opposite too... a "contranym" But it's the word they use in international federations. You are right... the first ever electronic game of any sort to be officially recognized as a sport. Extremely cool. Thanks for commenting.

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