Racquetball’s official scoring method is a millstone around the game’s neck.

What’s better?

Let’s score to make games more even, with longer rallies.

How?

First: Rally scoring. A point is scored on every rally, not just when the server wins a rally. Volleyball went to rally scoring a couple decades ago. Big improvement.

Second: Who serves? The person with the lower score chooses. If the score is even, the person who did not have the serve-choice the previous serve chooses the server.

Third: Single serve. A fault is a point for the opponent. (I prefer two serves in racquetball, but that’s probably not the best way to do it. Most probably not the best in other sports.)

Fourth: The serve rotates in team games, doubles, etc., when the serve-choice changes. And the serve-choice side can force a single rotation of the serving side at any other time.

Fifth: Game is to 15 – win by two.

The result: Short, competitive games between players of differing skills. Longer rallies because the weaker player starts more rallies with an edge.

Bonus: Faster games. More action in a match. More fun to play. More fun to watch.

Applies to other games: Volleyball, ping-pong, badminton, squash. You name it.

Racquetball is inherently fast and action-packed. Why should it have a plodding scoring system? Why not a system that fits the game?

Which leads to how games will change when judging and ref’ing become automated. Why should points only be counted once a rally? But that’s another subject for another day.