USA Racquetball spotlights multi-bounce rules at junior nationals in Des Moines

More than 180 junior players are competing at the Wellmark YMCA in Des Moines for the 2026 Junior National Championships, and USA Racquetball timed its June rules feature to the same stage. The event runs June 24-28 and puts the nation’s top junior athletes in line for national titles and possible Team USA opportunities.

National Rules Commissioner Joshua Jones used the tournament to unpack Section 5 of the USAR Official Rulebook, the multi-bounce game many younger players meet before they ever get comfortable with full-speed racquetball. Rule 5.1 is simple on paper and easy to miss in the heat of a match: the ball may bounce any number of times before it is played, but the player gets only one swing. Once the ball stops bouncing and starts to roll, it is dead. That is the kind of detail that can decide a rally when a child hesitates, a parent thinks the point should still be live, or a coach assumes the ball can be saved after another hop.

Jones broke the rule down with a junior match example built around two daughters, a reminder that the best rules teaching is visual. The point is not just that the ball can keep bouncing, it is that the player must still make a clean, single play on it. If the shot comes off the back wall, it has to be struck before it crosses the short line on the way to the front wall, unless a narrow exception applies. That matters in junior play because the rally can slow down enough for beginners to think they have more time than they really do.

USA Racquetball has long treated multi-bounce as a developmental bridge. An earlier rules feature said the variation is for players under age 9, with specific guidance for 6 & Under and 8 & Under divisions, while 10 & Under players can have the option of two-bounce play. Tournament directors can also tailor the format by limiting play to two or three bounces instead of allowing unlimited bounces, which gives local events room to match the rules to age, skill level, and court time.

The timing is no accident. USA Racquetball reported 170 players at the 2025 Junior National Championships in Minneapolis, the largest turnout since 2017. With fields that big, the rulebook is not background noise anymore. It is part of the scoreboard.