Racketlon: The One Sport With Four Rackets

Mr. Easterbrook competes in racketlon, a sport that mixes desk tennis, badminton, squash and tennis in a single match in opposition to the identical opponent. One match can final greater than 90 minutes and a match can include three to 4 matches. “It is advisable to be actually bodily match but in addition mentally powerful,” he says. “You’re switching from racket to racket in beneath three minutes and have to search out the zone within the hardest moments.”

Mr. Easterbrook, the co-founder and CEO of Index, a Montreal-based digital advertising and marketing company, began enjoying badminton competitively at age 15 and in his 20s turned certainly one of Canada’s top-ranked gamers. In 2008, he went to China for 3 months to coach with a former Chinese language badminton world champion. “I used to be in the most effective form of my life, coaching six hours a day, and my coach informed me if I skilled with him for 4 extra years possibly I’d get by means of the primary spherical of the Olympics,” he says. “I went dwelling and embraced racketlon.”

Mr. Easterbrook was launched to the decathlon of racket sports activities the earlier 12 months. He had discovered to play tennis as a baby from his grandfather, a tennis professional, and had dabbled in squash. Desk tennis was new so he joined a desk tennis membership, employed a coach and began getting into native racketlon tournaments. He was a pure.

He’s ranked second in Canada and forty seventh on this planet.

The Exercise

Mr. Easterbrook says one of many greatest challenges of racketlon is discovering work-life steadiness amid an intense coaching schedule. Every sport works completely different muscle tissue and requires completely different swing methods and even footwork. He trains after work from 7 to 10 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to midday on weekends. Mondays and Saturdays he performs squash and badminton; on Tuesdays and Thursdays he performs desk tennis, often at Membership Atwater, a prestigious racket sports activities membership in Montreal. He trains at Ping Création, a Montreal ping pong membership owned by his coach and former tennis desk star, Alain Bourbonnais. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays are devoted to health and tennis, which he performs on the Carrefour Multisports middle in Laval. His girlfriend sometimes performs him in squash and badminton. “She’s not a racketlon athlete, however she is encouraging and in addition very understanding of my coaching commitments.”

In 2012 Mr. Easterbrook suffered a torn proper Achilles tendon whereas enjoying squash. “I used to be overtraining and never caring for my core and again,” he says. “That led me to compensate with different muscle tissue,” he says. The harm required surgical procedure, three months on crutches and one other three in a boot. Mr. Easterbrook estimates that it took a 12 months to totally recuperate and regain his health. He’s since turn out to be a stickler for cardio and energy, which he not often did earlier than.

On health days he does one hour of cardio, often the stationary bike, adopted by one hour of energy workout routines corresponding to bench press, dumbbell squats, plank pose and drugs ball twists, which work the obliques. He ends with quarter-hour of yoga-inspired stretches. “Cobra pose is a favourite to stretch out my again,” he says.

He practices visualization earlier than each match.

The Food regimen

Mr. Easterbrook gained greater than 45 kilos when he was injured in 2012. “I noticed my eating regimen wasn’t actually serving to me,” he says. “I ate loads of pizza.” He dropped 20 kilos on a low-carb eating regimen to get to his “completely satisfied competitors weight” of 185 kilos. He has a protein shake within the morning adopted by grilled rooster and greens, and a protein shake round 3 p.m. He tries to keep away from restaurant meals and as a substitute cooks at dwelling.

“I cook dinner lots on the barbecue and love making rooster tagine with a giant salad,” he says. He has one other protein shake earlier than mattress. Throughout a match, he has a giant breakfast of cereal, fruit and low after which tries to eat some sort of protein each hour when he’s not enjoying. His responsible pleasure is beer.

The Gear & Value

Mr. Easterbrook paid $100 for his Black Knight Reactor courtroom footwear, which he makes use of for racketlon. He additionally has a pair of Adidas Barricade ($100) tennis footwear for desk tennis. He performs desk tennis with a DONIC Waldner Senso Carbon blade ($60) coated in Andro Rasant rubber ($35). He has two Black Knight HEX-Pressure 360 badminton rackets, which price $240 every, three Quicksilver LT squash rackets at $160 every, and two Babolat Pure Aero tennis rackets, priced at $200 a bit. He prefers Schildkrot 3 star balls for desk tennis, Black Knight Tru-Bounce squash balls and Wilson US Open tennis balls. He wears Black Knight Stiletto eye safety ($30).

Racketlon, the racket-sport cousin of the decathlon, continues to be a reasonably new idea. It began in Scandinavia within the mid-Eighties, when the sport was often called racket sports activities, and the International Racketlon Federation in Vienna was fashioned in 2002. Its 4 units should be performed within the order from the smallest to the most important racket in its acceptable sport, beginning with desk tennis and persevering with with badminton, squash and ending with tennis. Each rally ends in a degree to the winner of the rally, and the winner of every set is the participant who reaches 21 factors. The winner of a racketlon match is the participant who scores essentially the most factors in complete so it’s attainable to lose three out of the 4 units and nonetheless win the match.

Write to Jen Murphy at workout@wsj.com