FROM THE EDITOR
There's Plenty Going On ...
by Linda Mojer

It’s starting all over again! New season. New frames. New goals. I know you’re all just dying to leave the links behind to get back on the courts and start hearing that ball noise in your sleep. Itching to move up a skill level. Ready to beat that certain someone who had your number last year. Oh yesss ...

All that playing stuff aside, there’s still business to tend to, including the annual “Rules of Play” printing and distribution to all our members, via this particular issue. Over the years, the USRA’s full Official Rulebook has evolved into a substantial publication, incorporating more and more policies and procedures that truly don’t reach-out-and-touch the majority of players (particularly those who don’t play competitively). And as tournaments become more and more sophisticated, we’re looking at developing even more “handbook-oriented” content for the Official Rulebook. That — along with rising costs — led to the decision to provide members with the abbreviated “Rules of Play” piece through the magazine [published on pages 32-34 of the hard copy], and make the full Official Rulebook available for purchase separately. We’ll continue to supply tournament directors with rulebooks to administer their sanctioned events, and anyone — member or not — can still obtain the full-bore copy by either ordering direct from the office, or online. Of course, the complete rules documentation can be referenced, 24x7, at www.usra.org, indexed under “Rules.”

Now a quick, personal, summer re-cap and then I’ve got to start the November/December issue. Back in July I’d been coerced into going to Worlds (just who, exactly, was going to get the September/October issue out in my absence, I asked ... ?), when I was approached to play for Team Puerto Rico [long story]. I was reluctant. I hadn’t been playing. I was incredibly busy at the time, and expected to be even more so on site. Ummm, compete? Why sure, why not ...? There are times when I am delusional enough to believe that I can do anything and everything. This was one of those times.

The result? I experienced the World Championships from a perspective I had never before enjoyed, or really understood. My teammates were incredibly kind, thoughtful and loads of fun to be around (okaay?). I blew out my knee in a vain and desperate attempt to score a single point against Christie VanHees (go ahead, laugh). And yet — pain and massive workload on my return aside — I wouldn’t have traded a moment of it. Not one moment. It seems that I’m just a sucker for this game and the type of people who enjoy it. Or ... I have the shortest memory on the planet.