CESTAs
Jai alai is one of the few sports that still uses hand made equipment. When
cestas come you are lucky, very lucky if every basket you receive
is good for you. You take them out and try them hopeing that you
can play with all of them with out changing your style to the
fit the cesta.
Example: you receive 3 cestas from Spain.
Cesta #1 is perfect you can stop the ball no problem (control) and
the ball hits the wall right where you want it (most of the time
lol).
Cesta #2 is a little to slow for you, you can stop the ball but
when you throw the forehand goes down
(toward the floor) and the backhand goes up (toward the screen)
on your natural release (style).
Cesta #3 is to fast, you have trouble stopping the ball, the forehand
goes up(toward the pad)and the backhand goes down(toward the lower
pad).
For me personally
Cesta #1 Cant wait to play every performance.
Cesta # 2 would be very tough for me to play with, I have because
I had too but I would have to change my game a lot every time. Because
the right side goes down with a slower cesta it is hard to pass, throw
kill shots, and even get the serve in the box with out someone
taking it.
Now I could struggle with cesta #3 until it wore out a little
and slowed down,("you suck blah blah blah ,why cant you keep
it on the court") the first week or two I would struggle.
WHY PLAY WITH A CESTA THATS NO GOOD FOR YOU
You cant just send them back and say could you send me 2 more. You
cant go to the store and look at them before you buy them, and
pick them out yourself. They cost around $300 - $350 when I played
and even if you could afford more cestas the cesta maker cant
make that many for you.
WHY NOT GET A DIFFERENT CESTA MAKER?
Most of the time the best players have access to the best cestas. A
cesta maker can only make so many cestas so they can only have
so many players (customers).
PRACTICE
When you get a cesta that fits you just right, you dont want to
waist it by practicing with it too much. If you get a cesta that
is to fast for you, you can practice with it more to get use to
it and brake it in(slow it down). If the cesta is to slow for you
the more you play with it the slower it gets, practice is useless. Now
if you have money and access to lots of cestas you can sell (at
a loss)the cestas that are not good for you. But if you can only
afford or only have access to 1 cesta a month you cant really
practice too much.
6 DAYS A WEEK 9 PERFORMANCES A WEEK, WHEN DO YOU PRACTICE?
When you are young any chance you get, as you age less and less.
CESTAs
They very rarely come all the same. Thats even from the best cesta
makers. If you don't have the connections to get cestas from the
best then you better get use to playing with baskets that you
have to adjust too.
