The Complete Guide to Squash

Chapter 1: What Is Squash and Why People Love It

Let's clear something up right away: squash is not tennis in a small room. It's its own thing. It's a sport played with a small, hollow rubber ball and a long-handled racket, inside a four-walled court that is roughly the size of a very large walk-in closet. You and one opponent take turns hitting the ball against the front wall, and it must bounce above a metal strip called the "tin" — if it hits the tin, that's a point for the other person. The ball can hit the side walls and the back wall before it reaches the front wall, which is where things get interesting. You're not just hitting the ball straight; you're trying to make it die in the corners, or catch your opponent off guard with a shot that hugs a side wall. It's fast, it's clever, and it's absolutely exhausting in a way you'll only understand once you've tried it.

But let's step back, because you're probably reading this with no idea what a session actually looks like. I remember my first time stepping onto a squash court. It was at a public recreation center, and I'd rented a racket for three dollars from the front desk. The court itself was a plain white box with a wooden floor, a red line near the bottom of the front wall, and a few painted lines on the floor. It smelled like floor polish and sweat. There