General Rules of Squash Explained for Dummies

Squash is an indoor sporting game with the ball and the rackets. Squash matches can take place between singles (two players in total) or doubles (four players in total). This kind of sport obtained its name thanks to the soft balls used in it. The given article is going to present the most important details of squash for you to understand all its peculiarities.

Ball

Squash balls are made of two glued rubber pieces to create a hollow sphere. They are polished until they shine. These balls should be 39.5-40.5 mm in diameter; their weight should be 23-25 g. To tell the truth, there are various kinds of squash balls, each of which is marked with the help of colored dots on their surface. The classification of squash balls looks as follows:

1. Blue-dot balls are the most jumping balls; that is why they are recommended to beginners.
2. One or double-yellow dot balls have worse jumping qualities, which makes it difficult for opponents to take the service; professional players use balls of this kind.
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In addition, the choice of a particular ball depends on the climatic and atmospheric conditions. Every ball should follow a warm-up procedure before every match. For a few minutes, it is necessary to bounce it at the wall. This is done because cold balls feature worse jumping abilities.

Racket

Squash rackets are relatively small. According to their appearance, they are anywhere from court tennis to badminton ones. Apart from this, there are specific technical requirements every squash racket should meet. According to the official rules, the rackets should be no more than 68.6 cm long and 21.5 cm wide. With this, a racket head should be a maximum of 500 square centimeters. These rackets used to be made of natural materials such as wood and catgut. In the middle 80s, however, the racket frames were made of composite materials and metals such as graphite, Kevlar, and titanium, and nets – from synthetic strings.

Playing Court

A squash court is a rectangular area surrounded with four walls. It is 9.75 meters long and 6.4 meters wide. The given court is divided into three parts. There is a particular marking on the floor of a squash court. A front line separates the front and back of the court, while a half court line separates the left and right hand sides of the back portion of the court. As a result, every squash court consists of the front half, the back left quarter and the back right quarter. Each quarter then has a serving zone i.e. a separated square box that intersects the front line and the side wall. The serving zones and lines are important only during a serving procedure; in a regular game, players do not pay attention to them.

The wall playing surface is limited by the out line from an upper side. This line is at a height of 4.57 meters for the front wall. Then, it comes diagonally downward across the side walls to the back wall. The back wall playing surface is limited by 2.13 meters. The front wall has two more lines. The tin i.e. the bottom line (at a height of 43 cm) marks the lower limit of the playing surface. An acoustic panel is a part of the front wall that is under the tin. This panel is metal to make it easy for the referees to determine when a player hits it. The serving line is at a height of 1.78 meters. A foul occurs when the ball reaches either the acoustic panel or the area above the out line.

General Rules

The main task of the given kind of sport for athletes is on turns to make the ball hit the front wall. These players should send the ball so that their opponents could not send it back. Every game begins with a coin toss that is organized to determine a field quarter each player will start the match from. A corresponding player should take a serving position meaning one of his feet should be within the serving zone. A service is considered successful when the ball reaches the wall above the serving line but before the out line, and bounces back on the back of the court. It is up to a returning side to hit the ball immediately or wait until it bounces one time from the court.

A game is over when one of the players fails to send the ball back or makes a mistake. A mistake occurs when the ball reaches the non-playing area (the acoustic panel or the area above the out line) or bounces twice from the floor. In addition, it is a mistake if a player hits the ball and it lands on the court before touching the front wall.

Quite often, players unintentionally create obstacles for each other because they are free to move anywhere on the court within the limited space during a match. That is why experienced players tend to take the court central position after every shot. If an obstacle was created, however, an aggrieved side can initiate “the let”. In this case, it is up to a referee to consider the severity of the obstacle and to decide whether to accept or deny it. In the first case, it is necessary to replay a point. In some cases, a referee can give one point to an aggrieved side, which again depends on the severity of the obstacle.

Scoring System

In squash, different scoring systems can be applied. Thus, let us take a closer look at each of them.

1. British system. It used to be a popular variant at the early stages of squash development. According to this system, a point is given to a server if he manages to win a game. If a game is won by a returning player, however, he obtains only the right to serve in the next game, rather than a point. A squash match lasts until one of the players manages to score 9 points. At the same time, if the score is 8-8, it is up to a player who was the first to score 8 points to decide whether they will be playing to 9 or 10 points.
2. Point-a-rally scoring (PARS). It is used nowadays in official squash competitions. The main difference between the PARS and the British system is that a point is given to a player who wins a game despite a fact which player is on serving. A match lasts to 11 points. Nevertheless, if it is 10-10, the match should last until the difference is 2 points (the similar principle is applied in table tennis matches).
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3. American system is also quite popular. The general rules are the same as those of the PARS but a single match lasts to 15 points. These competitions are longer; that is why the most enduring players tend to achieve successful results here.

History

Aristocratic England is said to be the motherland of the sport of squash. It is not known for sure when this combination of court tennis, badminton, and table tennis appeared but the first mentioning dates back 1807. A real date must be long ago.

Modern squash courts with the front, additional side, and back walls were created much later. It was in 1970 only when the game reached the United States of America; then, it also came to the Middle East and Asia. At the same time, the given kind of sport was extremely popular in Germany, Austria, and Russia. Squash clubs started appearing. Nowadays, representatives of more than 100 states can impress with a development system of squash. In 2003, squash was considered the healthiest kind of sport in the world.