Really? No one into squash, here?

The Game Room
1

Had to word the title like that because I strongly suspect the sport has never been discussed here. (Love to be proven wrong with a link)

A wonderfully gruelling game that requires the right balance of chess-like patience and stealthy aggression, squash seems to have an unfortunate catchet as an executive/CEO lunch hour’s pastime (sp?). An indoor game that for the most part is played in private clubs, such a hoity-toity association is inevitable. Good to see many colleges and universities have squash courts, and can also be a feature in the odd apartment building.

The club I played at, growing up, was a family-friendly multi-sports facility (good ole Racquet Club of Victoria - dang miss it), which allowed prole brats (heh - “juniors”) like myself to develop their game at a competitive level, and by the time I was 16 was ranked 2nd provincially in the under-17s.

All the stupid young man stuff got in the way after that, and played on and off in occasional tournaments, leagues, and ladders until I got a full Achilles rupture on the court in 2006 (curse those brand new runners with extra grippy sole!), and had to give it up, weary to ever injure myself that badly again when my livelihood as a gardener depends on mobility.

Definitely one of those sports that brings out your true nature - if you’re a confrontational a-type person, you will most likely crowd your opponent a lot, and get into way too many let/stroke situations, which sucks, and I generally avoided players like that unless if it was necessary, like in organized competitive events.

For a while in the 2000’s it was occasionally on TV, but generally has nowhere near enough of a large following to get more coverage than that, which of course infuriates me, but “I understand”, what with the average non-playing viewer not able to make out that darned tiny ball.:rolleyes: Occasionally they’d show camera shots from behind the front wall (darkened glass) so you could directly face the funky action, which was kinda neat.

I was a big Jonathan Power fan, the only Canuck ever to reach world no. 1, and who did seem to have one of those a-type personalities on the court, heh, to put it mildly.

Absolutely fantastic, comprehensive New Yorker article on the game by Tad Friend, whom I was surprised to learn played at an elite level. He explains the ins and outs of the game excellently - the best read I’ve come across on the game.

Beginners to the game - a warning - if you go absolutely recklessly bonzai at it, you will pull a ham or groin in no time. (Or do a number on your knees and/or back). At the very least, you will definitely have sore glutes on the day after. (stretching before and aft!)

So to resume the hectoring tone of the thread title - c’mon - especially you Brits and Aussies (or any Pakistanis here?) - there’s no way I’m the only doper who gives a hoot about this immeasurably awesome, sometimes brutal, Zen-like game.

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In the U.S., at least, it looks like it’s a pretty niche sport, and some googling suggests it’s not as popular as racquetball here – this web page from “US Squash” indicates that there were 1.71 million squash players in the U.S. in 2015 (though they also claim that participation is growing), while there are about 3.5 million racquetball players. (For a sense of scale, there are roughly 250 million adults in the U.S.)

The US Squash cite also claims that 98% of U.S. squash players have college degrees, and 57% have advanced degrees, which definitely would feed into a “hoity toity” image. :wink:

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Ah yes, racquetball.

A much easier game to introduce to a beginner than squash, it was invented in 1950 by some dude named Joe Sobek, and by the mid-seventies the game really took off, already surpassing in popularity the long-established squash by the time I was starting it.

Heh - to up the hoity toityness, most squashers kinda look down on racquetball, perhaps (from my own experience, anyway) half-decent squash players, with next to no racquetball experience, can walk onto a racquetball court and handily trounce racquetball players who are generally considered top level in their game.

But to reiterate, if I had to introduce someone to a racquet sport, it’d be racquetball, just to get them more easily acclimated (acclimatized?) to that type of game, with the hopes that they’d then graduate to squash.

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There was another thread about squash just the other day.

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I grew up playing occasional racquetball with my dad. When I went to college and was looking for a half-credit sports class to blow off steam, the racquetball classes were all filled, so I went with squash instead. And I ended up liking it waaaayyy more than racquetball. But after college, I switched to sports I could walk outside and play without joining a club.

We played with the old hardball. It seems like hardball was already on its way out then (late 80s), but I haven’t played in years so I have no idea what is used today.

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Nope - that other squash is unacceptable and vaguely horrifying. Puke-ish.

I’m glad you enjoyed (albeit temporarily) coming over to the correct side.:smiley:

oooooo Ouch!:stuck_out_tongue: I learned with hardball, on those hideous courts that are considered “North American” style, with high side walls, and much narrower than the superior “International” style of court, with shorter side walls that slope from the top of the front wall down to the top of the back wall.

Hardball, on the narrower court, was a useless game, with too much standing around, along with the threat of getting beaned by that UGH hard-as-rock hardball. Fond memories of the humungous red welt that the hardball left, with a nice blue ring around it. On the International court, with a softball, the workout eclipses whatever goes on on the NA court, and allows for a larger and much more creative variety of shot-making.

By the late 70’s hardball disappeared - except in the US - from tournament level of play (for singles, not doubles), and got replaced, momentarily, by the 70+ ball, which was softer, and then permanently, by the yellow dot softball, and now the double-yellow dot seems to be the standard. There’s also (slowest to fastest) gray, blue and red dot softballs. The red dot bounces almost as psychotically as a racquetball.

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I played squash for a couple of semesters in college. It was fun, difficult, and I did OK. But I much prefer tennis if I’m going to play a racket sport, easier to find courts and opponents.

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The newspaper that I work for covers The University of Virginia, which added squash not too long ago. The schedule is a little comical. Because no big schools outside of Stanford and the Ivy League play squash, the Cavaliers end up having to play all kinds of no-names like Franklin & Marshall College and Dickinson College.

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I used to play a fair amount of racquetball but I tore something in my wrist and the doc said surgery might fix it but might not. He recommended giving up the game so I did, reluctantly. I really liked playing and the workout was awesome. Anyway, is squash any easier on the wrist than r-ball?

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Take this for what it’s worth (someone who played only casually long ago), but unfortunately, I’d say squash is harder on the wrist. There’s more wrist snap to give the ball backspin.

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I’ll go with squash being harder on every part of the body - it’s just simply an all-around much more taxing and (eventually) debilitating game.

There were a couple tournament matches back in the day where afterwards I could barley walk a straight line, was seeing colours, and on the verge of blacking out.

By the time I ruptured my Achilles, I was like a mummy. For each match - stretch wrap for left groin, around the other thigh for the ham, around left shin for calf pull and around constantly-twisted right ankle (plus scuba material for ankle reinforcement).

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Squash is also pretty limited in the area in which it is regularly found. I hadn’t even heard of it in California before going to college in Rochester, NY. Never heard of anyone playing it after that in California when I moved back to that state after graduation.

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I started playing in California (Bay Area), so it wasn’t completely limited.

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I know a few people who play Racquetball in this area (Seattle) but not Squash.