Hello, I’m Tom.
I heard that squash is a sport that is also moderately physical and can be enjoyed for a short time. I was only aware that squash is a sport where people hit balls at each other like tennis, but I was curious, so I looked it up.
According to the Japan Squash Association, this is how squash is described.
Squash is an indoor racket sport that originated in London.
https://squash.or.jp/
Two players (four for doubles) take turns hitting a small, hollow rubber ball against each other in a court surrounded by four walls.
In the meantime, you need to watch a match to get a feel for the game, so let’s take a look at videos of famous competitions on Youtube.
Squash: 10 EPIC DIVES from the PSA World Tour!
It was even more intense and cool than I had imagined! The exchange of play, with the players aggressively diving in to pick up the ball, was enough footage to capture my interest, even though I had no idea of even the rules.
So, I tried squash and will share my preliminary preparations, the day’s events, and my impressions!
Preparation
Gather your friends, set a date, and put the appointment on the calendar.
Let’s start here first. Why don’t we do it together while the desire to do it is still hot? I will ask everyone to join me. Since I was not getting enough exercise, I scheduled my calendar for the night before the holiday so that it would not interfere with my work the next day.
Find a brief overview
Look it up in books and magazines
I went to the bookstore to look for squash books. The squash section is in the sports section, near the tennis and badminton sections. I flipped through the contents of the book and thought that detailed techniques seemed to be difficult, so I just skimmed through it.
Incidentally, by visiting the bookstore, I learned about Matsui and the Desk Brothers, two top professional players. Matsui also communicates about squash on his blog.
- Squash Improvement Techniques @ Chinatsu Matsui
Check it out on the Internet.
You can also search the Internet to find out. If you search for “how to start playing squash,” you will find a page from the Japan Squash Association.
JSA | 公益社団法人日本スカッシュ協会 Official Web Site
After researching what to prepare, it seems that the following items should be available.
- Comfortable clothing such as T-shirts and shorts
- Indoor shoes (shoes that will not color the floor)
- Squash racket
- Balls (about 600 yen each)
- Eye guards (recommended)
- Other items such as towels, change of clothes, etc.
Don’t worry, not many people have squash rackets or balls. Some courts have them for rent. Ask when you reserve a court.
Find out the procedure and tips
You can enjoy squash enough to try it anyway, but if you know the basic rules and a few tricks, you can expand your enjoyment on the day of the event.
You can also do a quick search on Youtube for keywords such as “squash rules” to get a better idea of what to expect.
We recommend the following Youtube video from Squash Family for its easy-to-understand explanations! (13 minutes in total, 6.5 minutes at double speed)
The following is a review of the basic rules explained in the video.
- The squash court is a box-shaped court with outs, similar to tennis and other sports.
- It is hit back to the front wall with one bounce or no bounce on the floor.
- There are 11 points per set and a tie-break when the score reaches 10-10. 3-set and 5-set systems are available.
- Conditions for losing a point
- Failure to return the ball to the front wall
- More than two bounces
- The ball is out of bounds.
- The person who has the right to serve serves from the service box.
- If a player fails to serve once, the opponent scores a point immediately.
- Conditions for a successful serve
- The foot is in the service box.
- The ball hits above the service line
- The ball enters the 1/4 area of the opponent’s court
- During a rally after a serve, only the outline applies.
- When scoring consecutively, the serving position is always changed from right to left, then right to left, and so on.
Finally, as a precaution, it is recommended that eye guards be worn to prevent injury. Since the game is played on a small court, there are situations where players are likely to come into contact with each other. Players should take extra care for their own safety.
Check locations and cost
Search and find a place where you can play squash. I searched for “squash court (name of the area). I searched in Tokyo, and found that there are quite a few places to play squash in Tokyo.
The following page describes squash court locations comprehensively by region.
The cost is about 2,000 yen for 30 minutes for a full-fledged place, and if you use a health center, you will find that you can use the court for about 500 yen.
I tried to make a reservation immediately, but there were more reservations than I had imagined and there were no vacancies. Especially on weekday evenings and weekends, the reservation schedule was packed. I would recommend making reservations as early as possible.
When making reservations, it is a good idea to check what is available for rent at the facility and what you will need to provide yourself.
Talk to your peers about how excited you are and get excited (important).
Since we were only able to reserve 30 minutes of court use time, it is a good idea to chat with the friends you are going with about what kind of fun you want to have in order to enjoy the day to the fullest, so you can get excited about it.
It’s exciting to talk about it while researching how to do it together in books or on the Internet.
We talked about how if we were going to do it anyway, it would be more fun if we had some kind of goal. However, it turned out to be more difficult than we had imagined, so we decided to make it our goal to keep the rally going 10 times with each other this time.
On the day of the event
Before entering the court
Since this was our first time using the courts, we were told when we arrived at the courts that there was a usage and rental procedure. I also wanted to do some light stretching to avoid injury before we started, so we met there 30 minutes before the court reservation.
After entering the court.
One method of warming up for squash is called knocking up. This is a warm-up method in which squash players warm up by hitting the ball against each other to make the ball warmer and easier to bounce.
The players are divided into two groups, one on each side, and hit the ball to warm it up. After hitting 3-5 balls, have the other person hit the ball so that one person does not hit too many balls.
To be honest, if you are playing squash for the first time, it may be difficult to hit the ball to each other in this knock-up phase, so you should try hitting the ball many times without thinking too much about how difficult it is.
Incidentally, in official tournaments, the knock-up time is 4 minutes, and after 2 minutes, the players change their standing positions and hit the ball to each other.
I think that trying to knock up will warm up the ball and our own bodies. Let’s enjoy playing with consideration for each other so that we can continue the rally!
Impressions
I initially thought the 30-minute appointment was too short, but I felt that booking a 30-minute slot was just right for beginners because I was more tired than I had imagined.
The ball does not bounce as much as expected unless you make good contact, so it is difficult to hit it back unless you run around the court in all directions. I recommend that you prepare a change of clothes and a towel.
On the other hand, in the latter half of the game, rallies started to continue and I began to enjoy the game. After all, it becomes more and more enjoyable as the rallies continue.
If I were to try it again, I thought it would be more interesting to watch top professional tournaments. If you have any information about such tournaments or recommend such tournaments, I would be very happy to hear from you.
See you soon!
