Who am I?

Squash.

Through the eyes of a Perpetual Amateur

(PS: It is neither racquetball nor a form of food)

Squash is a “racquet and ball sport” played by two or four players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball. The players must alternate in striking the ball with their racquet and hit the ball onto the “playable surfaces” of the four walls of the court. These “playable surfaces” are demarcated by red lines on the walls - the ball must land within these lines to be deemed in play and the ball must be hit within one bounce on the floor to be deemed in play. The games score up to a total of 11 or 9 and each successful shot in accordance with the rules is awarded a point. This ball is rather “squashable” – hence the name, squash. Quite creative I must add.

Squash is the sport that consumed most of my childhood. I played competitively from around the fourth grade through my sophomore year in High School. I stopped playing due to interest in other sports and laziness to train at a high level (full disclosure). I would like to decompose this sport of squash along with various facets about the sport such as the origin of the sport, the athletic demands of the sport, and the “odd-culture” surrounding it.

Before diving into my experiences with squash and where it is now, I would like to explore the conception of this sport. In early 1148, the French played “le Paume” or “the palm of the hand”, this developed into Jeu de Paume, or simply, Tennis (Wallbutton, T). In the early 19^th Century this obsession with racquets and balls spawned another variety of sport in the most unlikely of birthplaces - the Fleet Prison in London (Wallbutton, T). The prisoners in “The Fleet”, mainly debtors, took their exercise by hitting a ball against walls with rackets and so started the game of “Rackets”. Rackets progressed, by some strange route, to Harrow and

other select English schools around 1820 where it developed into the sport of “Squash”, or “Squash Rackets” (Zug, J). The students at Harrow discovered that a punctured Rackets ball, which "squashed" on impact with the wall, produced a game with a greater variety of shots and required more effort on part of the players (Zug, J). The variant proved popular and in 1864 the first four Squash courts were constructed at the school and Squash was born. In Rackets, the players had to wait for the ball to bounce back to them but in squash - the ball barely bounces…this adds to the physical demands of the sport and makes it more enjoyable.

What makes squash unique, and perhaps contributes to its popularity, is the utilization of both – physical and mental skills in the game (campsquash.com). The squash court is deceptively small. This size deceives most people into believing that the game is not as physically demanding as it actually is. The sport is designed in a manner that it requires consistent short bursts of speed along with an agile and hyper-responsive set of reflexes. These two attributes help the player maneuver around the court and change direction at drop of a hand. Therefore, while power is important when it comes to making shots, agility and off the ball movement is the key to proficiency in this sport. This is where the “mental” aspect of the game kicks in. For instance, the player has to decide whether to utilize his energy in making a powerful shot or making an easier shot and getting a better position on the court for the return. This balancing act of power and precision makes squash a mentally stimulating sport. The four walls of the court further compound this effect – they provide the player with an arsenal of shots and directions to use. For instance, a player chose between hitting the ball on the front wall or on the side wall followed by the front wall or between a fast shot down low in the front or a simple drive to the back. It is this rapid mental exercise of shot selection and decision making that makes squash thoroughly enjoyable.

I stopped playing squash towards my sophomore year in High School. However, I always “kept in touch” with the sport as one of my closest friends from High School was the number one player in India for his age category and currently plays for the Yale Squash team. Through his experiences, I discovered the squash culture in America which is different from what I was used to growing up. I primarily started playing squash because it was an indoors sport (Mumbai has heavy monsoons) and my father used to play it growing up. However, in America, it is perceived as a more niche and “upscale” sport that is played by investment bankers, hedge fund managers, and ivy league students (Williams, A). As Alex Williams describes in the article – “And for Sports, Kid, Put Down ‘Squash’” –  squash is used as a tool for getting into ivy league colleges and networking for jobs in finance. This came as a surprise to me as I treated squash like every other sport growing up – it was not a tool for any external ambitions. The most surprising part of it all was when I quizzed my friend on this “culture” of squash to which he explained that this was why he chose squash as a child – to get into Yale. This realization was part jarring and part hilarious as I had completely misperceived the sport I played throughout most of my childhood, and my friend.

Works Cited

https://campsquash.com/5-reasons-why-squash-is-the-ultimate-sport/

2015, June 18. 5 Reasons Why Squash is the Ultimate Sport. Retrieved from

Wallbutton, T. 130 Years of Squash. Retrieved from http://www.squashplayer.co.uk/history_of_squash.htm

Williams, A. 2007, December 09. And for Sports, Kid, Put Down 'Squash'. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/fashion/09squash.html

Zug, J. The History of Squash in Ten and a Half Chapters. Retrieved from

http://www.worldsquash.org/ws/wsf-information/squash-history/the-history-of-squash-in-10%C2%BD-chapters