How To Play Squash

One of the good things about squash (and there are many), is how easy it is to learn how to play. Not so much the rules themselves, but the physical skills required to start playing. As learning curves go, the one for squash is pretty easy. As long as you can swing a racquet, and hit a ball towards a big 15 foot high x 20 foot wide wall, your good to go. Everything else after that is details.

Speaking of details.

There are red boundary lines marking the limits of all the playable surfaces and identifying all the places to stand and receive serves from. Unlike tennis, if the ball touches the line, it is considered "out". The service line running across the front wall about 6 feet above the floor is only used during the serve. The serve must always be played to the front wall above this line. All shots after that may be below the service line, but must be above the tin approximately 16 inches from the floor. All visible surfaces are playable, except for the ceiling. This includes the side walls, and the back wall.

Play starts by one person standing in either the right or left service box, and striking the ball so it hits the front wall, and then lands into the receiving box on the opposite side of the court. The receiver must then return the ball before it bounces twice on the floor, by hitting the ball so it makes it to the front wall. And so on and so on and so on. The rally finishes when one player is unable to strike the ball to the front wall before the second bounce.

Scoring, is relatively simple. First of all, you only get points when you serve. The server gets one point for every rally won. If the server loses a rally, their opponent then gets an opportunity to serve. Typically a game goes till the first person reaches nine points. There is one exception however. If both players reach eight points, then the person receiving the serve decides if the game will go to 9 or 10. A typical "match" is a best 3 of 5 series.