What Is Squash?

Squash or Squash Racquets (its little used official title) is an indoor court game played in a rectangular room (the court) by two adjacent opponents, each using a racquet to propel a small black rubber ball against a common front wall. The game was first devised and played around 1850 in England. Basically, a point is scored when your opponent fails to return your shot properly before the ball's second bounce off the floor. Squash is similar to Racquetball, another indoor court game, except that in Squash the ceiling is out of bounds and the ball must strike the front wall at least 19 inches above the floor. The floor of a Squash court is 32 feet long by 21 feet wide. The front wall is 15 feet high and the two side walls slope downwards to meet the usually clear glass back wall, which is 7 feet high. The red lines drawn on the floor or walls either mark the playing boundaries or come into play only during the Serve (the initial start of each point's play). The game is played to a ...  more