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Finally learning, playing, and enjoying a sport - Squash! I have successfully gone from just about 0 activity (aside from walking everywhere - NYC), to playing

by dv35z 10y ago

Finally learning, playing, and enjoying a sport - Squash! I have successfully gone from just about 0 activity (aside from walking everywhere - NYC), to playing squash 3+ times a week. Growing up, I had never had interest (or natural ability) playing sports. Like many here, I'd prefer tooling around on computers, reading, etc. Likely, this became a self-fulfilling prophesy about "not being a sports person". Well last year, after some thinking of - "if not now, when? When I'm 40?" I went to a gym, bit the bullet, signed up, bought 10 hours of private lessons for squash (first racquetball, but I switched immediately after trying squash once). It is probably some of the most fun I've had in years, maybe decades. Met so many great people, actually feeling fantastic shape for thr first time in my life. I'm 34, and am actually a "sports person" now. Laughing even saying it in my head. I've used this achievement/habit also to become more of a morning person (by deliberately scheduling games with people at 7 or 8am), and also to do different activities at the gym (e.g. high intensity interval training group classes; running, and even some weight-lifting). It's even propelled me to think more about the food I'm putting into my body, cook more, etc. If you have never heard of squash, check it out. It's intense (1000+ kcal per hour), easy to learn, low risk of injury compared to other sports, and is often cited as one of the healthiest sports out there. It's tons of fun (even if you're terrible), has a nice long and rewarding learning curve, is very strategic (the chess-like aspect of it appeals to my technical brain), and again - just tons of fun. A trusted technology friend passed on the advice to try it to me, so I'm passing it on to you all! Try some squashing!

gameshot911 10y ago
Out of curiosity, why do you prefer squash to racquetball? Im a social rball player myself, never tried squash.
- FLGMwt 10y ago
  Would love an answer also. Playing racquetball, I love how long the ball lives and I'm iffy about starting squash with the short volley time. Keep it up!
  - dv35z 10y ago
    A couple thoughts here: - squash: more control over ball placement. Since the ball is fairly "dead", there is more time to think, and there are so many potential "moves" on where to place the ball. I found with rball, a lot of the hits were more instinctual reactions, rather than deliberate placement. Obviously player skill levels on both games vary, and there are some super sniper rball players - the "tin". Squash has a spot on the front wall which you cannot hit. This is a bit of the secret sauce for squash, as it prevents some of the rball instant kill shots. - moving towards the ball, rather than ball to you: in squash, you really need to read where the ball is going, and get yourself there. Since the ball is barely bouncy, its not coming back over to you easily. This requires you to move a lot around the court - lots of soccer-like movements, quick sprints, deep lunges & reaches, side movements, etc - volley-time: you'd be surprised how long they can go! But you're right, its usually shorter. For evenly matched opponent, I generally have really good long intense ralleys, where its feels like a fight to the end - tons of fun. Other thoughts: - squash is pretty international (uk, india, france, egypt, colombia, etc) whereas rball is fairly usa-centric - rball has been reducing in popularity, whereas squash has been increasing. Shouldn't matter too much, but for example in NYC, I found it harder to find rball players (most were older people; courts often un-used); meanwhile, the squash courts were always popping - people of all ages (even kids). Also, I found the rball courts were older and lesser maintained, whereas (many, not all) of the squash courts seem to have been recently renovated. E.g Equinox in NYC has 5 really nice glass squash courts. I do think both of the sports are tons of fun. Each has their own personality. The instructor I learned from teaches rball and squash. He started with rball - competed nationally, and till plays it - but fell in love with squash as his true love, and only does squash competitively now. Anecdata... give it a try, and give it some time. Took me a few sessions before I really just got hooked, then it was just magic. Best of luck!

by dv35z 10y ago

gameshot911 10y ago

Out of curiosity, why do you prefer squash to racquetball? Im a social rball player myself, never tried squash.

FLGMwt 10y ago
Would love an answer also. Playing racquetball, I love how long the ball lives and I'm iffy about starting squash with the short volley time. Keep it up!
- dv35z 10y ago
  A couple thoughts here: - squash: more control over ball placement. Since the ball is fairly "dead", there is more time to think, and there are so many potential "moves" on where to place the ball. I found with rball, a lot of the hits were more instinctual reactions, rather than deliberate placement. Obviously player skill levels on both games vary, and there are some super sniper rball players - the "tin". Squash has a spot on the front wall which you cannot hit. This is a bit of the secret sauce for squash, as it prevents some of the rball instant kill shots. - moving towards the ball, rather than ball to you: in squash, you really need to read where the ball is going, and get yourself there. Since the ball is barely bouncy, its not coming back over to you easily. This requires you to move a lot around the court - lots of soccer-like movements, quick sprints, deep lunges & reaches, side movements, etc - volley-time: you'd be surprised how long they can go! But you're right, its usually shorter. For evenly matched opponent, I generally have really good long intense ralleys, where its feels like a fight to the end - tons of fun. Other thoughts: - squash is pretty international (uk, india, france, egypt, colombia, etc) whereas rball is fairly usa-centric - rball has been reducing in popularity, whereas squash has been increasing. Shouldn't matter too much, but for example in NYC, I found it harder to find rball players (most were older people; courts often un-used); meanwhile, the squash courts were always popping - people of all ages (even kids). Also, I found the rball courts were older and lesser maintained, whereas (many, not all) of the squash courts seem to have been recently renovated. E.g Equinox in NYC has 5 really nice glass squash courts. I do think both of the sports are tons of fun. Each has their own personality. The instructor I learned from teaches rball and squash. He started with rball - competed nationally, and till plays it - but fell in love with squash as his true love, and only does squash competitively now. Anecdata... give it a try, and give it some time. Took me a few sessions before I really just got hooked, then it was just magic. Best of luck!