Squash is an individually based team sport, invented in England in the 1830s. It is played in a four-walled court by two players with racquets and a small, hollow rubber ball.
The players alternate hitting the ball against the front wall, and can use the other three walls of the court as long as the ball reaches the front wall at some point before hitting the ground. Once it hits the front wall, the opposing player must return the ball before it bounces twice.
Points are scored when one player cannot retrieve the ball before it bounces twice, or when a ball is struck out of bounds. The first player to reach 11 points wins a game, and a player wins a match by winning three out of five games.
Since the first squash court was constructed in England in 1864, the sport has grown to more than 30 million players and 50,000 courts in 188 nations across the globe. With more than 1.4 million current players and counting, the United States has the fastest growing squash participation worldwide. Squash ranks ahead of rowing, running and swimming as the world’s healthiest sport, with the average player burning 750 calories an hour. Visit the US Squash website to see what’s happening across the United States.
