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Quick answers
Is squash in the Olympics?
Yes, from 2028. The IOC session in Mumbai voted on October 16, 2023 to add squash to the Los Angeles 2028 programme, alongside cricket, baseball and softball, flag football and lacrosse. The programme is singles events for men and women. It ends a long campaign: squash bid unsuccessfully for the 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 Games, losing to golf and rugby sevens for 2016 and to reinstated wrestling for 2020. The consequences go well beyond one fortnight. In most countries, national sports funding is tied to Olympic status, so federations that operated on subscriptions and volunteers now qualify for state high-performance money, which is reshaping coaching and junior programmes worldwide.
How does squash scoring work?
Modern squash uses point-a-rally scoring, or PAR: every rally is worth a point regardless of who served. Games are played to 11, and at 10-10 play continues until someone leads by two. Matches are best of five games, with 90 seconds between games. There is only one serve — no second serve — so a fault loses the rally outright. This system replaced the old English scoring, in which only the server could score and games ran to nine; the men's professional tour switched in 2004 and the World Squash Federation extended PAR to every level from the 2008-09 season. The change shortened matches significantly and pushed players toward attacking earlier, since long defensive rallies now carry a real cost.
What is the difference between a let and a stroke?
Both concern interference, which is unavoidable when two players share one court. A let is a replayed rally with no point awarded: it is given when the opponent got in the way but made a genuine effort to clear, and the interfered player would have made a good return rather than a winning one. A stroke awards the point outright to the interfered player: it applies when the opponent did not make every effort to clear, when the striker's swing was blocked, when the ball would have hit the opponent on a direct path to the front wall, or when the striker would have hit a winner. If the striker could not have reached the ball anyway, or the interference was trivial, the referee calls no let and the appealing player loses the rally.
What do the coloured dots on a squash ball mean?
They indicate how much the ball bounces, which is really a measure of how much work you have to do. Blue and red dots are the liveliest and are made for beginners and cold courts, because the ball keeps bouncing without needing to be warmed up. A single yellow dot is slow, and the double yellow dot, standardized around 2000, is the extra-slow professional ball used in all serious competition. A double-yellow ball is almost dead when cold and must be warmed through several minutes of hard hitting before it plays properly, which is why matches begin with a five-minute knock-up. Beginners using a professional ball will find it simply does not bounce, which is the single most common reason people give up on squash.
Why is Egypt so dominant in squash?
Egypt has held roughly half of both the men's and women's world top tens through the 2020s, an unmatched concentration. The reasons are structural rather than mysterious. Egyptian sporting clubs in Cairo and Alexandria are family institutions with dense court provision, so children start young and play constantly. A coaching lineage runs from the pioneers through Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour to today's academies, transmitting a distinctive attacking style built on deception, holds and front-court aggression. The domestic junior circuit is more competitive than most international ones. And there is a long history to build on: F.D. Amr Bey won five British Opens in the 1930s, so squash has been a prestige sport in Egypt for almost a century.
Is squash really the healthiest sport?
Forbes ranked squash first in its 2003 survey of the ten healthiest sports, scoring it on cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, calorie burn, strength, flexibility and injury risk. The logic holds up: squash combines near-continuous movement with repeated high-intensity efforts, rapid direction changes and deep lunges, all inside a heated, enclosed space, so heart rates sit high for long stretches and calorie expenditure per hour is among the highest of any recreational sport. The caveats are real, though. The same lunging load makes knee, hip and Achilles injuries common, and the intensity is not gentle on an unconditioned cardiovascular system. Eye injuries from the ball and racket are the reason protective eyewear is mandatory for juniors in most federations.
The first problem most people run into when starting squash in the United States isn't money, it's the court itself. The gear alone, racquet, protective eyewear, ball and indoor shoes, comes to somewhere around $150-$250, which is cheap next to tennis or golf. But a regulation squash court is a fully enclosed structure 32 feet long, 21 feet wide, with a specific ceiling height, and it can't be built into just any gymnasium. Plenty of US counties have zero squash courts at all, and where courts exist, they're often one or two tucked inside a fitness club, hotel athletic center, or university recreation building. So the step that has to come before any of the cost math below is confirming that a real, reachable court exists within a reasonable drive of home or work.
It's worth being direct about this: squash is a minority sport in the United States. It doesn't have the neighborhood-by-neighborhood club culture that tennis or pickleball does, so the places where players actually gather are fairly fixed: dedicated squash clubs concentrated in the Northeast and a handful of major metros, YMCAs and university athletic centers with a court or two, private racquet and fitness clubs, and college programs where alumni or community members can sometimes join in. US Squash runs national and regional amateur tournaments, but those too cluster around the Northeast corridor, the Bay Area, and a few other hubs. The upside is that once you do find a court and a group, the barrier to entry drops fast: with fewer players, beginners get noticed and welcomed quickly, and lesson waitlists are nowhere near as long as they are for more popular sports. Squash's addition to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic program has also started to bring more visibility and junior programming into US clubs than it's had in years.
Every figure below reflects entry-level United States market pricing for 2025-2026, and it's worth reading court rental costs in particular with the understanding that they vary more by region and facility type than almost any other line item in this sport.
Gear and budget
Racquet (entry-level)
Starter price $50-$130 (United States, 2025)
The first thing to buy, and the one item with no reason to overspend on. The rulebook weight ceiling is 255 grams, but racquets on the market actually run 120-145 grams, and beginners do best with an even-balance or slightly head-heavy model in the 130-140 gram range. Advanced ultralight racquets around 115 grams look appealing but have thinner frames that chip easily against the wall, and for a player whose swing isn't grooved yet, they can actually produce less pace on the ball. Entry lines from Dunlop, Tecnifibre, Head, Wilson and Prince in the $50-$100 range are plenty for at least a year. Better to borrow a few demo racquets from a club or a coach in the first month before buying.
Ball (color-dot grade)
Starter price $8-$14 for a pack of two
The single item beginners get wrong most often, and the one choice that most decides whether someone sticks with the sport. Tournament-grade double-yellow-dot balls barely bounce when cold; they need several minutes of hard hitting to warm up and come alive, and a beginner who hasn't yet learned to hit hard enough will find that this ball simply doesn't bounce, with rallies dying after two or three shots. Beginners should start with a blue-dot or red-dot ball, sometimes labeled Intro or Progress depending on the brand, then work down through a single yellow dot before finally moving to double yellow. Balls are a consumable and should be replaced once they crack or go slick.
Protective eyewear
Starter price $25-$60 (United States, 2025)
The one item not worth compromising on. A squash ball's diameter of roughly 1.56 inches fits almost exactly into the human eye socket, so a direct hit can cause serious eye injury, and because two players share the same small court, an opponent's racquet frequently swings close to the face. Most governing bodies require eyewear for juniors and for doubles play. Regular glasses or sunglasses are actually more dangerous if they shatter, so use polycarbonate-lensed eyewear made specifically for racquet sports. Models with an anti-fog coating hold up much better in an enclosed, humid court.
Indoor court shoes (non-marking soles)
Starter price $60-$150 (United States, 2025)
The second-most important item, and the one most beginners buy last. Running shoes have thick soles built for forward propulsion, and they let the ankle roll straight over during squash's sudden lateral stops and deep lunges. Shoes must have a non-marking rubber sole that leaves no black scuffs on the floor, which is also a condition of entry at most facilities. If dedicated squash shoes are hard to find, indoor court shoes for volleyball or badminton work as a substitute. The midsole cushioning breaks down before the upper looks worn, so plan to replace them roughly every 10 months at two to three sessions a week.
Grip tape (overgrip)
Starter price $1-$3 each
The cheapest item on this list with the biggest noticeable effect. An enclosed court heats up and gets humid fast, hands sweat heavily, and a racquet twisting in the hand is a worn-grip problem, not a skill problem. Replace a thin overgrip every month or two. Squash uses a large range of wrist angles, so a grip that's too thick dulls touch on a drop shot, while one that's too thin puts extra strain on the elbow. The right thickness lets your fingertips just brush your palm.
Restringing
Starter price $15-$35 per job
Not urgent, but an expense that will come up within a few months. The stock string on most off-the-rack racquets is low grade, so once it breaks, restringing with a durable 16-17 gauge multifilament at 22-26 pounds of tension is the standard move. At the beginner stage, the thin strings and high tensions advanced players use lose power and just add strain on the elbow. Squash racquets scrape against the wall and floor constantly, so the top strings wear out before they even break, typically losing meaningful tension within about six months.
Racquet bag
Starter price $30-$80 (United States, 2025)
The item it's fine to buy last. A single racquet fits fine in the soft case it came with; once you're carrying two racquets, shoes, a change of clothes and eyewear, it's time for a backpack-style bag that holds three to six racquets. Never leaving a racquet in a car trunk in freezing weather matters far more than the bag itself. Sudden temperature swings drop string tension and stress the joints where a carbon frame is bonded together.
How to start
Find a court before you buy anything
Locking down a court you can actually get to is the real first step to starting squash in the United States, ahead of any gear purchase. Check, in order, YMCAs and university recreation centers, dedicated squash clubs, private racquet and fitness clubs with courts, and any local college program near home or work. Ask each one whether they have demo racquets and balls, a beginner clinic, and whether solo wall practice is allowed for non-members.
Tip The one thing to always ask on the phone is whether the court is regulation size. Plenty of courts tucked into fitness centers are shrunk to fit the available space, and some have ceilings too low to hit a proper lob at all. Learning exclusively on a court like that scrambles your sense of distance and height the first time you step onto a regulation court. One more thing: squash raises heart rate faster than almost any other racquet sport, so if you're returning to exercise after a long break and starting in your 40s or later, cutting rally length in half for the first month is the safer approach.
Build feel with solo wall drills (0-1 month)
Squash is one of the few racquet sports you can genuinely practice alone. Stepping onto a court by yourself and hitting continuously against the front wall, a solo drill, is enough to build grip, contact point, and a feel for how the ball reacts. Build a base stance close to an Eastern grip, racquet face slightly open, body turned sideways, contacting the ball off the front foot. The goal at this stage isn't power, it's learning to predict where the ball will go next.
Tip Using a pro-level double-yellow-dot ball at this stage will almost certainly make you quit. A beginner's hitting pace can't warm the ball enough to get a proper second bounce out of it. Start with a blue-dot or red-dot ball, get rallies past ten shots, then step down in grade from there. And keep wearing eyewear even during solo practice — balls rebounding off the wall bounce at unpredictable angles, and most eye injuries come from a player's own ball, not an opponent's.
Build the straight drive and learn length (1-3 months)
Roughly 80 percent of squash skill comes down to one shot: the straight drive that runs tight along the side wall, often just called the rail. A good length hugs the side wall, lands behind the service box, and dies in the back corner. This requires drilling the same shot hundreds of times using only half the court, and players who try to learn the drop shot or the boast before this tend to struggle the longest.
Tip A ball that won't go deep is almost never a power problem, it's a front-wall aim-point problem. Beginners almost universally aim too low and hit too hard. Aim 12-20 inches above the cut line and actually ease off the power, and the ball will carry to the back corner. That's exactly why pros hit a large share of their drives well above the cut line. A hard, short ball rebounds off the back wall into the middle of the court and hands the opponent a free attacking chance.
Learn T recovery and footwork (3-6 months)
Once the swing is grooved, the bottleneck shifts straight to footwork. This is the stage for ingraining the full cycle: hit, recover to the T at center court, split-step as your opponent strikes, stretch into a final lunge to reach the ball, then push back to center. Shadow footwork with no ball, plus two-player drills cycling through boast, drive and drop, are the core work here.
Tip Backpedaling to reach the back corners is the most common path to an Achilles tear among adult recreational players. Learn from the start to turn the body sideways and retreat with side steps instead. Land a lunge heel-first, not on the toes, with the toes lifted slightly to brake. And rather than always standing dead-center on the T after every shot, the correct position is often one step to the side, away from your own shot's path — standing directly in the ball's way costs you a stroke call, not a rally.
Learn the serve, interference rules, and play your first game (6-12 months)
Playing a real game means knowing the serve and the interference rules. There's only one serve per rally with no second attempt, so a fault is an immediate point loss, which is why a high lob serve that dies in the back corner, rather than a forced hard serve, is the standard. Beyond that, the three words let, stroke and no let cover most of this sport's rulebook. Recreational courts have no referee, so the two players call these situations themselves, and knowing which situation is which is effectively part of knowing how to play.
Tip The most dangerous moment in a beginner match is the turn. Following a ball that rebounds off the back wall means spinning your body around, and in that moment your opponent disappears from view; hitting blind into that space can send the ball straight at their head. If you can't confirm where your opponent is after turning, the rule and the courtesy is to stop and call a let rather than swing. On the flip side, calling a let for every interference isn't good practice either — appealing a situation you genuinely couldn't have reached costs you the rally as a no let.
Settle into a club and play your first amateur tournament (around 1 year)
By around the one-year mark, regular faces at the court start to become familiar, and that's usually when talk turns to US Squash national and regional events, college club tournaments, or a local club's own amateur bracket. US amateur tournaments tend to draw modest fields, so beginner and novice divisions have a low bar for entry, and it's common to play several matches in a single day. Simply entering is one of the fastest ways to improve.
Tip Tournament balls are almost always double yellow dot. If you've trained on red-dot or single-yellow balls all along, the ball will feel dead at the tournament and your game can fall apart. Switch to tournament-grade balls and adapt for at least a month beforehand. Also, playing three or four best-of-five matches in a single day is outside most beginners' conditioning budget. Check recovery time between matches, don't spend everything in your first match, and pack extra shirts and towels — those details actually move the needle on results.
Running costs
Figures reflect a major market and vary by place and year.
Common injuries and prevention
Achilles tendon strain and rupture
Squash's signature injury, concentrated especially among players in their 30s to 50s returning to exercise after a long break. It typically happens while backpedaling into a rear corner and suddenly changing direction, or lunging hard on a body that hasn't warmed up. Prevention comes down to three things. First, build the habit from day one of turning the body sideways and retreating with side steps rather than backpedaling. Second, jog lightly and move the calves for at least five minutes before stepping onto the court — an enclosed court feels warm, but that isn't the same as a warmed-up body. Third, do eccentric calf strengthening, like calf raises, two to three times a week.
Eye injuries
A squash ball's roughly 1.56-inch diameter fits almost exactly into the human eye socket, so it can strike the eyeball directly rather than being blocked by surrounding bone. On top of that, two players share the same small space, and an opponent's racquet frequently swings close to the face. Prevention is essentially one thing: wear polycarbonate protective eyewear made for racquet sports from day one. Regular glasses are actually more dangerous if they shatter. The rule-based side of prevention matters just as much: if you can't see where your opponent is after turning, stop and call a let instead of swinging, and hold up when an opponent is within racquet range.
Knee injuries (meniscus, patellar tendinitis)
The deep lunge repeated on nearly every rally loads the front knee through a large range of motion, compounded by the sharp directional changes forced by a small court. Prevention rests on two pillars: landing technique and strength. Train the front knee to track in line with the toes rather than collapsing inward during a lunge by engaging the outer hip muscles, and land heel-first to spread the impact through the whole leg. On the strength side, single-leg eccentric work like split squats and Bulgarian split squats is the most direct fix. Playing consistently in shoes with dead cushioning is another common contributor.
Squash elbow and wrist pain
Mechanically the same lateral epicondylitis as tennis elbow, but it develops differently here. In squash, the load comes from forcing a shot off a ball tight against the back wall, short wrist-only swings used to create angle, and the repeated shock of the racquet frame clipping the wall, all loading the outside of the elbow. Prevention starts with checking grip size — a grip too thin for your hand forces you to squeeze harder, which loads the forearm. Lowering string tension cuts down on shock, and above all, learning to generate power from trunk rotation naturally takes load off the wrist and elbow. Once pain sets in, rest is the only real shortcut.
Put together, the cost of starting squash in the United States is surprisingly low. A racquet, eyewear, ball and indoor shoes get the gear side done for around $150-$250, and after that it's just court time and lessons. The real problem is where that court is, and once that's solved, everything else about this sport is simpler than almost any other racquet sport. The starting rules are just as short: don't start on a tournament-grade ball, always wear eyewear, and don't backpedal.
One honest note to close on. Squash pushes the heart rate close to its ceiling inside an enclosed space, so starting at full intensity with no preparation isn't advisable for anyone coming back from a long layoff or carrying cardiovascular risk factors. If you're starting for the first time in your 40s or later, get a checkup first, and spend the first month or two cutting rally length in half while your body adapts. Past that point, squash delivers about as much cardiovascular benefit per minute as any sport out there, and the fact that the court is unaffected by rain, heat or winter is exactly what keeps longtime players coming back.