Squash versus Racket Ball

In the summer we introduced squash/ racketball to the camping holistic weight loss boot camp in Worcestershire.

Squash and racketball are very similar and over the years I have played both of them to a reasonably high standard. What I found is that the better you are at squash the longer the duration of the rally and the better you are at racket ball the shorter the rally. Both sports are viewed to be physically demanding but the length of the rally doesn't really have much to do with your fitness level but it's mainly to do with the level of skill you posses.

Let's have a look at squash first. It originated at Harrow school from the older game rackets in 1830. There's two people on a court, a ball and two rackets. The idea of the game is to score points by tactically out manouvereing your opponent. You can either do this by creating an opening to hit an outright winner or putting him/ her under enough pressure for them to make a mistake handing you the point. Jonah Barrington a famous English squash palyer from the 1970's explaied squash to be "physical chess".

Racketball was created in 1940 by a ‎Joseph Sobek and is a mixture of squash and tennis. It became very popular in the 1970s in North America which is still where the major tournaments are played. The game is played on a longer but slimmer court. The rackets are shorter and the ball bounces more making it harder to hit outright winners.

You will find courts in local leisure centres and private ‎clubs making the sport accessible to everyone. It's best to have some reasonable level of fitness before you start playing to avoid injury. Make sure you warm your whole body up before you enter the court!

Image Credit: Squashmad.com