How to play squash, from your first knock-up to your first match

Learning how to play squash comes down to three things: keep the ball above the tin on the front wall, return it before it bounces twice, and stay clear of your opponent. Games run to 11 points, matches to best of five. The rest you can absorb in one session.

What you need for your first squash session

Borrow or rent a racket first. Most frames weigh 110–160 g — World Squash caps them at 686 mm and 255 g — and lighter is easier to swing late, which you'll be doing constantly.

Clubs require non-marking gum-soled indoor shoes; running shoes streak the floor and roll under a sideways push. Wear eye protection from day one: World Squash recommends it for every player and makes it mandatory at sanctioned junior and doubles events, and a squash ball is small enough to fit inside the eye socket.

The choice that changes your first hour is the ball: every squash ball carries a colored dot telling you how much it bounces.

Dot	Bounce	Best for
Blue	Highest	A first-ever session — rallies survive bad technique
Red	High	Beginners past week one, and cold courts
Single yellow	Low	Improvers who can hit a consistent length
Double yellow	Lowest	Club and tournament standard

World Squash sizes the yellow-dot balls at 40 mm and 24 g; red and blue dots aren't held to that spec and are often bigger. Most advice on how to play squash for beginners opens with technique, but on day one the ball matters more: a double yellow dies in the back corners, and you'll spend the hour picking it off the floor.

The court lines that matter

A singles court is 9.75 m long and 6.4 m wide (32 by 21 feet). Four markings decide most rallies:

• The tin — the metal strip along the bottom of the front wall, 0.48 m (19 in) high. Hit it and the rally is over. Professional men's events use a lower 43 cm tin.
• The out lines — 4.57 m up the front wall, sloping down the side walls to 2.13 m at the back. On or above the line is out.
• The service line, across the front wall at 1.78 m. A serve must strike the wall above it.
• The short line, 5.44 m from the front wall, with a half-court line running back from its center between two 1.6 m service boxes.

Where they meet is the T — roughly the shortest run to every corner, and what most tactics are about.

Warming the ball before the first rally

A cold squash ball barely bounces; the rubber only comes alive once repeated compression heats it. The opening minutes warm the ball, not you. The rules allow up to four minutes of knock-up, players changing sides after two so both hit equally — older rulebooks said five, and you'll still hear that at clubs.

Stand just behind the short line and hit medium-paced straight drives to the front wall, letting the ball bounce once between hits; feed a few across so your opponent's side warms too. Three to four minutes is normal with a double yellow; a red is ready almost immediately. A warm ball squeezes noticeably soft.

How to play squash: from serve to end of rally

The serve

Spin a racket to decide who serves first. As you strike the ball, one foot must be on the floor inside a service box with no part of it touching a line. The ball has to hit the front wall between the service line and the out line, then bounce in the opposite back quarter — behind the short line, past the half-court line, without touching a line.

Win the rally and you serve again from the other box, alternating each time. Lose it and the serve passes over, with the incoming server choosing a box.

Learn the lob serve first: high and soft into the side wall so it drops steeply into the back corner. It's slow, which buys time to reach the T, and awkward to attack. Flat and hard is more satisfying and far easier to punish.

Returning and rallying

The receiver stands in the opposite back quarter, diagonal to the server, and may volley the serve — most players do. After that you alternate. A good return is struck before the ball bounces twice and reaches the front wall above the tin and below the out line; it can touch the side or back walls on the way, and you can volley at any point. The rally ends when the ball bounces twice, hits the tin, lands on or above an out line, or is hit twice or carried on the strings.

Lets and strokes

You share one floor, so interference is written into the rules, not treated as bad luck. If your opponent blocks your path to the ball or your swing, stop and ask for a let: the rally is replayed. If they blocked a shot that would have won the rally outright — classically, your ball heading straight to the front wall hits them instead — the striker gets a stroke and the point. Without a referee, players settle it themselves; when nobody's sure, play a let. The rule beginners break is swinging anyway.

Scoring: point-a-rally to 11

Every rally scores a point for whoever wins it, server or not. Games go to 11, and at 10–10 you play on until someone leads by two. A match is normally best of five, sometimes best of three.

Older English scoring — games to 9, points only on your own serve — still appears in some club leagues, so ask before you start. PAR 11 scoring and the full squash rules are worth reading once you've played a few times.

Your first match: three squash tips that make you playable

Squash beginner tips pile up fast. Three of them change a first match.

Hit deep into the back corners

Aim to land the ball behind the short line and tight to a side wall, dying before the back wall rather than bouncing off it. Deep balls push your opponent into the corners, where attacking shots are hardest. The beginner default — hard, low, into the middle — sits up in the center and hands the rally over.

Return to the T after every shot

Hit, then move to the T — not to where you guess the ball is going. Watching your own shot is what makes rallies feel impossible: you sprint a diagonal instead of taking two steps.

Stay clear of the swing

Once you've hit, give your opponent a direct path to the ball and room to swing. Clearing is a rule, not a courtesy — and it carries you back toward the T, so the two habits feed each other.

Score-keeping quietly wrecks early matches: three rallies in, neither player remembers who served last. Squash Scoreboard is a squash scoreboard app for iPhone and Apple Watch that tracks match scores, so you can concentrate on the rally instead of the arithmetic.

Squash etiquette that keeps you welcome on court

• Call your own faults. If your ball came back off two bounces, say so.
• Ask for a let instead of swinging through someone. Nobody minds a replayed rally.
• Call the score before each serve, server's score first.
• Return the ball to your opponent gently, not at them.
• Never walk onto an occupied court. Wait for the rally to end, then knock.
• Wipe up your sweat, and finish on time. Someone has the next slot.

Your first month on court

Week one, book 30–40 minutes with a red ball and hit straight drives from mid-court; solo practice teaches contact point better than a match does. Weeks two and three, play scrappy games to 11 and spend a few minutes shadowing the six corners from the T. By week four, try a double yellow for a whole session and see if your length holds up, then join whatever beginner night or box league your club runs. Expect a sore forearm early on — nearly always a grip squeezed too tight.

FAQ

Is squash hard to learn for a complete beginner?

The rally is easy to start and hard to sustain. With a blue or red ball, two beginners can keep a point going within minutes. Getting comfortable with a double yellow, which dies quickly in the back, takes a few months of regular play.

What ball should a beginner use?

Blue for the first session or two, then red. Move to single yellow once you can consistently hit past the short line, and to double yellow when your length is reliable.

How long does a squash match take?

Best of five to 11 points usually runs 30–50 minutes at club level, though a one-sided match can finish in 15. Add the knock-up and book 45 minutes to an hour.

Do I need eye protection to play squash?

World Squash recommends it for all players and requires it at sanctioned junior and doubles events; clubs and national federations differ on adult singles. Buy polycarbonate squash goggles made to a recognized standard — ordinary glasses aren't protective eyewear.