Squash rules: the calls that actually decide points

Squash rules come down to a handful of calls. Serve from the box into the opposite back quarter, then alternate shots that reach the front wall above the tin and below the out line before the ball bounces twice. Everything else is interference — let, stroke, or no let.

The court markings every rule refers to

A singles court is 9.75 m long and 6.4 m wide (32 by 21 feet). Four markings do all the work:

• The tin — the sounding board across the bottom of the front wall, 0.48 m (19 in) in club play. Hit it and you're down.
• The out line — 4.57 m (15 ft) up the front wall, sloping down the side walls to 2.13 m (7 ft) across the back.
• The service line — 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) up the front wall. It matters only on the serve.
• The short line — 5.49 m from the front wall, with a 1.6 m service box in each back quarter.

One principle covers all of them: the line is out. Touch the out line and the ball is out; shave the top of the tin and it's down. If you remember a single thing about squash court rules, remember that no line is ever in — the opposite of tennis.

PSA events lower the tin to 0.43 m (17 in), which is why pro rallies end on shots that would be good in your club match.

Serving: the rules that decide the first shot

There is one serve in squash. No second serve — a fault ends the rally and the receiver takes the point. A good serve needs four things at once:

1. One foot in the box. At the moment you strike, one foot must be on the floor inside the box, with no part of it touching a line. There's no separate foot-fault call any more; it's a fault, and the rally is over.
2. Struck out of the air. Drop or throw the ball and hit it before it touches a wall, the floor, or you. A missed swing is fine while the ball still hasn't touched anything, and a drop with no attempt at all isn't a serve — just start again.
3. Front wall, in the band. It reaches the front wall first, above the service line and below the out line, and must not hit the front and side wall together.
4. Into the opposite quarter. It bounces first in the back quarter diagonally opposite your box, without touching a line — unless the receiver volleys it, which they may do the moment it leaves the front wall.

The winner of a rally serves the next one. Starting a game, or taking the serve over, you pick your box, then alternate boxes for as long as you hold serve. After a let, the same server serves again from the same box.

Two things worth unlearning. A bad serve is never replayed — there's no tennis-style let cord. And old rulebooks made a fault good once the receiver swung at it; the current WSF rules dropped that, so a fault stays a fault, and whoever loses the rally can still appeal a missed call.

Keeping the ball alive: down, out, and not up

After the serve, players alternate strikes. A return may come off any number of side or back walls, but it has to reach the front wall above the tin and below the out line, and you have to hit it before it bounces twice. Three calls end rallies:

• Down — the ball hits the tin, or the front wall and then the tin, or the floor before reaching the front wall.
• Out — the ball touches the out line or the wall above it, the ceiling, a light fitting, the top edge of any wall, or leaves the court.
• Not up — it bounced twice before you struck it, you hit it twice or carried it on the strings, or your own shot hit you or your clothing.

All three hand the point to your opponent. If your shot hits your opponent before reaching the front wall, though, that isn't automatically anyone's point — it's an interference call.

Interference: let, stroke, or no let

The basic rules of squash take five minutes to learn; interference takes a season, and it's what the first competitive match turns on. After your shot, as the ball comes off the front wall, you owe your opponent four things:

• a fair view of the ball
• access to it
• room for a reasonable swing
• freedom to hit it to any part of the front wall

Fail on any of those and there's interference, which resolves one of three ways.

Call	When it applies	Result
No let	Interference was minimal, or the striker couldn't have made a good return, or never made a real effort to reach the ball	Point to the opponent
Let	Genuine interference, the striker could have made a good return, and the opponent was making every effort to clear	Rally replayed, same server, same box
Stroke	The opponent wasn't making every effort to clear, or the striker's swing was prevented, or the striker would have made a winning return	Point to the striker

The call people reverse most often is the ball that hits an opponent. It's a stroke to you only if that ball was traveling directly to the front wall, on a first attempt, with no turning. Bound for a side wall first, it's a let unless the shot would have been a winner — and if it was heading for the tin, the rally goes to your opponent wherever it hits them.

Appealing from a standstill is the other classic. Stop, never move toward the ball, and ask, and you get no let: the rule wants every effort to play the ball.

Turning is a safety rule. You may follow a ball that wraps behind you off a side or back wall and play it, but turn and hit your opponent with it and the stroke goes to them.

Which squash rules only govern etiquette

Plenty of conventions get argued with the intensity of rules while never touching the score:

• Calling your own down. Courtesy in an unrefereed match, and the reason club squash works. With a marker on the chair it's their call.
• Clearing to the T. Clearing is a rule — every effort, after a reasonable follow-through. Going to the T specifically is tactics.
• The warm-up. The four-minute limit and the side change at two minutes are rules; who gets more of the ball is manners, though hogging it counts as unfair warm-up.
• Eye protection. The WSF recommends it for every player and requires it in the junior and doubles events it sanctions. Clubs and national bodies set stricter policies of their own.

The test is clean: if a call changes the score or replays the rally, it's a rule. Otherwise it's etiquette.

Settling disputed calls without a referee

Club matches have no marker, so the players run them. The convention that holds up: the striker calls their own down and not up, interference gets settled between the two of you, and when you honestly disagree, you play a let.

The score is the other casualty. After a long sequence of lets and a disputed stroke, two players will state different scores with equal confidence and neither can reconstruct it. Keeping the count outside your head ends that — Squash Scoreboard is a squash scoreboard app for iPhone and Apple Watch that tracks match scores, so the running total survives whatever the last five minutes did to everyone's memory.

PAR-11 scoring and match format

Current scoring is point-a-rally to 11, written PAR-11. Every rally awards a point to whoever wins it, server or not. First to 11 takes the game, except at 10-10, where play continues until someone leads by two — 12-10, 14-12, and on. There's no cap.

A match is normally best of five games, but may be best of three; box leagues and hour-long bookings usually use three, so agree which before you start. You get two minutes between games, and one minute between the end of the warm-up and the first serve.

Older English scoring still turns up socially: games to 9, only the server scores, and at 8-8 the receiver chooses to play to 9 or 10. Win a rally as receiver and you gain the serve, not a point, so games run longer. Settle the format before the first serve, not at 7-7.

FAQ

What are the rules of squash in simple terms?

Serve from a box so the ball hits the front wall between the service line and the out line, then bounces in the opposite back quarter. After that, players alternate shots, and each return must reach the front wall above the tin and below the out line before the ball bounces twice. Win the rally, win the point.

Can the ball hit the side wall in squash?

Yes. During a rally the ball may touch any number of side and back walls before or after the front wall, provided it reaches the front wall before bouncing. The serve is the exception: front wall first, and never the front and side wall together.

What's the difference between a let and a stroke?

A let replays the rally; a stroke gives the point to the player who was interfered with. Quick test: if your opponent was making every effort to clear and couldn't, it's a let. If they weren't trying, or blocked a ball going straight to the front wall, it's a stroke.

Is the line in or out in squash?

Out. Every line plays as out — the out line around the walls, the service line and the quarter-court lines on a serve, the top of the tin. A ball touching any of them is dead, the opposite of tennis.

How many serves do you get in squash?

One, and a fault loses the rally immediately. That's why sensible club players hit a high, safe serve to the back corner rather than going for a nick.