Squash Rules
Two players take turns hitting a ball against a front wall inside an enclosed court.
Singles, played on a single-width enclosed court; matches are best-of-5 games.
- •A game is first to 11 points, win by 2
- •A point is scored on every rally, regardless of who served (PAR, Point-A-Rally scoring)
- •Match won by whoever wins 3 of the 5 games
- •The ball must hit the front wall above the tin (a marked line) before bouncing twice
- •Players must give their opponent fair access to play the ball ("let" or "stroke" rulings apply otherwise)
- •Physically demanding: even a 3-5 game match can run long
Lets, strokes and self-officiating
Interference is constant in squash, which is why professional matches have a referee. Without one, a workable convention is that a let is replayed on request without argument, and a stroke is awarded only when both players agree the swing was genuinely prevented.
That deliberately biases towards replaying rallies, which is the right way to be wrong. A league where every close call becomes a negotiation loses players much faster than one that occasionally replays a point it need not have.
Ball choice and mixed ability
The double-yellow-dot ball is the competition standard and barely bounces until properly warm, which makes it a miserable introduction for a newer player who cannot yet keep a rally going long enough to heat it.
Red and blue dot balls bounce considerably more. Letting the lower-ranked player choose the ball is a small concession that keeps beginners in a league past January, and costs the stronger player very little.
Common questions
Is squash scored to 9 or 11?
Point-a-rally to 11, best of five, is the modern standard. The older English scoring to nine, where only the server could score, produced far less predictable match lengths, which matters when courts are booked in forty-five minute blocks.
How does a squash ladder work?
Players are ranked in order and may challenge someone a set number of places above them, swapping positions if the challenger wins. The rules that keep it alive are a challenge window, usually fourteen days, and a default that an unanswered challenge concedes the place.
Do you need eye protection?
It is mandatory for juniors and doubles in most governing body rules and strongly recommended for everyone. Squash balls travel fast in an enclosed space, and eye injuries are the sport's most serious avoidable risk.
How long does a squash match take?
A best-of-five to eleven typically runs thirty to forty minutes, which fits the forty-five minute blocks most clubs book courts in. That predictability is the main practical reason leagues moved away from the older scoring system.
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