Recently Joel #teamorange and myself #teamyellow could host our first event for friends and fans of the Squash World Tour. Via social media many sports enthusiasts applied, thanks to Eversports and Tennis Point Vienna we had the chance to invite over a dozen people to play squash!
We could attract a group of squash-rookies for our squash event at Tennis Point Vienna in Erdberg, where the club provided two squash courts for two hours. Splitting up the group was easy, as the majority of our followers wore their orange or yellow shirt! After explaining the rules, we grabbed our rackets and started with some easy exercises.
Best practice for beginners
Our favorite exercise for beginners: Start about 1,5 meters away from the front wall. Use your racket to play the ball against the front wall – gently! Move back step by step without stopping the ball until you reach the service box. If there are more players on one court, split up the court in the middle, let two players begin simultaneously and when the first player reaches the service box, another player starts at the front wall. For variation change sides after reaching the service box on one site.
About squash balls
The choice of the right squash ball is fundamental! A squash ball is made of two pieces of rubber compound, with a drop of liquid gas inside. Squash balls must be hit some dozens of times to warm them up. Cold balls have a low bounce. There are different types of balls, all marked with dots on each ball: blue, red, yellow, double yellow. The fastest ball is the blue ball (blue dot). It has the highest bounce and therefore is easiest to hit. The blue ball is best suited for beginners and juniors. We however recommend to start with the red ball! When your level of play improves, the blue ball can be hard to control. The red ball is a good choice if you want to use your ball for some time, while the blue ball is not as enjoyable after some hours already. When your level of play improves, change to yellow and later to yellow double dot balls. Just that you know: Yellow double dot balls have the lowest bounce and require a higher skill set.
We tested yellow double dot balls of 5 different brands – find out which one we liked best!
Fans vs. Squash World Tour
After a bit of practice, we were ready to roll! Our fans formed teams of two to face us on court: Their goal was to score combined 11 points against us in two games. Player 1 of each team played game 1 against #teamorange, player 2 played game 2 against #teamyellow. Player 2 started the game 2 with all the points, player 1 had made earlier in game 1. For example: Player 1 scored 3 points against #teamorange in game 1; player 2 started game 2 with a 3-0 lead against #teamyellow. 12 teams gave it all, but our routine paid off: None of the 12 teams could win the challenge… But that wasn’t what the evening was about! It was our goal to spread the enthusiasm for our sport and to motivate people to play squash! And that’s what we accomplished!
Thanks to our friends from Eversports, who made this public event possible, we also had the chance to play against one of the best squash players in Austria: Lukas Windischberger!