The Game of Squash

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the different games of Squash (Chapter II) were studied and practised, together with the different kinds of Handicaps (Chapter XI). Though Squash has not as much variety as Tennis (Court-Tennis), it yet has considerably more than appears at first sight. Like the game of Draughts, it has points in it which do not occur to the casual eye. That Squash needs very little skill is quite a mistaken notion; in Chapters VII and VIII, we shall see that even the Foot-movements, which the game requires, are very complex in themselves, to say nothing of the use of the large body-muscles, without which so many strokes cannot have their due certainty and power. The mere fact that it is possible or usual to play Squash without skill or science is not proof that skill and science cannot enter into Squash. It is possible to play Golf or Billiards or any other skilful and scientific game without any skill or science whatsoever. We admit that Squash is generally a selfish game, each player playing for himself alone and not for his side. But this is just what pleases the average American, at any rate: he likes to be independent, and to be responsible for his own success or failure. Moreover, the larger-sized Squash-Courts admit of the Four-Game. Last of all, though Squash is seldom played in the open air, yet it easily might be, especially if a good sliding roof were used; and, even if the best ventilated and best lighted Court is inferior to the open air Court, still the former can be used in all weathers and seasons. And in America Squash has a further merit besides the above, with respect to time. Not only can it be played during frost or snow or rain (at Marlborough College we used to play it in the rain without a roof): in quite a short time enough exercise can be had to last for ...