Squash Ball is cute and it hurts! Experience of a TT player

Published on 01 February 2022 4 minutes 4 minutes

Table Tennis is my main sport and I enjoy playing it a lot, recently a friend of mine told me to try Squash. He told me that it is physically demanding sport and I thought let’s try squash, it’s is would be a completely new experience for me. I decided to buy a racket and double dot squash ball. I heard that professional play with double dot and I also liked the double dot, they are sort of cute so I bought that ball. I called a friend(regular squash enthusiast) who lives nearby and we went to play at a local squash court.

My Experience playing squash for first time

First time I was able to play decent, maybe because I play table tennis but my stance and technique were completely different. My reflexes were good because I am regular table tennis player and table tennis ball speed is fast but speed is less compared to squash ball. Hitting a squash ball is completely different experience.

I enjoyed the game and decided to play it the next weekend as well. Overall, squash is a different sport completely and I felt that as a table tennis player the thought process is also different. I also felt that spinning the ball is not that main part of squash and the ball dies to the ground very quickly. This is probably because we were playing with double dot ball.

This weekend I went to play squash again , this was the second time went to play and since every game is interesting at the start. Some sports really stick to you but it is still very early for me to say that this is for me.

What I felt different from table tennis

Everything, this sport is completely different from table tennis and the only thing I found similar was the ball size of squash and table tennis are almost similar but apart from that the games are completely different. As a table tennis player, my swing is incorrect for squash. The ball bounce is also different since after a bounce table tennis ball is usually above the waist and it depends on you when you wish to attack it. For squash, after a bounce the squash ball is mostly below the waist height. The squash court is also a different feeling as you are hitting the ball with you opponent nearby on same side. I also felt that fitness level required for squash is a lot compared to table tennis .You need a lot of stamina to play for longer duration.

Ball is cute but it hurts! A completely new experience

Usually when we play table tennis, sometimes a player can make a mistake and the table tennis ball can hit you but it’s almost nothing. You don’t even get a scratch and the opponents usually just says sorry(or laughs!) after hitting the ball. But overall, you don’t get hurt.

The second time I went to play squash with this smiley faced ball, I was enjoying the sport and obviously I already decided to continue it next weekend as well! But something happened, by mistake my opponent hit a shot from behind and it hit me at chest. BAM!! This hurts, I never expected a small cute ball can hurt so much. It even made a mark and sort of like my chest has got a circular rainbow! Well this is something that I didn’t expected and it’s a completely new experience for me as a table tennis ball doesn’t hurt at all.

My thoughts about future squash plans

I think the next time I am going to play squash, I am going to have a proper eyegear and a bullet proof jacket(at least for me this will be a lifesaver). As a squash newbie, I suggest fellow squash players to see where they are hitting the ball, their racket position and also use protective gears when playing the game. No game is fun if you ever get injured. I have learned a lesson and maybe this should be my new suit 🙃

Gear for Squash play