Squash

I like playing squash. It is not merely a game that requires power and swift movements, it also takes a lot of mental and overall fitness to play well. You need to stay focused and do all but play safe and use patience to expose your opponent's mistakes, and exploit them to win a point. That requires intensive and split-second calculations and judgments.

Since you play within the boundary of 4 walls, you don't just see the ball but hear it as it hits the wall and zooms about. Of course, you also need to keep track of your opponent all the time so as to decide where to put the ball.

Playing squash is like doing duels: you will learn your opponent's strength and weakness through exchanging sharp attacks. Even you don't know your opponent before the game, you feel like old friends when you walk out of the court, because he/she shows so much respect to your skills and endurance by keep doing his/her best to retrieve great shots of yours, and delivering great shots in return.

Below is a rally between Amr Shabana (Egypt; a lefty and ranks world no. 1 since April 2006) and James Willstrop (Britain; current world ranking no. 4) in the Windy City Open 2007 in Chicago. The rally lasted one whole minute. Shabana won the point by seizing the chance when Willstrop made a bad return that allowed Shabana to have more than enough time to prepare for killing shot near the middle line. Willstrop had lost his balance to the right and Shabana only needed to make a sharp and short shot to the left of Willstrop to win the point, as he did. I saw them played separately in the US Open in Boston in 2006 in person.

In addition to their shots, pay attention to how they approach the ball. Good footwork is essential to play proper squash, next to the safety of the players.

Shabana vs Willstrop - A Deadly Delay Shot