The Guide to Squash Etiquette

Since the topic of recent at WSF has been about conduct or etiquette on the squash court. Please read the 101 don'ts of squash below. I have been a victim of or seen someone else be the victim of the following etiquette violations. Be honest with yourself and review them. You will understand that "we all need to improve our etiquette".

I’ve been guilty of several of these myself. All of these 101 hinge on self-respect, respecting your opponent, honesty, and safety. In many cases, the etiquette violations you see on the squash court reflect the perpetrator’s character at home or at work, too. So, Be Good!

101 Things Not to do in The Game of Squash…
1) Arrive late to your match
2) Fail to arrive to your match without informing your opponent well in advance
3) Leave the court without thanking your opponent
4) Fail to shake hands before and after the match
5) Say “lucky shot”
6) Decline to offer lets or strokes when you obstruct play
7) Challenge your opponents’ retrievals or “gets”
8) Make excuses for losing or missing shots
9) Complain about your host’s squash courts, lights, locker room, court dimensions, cracks, walls, temperature, floors, ceiling, humidity, or etc.
10) Pump your fist after a rally, game or match
11) Cheer when a player hits a tin
12) Shout in the court or within earshot of players in a court
13) Wear street shoes on a squash court or wear squash shoes outside
14) Intentionally hit your racquet on the wall or floor
15) Consistently arrive to your match without a squash ball or with an old ball
16) Coach a player during or between points
17) Question a referee’s calls during a game
18) Try to converse with a referee while he or she is refereeing a game
19) Neglect to call your own double bounces, out-of-court shots, and carries
20) Intentionally add to your points or deduct from your opponent’s points when calling the score
21) Expect a let or stroke without requesting a let
22) Hit a bad shot, then ask for a let
23) Stall excessively between points and between games
24) Wipe your hands on the walls of the court
25) Sign up for a league or ladder and fail to play a majority of your matches 26) Slam the door to the squash court
27) Negotiate calls and rulings with the referee and your opponent
28) Hit more than 50% of the warm-up shots to your side of the court
29) Repeatedly fail to clear
30) Fail to clear without offering a stroke to your opponent
31) Coach players when you are the referee or a tournament official
32) Throw your racquet
33) Play only with players who are better than you
34) Neglect to offer to over-rule a referee when you know that the referee has erroneously ruled in your favor
35) Wear dirty or stinky clothes on court
36) Play with a contagious illness
37) Grunt loudly for every difficult shot
38) Give unsolicited advice
39) Refuse to accommodate reasonable match re-schedule requests
40) Push off of an opponent to reach a shot
41) Fish for lets by calling lets when you’re out of range or unprepared
42) Ask your opponent for a stroke
43) Threaten to hit your opponent with the ball to prove a referee wrong
44) Refuse to lend a racquet to a player who needs one
45) Hit your opponent with the ball to show her that she’s blocking
46) Decline to vacate a court when a player who has reserved that court waits
47) Employ an excessive swing, and neglect to attempt to reduce it
48) Bring badly behaved children (or adults) to an important match
49) Stop to discuss every point at its end
50) Repeatedly solicit advice, but fail to follow it
51) Brag
52) Curse loudly on court
53) Habitually foot-fault
54) Complain about tournament favors, shirts, food or prizes
55) Criticize a squash association without attempting to make a meaningful contribution to it
56) Fail to referee the tournament match which follows a match you won, unless you find an acceptable substitute referee or have been dismissed by the director
57) Decline to seek a replacement referee when you reasonably know that the match or players you are to referee are beyond your referee capabilities
58) Neglect to encourage a new player or a junior player
59) Stomp your feet when your opponent is preparing to play a shot in front of you
60) Wring the sweat out of your headbands or grips onto the floor
61) Transfer your sweat onto the ball to change its movement
62) Purport to arrive to your match on time, then excessively delay entering the court to prepare the racquet, adjust clothing/eyewear, or stretch
63) Play a hard match smelling strongly of smoke, alcohol, perfume or cologne
64) Use a cell phone between games or interrupt play to answer a cell phone
65) Decline challenging matches to avoid the risk of losing
66) Record/videotape a game without your opponent’s knowledge or consent
67) Treat club staff members disrespectfully
68) Leave lights on or turn lights off if either violates club practice
69) Await your opponent or a spectator to fetch a ball that you hit out of court
70) Fail to offer to replace or restring a racquet that you borrowed and damaged
71) Publicly criticize the technique of a player who consistently beats you
72) Eat or drink on the court
73) Double-book opponents for a match without obtaining approval from both
74) Hit the ball hard in the court after a point concludes
75) Fake a swing during a rally
76) Beg to play “just one more game” with a player who is obviously done
77) Insist on a disputed stroke or no-let without compromising with a let
78) Persist in a fruitless debate about a let ruling, long after the point, game or match
79) Fail to post ladder, league or tournament results in a timely fashion
80) Leave towels, old grips, food wrappers or other refuse outside the court
81) Decline to wear safety glasses, yet complain when an opponent cleans or adjusts hers
82) Argue playing without safety glasses in the presence of a minor
83) Doubt your opponent’s integrity by asking: “Did you get that?”
84) Shout “TURNING”
85) Swing at a ball after you turn in the back court
86) Promise “I’ll play better next time” every time you lose, then repeatedly fail to play better 87) Use your station as a squash official to displace spectators to improve your own viewing position at a match
88) Intentionally arrange match locations to impose guest fees on your opponent
89) Spit in or around the court or in or around drinking fountains
90) Face the rear to gesture to spectators during a match while your opponent is on court
91) Persistently ask how a player fared against another named player
92) Put your bags, racquets or towels on chairs or benches when seating is limited
93) Place your bags, racquets or dark towels outside the court near the bottom of a glass back wall where they can obscure players’ sight of the ball
94) Idly watch your guest clean your court’s floor or walls to make the court playable
95) Handle food or drink when watching from a viewing area directly above the court
96) Bounce the ball excessively as a serving ritual
97) Ask a professional to play without offering to pay
98) Perpetually whine about your lack of improvement, but fail to take lessons and train harder 99) Blame a loss on your age
100) Sign up for a tournament division below your skill level (aka “sandbag”)
101) Coach or parent a juvenile (aka “junior”) without correcting them when they behave as enumerated above

By Sean Sunderland
Originally Posted at Seattle Squash