Squash Etiquette
All of these 91 points depend 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 !
91 Things Not to do in The Game of Squash…
- Arrive late to your match
- Fail to arrive to your match without informing your opponent well in advance
- Leave the court without thanking your opponent
- Fail to shake hands before and after the match
- Say “lucky shot”
- Decline to offer lets or strokes when you obstruct play
- Challenge your opponents’ retrievals or “gets”
- Make excuses for losing or missing shots
- Pump your fist after a rally, game or match
- Cheer when a player hits a tin
- Shout in the court or within earshot of players in a court
- Wear street shoes on a squash court or wear squash shoes outside
- Intentionally hit your racket on the wall or floor
- Consistently arrive to your match without a squash ball or with an old ball
- Coach a player during or between points
- Question a referee’s calls during a game
- Try to converse with a referee while he or she is refereeing a game
- Neglect to call your own double bounces, out-of-court shots, and carries
- Intentionally add to your points or deduct from your opponent’s points when calling the score
- Expect a let or stroke without requesting a let
- Hit a bad shot, then ask for a let
- Delay excessively between points and between games
- Wipe your hands on the walls of the court
- Sign up for a league or ladder and fail to play a majority of your matches
- Slam the door to the squash court
- Negotiate calls and rulings with the referee and your opponent
- Hit more than 50% of the warm-up shots to your side of the court
- Coach players when you are the referee or a tournament official
- Throw your racket
- Play only with players who are better than you
- Neglect to offer to over-rule a referee when you know that the referee has erroneously ruled in your favor
- Wear dirty or stinky clothes on court
- Play with a contagious illness
- Grunt loudly for every difficult shot
- Give unsolicited advice
- Refuse to accommodate reasonable match re-schedule requests
- Push off of an opponent to reach a shot
- Asking for lets by calling lets when you’re out of range or unprepared
- Ask your opponent for a stroke
- Threaten to hit your opponent with the ball to prove a referee wrong
- Refuse to lend a racket to a player who needs one
- Hit your opponent with the ball to show her that she’s blocking
- Decline to vacate a court when a player who has reserved that court waits
- Employ an excessive swing, and neglect to attempt to reduce it
- Bring badly behaved children (or adults) to an important match
- Stop to discuss every point at its end
- Repeatedly solicit advice, but fail to follow it
- Curse loudly on court
- Habitually foot-fault
- Complain about tournament favors, shirts, food or prizes
- Criticize the squash committee without attempting to make a meaningful contribution to it
- 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
- Decline to seek a replacement referee when you reasonably know that the match or players you are to referee are beyond your referee capabilities
- Neglect to encourage a new player or a junior player
- Stomp your feet when your opponent is preparing to play a shot in front of you
- Wring the sweat out of your headbands or grips onto the floor
- Transfer your sweat onto the ball to change its movement
- Purport to arrive to your match on time, then excessively delay entering the court to prepare the racket, adjust clothing/eye wear, or stretch
- Play a hard match smelling strongly of smoke, alcohol, perfume or cologne
- Use a cell phone between games or interrupt play to answer a cell phone
- Decline challenging matches to avoid the risk of losing
- Record/videotape a game without your opponent’s knowledge or consent
- Treat club staff members disrespectfully
- Await your opponent or a spectator to fetch a ball that you hit out of court
- Fail to offer to replace or restring a racket that you borrowed and damaged
- Publicly criticize the technique of a player who consistently beats you
- Eat or drink on the court
- Double-book opponents for a match without obtaining approval from both
- Hit the ball hard in the court after a point concludes
- Insist on a disputed stroke or no-let without compromising with a let
- Persist in a fruitless debate about a let ruling, long after the point, game or match
- Fail to post ladder, league or tournament results in a timely fashion
- Leave towels, old grips, food wrappers or other refuse , in an appropriate place.
- Decline to wear safety glasses, yet complain when an opponent cleans or adjusts hers
- Argue playing without safety glasses in the presence of a minor
- Doubt your opponent’s integrity by asking: “Did you get that?”
- Shout “TURNING”
- Swing at a ball after you turn in the back court
- Promise “I’ll play better next time” every time you lose, then repeatedly fail to play better
- Spit in or around the court or in or around drinking fountains
- Face the rear to gesture to spectators during a match while your opponent is on court
- Persistently ask how a player fared against another named player
- Put your bags, rackets or towels on chairs or benches when seating is limited
- Place your bags, rackets or dark towels outside the court near the bottom of a glass back wall where they can obscure players’ sight of the ball
- Idly watch your guest clean your court’s floor or walls to make the court playable
- Bounce the ball excessively as a serving ritual
- Ask a professional to play without offering to pay
- Perpetually whine about your lack of improvement, but fail to take lessons and train harder
- Blame a loss on your age
- Sign up for a tournament division below your skill level.
- Coach or parent a juvenile (aka “junior”) without correcting them when they behave as enumerated above








