Yesterday, four of us went out to play Squash.
I must say I enjoyed it a lot, as have the others, and we'll probably start doing it every week.
No photos online for the moment, as I still haven't decided what to do in that regard.
I was a bit afraid concerning my wrists, but they didn't suffer. You don't move your fingers separately from each other, as you do on a keyboard, and I think that makes all the difference.
Squash++.
squash your wrists
jmm on 2005-12-15T14:43:17
The one thing that can cause wrist problems when playing squash is having too much experience playing badminton. The weight of a badminton racquet is about a quarter that of a squash racquet; and the badminton bird weighs a miniscule fraction of a squash ball. So, you can use your wrists to do a lot of the delicate control action when swinging a badminton racquet, and even provide all of the motive force for many shots; in squash, you have to use your arm rather than the wrist to provide most of the motive power and if you are flexing your wrist at the moment of impact you get a lot more of the force pushing back on your wrist because of the leverage and weight of the squash apparatus. (The weight of the racquet actually helps balance the leverage of the ball, as long as you have the racquet moving fast enough before the impact its momentum will be great enough that it reduces the transfer of force from the ball to your wrist. It's just when you are trying to accelerate them both at once that you get problems.) Tennis, of course, is at the other extreme of the weight-leverage continuum from badminton, and for tennis you use your arm for essentially all of the motion - so if your previous experience is mostly tennis, then you'll have to learn to use your wrist more to play squash well, to get the last moment changes in speed and direction that can teach your opponent not to react to your shot before you make it.
Do you move your wrists at all?
davebaker on 2005-12-16T02:23:42
I'm not sure you have to move your wrists at all in squash, if you've got the right swing.
You don't have to focus on "kill" shots as much as you do in racquetball, so you're not doing as much fancy wrist work. It's aiming and strategy. Makes the game good for us old guys (40s), because we can make up some of the lost agility by cunning
I love the sport. It's hard to find squash courts in western North Carolina, though .
Re:Do you move your wrists at all?
jmm on 2005-12-19T17:39:53
Generally, using your arm is fine, but being able to occassionally use your wrist can add to your deception abilities. With wrist action you can change the direction or speed of the hit very significantly just before you actually connect with the ball. If the other player has already committed to moving to deal with the shot implied by the arm swing, this can catch them totally off guard.
