Squash!

On Monday, Cory and I decided to try playing squash. So out I went, and got myself a new used squash racket, goggles, and balls. I was very enthusiastic, as many of my friends and family enjoy playing squash quite a bit. Yesterday was the big day! In preparation, I tried to find a good YouTube video, without much luck. Then, I looked at a few websites, but all I seemed to find was professional level squash instructions, nothing for a first timer. I did manage to find out that I bought the wrong kind of squash balls: at the store, it seemed smart to buy the balls labeled with a yellow dot, which means "slow". I mean, we are beginners right? Why would we want to buy a "fast" or blue dot, ball? Well, I learned after the purchase that in fact fast balls are good: they bounce more and therefore we don't have to run as much, aim as well, or hit as hard! Still, we wanted to play, so we decided to try with the "competition-grade" ball...

No luck. Things that didn't help: not knowing any rules, Cory's height, our irrational fear of getting injured, and sweaty eyes from the goggles. We then had the brilliance of going to rent a Racquetball ball, a huge bouncy blue thing, and success! Well, if you consider success as fun. We still didn't manage to follow the one rule we did know: not letting the ball bounce more than once on the floor.

Here is the general picture of what happened:

(1) One of us would serve,

(2) if the hit was good, i.e. the ball is now coming back towards us quite quickly, we would both run away from the ball, scared to be maimed by it,

(3) The one who didn't serve would start running after the ball, once it has slowed down, and try to hit the ball towards whatever wall is most convenient,

(4) repeat steps (2) & (3) until the ball ends up in a corner, or is rolling on the ground, or almost hits one of us (which resulted in a lot of screaming and apologizing)

Still, it was loads of fun, loads of exercise (proof: our legs and butts are killing today), and we will try again next week!