The Spirit of the Game

Admitting your errors is the first step

By Rod Symington, W.S.F. Rules and Referees Committee

Illustration By Tony Cristovich

Rod Symington is on the WSF Rules and Referees Committee and is a consultant on Rules and Refereeing to the USA. He has also been the Tournament Referee for, among others, the Women's Worlds, Pan Am Games, and Junior Men's and Women's Worlds. To contact Rod with questions or to enquire about clinics and his Squash Rules for Players, email him at symingto@uvic.ca

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My e-mail correspondence leads me to the inescapable conclusion that all the columns I write about the Rules and all the clinics on refereeing I give have almost no effect whatsoever. Why? Because I keep on receiving the same old questions over and over again!

Squash is basically a very simple game that only needs one rule: hit the ball and get out of the way. However, the problem seems to be that most players can only handle one of those elements: they can hit the ball all right, but they have trouble understanding the fundamental concept of getting out of the way.

As a general rule, American players (North, Central and South) are far less scrupulous about the obligation to clear than are players in the rest of the world. In the US, especially, the average player is far too content to hit his shot and admire it, instead of making every effort to give his opponent the four freedoms required under the Rules: fair view of the ball (as it returns from the front wall), direct access to it, the freedom to make a normal backswing and follow-through, and the entire front wall to hit to.

The problems result, of course, from the fact that we are imperfect human beings: that is, we hit too many lousy shots! A tight, hard rail shot creates no problems because the opponent has a direct line into the corner, and by the time he gets there, we are firmly planted back on the T out of the line of his shot. Similarly, cross-courts rarely cause problems (and that is why so many of the pros hit a lot of cross-courts), because we are hitting away from ourselves and won't be in the way when the opponent chases after the ball.

But it is the loose shots that give rise to a failure to clear.

When there is no referee, squash demands a high standard of conduct from the fair player: you have to be willing to admit that you hit a bad shot, that you were in the way, and that you have lost the rally. If you do not lean over backwards to be fair and to admit your errors and to award the rally to your opponent, you are not playing squash in the spirit in which the game was always intended to be played.

This obligation is now clearly spelled out in the Rules. Rule 15.1 states: “The players must observe all the Rules and the spirit of the game. Failure to do so could bring the game into disrepute… ” All of us know in our heart of hearts what the general idea is: an opponent who is constantly in the way of your swing, who doesn't give you the entire front wall to hit to, and who never offers you a stroke when you call “Let”—that is clearly someone who is not observing the “spirit of the game.”

In Italy, when you buy pizza on the street, you are handed a flat piece of bread dough smeared with tomato sauce. In the New World, pizza comes with all kinds of magnificent toppings. But where squash is concerned, there is only the one plain and simple recipe all over the world: fair play—which means making your best efforts to get out of the way, and admitting you were in the wrong if you don't.

In squash, as in life, we have to live with our mistakes, and a part of becoming mature is to admit our failings and accept the consequences. After all, it's only a game—isn't it?