Squash Magazine

The Squash Ethics Test, or:
What should we do about Harry?
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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He has been playing squash for 25 years, and he has never attended a Rules Clinic–but he’s convinced he knows the Rules. He hits loose shots and just stands there; he never offers you a stroke, but, boy, does he know the Rules! When the ball comes out wide from the back wall, he turns on it, shouts “Turning!” and smashes it six inches from your head. When you have hit a poor shot and are in the way of his next shot to the front wall, he hits the ball as hard as he can into your upper thigh. His name is Harry. On the squash court he behaves like a beast of prey for whom there are no rules except his own. He is a menace to squash and it is high time he was turned into an endangered species.

Every club on earth has its Harrys. Whenever I have given a Rules Clinic in the past ten years, at some point someone present has inevitably said: “It’s a pity Harry isn’t here.” Hardly a week goes by without my receiving a question from Harry of the type: “What’s this I hear about a new rule on....?” The “new” rule has been in effect for a decade or more. Just log on to the USSRA or the International Squash Federation website and read some of the comments about refereeing—a large percentage of them are written by Harry and they are opinionated, uninformed, and wrong.

There are only 20 Rules in Squash (printed on fewer than 20 pages). Why do so many players not take the trouble to read them? But the biggest problem in squash is not just lack of knowledge about the Rules, it is the refusal to acknowledge that squash demands the highest ethical behavior. If you hit a poor shot and impede your opponent’s next shot (either by being in the way of the swing or by being in the line of a direct shot to the front wall), fair play demands that you offer your opponent the stroke. Not to do so means that you are behaving like Harry. You deserve to be stood against the front wall and peppered with shots (using the old hard ball...).

After years of ignoring the proper application of the rules, four of Harry’s regular opponents formed the Rules Violators Firing Squad.

One of the major problems continues to be communication. How do we get the message across to those players who do not want to learn? I suppose one solution would be to spend the next twenty issues of this magazine dealing with the Rules one at a time. But would that really change Harry’s behavior on the squash court? No. The answer is for all players who are committed to the game to become missionaries and to foster knowledge of the rules and fair play.

Ninety-five percent of the squash played is recreational, not competitive. Squash players are devoted to the game and love playing it. This devotion to the sport must include one’s own knowledge of the Rules and the proper application of them: if I love the sport so much, what am I doing to ensure that my knowledge of the rules is comprehensive? Not only should we be asking ourselves the question: “Do I know the Rules?” but we should also be asking ourselves: Do I know someone who doesn’t know the Rules and who urgently needs to become familiar with them? Give him, or her, a copy of the Rules (or better still my book) this summer.

There is of course more to refereeing than deciding lets and strokes, but for the ethical health of the game this is the most important aspect: if players do not know when they have placed themselves in jeopardy because of a bad shot, or if they do know they are in the wrong and don’t offer the opponent the stroke, the game suffers.

Administer the following little test to yourself and to all the Harrys you know.

The Squash Ethics Test: Answer YES or NO.

After I have hit the ball I make every effort to get out my opponent’s way.

If I impede my opponent’s swing at the ball, I always offer him/her the stroke.

If I think I am in the way of my opponent’s direct shot to the front wall, I always offer him/her the stroke.

If I have to turn on the ball, I never hit it; I always stop and ask for a LET.

If my opponent offers me the stroke, I only accept it if I firmly believe he/she impeded my swing or my direct shot to the front wall.

Count five points for a YES and zero points for a NO. If you have fewer than 25 points, you fail the test.

There are probably fewer than 1,000 players in the U.S. who have attended a Rules Clinic. There is a crying need for more clinics and more certified referees. Complaints about refereeing will never be resolved by simply complaining. What is needed is more knowledge, and that means more training. It takes approximately fifteen years to develop a mature refereeing program, but one thing we do know based on the experience of those countries that have done it is this—it works. A national certification program raises the level of knowledge about the Rules and eventually leads to superior refereeing. The USSRA Certification Program needs the support of everyone who is involved in squash. It is in every player’s best interest to vigorously promote any program that increases knowledge about the Rules and leads to better and more consistent decisions in matches.

The Rules of Squash are reviewed every four years. The present version of the Rules came into effect on 1 May 1997, and they will be valid until 30 April 2001. You’ve got three years to get the message across to Harry and to eradicate his ilk. Good luck.

P.S. My apologies to all the real Harrys who play squash. My remarks are not aimed at you. I would have used the name Rod, but it didn’t sound as good.