Rod Symington, W.S.F. Rules and Referees Committee
| |
|  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
Get the WSF's Rules of Squash! |
The Management Committee of the W.S.F. (ManCom) has announced that the Rules of Squash will no longer be revised every four years, as has been the case up until now.
On the one hand, revising the Rules every four years might seem a reasonable idea--things that are clearly wrong can be put right, gaps in the Rules can be filled in, etc. But on the other hand, the cost of reprinting Rule books had become a serious burden for many national associations (whose refereeing budgets were miniscule to begin with!).
In addition, the four-year cycle was never really enough time to test out new Rules and make corrections where it was felt they were needed. In fact, the revisions to the Rules were usually compressed into a period of about 18 months--a very short period of time for an international organization (with over 100 member nations) to get everything discussed and approved.
So from now on a new version of the Rules will only be issued when there are sufficient major changes to warrant it.
Another--and very welcome--idea proposed by ManCom is that the Rules of Squash should be simplified and made available in much simpler English (and French and Spanish and German)--a move that all players (and most referees) will applaud.
The present Rules have grown up over the years into a many-headed mammoth that most players chose to avoid for fear of being swallowed up by the monster of incomprehension and confusion. Furthermore, they were clearly written for referees, not for players, and for competitive matches, not for the friendly games that make up 99% of squash encounters on any given day. Rule 2.2 sets the tone for the rest of the Rule book: "A match shall consist of the best of three or five games at the option of the organizers of the competition." Tell that to Joe and Harry playing their regular Wednesday game in Duluth!
In addition, the Rules contain far too many provisions for episodes that either never--or very rarely--occur: for 25 years, for example, I have been teaching that if a ball goes out of court after it has bounced on the floor, it is a let. (Just think about the scenario for a few seconds, and you will see how ridiculous it is.) Again: the Rules now give the stroke to the striker if, after the striker has turned, the opponent moves deliberately into the striker's way. Where are these matches taking place? In a madhouse? We could all dream up possible scenarios on the squash court, but does that mean we should make a Rule for every crazy idea that we have?
So what do you need to remember for the foreseeable future? Three things:
1. If you prevent your opponent from taking a normal swing at the ball (backswing and followthrough), you lose the rally.
2. If, however, your opponent can make a normal swing and brushes you with the racquet (at any point in the swing), it is a let. (The swing is affected, but not prevented.)
3. If you turn on the ball and hit it, and the ball hits your opponent, you lose the rally. (This is to discourage the very dangerous practice of hitting the ball after turning.)
Otherwise, just follow the Rules as you always have done! |
| |
|
