Your first month of squash
Squash has a learning curve steeper than most racket sports. Here's what actually happens in your first four weeks — and what to focus on so you don't waste the time.
By The JustBeginning Editors · Published May 15, 2026
Squash is harder to start than pickleball or ping-pong. The swing is unusual, the ball is barely bouncy, the court is small and fast, and your opponent is in the way. Most beginners have a rough first session and a much better second one — which is the right pattern. The sport opens up fast once you have a few fundamentals, and by the end of your first month you should be able to rally, keep score, and lose gracefully.
Here’s what that month actually looks like.
Week 1: Making contact
The squash swing feels nothing like a tennis swing. In tennis you swing through a big arc with your whole arm. In squash, the swing is compact — a shorter backswing, wrist snap through contact, abbreviated follow-through. The reason is space: your opponent is behind you, the walls are close, and a full tennis swing will hit someone or something that isn’t the front wall.
The grip is a continental — same as tennis, like shaking hands with the racquet. Don’t change it, don’t think about it, just go.
The first thing most beginners notice: the ball doesn’t bounce. That’s because they’re using the tournament double-yellow dot ball, which is designed to be warmed up by long hard rallies. If you’re a new player, start with a red dot or single-yellow ball. More bounce, more usable, not cheating — it’s the right ball for where you are.
The most useful drill in week one: straight drive practice. Stand at the back corner, hit the front wall, let the ball bounce, hit it again. Try to keep it close to the side wall. Don’t worry about power — worry about consistency. Twenty consecutive straight drives, alternating forehand and backhand, teaches you more about the squash swing than an hour of reading.
Week 2: Court movement
Once you can hit the ball most of the time, the next skill gap becomes obvious: you have no idea where to stand.
Squash has a specific movement logic centered around what’s called the T — the intersection of the two lines on the court floor. After every shot, your job is to return to the T. It’s the position from which you can reach any corner of the court with the same number of steps. Players who don’t know this spend the whole game scrambling from wherever they ended up after the last shot. Players who know it always seem to have a little more time.
Moving to the T after each shot requires a specific footwork pattern that feels awkward at first: you hit the ball, you push off the foot nearest the ball, and you recover back to center. Lunge into the corner, recover to center. It’s a habit, not an instinct, and it takes a few weeks to feel natural.
The other movement concept that changes week two: court lengths. Squash is won by moving your opponent to one corner and then hitting to the opposite one. The easiest version of this for a beginner is the boast — a shot that hits the side wall first, then the front wall, dying in the opposite front corner. You can’t boast well yet, but you should understand why it exists: it forces your opponent off the T and creates the exact opening you want.
Week 3: Points and patterns
By week three you should be keeping score and playing actual games.
Squash scoring: most casual play uses PAR scoring — every rally wins a point, regardless of who served. Games to 11, win by 2. This is different from the old hand-out scoring you might see in older squash writing, where only the server could win a point. PAR is faster and friendlier. Use it.
The service: hit the ball off the front wall, landing in the service box on the opposite side. Ball must hit above the tin (the metal strip at the bottom of the front wall) and below the out line at the top. Underhand or overhand — both are legal. Find what’s consistent, not what feels dramatic.
In game play, notice that squash is fundamentally a game of length and width. Shots deep into the back corners are good; shots that die in the middle of the court are bad. A shot that lands in the back corner requires your opponent to play it from behind you, under pressure, with limited options. A shot that lands in the middle gives them everything. The two shots worth developing in week three:
- The straight drive: down the wall, dying in the back corner. The safest high-percentage shot in squash.
- The crosscourt drive: hit diagonally, landing in the opposite back corner. Opens width, makes your opponent move.
Everything else — drops, boasts, lobs — comes later. For now: drive straight, drive cross, return to the T.
Week 4: Fitness and fatigue
You will have noticed by now that squash is exhausting. A 30-minute match of squash burns more calories than almost any other racket sport — the combination of sustained intensity, constant direction changes, and full-court coverage adds up fast.
Week four is often when the fitness gap becomes the game gap. You’ll rally comfortably for the first two games and then make unforced errors in the third because your legs are tired. This is normal and it improves quickly — squash-specific fitness (fast lateral movements, explosive lunges, sustained moderate aerobic load) develops rapidly with regular play.
The two fitness markers that matter for a beginner:
- Can you rally for 30+ seconds without losing the thread? If not, work on consistency and aerobic base.
- Can you lunge fully to the corner without your form collapsing? If not, the court movement drills in week two are what you need, not more gym time.
Most squash beginners plateau on technique, not fitness. If you feel unfit, you probably just haven’t developed the specific movement patterns yet — the fitness comes when the movement becomes automatic.
Things every beginner fails at
Every beginner makes the same mistakes. You’re not a special case:
Hitting the tin. The tin is the metal strip at the bottom of the front wall — anything that hits it is out. Beginners hit it constantly because they’re trying to be precise with angle and drop. Hit the front wall higher than you think you need to. The errors that cost you games are errors into the tin, not errors that fly out at the top.
Swinging too big. The squash swing is a wrist snap, not a shoulder rotation. If you feel like you’re throwing a punch from the elbow, you’re close. If you feel like you’re hitting a tennis ball, the swing is too big.
Standing in the middle of the court after a shot. The T is not the middle of the court; it’s a specific spot. But the principle is the same — get back to center after every shot, every time. Players who don’t do this are readable and tired.
Not warming up the ball. If you skip the 5-minute warm-up rally at the start of a session, the ball will behave like a dead rock for the first few games. Warm the ball up before you start competitive play.
What changes at month two
A few investments pay off dramatically around weeks 5-8:
One lesson. A squash-specific coach can see the thing you can’t — usually your backswing (too big), your grip (usually too tight), or your recovery step (usually skipped). One 30-minute session at around hour 10-15 of play fixes the thing that’s holding you back. This is more useful than another two weeks of self-correcting.
A regular hitting partner. Two players at roughly the same level, playing 2-3 times a week, improve faster together than either would playing pickup with strangers. Find one person. Show up consistently.
Graduating to double-yellow dot. By month two, your rallies should be long enough to warm the ball. Try the double-yellow dot and see how it feels — if it’s dead and frustrating, go back to the beginner ball for another few weeks. If it feels just a little slow, you’re ready.
You’ll still lose most of your games at month two. You should also be noticeably better than you were at month one. That’s the right pace.
Need to gear up first? See our squash gear guide for exactly what to buy and what to skip.