Not just a sport

Squash is a phenomenal workout but does not feel like one because the game is so absorbing

As a child, I remember the echoing sound of squash balls being hit fiercely around white walled courts. My father was a keen player. I have vivid memories of him taking me to the RAC club in Mayfair, London, to watch him.

As a young girl I loved the trip because I could swim in the pool but always found his game slightly terrifying. It seemed to me the very bastion of maleness.

My father’s squash career ended abruptly when he painfully snapped the tendon in his heel and had to be operated on. So these were my rudimentary impressions of squash when Lee Prentice, squash pro at the Jumeriah Beach Club, agreed to give me some tuition.

One evening he gave me a quick explanation of the rules and within moments we were on the court, racquets in hand. My first task was to hit the ball back to the top right hand corner of the court.

As I play regular tennis, it did take a while to get used to the bounce of the squash ball and how far and fast it travels. I realised I could hit it with much more force than a tennis ball.

Lee was placing the ball very close to the right hand wall and so, I kept running back and forth, on my toes all the time. It seemed every time I hit the ball to Lee, it came back at me within milliseconds. I kept hitting and kept moving and was soon completely out of breath.

Lee then upped the stakes. He said we were going to play a game where I had to hit the ball so it landed in the back right section of the court. If I lost five points before I won 10, I would have to do sprints. I didn’t imagine he would actually make me do them.

I managed to get seven points up and three against me. But after just two miss hits, I was five down. Lee ordered me to put my racquet down and sprint 10 times to the back of the court and back. Help I thought, he’s being serious.

As I ran back and forth, I felt as if I was back in a torturous school PE class. I was gasping to get more air into my lungs. My face was bright red and Lee was looking at me with a smirk on his face.

I called him all sorts of names before we started again. This time we worked on the backhand and again there was a game to play. I protested but he said it would be a good incentive.
So we played and I ran around like crazy, trying to get the balls Lee was placing all over the court.

The process was completely absorbing and I did manage to get a couple of the trickier shots back. Then the highlight of the lesson came, I tried to place the ball so Lee couldn’t get at it and finally it worked. Hurray! A point for me.

It was a short-lived victory as I failed to get enough points to actually win. It was back to sprints. This time the task was more intensive and Lee was shouting at me to sprint harder. I was a pathetic sight with limbs flailing, staggered around the court trying to keep up the speed.

In a weird masochistic way, Lee made the lesson more fun. The prospect of doing sprints worked as a wonderful way of sharpening the mind. It made me try harder not to loose and made it more of a laugh.

I wasn’t very good but what I liked about squash is that you can be a total newcomer, pick up a rakuet and have a decent game.

Lee gave me a good grasp of the game and I really want to play again. It is a phenomenal workout but you don’t notice it as much as you would running on a treadmill because the game is so absorbing. It took my lungs a good 10 minutes to recover from all the running around and sprinting. They haven’t worked so hard in years.

Afterwards I felt a slight tweak in my hamstring and was worried that I had done serious damage like my father. Lee took me through a series of intense leg stretches, which sorted me out, and by the end of it I was feeling fresh as a daisy.

As Lee and I parted company I told him as much. He looked back and said wait a couple of days before writing your article because your legs will feel it. So Lee, I did wait and yes, my legs have never been so stiff.

I have spent the last 24 hours hobbling about in pain. Despite all this I am not put off. I liked the fact that I was doing myself some good. Squash is a great way of keeping fit and it’s a very addictive sport. Sprints? Bring them on.