How Many People Play Squash ?

Depending on who you ask, you will receive a very different answer to the question, “How many people play squash?” 

Finding accurate information regarding squash participation is no easy task. However, it is possible to get a general idea based on information provided by some of the larger nations. We’ll allow you to draw your own conclusions about the numbers above and below.

 

Using World Squash Federation’s numbers, 20,000,000 players world-wide and 50,000 courts would require an average of 400 players per court across the globe. 

England

England is regarded as a, if not the, leading squash nation. They have approximately 8,500 courts and 500,000 players[i]. With 500,000 players and 8,500 courts, they have approximately 59 players per court.

Assuming World Squash’s figures, England has roughly 17% of the world’s courts (8,500÷50,000) but only  2.5% of the world’s players (500,000÷20,000,000).

United States

There are approximately 3,700 squash courts in the U.S. The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association estimates approximately 1,100,000 players in the U.S., which suggests 297 players per court.

France

France is hosting the Women’s World Team Championships this year. From their website,[ii] they say France has 250,000 people playing squash on 1,300 courts. This would result in 192 players per court in France.

Australia

According to the Australian Sports Commission, 108,300 people play squash[iii] on approximately 3,500 courts. This suggests approximately 31 players per court.

Canada

According to Squash Ontario[iv], Canada has >250,000 players using 1,810 courts. This suggests >138 players per court in Canada.

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[i] http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102992251297-408/Squash+&+Racketball+England+results.pdf

[ii] http://www.worldwomensquash-nimes2012.fr/en/le-squash/le-squash-dans-le-monde/

[iii] http://fulltext.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2000/ascpub/pdf/squash%202.pdf

[iv] http://www.squashontario.com/squashlife/demographics.asp

Science and the Major Racket Sports

As athletes, we at times ponder things like the subtle benefits of a sports drink between games compared to a glass of water. And as squash players, we may consider the percentages of our opponent's shot selection being hit from different areas of the court. "If I drop here, is my opponent more likely to re-drop or hit a cross court shot?"

As it turns out a paper was published in 2003 by the Journal of Sports Sciences discussing these points and others in the major racket sports: squash, racquetball, tennis and table tennis.

The author, Adrian Lees, reviewed sports physiology, nutrition, notational analysis, biomechanics, sports medicine and engineering, and psychology. It's not a quick read, but despite its age there are some interesting discoveries.

For example, science has been helpful in defining training programs to improve player fitness, guiding players nutritionally and psychologically in match preparation, and in identifying effective strategies and tactics used for specific opponents. The findings relate to squash as well as other racquet sports.

Some excerpts from the author's findings on physiology and notational analysis are below.

Physiology
  
In a 1998 study, players who used a carbohydrate drink during simulated match play maintained their accuracy at the end of the third game in squash and were 19% better than those who had taken a placebo drink.

According to the study, carbohydrates should also form the basis of post-match meals, which helps in the restoration of muscle and liver glycogen.


Notational Analysis

The process of recording and analyzing the movements made by players during play, or notational analysis, has been widely applied to racket sports.

As part of this study researched discovered that over a period of 15 years, the average number of shots per rally at elite level in squash decreased from 20 to 14. (The paper does not indicate the timing, but presumably the study was done from 1983-1998 when the findings were released.)

 
Researchers were also able to successfully build a probability matrix for squash players depicting the likely shot response to each preceding condition. The author suggests this type of model may be used to identify optimal tactical strategies against a particular opponent.

To read the full 2003 study from the Journal of Sports Sciences, please click here.

The author, Adrian Lees, is from the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool
John Moores University, Liverpool, UK. a.lees@livjm.ac.uk

A Squash Court Hosted the Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was the code name for the federally funded, United States research program to develop an atomic bomb. 

The project was led by Enrico Fermi, Italy's greatest physicist in modern times, and University of Chicago physicist Arthur Compton. Both Fermi and Compton were Nobel Prize recipients.

The team of scientists they led worked on a squash court beneath the long since dismantled west stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago.

The squash court was the only convenient, large space available on the university campus for the team of scientists to build a "nuclear pile."

The result of their work was the first successful, self-sustaining, chain reaction initiating the controlled release of nuclear energy. Simply stated, it was the first nuclear reactor. 

Immediately after the successful test in 1942, the entire team moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico where they would ultimately conduct, on July 16, 1945, the first successful detonation of an atomic weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico. 

The U.S. wasted no time in using the new technology. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped "Little Boy," a uranium bomb nicknamed after Franklin Roosevelt, on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later on August 9, 1945, the U.S. dropped "Fat Man," a plutonium bomb nicknamed for Winston Churchill, on Nagasaki, Japan.

On August 15th, a month after the New Mexican test bomb was detonated, Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced their surrender.  

 Earlier articles discussing the squash court connection to the Manhattan Project:

AtomicArchive.com: The First Pile 
The Economist: "From Squash Court to Submarine"
Vanity Fair Squash Blog "The Most Important Squash Court Ever"
Squash Blog Life: "The First Nuclear Squash Court"

Update July 6, 2012: In addition to the articles above, there are many, many more articles, exhibits and books discussing this moment in time. Click on the links below for more information.

Exhibits

University of Chicago: This is a link to the Special Collections Department at the University of Chicago, which built an exhibition to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the events of 1942.

The University of Chicago Archives:  a link to the picture of the squash court where the experiment was hosted

Articles

Library of Congress: This day in history

FermiLab: History and Archives Project of the Enrico Fermi Laboratory

Ames Laboratory: our history

Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Chapter 1, Wartime Laboratory

New York Times: The Day the Nuclear Age was Born

Los Angeles Times: Obituary

Wired: This Day in Tech

Northern Illinois University Library: The Birth of the Atomic Age

Books

The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses and Historians, by Richard Rhodes

Chicago: A Pictorial Celebration

The Manhattan Project: by Sue Vander Hook

The Manhattan Project: by Daniel Cohen

Note: In his book, "Squash: A History of the Game," James Zug states this court was actually a racquets court and not a squash court at all. Zug is a highly regarded historian and his statement should be noted. However, the archivists at the University of Chicago reference the activity taking place on a squash court.