The Project Description of the 6th East Asian Games:Squash

　　Squash

　　History and Abstract

　　Squash was originated in the early years of the 19th century "fleet prison" in London. At that time, prisoners preferred to play a game which hit the ball to the wall in order to take exercise and to kill the boring imprisoned time. It is said that this is the origin of squash.

　　This kind of sport was later improved in exclusive school ha Lou public of UK. Due to the small venue cannot satisfy the desire of the students to play tennis, the school decided to put up several walls on playground to let the students play tennis to the wall. Afterwards, this method was gradually followed and popularized. In 1864, the first special site to play squash had been built in Harrow, which become of a mark of squash formal establishment.

　　With the colonial expansion of Britain at the end of 19th century, squash was brought to the Commonwealth of Nations by British, and quickly spread throughout the world. In the 20th century, squash sport had been greatly popularized, large number of outstanding athletes sprung up, and the authorized managerial organization of world squash sport was also established. This organization was set up by the powerful nation of the day, which included Australia, Canada, UK, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, USA and United Arab Emirates, named International Squash Rackets Federation (abbreviate as ISRF) which changed into World Squash Federation (abbreviate as WSF) in 1992. Until now, WSF has already developed into a huge, close-knit, and well-managed organization. As the Non-Olympic project, squash was first become the formal competition project at the 13th Bangkok Asian Games in 1998 and 5th Hongkong East Asian Games in 1999. The squash project competition of 6th East Asian Games will be held at the Tianjin Tuanbo squash hall from Oct 5th to 10th in the year of 2013.

　　Project Equipment

　　Squash Court

　　Squash court is similar to a rectangular box, which is 6.4 meters wide, 9.75 meters long, 4.57 meters former high, and 2.13 meters high. The height of top ceiling is 5 to 6 meters, of castanets is 0.48 meters, and the frontal service line heights 1.83 meters, ground service line distances back wall 4.26 meters. Half court line divides the ground service line and back wall equally from center point, the service area is 1.6 meters square.

　　Squash Racquet

　　The racquet looks like water-drop, which is similar to the badminton racquet. It is about 68.3 centimeters long and the size of it almost between the tennis racquet and badminton racquet. The framework of squash racquet usually made by graphite compound, the ball string and its end must be suppressed in the framework of racquet head. Compared with the tennis racquet and badminton racquet, the head of squash racquet is much smaller, round, and a long shaft.

　　Squash Sportswear

　　Squash sportswear must be fit, and have good perspiration-absorbing function. However, clothing should be in light white if the official holds black squash game.

　　Squash Shoes

　　The diverse footwork is the main characteristic of squash, which includes big stride, split step, side touch step as well as relevant sole turning. Therefore, soft quarters, shock-proofed heel, and supporting webbing shoe edge are the indispensable factors of a qualified squash shoe. And to wear the non-flaked sole shoe is the requirement for indoor sports regulation.

　　Squash Ball

　　Squash, should be divided into blue point (fast), red point (intermediate), white point (slow) and yellow point (super slow) according to the ball flying speed in air. Double yellow point belongs to the professional practice and official ball, other colors points and yellow single point are treated as the primary practice ball.

　　Competition Rules

　　Before the competition start, all contestants have five minutes to warm up. The main task in this time is to let air get into the ball inside, so as to increase the flexibility of the ball. The game will decide the right to serve with the way of rotating the racquets. The side that gets this right may choose a service area in option to serve and, only the serve side can get the score. After scored, it is necessary to change to another serve area to service, and exchange continuously like this, until loses the serve right. When in service, the server should get into the serve area by one foot at least and the ball must be thrown into the air. The point of struck the wall must be higher than the service line, and also, the ball should hit the frontal wall after service and ought to exceed the half area which the line of play falls over another serve area when the ball rebounds. When the ball does not exceed the serve line when it rebounds from the frontal wall, the server cannot away from the service area, the one who returns the ball may hit the ball before it rebounds from the wall or after the first ground hitting when returns. However, it is not available for exceeding the play line to stroke. You can hit the ball to the frontal wall with the twice rebounding to the court. The ball firstly rebounds to the side wall from the frontal wall and later rebounds to court again. If the sever fails, the right will be transferred to the opposite, and here, one can choose to serve on left or right again. After the service scored, it is necessary to change side to serve, and so on. The serve right of second game of match will belong to the man who has won the first session, and, the winner will serve in advance. In the competition process, the squash hits both of the boundary line and the bottom boundary line will be treated as out-of-range. If the served one fail to strike or cannot return the ball, the right of serve will be transferred to the opposite. Similarly, the server will get one score if the opposite fails to rebound or return the ball.

　　Scoring methods: International (British) game is to use nine-mark system and it is necessary to get right to serve if one wants to be scored. If both sides of athletes halve the match after the 8th score, the receiving party may choose to play two points (10 points in total) or play one point according to the original scoring method, ending with nine points.

　　Watching Etiquettes

　　Squash game has strong present ornamental. Due to the fast velocity and short distance, the changing route of ball movement is extremely rich. Therefore, the concentration degree of players is very high, also includes the sensitive feeling on the surrounding environment. In the pair exercise process, audience must keep quiet and do not uses flash light to take pictures. Mobile phones must be closed or transferred to silent. It is prohibited to speak and applause loudly, and also, banned to walk around near the glass wall. It is available for clapping, cheering and walking around after the game is over.