Team Building Recipes #7: Squash

With New Year resolutions being in danger of being broken it is a good idea to look up some fun opportunities to boost your motivation level. Did you maybe promise yourself to do more sports in 2018? With this in mind you might want to organize more sports related team building activities with your colleagues. Playing squash is definitely a good idea: it is fun, moves your whole body and is a good option to bond with others. It requires only a little bit of effort, since the only thing you need to do is grab your comfy shoes and clothes and go to a gym with a squash facility.

The seventh episode in the series of our teambuilding tips articles – Team Building Recipes – is squash. The article gives you recommendations regarding this game and lists the skills it can improve. Besides, you can get familiar with some KPIs, based on which you can monitor the success of this team building exercise in your organization.

Type of activity: outside facility

Team/individual: individual

Required time to play: 30-60 mins.

Requires investment? No

Best for: moving your whole body while having fun

Popularity: high

Ingredients

• squash court
• squash equipment: racket, ball
• comfy clothes

Instructions

Squash has gained a lot of momentum in the recent years. Many people like it as it’s easy-to-play, yet really intense: shooting a little ball towards a wall, then wait for your opponent to hit it again for you to return it similarly. Besides, you can kill two birds with one stone with a squash game: you’ll have a tough workout, but still you’ll enjoy playing it and will get in a flow experience quite fast.

Rules

Squash equipment

Squash is played between two players on a squash court each using a standard racket, and a squash ball.

Scoring

Matches are the best of 3 or 5 games, it’s up to the organiser/players. Each squash game is a point rally scoring to 11. If the score in a game is tied at 10-10, a player must win by 2 clear points.
When a player fails to serve or to return the ball, in accordance with the rules, the opponent wins the point. When the Receiver wins a point, s/he becomes the Server and add one to his/her score.

Service

• The right to serve is decided by the spin of a racket or coin. Consequently, a Server continues to serve until s/he loses the point; the opponent then becomes the Server.
• At the beginning of each game and each rally, the Server has the choice of serving from either service box and shall thereafter alternate for as long as s/he scores points and remains the Server.
• The ball must be served directly to the front wall between the service line and the outline, so that on its return, unless volleyed, its first bounce lands within the back quarter of the court opposite to the Server’s box.
• A service is a fault if:
  a) at the time of striking the ball the Server fails to have at least one foot in contact with the floor within the service box (called a foot-fault).
  b) after releasing the ball the Server fails to strike it before the ball falls to the floor, touches a wall, or touches anything the Server wears.
  c) the Server fails to strike the ball directly onto the front wall between the service and the out lines.
  d) Unless volleyed by the Receiver, the first bounce of the ball on the floor is not in the quarter court opposite the serves box.
  e) the Server serves the ball out.

Play

After a good service has been delivered, the players return the ball alternately until one or the other fails to make a good return, or the ball otherwise ceases to be in play, in accordance with the rules.
Note: If any part of the ball touches the outline, the ball is deemed out, or if the ball hits the tin or the floor on its second bounce the ball is deemed down. Similarly, if the ball bounces on or before the short line from a service, the serve is deemed a fault.

A good return

A return is good if the ball, before it has bounced twice on the floor, is returned by the striker on to the front wall above the tin, without touching the floor or any part of the striker’s body or clothing.

Lets

A let is an undecided stroke, and the service or rally in respect of which a Let is allowed, shall not count and the Server shall serve again from the same box.

• A let may be allowed if:
  a) the striker refrains from hitting the ball owing to a reasonable fear of injuring the opponent.
  b) the striker, on the way to playing the ball incurs sufficient interference to impede their access to the ball when the striker would have otherwise played a good shot.
  c) the Referee is asked to decide an appeal and is unable to do so.
• A Let shall be allowed:
  a) the Receiver is not ready, and does not attempt to take the service.
  b) the ball breaks during play.
  c) an otherwise good return has been made, but the ball goes out on its first bounce.
  d) the ball in play touches the receiver or anything carried or worn by the receiver whilst on the way to the side wall or back wall in anticipation that the ball would have reached the front wall and hence been a good return.

How strokes (points) can be won

A player wins a point if:

• the server fails to make a good serve (See point 4 on the Service).
• the opponent fails to make a good return of the ball in play.
• the ball in play touches the opponent or anything carried or worn by the opponent whilst on the way to the front wall.
• a player drops the racket, calls out or in any other way distracts the opponent, and the Referee considers that such occurrence has caused the opponent to lose the stroke.
• the ball hits the ceiling or any object outside of the court.

Freedom to play the ball

After playing a ball a player needs to make every effort to get out of the opponent’s way, which means that s/he should mak every effort:

• to give the opponent a fair view of the ball so that it may be sighted adequately for the purpose of playing it.
• not to interfere with or crowd the opponent in the latter’s attempt to get to or play the ball.
• to allow the opponent, as far as the latter’s position permits, freedom to play the ball directly to the front wall or to either side wall.

Skills improved

It’s advised to know what skills of your teammates need improvement to find a proper team building exercise. Besides, it is always good to know in advance what skills are affected by certain team building activities.

This event might affect these skills positively:

• reflexes
• determination
• not to give up

 KPIs

In this section we show which KPIs we recommend you to use. With these KPIs you’ll be able to measure the success of your specific team building exercises. The KPIs have a 10-scale system – the best is to ask your employees to evaluate the company based on these metrics before and after a team building. Thus, you can collect and convert qualitative data into quantitative.

Let’s see which KPIs can yoga improve the most – and how much (in our opinion); the bolded ones are the most relevant KPIs:

• connection: 7/10
• engagement: 4/10
• culture: 3/10
• health and wellness: 10/10
• happiness/satisfaction: 7/10
• ambassadorship: 5/10

Bon appetite!

Playing squash combines the useful with the pleasant, since you can have a nice workout while having fun and socializing. This is definitely the game to play when you had a long day at work, want to move your body and get all the stress out of your system.

Have you ever tried this game or are you planning to? What do you think about it as a team building activity? Share your ideas and thoughts in the comment section below.

Feel like playing squash with your colleagues? Check Battlejungle Idea Park – Squash for more tips and get started with Battlejungle by signing up.