By Rod Symington, WSF Referees and Rules Committee
I am constantly astonished at the amount of correspondence I receive on the topic of the warm-up. All the communications have the same theme: What can I do about an opponent who hogs the ball during the warm-up? Can I request a separate warm-up? What should the Referee, if there is one, do? You get the idea.
In the distant past—when candy cost a nickel and going to the movies a quarter—this issue never arose. Those of us who learned to play squash in the Days of the Dinosaur hit only cross-court shots to our opponent during the warm-up: It never occurred to us to hit the ball back to ourselves ten times in a row.
wasn’t pitching a fit over John White hogging the ball during the warm-up at the Tournament of Champions. But you get the idea. Had White been doing so, Power would have been justified in being dismayed. We just like the photo.
But nowadays, in the Age of Me-Me-Me, all’s fair in love and squash. Hitting the ball back to yourself while your opponent either freezes or fumes has become a pernicious habit.
So what recourse does the fair player have under such circumstances?
First, we should be clear about the function of the warm-up. It’s main purpose is to warm up the ball. (This used to be explicitly stated in the Rules, but was deleted in 2001.) The five minutes of the warm-up are not intended to be used for warming up the players: No sensible player ever imagines that hitting the ball for five minutes is equivalent to a proper warm-up for the body. That (i.e., stretching, riding a stationary bicycle, etc.) takes place before the match warm-up commences.
Second, a player does not have the right to request a separate warm-up (that used to be the case many years ago). If you want to practice your shots, find an empty court an hour or so before the match.
Of course, both players should have an equal opportunity to hit the ball during the warm-up in order to “get their eye in” and judge the speed of the court, etc.
If there is a Referee, it is the latter’s job to ensure that the warm-up is fair. If one player is unfairly hogging the ball, the Referee has a duty to issue a Conduct Warning under Rule 17—and if the player continues to warm up unfairly, the Referee may proceed to impose a Conduct Stroke.
On the other hand, if both players seem to be happy with the situation in which each of them hits the ball three or four times (no more!) back to themselves and then hits a cross-court, the Referee should not intervene.
If there is no Referee, your options are limited. You could stop the warm-up and remonstrate politely with your opponent, but if that does not work, your only recourse is to find another opponent.
A final point: I was told that the reason some players give for not hitting cross-court is that they are afraid it will ingrain a bad habit in their play. That is nonsense, of course. If your squash game is so fragile, maybe you should consider taking up Solitaire: No one will complain, and you can cheat all you want.
