comparing and contrasting racket sports

Table Tennis

I really enjoy playing table tennis, I’ve played a few local tournaments when they were held at my squash club, and have a “ping pong” table in my basement currently.  It’s approachable, easy to learn, but has tons of depth to it, and is just plain fun.  It is the least of a workout of the racket sports; there just isn’t the movement of having to chase more than a step or two, and so it has more of a “gamey” feel than the other sports.  The ability to add and remove courts/tables and occupying by far the smallest footprint of all the racket sports is a blessing, however, at least in the US, it isn’t really considered by most to be a serious sport because it’s thought of as such a recreational activity. Obviously as soon as you get above recreational play, the sport is dominated and dependent on spin production and mastery much more than any other racket sport, to the degree that most people can’t even fathom how much spin and counter spin is being put on each and every shot you see in a clip of professional table tennis. 

As a side note – when I was at the Pan Am Games in 2007, the women’s squash team were in a shared dorm with the women’s table tennis squad. One of the squash players kept accidentally referring to it as ping-pong for the entire week. They were NOT amused!

Tennis

Tennis…..is a hard game. I’m a solid 4.0 tennis player, potentially 4.5 at my peak physically a few years ago.  Hitting a tennis ball consistently well requires you to do a ton of things right, and of the all the racket sports, technique and quality of ball striking is maybe the most fundamental to having success at the game. There’s something about hitting a tennis ball that simply feels rewarding. The heavier weight of the ball compared to the other racket sports gives more feedback when hit, and I think that is part of its universal appeal (even if you hit 10′ out of bounds, it still feels good to hit it), and similar to golf, it’s very rewarding when you hit a great shot. 

Because tennis is the least forgiving racket sport (specifically meaning easiest to hit the ball out of court or into the net), there are a ton of mistakes, errors, and thus short and disappointing rallies at every level of the game, but especially at lower skill levels.  It’s hard to get a workout as a 3.0 level player. Tennis can also feel a bit more one dimensional than other racket sports.  Hit a good serve, drive the ball deep with pace, force something weak or short, and then hit to the open court – rinse and repeat. 

Tennis translates to TV better in my opinion than any other racket sport besides badminton.  Top level tennis is captivating, and tennis is by the far the most successful in cultivating the identities of their top professionals. 

Squash

Having played squash for 30+ years, with 15 years of professional experience, squash is obviously the game I know best….I’ve tried to be objective about it, but my opinions are probably more personal and potentially biased because of my background.

Squash rallies are the most complex and varied of any racket sport in my opinion, which makes it both fun and difficult.  More variety of shots (drives, drops, lobs, boasts, kill shots) are played on a regular and tactically sound basis in squash than any other racket sport.  Add in that each of these shots can be played in deceptive ways and combinations, and you end up having a huge variety of viable tactics which are able to be successful, and many different play styles.  Tactics and overall game plan often need to adapt and change within a single game, as each player adapts and varies their play to gain an advantage over their opponent. 

One difference between squash and the rest of the racket sports is that in squash, small advantages are constantly being created and lost, often multiple times in a rally by both opponents. Creating an advantage does not confer the same level of dominance within a rally as it does in the other sports.  Contrast this to tennis and racketball in particular, where most of the time, an advantage is gained, and then a winner is hit off of that advantage, and extended rallies are rare.  The size of the court and speed of the ball in those sports dictate that once you create an opening, you often are presented with a clear winning shot opportunity.

Squash along with racketball are the only sports where you share the same space with your opponent. Because area on a squash court is limited/shared, the effective control of the center of the court while denying your opponent that space leads to a more combative and intense experience.. Unfortunately it also leads to a ton of interference, and ultimately a lot of refereeing decisions, and thus subjectivity and controversy. There are instances where your opponent runs into you and must appeal to the referee for a decision, and the point is either played over, or one player is awarded a penalty point. The necessary referee involvement in a match is an unfortunate aspect of squash, as pro matches can have 50+ referee decisions, and which close decisions can and do effect match results. It’s sometimes frustrating as a player or knowledgeable viewer to see points and/or matches decided by a referee, and I think it is a turnoff to casual fans when the result of a play isn’t intuitive or obvious. 

Physically squash is exceptionally demanding, matched I would argue only by badminton in the grueling nature of its matches (although top athletes in each of these sports are of course trained to excel at the demands required of their sport). Squash rallies are on average the longest rallies of any racket sport. At an amateur level, squash is certainly the most physically demanding racket sport, even low level players will get an intense workout in less than an hour. It’s easy to the keep the ball in play, and you have to chase the ball, it doesn’t come back to you. The down side of squash being so physical is that it is both intimating and tiring, which immediately cuts out a large percentage of potential players. 

Racquetball

Racquetball is probably still my 2nd best racket sport after squash, as the skills, spatial awareness of being on a shared court with walls most directly translates from squash.  Racquetball is fun, intense, and fast. It may be slightly more one dimensional at a high level than some other racket sports, but similar to tennis, it’s really impressive how consistent and accurate top players are while taking huge rips at a fast moving ball.

I get frustrated when I hear squash players belittle the sport of racquetball, often comparing it to chess vs checkers.  I think that’s ridiculous, and shows a huge lack of understanding on the part of the average squash player on what’s involved in being good at any sport. I think a lot of squash players also assume they will be good at racquetball since it’s “easier”, and are a bit embarrassed by how bad they are at it! 

Badminton

Badminton might be the racket sport that I am most in awe of it’s professional players, and which in some ways I think looks like the most fun to actually play at a professional level.  It is my favorite sport to watch in the Olympics, and of all the racket sports, I believe has the strongest case for being equally interesting/exciting in both singles and doubles. 

I played badminton growing up a couple times a week for about two years while I was in middle school.  I was already fully committed to squash, but I would go up to the badminton gym after squash practice and quickly became a regular. I even played in the junior nationals one year which was hosted at our club.  

Badminton smashes travel faster than any other racket sport (~100mph faster than the fastest tennis serve!), and the rallies also have the same testing and probing cat and mouse qualities that squash rallies do. The rackets being so light and nimble is really an interesting difference when compared to the other racket sports, with flicks of the wrist being able to accelerate the racket so easily and generate meaningful power, while also allowing players to have incredible defensive reactions. 

I would love to play more badminton on a regular basis. There isn’t a ton of places to play in my area. Singles is also brutal and similar to squash, at this point likely too physically demanding for me to play without getting injured. 

Pickleball

As the fastest growing sport in the US, pickleball obviously has a lot going for it. It’s approachable and can be played by almost anyone – regardless of skill or fitness level, which is a huge departure from squash or tennis. 

What I like about pickleball is that many points have a building phase, where both teams are probing and looking to create an advantage – it creates an opportunity for tension to build. That tension is broken at some point by someone speeding up the ball, and often results in a quickfire hands battle which is reactive and fun. It’s also really nice that when you are on the defensive, you often have the ability to neutralize an attack, and regain parity or even gain your own advantage. That flip-flopping of court position and opportunities to counter attack I think is a huge part of the appeal to the sport to me. The complexity of having 4 players in a small area, and trying to figure out the puzzle of how and when to attack and create opportunities against a good team has a deep and non-obvious quality to it. 

I’m not totally sold on pickleball as a spectator sport. I’ve been watching it quite a bit online, but mainly just to immerse and expose myself to top level play. I get a bit of the same feeling as I do  watching squash, where the pros make the game look a bit too easy when watching on video. It’s hard to appreciate how quick they’re reacting, how fast their hands are, how impressive their digs are. A long dinking rally is nerve racking and exciting to be a participant in, but not really exciting to watch. 

I won’t talk much about singles pickleball since I don’t play, but I don’t find it particularly compelling or interesting to watch compared to high level singles in tennis, squash, or badminton.