How does a match actually work?

So say you're on the team now, practices have started, and your first actual match against a competing school is approaching. How does a team match actually work? How is it structured?

The answer to this is yet another great thing about the sport of squash. Team squash has a great system to ensure competitive matches between players of roughly the same level. Here's how it works:

So throughout the season, each team maintains a "challenge ladder" that is simply a ranking of the players in order of ability. So the team ladder will have the best player ranked #1 on the ladder, the next best ranked #2, etc. This ranking is defined by the coach's judgement, and is usually based around the players playing each other in practice games or full matches - winners move up the ladder and the loser drops down. So the ladder position can change over the course of the season, and it's motivating for players to know they can improve their ranking.

Then, when two teams have a match, the #1 players on each team play each other, then the #2s, etc. MISA will have five individual matches per team match in season 1, so the top five players on the ladder will play, and coaches rotate players so that everyone on the team plays throughout the season.

The result is that most matches are competitive and fun - it works great. It's a system used in other racquet sports, such as tennis and badminton, with some variations. The closest parallel is team chess, where almost the exact same system is used. Squash is often called "the chess of racquet sports" because of the mental component, complexity, and strategy, and it's interesting the team match structure is also the same.

Coming soon: how squash (and chess) avoid coaches "sandbagging" the lineup…