The Racquet Club of Philadelphia – Racquet Sports Squash The Racquet Club is home to six international squash courts and one doubles squash court. The club was the site of the invention of squash doubles in 1907 by Frederich C. Tompkins, a former court tennis and racquets professional. The Club’s athletic professionals are committed to educating new players about the game and can set up matches with other members for those that have advanced skills. The Pro Shop schedules frequent clinics, club tournaments, intra-club matches, and a strong junior squash program for players of all levels. Court Tennis The Club is home to one of only 11 court tennis courts in the country, and was recently renovated. Dating back to the 12th Century, the game of Court Tennis was widely recognized as the “sport of kings” thanks in part to Henry VIII’s fondness of the game. Not to be confused with lawn tennis, court tennis spawned the game played at Wimbledon. The Club’s Athletic Director, Rob Whitehouse, is a United States Court Tennis Hall of Famer and is eager to teach new members the ins and outs of the game. Clinics for all levels occur on a weekly basis.

If you have played Lawn Tennis or Squash before, this sport will surely capture your interest. Renovation Project In 2014, The Club worked in conjunction with The United States Court Tennis Preservation Foundation (USCTPF) in an effort to raise funds to improve the existing condition of the court, which is one of only 11 in The United States. As a result, the court underwent a substantial renovation project that included new and improved light fixtures, new paint, and new netting. Through this collaborative effort the USCTPF and The Racquet Club aspire to increase awareness of the grand old game of court tennis on both a national and local platform. To achieve this goal, The Racquet Club now extends use of the court tennis court to non-members of the club, subject to availability, and under the following terms and conditions: The non-member makes a reservation at least one week in advance of the reservation date with the Pro-Shop. The non-member agrees to pay, in advance, a $50 court fee. Reciprocal members pay a $30 court fee. The non-member agrees to abide by all of The Club’s rules and regulations, including but not limited to dress code and cell phone usage.

The non-member agrees that his or her access to The Club is limited to the fourth floor and does not include use of any other areas of The Club with the exception of the locker rooms. With the exception of tournaments, non-members are limited to no more than three (3) or fewer Tennis Court reservations per year and no more than one hour of court time per day during non-peak hours. The terms and conditions listed above can be amended by The Racquet Club at any time, including but not limited to the court fees and the permitted number of court uses per year. If you are a non-member and have an interest in booking the Court Tennis Court, please contact the Pro-Shop at 215-772-1544 or by email at courts@rcop.com Racquet technology and the evolution of tennis Tennis Racquet technology and the evolution of tennis This article is based on the technological developments that have taken place in the manufacturing of tennis rackets and how the game has evolved due to the same.

by Devavrat Kulkarni Analysis 20 Oct 2014, 12:42 IST Although the actual origin of tennis is still debatable, there is no doubt that the sport has existed since a long time ago. Most historians credit the origin of the game to 11th or 12th century French monks who began playing with a crude handball against the walls. It was called as ‘jeu de paume’ meaning ‘game of the hand’. The earlier version of the game was more or less similar to the game of squash. However, tennis has undergone a lot of changes since the early days and the modern game has developed into a fast and aggressive one that centers around putting the opponent on the back foot right from the service itself. One of the important aspects to have shaped the sport as it is today has to do with the advancement in the racquet technology over the years. For the most part, racquet technology can be divided into 3 eras which are wooden, steel / aluminum and graphite respectively. Wooden racquets: Dunlop Maxply Fort wooden racquet popular during the 70s Major Walter C.

Wingfield registered his patent for the rules and equipment of outdoor lawn tennis in 1874. This is generally considered to be the first version of today’s game. From this period till the end of the wooden era almost 100 years later, there were only minor changes that took place in the wooden racquets. These wooden racquets were mostly made up of ash and beech. With improvements in technology and in the strings the racquets did improve a little but they mostly remained heavy (weighing between 370-400 grams) and had small heads (around 65 square inches). While the sport was being played during the wooden era, players needed to rely a lot more on their touch. With heavier racquets, the ball speeds were faster and as the racquets also had much smaller head sizes, the sweet spot was also smaller. This meant that players had to depend a lot more on their control. A fine example would be that of Ken Rosewall who had a great touch game and such players usually were able to rise to the top at that time. As far as today’s power game is concerned, Rosewall could have found himself struggling to make an impact.

The 1970s were dominated mainly by wooden racquets from Dunlop, Wilson, Slazenger and Spalding out of which the Dunlop Maxply Fort and the Wilson Jack Kramer were classic ones. The racquets were generally heavy with extremely small sweet spots. However, compared to the modern day tennis racquets, the wooden ones were cumbersome and lacked power. Steel / aluminum racquets: Jimmy Connors with the Wilson T2000 steel racket It wasn’t until 1967 that there was any radical change as far as manufacturing racquets were concerned. This was the period when Wilson Sporting Goods introduced the first popular metal racquet called the T2000. This racquet was stronger and also lighter than the wooden racquets and it started becoming famous amongst players. With the introduction of the steel racquets, racquet technology was thrust into the forefront and many developments started to take place. The steel construction enabled consistency of playing characteristics. It is interesting to note that at the same time Borg was experimenting with a wooden racquet reinforced with modern material for extra stiffness. Steel racquets had a longer lifespan and successfully increased the stiffness of the racquet without adding weight. These racquets generally weighed around 350 grams.

Jimmy Connors became the most famous person to start using the steel racquets. He played at the top of men’s professional tennis during the 1970s with the T2000. However, this racquet had a small-headed steel frame with a long throat. Connors was very successful during his victory in the Wimbledon final over Ken Rosewall who was still playing with wooden racquets. Afterwards, in 1976, Howard Head who was working with the Prince brand introduced the Prince Classic as the first oversized racquet to have gained widespread popularity. The Prince Classic and the Prince Pro were both in demand at that time and they featured aluminum frames with a head size approximately 50% more than the standard 65 square inch wooden racquet. The light weight and the huge sweet spot made playing much easier for non-advanced players. However, for advanced players, the mixture of flexibility and power in the frames made it very difficult to judge where the ball would end up, hence, advanced players required a stiffer frame. Graphite racquets: Modern day graphite racket The two main components when it comes to racquet material are stiffness and light weight.

The most common choice for adding stiffness to racquets without adding weight is the use of graphite. One of the most famous early graphite racquets was the Dunlop Max 220G used by both John McEnroe and Steffi Graf. It weighed around 350 grams during the 1980s. Over the years, graphite racquets have gotten even lighter with the normal weight at about 300 grams while some can even be as light as 200 grams. The modern game is characterized by power and spin. With the standard racquet heads in the region of 100 square inches or more, the sweet spot on offer is a lot more. Due to this, the amount of top spin that players can generate is also much more and this is contributing to the modern style of power tennis. With the racquets getting lighter and lighter by the day, players are able to swing the racquet at a faster pace than before, generating higher impact speeds and ultimately resulting in faster ball speeds. Faster shots are less likely to be returned than slower shots and hence, the modern game is all about taking the time away from your opponent.

The advances in racquet technology today have enabled players to slug it out from the baseline with a lot of power all the while retaining control of their shots. As with more power, the ball tends to go further, and to counter this, heavy topspins are often used so as to keep the ball in play. In short, the game of tennis has changed since the early days. The previous eras were dominated by the soft touches and amazingly controlled volleys. There was a slow pace about the entire affair, but all that has now taken back stage and one of the important contributing factors for this has been the evolution of racquets. Upcoming technology: Evolution via technology is a never ending process. The same holds true for the game of tennis. The latest on the tennis racquet technology looks into a concept called as ‘smart racquets’. Babolat, one of the leading tennis equipment manufacturers has come up with racquets with computer technology built into the handle. This racquet gathers data through sensors and chips fitted in the handle. The technology is said to be useful in understanding why a shot went wide or hit the net among other such details.

Thus, it is safe to conclude that technology will still be playing a vital role in the years to come with regards to the development of tennis racquets. Smart racquet by Babolat Detroit Racquet Club Detroit Racquet Club 626 Woodbridge Street in the umbra of the Renaissance Center Quite likely while driving along East Jefferson, you have seen this large building. Perhaps you wondered a bit about it since it has no windows. Maybe you thought that it is a warehouse except there is usually a large American flag flying in front of it. There is no large sign to identify its owner or purpose. It is, in fact, a racquet club and, presumably, one of a small number of such racquet clubs in the North America. The game of racquets was, apparently, invented in London's prisons in the Eighteenth Century. Incrcerated men with time on their hands developed a game which involved hitting a small ball against a wall or a pair of adjoining walls. Gradually, the game became popular in London among those outside prisons. And, as is typically in the history of sports, formal rules were developed and facilities were standardized.

I believe that, today, an official racquets court is 9.1 in width, 18.3 meters in length and 9.1 meters in heighth. A players used a 30.5 inch wooden racket called a bat to stroke a white ball that is, I think, 1.5 inches in diameter. The walls of the court are ordinarily painted a dark color to contast with the white ball. I do not know the full rules. The sport of raquects has close relatives, namely squash and the more recently developed racquetball. You will have to consult with someone who knows much more about the history of ball sports to get a full explanation of how these sports differ. After Detroit became an industrial metropolis in the late Nineteenth Century, a substantial number of office buildings were constructed downtown where an increasingly large number of white collar workers held jobs. At this time, a number of men’s clubs developed and prospered such as the Detroit Athletic Club with their impressive Albert Kahn building behind Comerica Park’s center field and the Detroit Club with its marvelous Wilson Eyre designed building on Cass at Fort.

Apparently, there were enough men interested in playing racquets that they not only formed a club, but had the resources to commission Albert Kahn to design the large brick building that you see. I believe that this is the second oldest racquets club in the United States country. Detroit is the home of the oldest rowing club in the country, the Detroit Boat Club on Belle Isle. Racquets, I believe, never became an extremely popular sport. And I think that is currently only played in England, Canada and the United States. The building you see is one of only five with official racquests courts in North America. The others are located in Boston, Chicago, Montreal, New York, Tuxedo Park and Philadelphia. Detroit once had the distinction of being the only city in North American with racquets courts in two building. The now razed University Club nearby on East Jefferson also had an official racquets court. Squash, I believe, was somewhat more popular among college-educated men along the East Coast. I am not quite sure how the Detroit Racquet Club survived. I read that, at one point after World War II, some or all of the racquets courts in this building were converted to volley ball courts.

In the last decade or so, General Motors, Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Quicken Loans and other firms moved many employees into downtown Detroit within walking distance of the Detroit Racquet Club. With the arrival of more high level executive and professional jobs in downtown Detroit, a new interest apparently emerged in the ball sports played on indoor courts. I can image that some of the young graduates coming from the Ivy League colleges to Detroit were familiar with squash and could quickly learn to enjoy racquets. Apparently there are courts in this large Albert Kahn building that are used for hardball squash. This is, architecturally, an interesting building with an appealing entry way and some excellent brick work. I wonder why it is not listed on an historical register? However, it is not the peak achievement of Albert Kahn. That may be the Clements Library on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Architect: Albert Kahn Use in 2015: Racquet club Website for Detroit Racquet Club: City of Detroit Designated Historic District: Not listed State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: Not listed National Register of Historic Places: Not listed Photograph: Ren Farley; June 14, 2014 Description updated: July, 2015 Chemical makeup of sports equipments Category : General Chemicals Published by : Data Research Analyst, Worldofchemical Sports and physical activities have been part of the natural endeavors of humans in earth. The primeval records of sports activities date back to the First Olympics Games in 776 B.C. in Greece. Since then, the human yearning for participating in sports activities and this activity has pushed civilizations to create more structure to more sports games. Worldwide events such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup are manifestations of the global participation of humans in sports activities. Large countries and small countries around the world compete against each other for recognition for physical talent and achievement in sports. The competitiveness in sports pushes the individual athletes as well as teams of athletes to constantly enhance their performance in their activity or game.

Over the past 100 years the materials used in sports equipment have evolved from raw materials such as wood, twine, gut, and rubber to high-technology metals, polymers, ceramics, and synthetic hybrid materials like composites and cellular concepts. The design of sports equipment must rely on the knowledge of materials science, engineering, physics, physiology, and biomechanics and must consider various possible characteristics. 1Q.] what is the importance of material selection in sports equipment? 2Q.] what are the characteristics of materials to be considered while designing them? 3Q.] what are the other aspects important in designing sports equipments? 1A] Material selection will play a vital role in playing filed by enhancing the each sports performance. The following graph shows the importance of material selection and how much spending on the materials. 2A] Characteristics of materials to be considered are Strength Physiology Biomechanics Many types of sports equipment rely heavily on chemistry to help athletes reach peak performance and provide critical safety and protective functions along the way. Whether it’s a stadium infrastructure materials tennis ball or baseball bat, elite athletes from around the world depend on the products of chemistry.

Stadium Stadium is a place or venue for sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event. There is chemistry or chemicals involved in stadium infrastructure. Following are the few chemicals used in stadium equipments, chairs, roofs, turfs. Polyolefins – These are used in modern day stadium turfs Polycarbonate – These materials are using for stadium roofing purpose PVC – All most all parts of the stadiums are made up PVC material Polyurethanes Polyurethanes, a kind of plastic, will play an important role this summer as they are frequently found in running and other athletic shoes, making them more resilient. In addition, polyurethane is found in a wide variety of popular sporting equipment, such as soccer balls, binders on running tracks and judo mats. A number of styles of sport flooring and pour-in-place track surfaces use polyurethanes, as well. These equipment necessities alongside such items as surfboard, roller blades, bowling balls and spandex apparel are all made possible in part due to polyurethane innovations.

Polycarbonate Polycarbonate , a strong, shatter-resistant plastic, can also be found in protective sports equipment. Polycarbonate is often used in riding and biking helmets, helping protect riders competing in equestrian and cycling competitions. Polycarbonate sunglasses and protective visors, which provide optical clarity as well as shatter-resistance, are worn by runners and rowers, just to name a few. Polycarbonate lenses can also be found in swim goggles. Archery Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow. Archery equipment include Titanium Steel Irons are golf clubs with a flat angled face and a shorter shaft than a wood. They are called irons because they were made of metal. Putters can be manufactured from wood and metals. Golf Ball The first wound ball had three layers made by winding a small, hard core with elastic, rubber thread stretched many times its length and then coating it with a layer of gutta-percha. It was also the first modern ball, although it did not take long for manufacturers to replace the more rigid gutta-percha with rubber.

Gutta-percha/ Polyisoprene Gutta-percha chemical name is polyterpene, a polymer of isoprene, or polyisoprene, specifically (trans-1,4-polyisoprene). The cis structure of polyisoprene is the common latex elastomer. Trans-1,4 polyisoprene Trans-1,4-polyisoprene (gutta-percha) resembles plastic and is used e.g. in golf balls, deep sea cables, orthopedic applications and adhesives. Trans-1,4 polyisoprene is the dominant isomer in gutta-percha and balata, two materials that, like natural rubber, are derived from the milky exudates of certain trees. Unlike the cis-1,4 polymer, however, the trans-1,4 polymer is highly crystalline, so balata and gutta-percha are tough, hard, and leathery materials-properties that led in the 19th century to their use as sheathings for underwater cables and golf balls.

The trans-1,4 polymer can also be synthesized with Ziegler-Natta catalysts, yielding a synthetic balata of similar properties that also is employed in golf-ball covers as well as in orthopedic devices such as splints and braces. Surlyn copolymer Modern day golf balls are made up of Surlyn copolymer which belongs to family of high-performance ethylene copolymers containing acid groups partially neutralized using metal salts such as zinc, sodium and others. Football Football is a team game played by both men and women. It has gone through a dramatic change over time. In 1863 British Football Federation was formalized this game. Football materials Shoes Squash ball Squash balls, being made of a rubber compound, are of fairly low resilience. When a squash ball hits the racket strings and the wall and floor of the court, some of this energy is transformed into heat in the strings, wall, floor, and surrounding air and some into sound, but most of it becomes heat in the ball itself. This has two effects: the air inside the ball effectively becomes ‘pressurized’, and the rubber compound from which the ball is made becomes more resilient.

Squash balls are between 39.5 and 40.5 mm in diameter, and have a mass of 23 to 25 grams and these are made up of Polymers Fatigue resistance Steel Baseball Baseball, like softball, is unlike most other competitive sports in that the defense is given control of the ball. Equipment used in this game is Baseball Baseball glove – It is usually lined with polyurethane film Bases Helmet - Most helmets are made from crack-resistant, injection-molded plastic, such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or fiberglass. Face mask Mouth guard - Mouth guards are made of rubber or flexible polyvinyl, which is highly durable and easy to mold. Uniform – These are made of a blend of synthetic fibers including nylon, polyester, rayon, and acetate. Shin guard - Shin guards are made from fiberglass, polyurethane, or foam rubber Reference tennis: History History History Origins Unlike most other sports, lawn tennis has precise origins. An Englishman, Major Walter C. Wingfield, invented lawn tennis (1873) and first played it at a garden party in Wales.

Called "Sphairistiké" [Gr., = ball playing] by its inventor, the early game was played on an hourglass-shaped court, widest at the baselines and narrowest at the net. In creating the new sport, Wingfield borrowed heavily from the older games of court tennis and squash racquets and probably even from the Indian game of badminton . Court tennis is also known as royal tennis. It originated in France during the Middle Ages and became a favorite of British royalty, including Henry VIII. The progression from court tennis, which used an unresilient sheepskin ball filled with sawdust, sand, or wool, to lawn tennis depended upon invention of a ball that would bounce. Lawn tennis caught on quickly in Great Britain, and soon the All England Croquet Club at Wimbledon held the first world tennis championship (1877). Restricted to male players, that event became the famous Wimbledon Tournament for the British National Championship, still the most prestigious event in tennis. In 1884 Wimbledon inaugurated a women's championship. Soon the game became popular in many parts of the British Empire, especially in Australia. Tennis spread to the United States by way of Bermuda.

While vacationing there, Mary Ewing Outerbridge of New York was introduced (1874) to the game by a friend of Wingfield. She returned to the United States with a net, balls, and rackets, and with the help of her brother, set up a tennis court in Staten Island, N.Y. The first National Championship, for men only, was held (1881) at Newport, R.I. A women's championship was begun six years later, and in 1915 the National Championship moved to Forest Hills, N.Y. Since 1978 what is now the United States Tennis Association Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., has hosted the event (known as the U.S. Open). The Tennis Hall of Fame is in Newport, R.I. The Professionalization of Tournament Tennis In 1900 the international team competition known as the Davis Cup tournament began. Along with the Wightman Cup (begun 1923), an annual tournament between British and American women's teams, the Davis Cup helped to focus international attention on tennis.

In 1963, a women's Davis Cup equivalent, the Federation Cup, usurped the prestige of the Wightman Cup. In the first decades of the 1900s tennis was primarily a sport of the country club set. The widespread construction of courts on school and community playgrounds in the 1930s (many built by the federal government's New Deal agencies) helped to make tennis more accessible to the public. When the professional game showed itself to be profitable in the late 1920s, a number of amateur players joined the tour. One of the first to do so was William Tilden , perhaps the greatest player in the history of tennis. Before Tilden turned pro (1931), he won a total of seven United States singles championships and three Wimbledon championships. The continued defection of amateur players into the professional ranks was one of the factors that led amateur tennis's world governing body, the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF, founded 1913), to open its tournaments to both professionals and amateurs in 1968. For many years the major ILTF-sponsored tournaments, including Wimbledon and the U.S. National Championship, had been restricted to amateurs.

With the advent of open tennis, however, the great professionals were allowed to compete for the major titles. Eventually, the Davis Cup also allowed professionals. The four major annual tournaments in international tennis are Wimbledon, the Australian Open, the French Open, and the U.S. Open. Winning all four in the same year is called a grand slam. Only Don Budge (1938), Rod Laver (1962, 1969), Maureen Connolly (1953), Margaret Court (1970), and Steffi Graf (1988) have won grand slams. In 1971, the establishment of a women-only professional tour gave female pros financial parity with their male counterparts. In the same year Billie Jean King became the first woman athlete in any sport to earn more than $100,000 in one year. In the 1970s a team league, World Team Tennis, operated for several years, but was unsuccessful. The professional tour remains the most visible focus for the sport, its major tournaments surpassing in prestige even competition in the Olympics, which added tennis in 1988.

Sections in this article: The History Of Racquetball. Where And How Racquetball Started. History of Racquetball The Origins of the Game of Racquetball Racquetball is a game that is played in an indoor court with three walls, a rubber ball, and a small racquet. Though outdoor courts exist, they are rare. It is possible to play solo, doubles, and even with four players. Unlike many other sports popular today, racquetball does not have a long and involved history. Rather, it was developed early in the twentieth century by combining other popular sports—tennis, handball, squash, and a Spanish sport called jai alai. The roots of racquetball may have started in prisons in the 1800s, when inmates were given balls which they would hit against the walls. During this time, the sport was referred to as “rackets.” In America, the game first appeared in the1920s. It was Joseph G. Sobek, a professional handball, squash, and tennis player from Greenwich, Connecticut, who has most often been credited with the invention of the game.

In the 1940s, Sobek was working in a rubber factory and designed the rubber ball that is used for the sport today. He, along with a partner, also decided to combine the rules of handball and squash and start the rules for the racquetball, known at the time as “paddle rackets.” Rackets, paddles, and balls—all appeared in different shapes and forms over the years, as the search for the ideal model of each continued. Sobek founded the Paddle Racquet Association in 1952 and distributed a set of rules to all YMCAs in the United States to help spread the popularity of the sport. By 1969, the game had become so popular worldwide that a man named Robert Kendler founded the International Racquetball Association, thereby changing the name of the sport to “racquetball.” During the same year, the first racquetball official championship was held in St. Louis, Missouri. It was also during this time that sporting goods stores began manufacturing official racquetball gear for the sport. Popularity of the sport grew as more athletes came to notice its high intensity, giving them a great workout and building up sweat while playing.

Sports clubs and country clubs throughout the United States picked up on the enthusiasm of the sport and started building racquetball courts in their clubs. In the 1980s, the popularity of this sport started to fall. Many clubs tore down their racquetball courts. However, there were still many loyal racquetball players who devoted themselves to the sport and kept the spirit of the game alive. Even with the decline of its popularity, today, there are still well over 20 million people worldwide that compete in this sport. Since 1981, there is a world championship that is held annually, and in 1995, the International Olympic Committee approved it as a Pan American Games sport. Racquetball was a part of the U.S. Olympic Festival with the hopes of one day being a part of the real Olympics. It is known as the youngest sport ever to be noticed by the United States Olympic Committee. Today, the 20 million racquetball players are spread out in over 95 countries all over the world. Presently, racquetball is more or less established, yet the rules for racquetball can vary by country or region.

For example, in Australia, the racquetball court is played in a standard international squash court, which is 32 feet x 21 feet. (Americans play in a 40 feet x 20 feet court.) The Australians also follow the rules where if the ball touches the ceiling, the ball is considered to be out. In American rules, this is a valid play. These Australian rules are from the Victorian Racquetball Federation. Join the #1 RECRUITING NETWORK History of Tennis and Tennis Equipment DoItTennis History of Tennis and Tennis Equipment History of the Tennis Game Tennis got its start as far back as the 8th century as a game called ‘La Soule’ played by Christian Monks. The Monks would hit a ball back and forth indoors and against courtyard walls using their hands or a stick. History shows the predecessor to today’s lawn tennis spread out of the monasteries by the 13th century. The game became very popular, particularly in France where players would begin a game by shouting ‘tenez’ meaning something to the effect of ‘take this’ or ‘play!’ Check out our entire line of tennis accessories!

History of Lawn Tennis The history of tennis took a critical turn in the 19th century with the development of vulcanized rubber, which allowed for the production of balls that would bounce. This allowed the game of tennis to be taken outdoors to any flat, grassy area. Here begins the history of lawn tennis. In 1874, Englishman Major Walter C. Wingfield patented in London the equipment and rules for the game that would later develop into modern-day tennis. He called the game, derived from court tennis, squash and badminton, “Sphairistiké” which is German for ball playing. Lawn tennis courts soon became commonplace across Europe and the US. Get the best selection of hard court and extra duty tennis balls at great prices. Women in Tennis History Throughout history, tennis has been considered both a man’s and woman’s game. It was a woman, Mary Ewing Outerbridge, who brought the game of lawn tennis to the US in 1874. Outerbridge learned the game while on vacation in Bermuda and shared the concept with her friends and family. Her brother, director of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club, soon added a lawn tennis court to the club’s lineup.

By 1884, women were competing alongside men at Wimbledon. Maud Watson won the first women’s singles tennis title in 1884 and again in 1885. Get name brand women’s tennis equipment and accessories at great prices! History of the US Open The history of the US Open began in August 1881 as an amateur event known as the US National Singles Championship for Men, held at the Newport Casino in Newport, R.I. Only United States National Lawn Tennis Association members were permitted to enter. Women made their mark in tennis history six years later at the first US Open’s Women’s National Singles Championship held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. Today, the US Open is the world’s richest tennis event, open to amateurs and professionals. The History of Tennis Equipment History of the Tennis Court The earliest games of tennis where played in the courtyards of monasteries in Europe. As the game evolved into Real Tennis, popular among European nobility, the game was played on rectangular indoor courts with hard floors of wood or stone. Tennis progressed into an outdoor sport played on grass fields.

These field courts shared much of the same markings as today’s tennis courts, but had an hourglass shape, wide at the ends and narrow at the net. The rectangular design of today’s modern tennis court began in 1875. It was not until the 1940’s that hard courts were used in official lawn tennis tournaments. In 1956 the Gallia Tennis Club in Cannes, France made history with the first clay tennis court. Today, many indoor courts utilize synthetic mats or carpets over concrete or other hard surfaces. Find the tennis court equipment you need - from nets to ballhoppers to water coolers - it’s all here. History of the Tennis Racquet In early tennis, played by monks, the ball was hit with the hand, similar to handball today. As hitting the ball became uncomfortable, players began using webbed gloves and paddles. The history of the modern tennis racquet began in the 14th century. The early wooden framed racquet had a long handle and small, tear-drop shaped head with strings made of gut. The racquet head grew in size with the invention of lawn tennis, but changed little over the next 100 years.

Though racquets with metal heads and wire strings were invented in 1889, they did not make tennis history until 1967, when Wilson Sporting Goods introduced the T2000. This metal racquet was stronger and lighter than wood and quickly became a top seller. The next 30 years brought an explosion of innovations in racquet construction and design leading to today’s popular lightweight graphite racquets designed with oversized heads and wider frames. Find the racquet for you game - Get Profiled! History of the Tennis Shoe Like the tennis ball and lawn tennis, the history of the tennis shoe began in the 1800s with the invention of vulcanized rubber. The invention allowed for the creation of the first rubber-soled shoes, called plimsolls. In 1931, Adidas made history with the release of the first tennis shoe. Converse followed four years later with the releases of an athletic shoe named after the 1930’s badminton/tennis champion Jack Purcell. These tennis shoes soon became a staple among the Hollywood and “bad boy” crowd. History of Squash History of Squash Job, Jobs, Jobs Something to sell ...

by Ted Wallbutton of the WSF For over 1,000 years man has invented and enjoyed a variety of games played by hitting a ball with either a closed fist - as in ï¿½fivesï¿½ or ï¿½bunch of fingersï¿½ - or with some form of bat or racket. Around the year 1148 the French played ï¿½le Paumeï¿½, meaning ï¿½the palm of the handï¿½, which developed into Jeu de Paume, Real Tennis, Royal Tennis or, if you play the sport, simply Tennis. At sometime in the early 19th century this obsession with rackets and balls spawned another variety of the sport in the unlikely birthplace of the Fleet Prison in London. The prisoners in ï¿½The Fleetï¿½, mainly debtors, took their exercise by hitting a ball against walls, of which there were many, with rackets and so started the game of ï¿½Racketsï¿½.

Rackets progressed, by some strange route, to Harrow and other select English schools about 1820 and it was from this source that our own sport of Squash, or Squash Rackets, developed. Squash was invented in Harrow school around 1830, when the pupils discovered that a punctured Rackets ball, which "squashed" on impact with the wall, produced a game with a greater variety of shots and required much more effort on the part of the players, who could not simply wait for the ball to bounce back to them as with Rackets. The variant proved popular and in 1864 the first four Squash courts were constructed at the school and Squash was officially founded as a sport in its own right. In those early days Squash, as with all other sports, was without any form of international standardisation and it was inevitable that slight variations in the way it was played, and the equipment used, would occur.

Luckily only two main streams of activity followed, one in England with its 21 feet wide courts and ï¿½softï¿½ ball and the other in North America, with its 18ï¿½ feet wide courts and ï¿½hardï¿½ ball and with both courts having the same length of 32 feet the universality of Squash was not seriously challenged. We will look at these two branches separately and also at the way in which Squash spread to almost every nation in the world. EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND The first recorded reference to "Squash", other than in Harrow school, appeared in 1890 in the English book "The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes" written by the Duke of Beaufort. Eustace Miles, a world championship at both Tennis and Rackets, wrote the first book on Squash in 1901; stating that the sport was enjoyed by thousands of players in various parts of the world. By that time there were courts in schools and universities in England and some also in private houses. The first professional Squash Championship was held in 1920 in England, when C.R.

Read (Queens Club) beat A.W.B. Johnson (RAC Club). In 1923 H.A.L. Rudd, writing in "Baily's Magazine", forecast that Rackets would lose many players to Squash with the arrival of the first English Amateur Championships. He was concerned at this prospect as he considered Rackets to be a "manlier" game; Squash afforded a good "sweat" but did not demand the same skill as Rackets, in his opinion. Rudd's forecast proved to be only too correct as Squash grew rapidly and soon left its parent sport far behind in popularity. As Squash play developed so did its administrative structure. The first discrete national associations to be formed were the United States Squash Racquets Association in 1907 and the Canadian Squash Racquets Association in 1911. In England the game was regulated by a Squash sub committee of the Tennis and Rackets Association from 1908 until it gained full status as the Squash Rackets Association in 1928.

A court built at the Bath Club in London at the beginning of the 20th century was chosen as the model for the standard size of a Squash court, 32 feet by 21 feet or 9.75 metres by 6.4 metres, much smaller that the court for Rackets which measures 60 feet by 30 feet (18.3 metres by 9.1 metres). The British dimensions were proposed in 1911, but not ratified until 1923. The point-a-rally scoring system to 15 was used universally in Squash until 1926 when the current hand-in, hand-out system to 9 points was introduced outside north America. The American hardball game, however, continued to be played to 15 points and this system was also adopted for the men's professional circuit in 1991 in an effort to shorten the matches. In 1933 the great Egyptian player F.D. Amr Bey, won the first of his five British Open Championships, then seen as the World Championships. He was followed in his achievement by M.A.

Karim of Egypt who won the title four times from 1947 to 1950 and then the dominating Khan dynasty from Pakistan; Hashim (1951-1958), Roshan (1957), Azam (1959-1962), Mohibullah (1963), Jahangir (1982-1992) and Jansher (1993-1994). The Women's British Open commenced even earlier than the Men's; with Miss J.I. Cave winning the title in 1922. Until 1960 the title belonged solely to English players, with Janet Morgan (later Shardlow) winning 10 times between 1950 and 1958. She was followed by the most famous woman Squash player ever, the Australian Heather McKay, who dominated the sport from 1966 to 1977 and remained undefeated throughout her playing career. Her successor was the New Zealander, Susan Devoy, who won the title 8 times between 1984 and 1992.

Perhaps the players who had the most impact on the development of the sport were Jonah Barrington (Ireland) and Geoff Hunt (Australia). They dominated Squash between the late 1960's and early 1980's, capturing the imagination of sportsmen and women everywhere and starting a boom in the sport which raised the number of courts to 46000 worldwide and the number of players to over 15 million by 1994. SQUASH IN AMERICA Squash was certainly being played in Canada before 1882, as it was then that James P Conover, the Headmaster of St. Paulï¿½s School in Concord, New Hampshire, USA, saw it being played in Montreal. He thought it would be a perfect sport for his boys and wrote in the November 1882 edition of the school magazine ï¿½It is the universal experience, that for health and for the highest perfection in the game, the average boy or man should play but one rubber a dayï¿½. He went on to describe the new Squash complex and its 21 feet wide courts and compare the game favourably with Rackets.

ï¿½This building will cover an area of fifty feet by sixty, and will have a height of about seventy feet from the ground to the eaves. The ball used in such courts is about the size of a walnut, of rubber, and hollow, with a hole in it to prevent breaking. The so-called ï¿½squash-ball courtï¿½ recommended itself to the club for many reasons; such courts are largely used in English public schools; cost of construction is much less; fewer racquet bats are broken and fewer balls destroyed; fewer heads are cracked and fewer knees and elbows barked; the danger from being hit by the ball (quite an item among young players) is cancelled; and for all intents and purposes the game is the same and produces just as good players.ï¿½ Although the International, or ï¿½softï¿½, ball was harder and bouncier than it is now it was not ideally suited to the cold courts in Concord where the temperature was often below freezing point during play. A harder rubber ball was developed and found to be more suited to slightly narrower courts, leading to the 18ï¿½ feet court, 19 feet court and other experimental widths.

It was not until 1924 that the court specifications were codified, at which time it was decided to standardise on the 18ï¿½ feet width and a 17 inch ï¿½ tinï¿½ rather than the 19 inch variety used for the soft ball. By 1929 official court plans were being sold by the USSRA and the hardball game was brought into controlled growth. The United States Squash Racquets Association was founded in 1907 and it was in that year also that the first recognised National Championship for Squash in any country was held with John A Miskey of Philadelphia winning the American title, a feat he repeated in 1908 and 1910. After Miskey the National title was won six times by Stanley W Pearson, also from Philadelphia, between 1915 and 1923, with his son Stanley Junior continuing the tradition by taking it in 1948.

Other great national players from Philadelphia included Charles M P Brinton (1941/42/46/47) and G Diehl Mateer Jr (1954/56/61) with Henri R Salaun from Boston winning four times between 1995 and 1961. Victor Niederhoffer (New York) dominated the 1970s with 5 victories, Kenton Jernigan (Newport, Rhode Island) recorded three titles in the 1980s and Mexican Hector Barragan won five consecutive titles from 1990 to 1994. In the early days most of the Womenï¿½s National titles were won by players from Boston, Philadelphia or Wilmington, interspersed by the occasional English tourist winner, such as Susan Noel (1933), Margot Lumb (1935) and the great Janet Morgan (1949 & 1955).

Margaret Howe of Boston won three times between 1929 and 1934, while two Philadelphians, Anne Page and Cecile Bowes won four times each between 1936 and 1948. Thereafter one player or another dominated the scene for several years; Betty (Howe) Constable from Philadelphia winning four titles (1956-1959), Margaret Varner (Wilmington) four (1960-1963), Gretchen Spruance (Wilmington) five (1973-1978) with the 1980s totally dominated by Alicia McConnell (Brooklyn) with seven titles (1982-1988) and Demer Holleran from Hanover NH taking over in 1989 to remain undefeated for seven years until 1995.

With the establishment of a Professional Tour, to which clubs were encouraged to send their teaching pro., a list of world famous names acquired US titles from the mid-fifties - Hashim Khan (4 wins), Mahmoud Kerim (4), Mohibullah Khan (5), Sharif Khan (9), Mark Talbott (5), Jahangir Khan (2) and Jansher Khan (3). Squash played with a hard ball on an 18ï¿½ feet wide court was the only form of the sport played in the USA until the mid-1980s, but then growing exposure to the ï¿½Internationalï¿½ game resulted in some 21 feet wide courts being built and the international, ï¿½softï¿½, ball being used on both the wide and narrow courts. Additionally, the USSRA recognised a 20 feet width as being acceptable for International play, this width being derived from the increasing trend to convert Racquetball courts to Squash use.

In an incredibly short period of time in the early 1990s Squash in the USA changed from being overwhelmingly ï¿½hardballï¿½ to predominantly ï¿½softballï¿½, with the only available monitor of the trend, ball sales, indicating that by 1996 around 80% of all play was International. Quite why this change happened, and why so quickly, is still being debated but there is little doubt that a new generation of players is now experiencing the love affair with international squash which happened in all other nations and finding it preferable to the higher racket skills demanded by the hardball game. The North American player was also the first to appreciate the virtues of Doubles Squash, with the hardball being used on a court measuring 45 feet long by 25 feet wide. The first National Doubles Championships were held in 1933 and hardball Doubles continues to thrive even though the singles version now holds only a minority of play. AUSTRALIA, GERMANY AND 123 OTHER NATIONS Squash spread rapidly in its early days and the major growth areas were wherever British forces were stationed.

South Africa, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries learned their Squash from the military and soon adopted it as their own. Probably the most successful Squash nation of all time, Australia, had its Squash seed planted through contact with the military. Although the first Squash courts in Australia were established in 1913, at the Melbourne Club in Victoria, there was no official Squash association until 1934 although top players had been engaged in ad hoc club tournaments since 1927. During 1934 a group of players decided that local administrative pressure and the need to liaise with interstate and overseas organisations demanded an official body and the Squash Rackets Association of Australia (SRAA) was founded, although its main tasks remained locally orientated in the Melbourne area. Even when the first Australian Championships were held, for men in 1931 and women in 1932, they were, in reality, State Championships for Victoria. The SRA of Victoria was formed in 1937. In New South Wales the first court was built just after the first World War, by Mr.

Bjelke-Petersen, the uncle of the former Queensland Premier, Sir Joe Bjelke-Petersen. The New South Wales SRA was formed in 1937 and the first pennant competition in Sydney commenced in July 1939. But it was in the 1960s that Squash started to really take off in Australia. Greater commercial development came into the sport and public Squash centres were built all over the country, bringing the game to a much wider audience. This growth brought amazing international success with many of the worldï¿½s best players coming from the Australian Squash scene. Heather McKay, Ken Hiscoe, Geoff Hunt, Vicki Cardwell, Steve Bowditch, Rhonda Thorne and, more recently, Michelle and Rodney Martin all become World Squash Champions at senior level and Peter Nance, Chris Robertson, Robyn Lambourne, Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Rachael Grinham achieved the same distinction at junior level. Hunt was World Champion seven times and won eight British Open titles while Heather McKay was the most successful Squash player of all time, being undefeated in international competition for an astounding 19 years.

In 1976 the headquarters of the SRAA were transferred to Queensland and merged with the Australian Womenï¿½s SRA to form the ASRA in 1986, its name being changed to Squash Australia in 1990. In Germany Squash was born twice! Its first cradle was in Berlin in 1930 when the first four courts were built by Dr. Ernst von Siemens, head of the technology department of the electronics company which bore his name, and he started regular company staff activities and even foreign competitions on the ï¿½wall-play-hallsï¿½. Other courts followed, but during wartime they were all used for a variety of other purposes and it was not until 1978 that the Siemens courts were again used by the ï¿½Berlin Wallball Game Clubï¿½. The initiative for the rebirth came from Christhof Viscount Vitzthum who had discovered the sport in Australia, heard about the Siemens courts by accident and started to promote Squash and bring the courts back into use.

But an even earlier start had been made in Hamburg by a merchant, Henning Harders, who erected three courts following an infection by the Squash bug in Australia and it was a group of Hamburg players who founded the German SRA in 1973 and sent a team to the European Team Championships in Stockholm during 1974. Two years after the German SRA was founded the first National Championships were held and within a few years there were over 6000 courts and 2 million players in the nation - the most spectacular growth of Squash anywhere in the world. Germany celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary in 1998 by bringing the Womenï¿½s World Championships to Stuttgart. Many other nations experienced tremendous growth in Squash, starting slowly at the beginning of the century and then gaining momentum over the past thirty years. In each country the basic story is the same. A group of enthusiasts start to play and promote the game which, because of its inherent qualities of intense exercise coupled with all-absorbing competition., grows rapidly and becomes a major sport in the land.

The formula which made Squash grow in its traditional homelands is now being seen again in Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Korea and many new Squash nations, worldwide. PAKISTAN ï¿½ BIRTHPLACE OF CHAMPIONS Of all the nations where Squash is played Pakistan is the greatest enigma, producing a succession of amazing Squash champions from a country where there are still less than 400 courts. No history of Squash can be complete without an account of the amazing exploits of the Khan dynasty, starting with Hashim who won the first of his seven British Open titles in 1951 at the age of 35 years. Hashim was the first of a line of great Pakistani Squash Champions - Azam Khan, Mohibullah Khan, Roshan Khan, Aftab Jawaid, Gogi Alauddin, Mo Yasin, Qamar Zaman, Mohibullah Khan Junior, Hiddy Jahan and the two greatest players of the 1980s and 1990s, perhaps of all time, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan.

Jahangir, now a Vice-President of the World Squash Federation, dominated the sport for 14 years, winning the British Open 10 times and the World Open 8 times and was undefeated for 5ï¿½ years. Jansher took over his mantle in 1989 with his first of World Open titles and began a debate in the sport about which JK was the greatest of them all. THE WORLD SCENE In its early days international Squash was controlled by the Squash Rackets Association of England and the United States Squash Rackets Association, but in 1966 representatives of the sport from Australia, Great Britain, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, USA, Canada and the United Arab Republic met in London and agreed to form the International Squash Rackets Association (ISRF), the first meeting of which was held on 5 January 1967. The ISRF continued to thrive and was amalgamated with the Women's International Squash Federation in 1985.

In 1992 the name of the Federation was changed to the World Squash Federation (WSF), finally recognising that the sport had been universally referred to simply as "Squash", rather than "Squash Rackets", for most of its existence. Squash is played in 130 countries, on 47000 courts, and the World Squash Federation now has 116 Squash playing National Associations in membership. It is the sole International Federation for the sport, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and maintains responsibility for the rules of the Game, Court and Equipment Specifications, Refereeing and Coaching. The WSF maintains a World Calendar of events and organises and promotes World Championships for Men, Women, Junior Men, Junior women and Master age groups in both singles and doubles Squash. The Federation leads its Member Nations in programmes for the development of the sport and is currently working with the IOC towards the target of having Squash included as a sport on the programme of the Olympic Games in the year 2008.

Squash has been played for over 130 years, grown sensationally in the last thirty and is now poised to become one of the largest and best loved of all sports.

Question: The game of "racquets" developed into which sport?
Answer: Squash