Ultrafit: The motion is squashed

It was seven points to one and I was on the losing end when John Stever smacked a backhand shot to the wall. Two steps forward, shoes squeaking on wood, and I was in the forecourt, arm outstretched, tapping off a shot.

Stever swatted it hard in return, and I ran back, playing a one-bounce off the glass. Then another dribbler. I'm back up front, opposite corner, huffing, head swirling, leaping at a little rubber ball that will not quit. This is squash, a court sport akin to racquetball, though physically much more intense.

"In racquetball, the ball comes to you," Stever had explained. "In squash, you go to the ball."

Indeed, Stever, an instructor at the University of Minnesota's School of Kinesiology, had me running like a retriever. We were 20 minutes into an introductory session, rallying under fluorescent lights at the university's Recreation Center, where the sport has seen a surge in participation in the past year.

As its name implies, squash employs a squishy rubber ball with little bounce: drop one from head height and it rebounds 4 inches or less from the floor. In play -- like tennis or racquetball -- you're allowed just one bounce between volleys. But in squash, that single bounce might mean a meager dribble you're diving to save, laser-eyed, dashing with all you've got to keep the rally alive.

"It's about the best workout you can imagine," Stever said.

Top calorie-burning activity

He is not alone in this assessment. Squash is cited as a top calorie-burning activity by dietitians, ranking alongside running, rowing and cross-country skiing. A recent story published by Forbes polled fitness experts to rank the top 10 healthiest sports. Squash came in at No. 1.

"I am addicted to the game's speed and intensity and all the benefits from that," said Anna Masellis of the Minnesota Squash Association (www.mnsquash.org), a 120-member group. Masellis, 42, a research oncologist from St. Paul, lists cardio-respiratory endurance, enhanced muscular strength, bolstered flexibility and increased cognitive skills and concentration as benefits of the sport.

"People compare it to a chess match," Masellis said. "You're jumping around but always trying to strategize, think ahead, guess what your opponent is going to do next."

Squash, an international sport with roots in Great Britain, has been played for more than 100 years. Egypt, Pakistan, India, Australia, France and England produce top players for events like the World Open, an annual world championship tournament with a prize purse worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Advocates are working to push squash into the Olympic Games as soon as 2016.

Locally, several hundred squash players occupy courts at health clubs in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Plymouth, Chanhassen, Lakeville and St. Louis Park. About 200 people play regularly at the University of Minnesota, where there are five squash courts and more in the works.

Stever, who teaches four squash classes a semester at the university, also serves as executive director of Squash Scholars (www.squashscholars.net), a new mentoring program modeled after successful youth-oriented "urban squash" programs in Chicago, New York, Boston and Philadelphia. The organization's mission is to use squash to promote "physical health and well-being, mental agility and growth in self esteem." Mentoring and help with homework will be balanced with time in the court.

Stever also hopes to produce a few squash champions. "These kids will start playing young, and if they stick with it [they] could develop into top contenders," he said.

For players like 31-year-old Vinh Chung, a competitive squasher from Maple Grove, mastery of the game comes with a preternatural feel for the court. "It's all about angles," he said, referring to a squash ball's trajectory as it skips from floor to wall, ricocheting off vertical and horizontal planes before each redirection with a racquet.

"You need to think in three dimensions, play the corners, know where the ball will be," said Chung.

A squash court -- stark white with wooden floors, dashed with red boundary lines, often backed with a glass wall -- measures 32 feet deep by 21 feet wide. Inside that box, players leap, sprint, start, stop, lunge and dive in games that stretch to 20 minutes or more of athletic intensity.

I was sweating after 5 minutes of play. Stever, 64, a retired software developer, started out nice before giving me a little what-for. "You want to jump into the action," he asked, ball in hand, ready to serve.

Squash games play to nine points; you score only on the serve. Players swing, dart and dash in tight quarters, leaping out of the way of each other's return volley and view.

Collisions -- at least with beginners -- are common, and not just with fellow players. Twice while in the squash court, I made sudden acquaintance with a wall, my shoulder absorbing the impact, body oozing to the court floors.

"You doing all right?" Stever asked after my second run-in.

I got back up to serve, whacking the little black ball with a grunt, landing a bounce behind Stever's stretching backhand.

But he played it off the glass, flinging the ball with the flick of a wrist, landing it just where I'd hoped it wouldn't go. A sprint, a leap, a whiff at the ball, and I was on the floor again.

"Nine to one," Stever said. "That's game."

Stephen Regenold is a Twin Cities writer and author of the syndicated column the Gear Junkie. See www.thegearjunkie.com.