Squash or Tennis?

Parents Forum
61

"I agree that squash is less well known. But it is definitely not cheaper to compete. Rackets break more frequently than tennis (because of the tendency to scrape the side walls). I routinely break my racket 2-3x per year. Each racket costs about $200. Club membership is also expensive, which ranges from $100-$200 per month. Squash strings break frequently (costs $40 to restring each time). Then add on the fees for private lessons (approx $100 per hour), tournaments and travel, and the costs are high.

Tennis rackets rarely break, and the strings don’t break as frequently as the squash rackets. I imagine the lesson fees are similar, but the costs to join a tennis club are much cheaper. Tournament travel would also be similar."

If the costs listed for squash are correct, then any differences in cost may come down to how many lessons are needed and how often does a player have to play to become a top player.

62

“The over-specialization of sport in America of late saddens me. I”

I don’t think that the issue is over-specialization in tennis. High school tennis is simply not played at a high level. In some places being a good overall athlete is enough to land you a spot on a high school team. If you can whack the ball and get it in half the time you are good to go. That does not mean tennis is easy. Rather it is so hard that most schools have few people who can play. Imagine a high school baseball team with players who were just introduced to a ball. This is a ball. This is a bat. See you swing… That is what some high school tennis is like. You can see the impact by looking at scores. An actual player will sometimes play a high school season and end up, not only with a winning ratio but having won every match and every game.6-0, 6-0. You can imagine what a waste of time that is from a players perspective-although being on a team can be a lot of fun-more so than playing USTA tournaments. But the point is that there are ways to play tennis without specializing. You’re just not going to be at a college level. But why would you think you would be?

63

blueskiestoday, about this " In the USTA system there are not state or regional championship categories, it is a national system with tournament levels, 1 (being the highest) to 5. At the local, called sectional levels, there are tournaments called challengers, opens, super series - their name varies by which of the 17 USTA sections they are in."

Well there are regions (regionals-really for beginners) within sections and you can play at a regional or sectional level. And, while it isn’t really called “states”, The Eastern Section is pretty much NY. California has 2 sections, etc. Do you really restring after every session? Some guy had developed some new strings for his son, who was a player, and he was marketing them as lasting a good long time. It was sort of a hybrid string. He was giving them away at some tournaments and I think they were better.

sgopal2, you can’t generalize from high school tennis. Actual high school aged tennis players don’t usually play high school tennis. The people you see playing are usually fairly good athletes but not actual tennis players. I don’t know if that is true about squash or not but generalizing about junior tennis players from what you see when you watch a high school match is absurd.

64

@lostaccount the equipment cost for tennis is very high for me. I restring 2 rackets after every hitting session and a racket has a lifespan of 20-30 string jobs before it is too damaged to play well. I Purchase 4 rackets every 8-12 months.

I also string my own rackets and use budget poly(lasts as long as any brand) to lower the cost.

If I used name brand string and paid someone to string for me I would be spending nearly 500$ a week on stringing rackets.

I purchase a reel of string for 41$, the equivelant would be 300 for babolat rpm which many players use. I practice quite often and at the moment 3-4 times a week so I am stringing 5-8 times a week.

A reel lasts 18-20 string jobs so that means about a month.

New string reels for normal people at my level would cost 3600$ for a years worth, plus 800$ for rackets, and if we wear out shoes we have to pay 145 for the ones with a warranty.

Shoe cost is about 500$ more or less a year for me, I need new shoes every 4-6 weeks and I always use the warranty so I get 2 pairs for 145$.

So for the high level athlete who doesn’t have a sponsorship tennis equipment costs about $5,000 a year.

Clinic used to cost about $500(pretty low price) a month in the school year for 4 days a week.

Private lessons were weekly at $100 an hour.

Summer Academy cost $600 a week for 8 hours split up into morning, afternoon and extra fitness.

This is pretty standard amongst most high level players. $4500 for the school year, $7200 for the summer and $5200 for tennis lessons. $16900 a year.

Now we can do tournament fees, the average tournament fee is about $50 and most players play about 20 tournaments a year. That puts us at $1000 for tournament fees.

Now Hotel and travel expenses. I will say that about 1/3 of the tournaments are within distance to my house and don’t require hotels.

Acording to my rank I should make it to day 2 in every tournament I play, so I will assume that is 2 nights(even tho some last till monday) and say that we stay at a hampton in for 140$.

26 Hotel rooms*140=$3640

Now we have to include meals, I require 6 meals and my mom about 3. At 8$(the price of a burger) we spend $1440 on food. 9meals8dollars20tournaments.

I will go out and say we only use a tank of gas a weekend since we use a lot more some weekends and a lot less other weekends. $30*20=600

$6680 total travel expenses for tournaments.

Then we have medical bills, I am injured 4-5 times over the course of the year requiring pt. $55 copay3 visits4 injuries. Another $660

Supplements and recovery drinks are about $80 a month
$960 for a year

Equipment-$5000 a year
Lessons-$16900 a year
Tournament and travel fees-$6680 a year
Medical bills- $660 a year
Health Supplements-$960 a year

Total Expenses-$30,200

I’m not sure what squash costs at this level, but this is tennis.

65

@lostaccount How often you restring depends on how you hit, more spin means more friction and polyester slices itself up. Synthetic woven string doesn’t last me more than 1 set(30-45 minutes).

I hit heavy spin serves and they eat strings like crazy.

Edit: the longest lasting string I have used is kevlar, but I still broke it every 2 or so matches in a tournament. It is what is most durable, nothing else compares.

My new string is cheaper even if I break 3 times as many strings, and it also plays better.

66

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-19/sports/sp-2094_1_junior-tennis

this was 1987, with inflation 10000 is 21000

67

It seems there are tennis and squash fans on this thread, both defending their sport with passion which would be expected. :slight_smile: It is great that a kid is playing any sport - the longer the better. Both at competitive levels require amazing athleticism. The article below spells out the tennis costs, at the highest levels even if they get a scholarship, many tennis families end up “pre-paying college” in tennis expenses. I would guess that is the same with many sports - training, equipment, PT, travel costs and time committment are high. Of course, the best kids get their training comp’d, have equipment sponsorships and get grants from USTA or other sport specific athletic organizations, decreasing these costs at some point, but still a huge investment for anyone.

http://catennis.squarespace.com/most-recent/2011/12/7/junior-development-475776-price-tag.html

Disclosure: I have a player on the ATP tour, so ya, tennis is our thing :slight_smile:

68

@CADREAMIN Yeah, some kids get sponsorships or grants. The article shows easter bowl training costs, I am below 5k a year on training cost as I am not traveling like those kids are.

A step below Easter Bowl and Kalamazoo are still kids play l1 nationals and training as hard, that’s where I am at. We get no monetary help.

I have a friend, No.1 blue chip in class of 2019 and has a win over current wake forest freshman Eric rutledge(this past march).

He sleeps in the back of his car and eats raman noodles. He just got back and got to the semis in a grade 4 itf.

Tennis is tough on families at high levels. Unless it’s just for recreational purposes it will cost some serious cash.

69

@SeniorStruggling Ya, you’ve been through it! So you are competing in L1s, but no tennis in college?

I really admire the junior players that stick with it even though they may never bring home a gold ball or go to the best tennis colleges. They do it cause they love it, and I have to say, tennis players are really good people to call your friends.

70

@CADREAMIN I am playing d3 at Earlham, i got preffered walk on at d1s but lower quality of academics. Plus I would like to enjoy and win in my last 4 years of competitive tennis rather than go to a low level d1.

I also want to major in biochem and be a doctor, d1 and premed don’t do well together either.

Yeah, best I can say is I compete well in sectional tournaments, 3rd round at a l1 state tournament and l2 national.

Top 50 texas rank isn’t bad considering i am also 5’8 and about 140 pounds. This is why I have other goals as far as after college.

Edit: i do have to say though, i have had 3 5 star wins in my career and 2 blue chips in doubles. Just don’t have quite the ability to keep that level for 5 matches and 20 tournaments a year.

71

@SeniorStruggling Congrats on a great and right choice for you and knowing how to balance sports with an aggressive career plan! Sounds like you will be a rock star for them. It is great to go somewhere that you can play from the start or work your way up but not be constantly stressing/battling to get in the line up. At many D1s it can be hard just to get the science classes needed (cause they always conflict with practice times or gone too much for matches and miss too many classes) for a pre-med major. I know a couple players that got a “regular” undergrad degree, then were going to spend the first year out doing the pre-med requirements like bio and chem. That’s a long haul!

And yes, as you mentioned, for the higher levels of college tennis, strings are changed after every practice and each match was typically 2 racquets/strings - gotta love the team taking care of that and string sponsorship after that!

The time management you learned by getting to your level of tennis will serve you well. Best to you and your career at Earlham! A college tennis team is a band of brothers - you have so much to look forward to. :slight_smile:

72

Since most of you are tennis folks and I think the OP’s question has been thoroughly addressed, I’d love to hear how people think the changes in the USTA junior circuit are working. My kids were pretty much out by the time they were being contemplated and, last I recall, Hannity and others had successfully got them postponed for a year What’s up with them now. Are they a positive or negative change.

This also would inform the question about squash vs tennis because junior tennis might be going in the right direction…or not.

73

Squash is a great game. I used to play both squash and tennis – never competitively – and if I had to choose one, it would be squash, no question.

Anyway, from the ridiculous perspective of trying to game college admissions:

Around here, where people care a lot about Ivies and their equivalents, and NESCAC schools and their equivalents, each of my kids had several friends who were recruited to play squash someplace desirable. They also knew a few people who played tennis at D-III LACs, but it was the difference between having your sport get you into Yale, Brown, or Penn vs. Oberlin. At top-level colleges, they have about as many squash slots as tennis slots, and the number of people competing for those slots is much, much smaller.

74

I’ve also known lots of squash-playing kids who used the sport as an entry to schools - schools they may not have otherwise gotten into. Not the tippy-top schools – the Ivies et al., still want good grades/stats – but very good LACs.

75

The idea of choosing a sport or nearly any activity with the major goal of doing something parents think will get their kid into a particular (or “elite”) college seems pathetic to me. If the child wants to engage in the activity because the child thinks there is value to the activity, then that is an entirely different story.

The students I know who played or are playing for college play because they love the sport. Many are at Ivy league schools and others are at strong private schools in the Northeast. Most would have gotten into the colleges they are attending (or attended) without the sport. But I did witness the most atrocious conduct on the part of the parents who were micromanaging their child’s college resume from middle school onward. They were the parents whose kids did not love the game. They were the kids whose mothers would stand by the court and clap loudly and menacingly (as if to call a dog-not applause) to try to get their kids more engaged in the game after a point was lost. They were the kids who were withdrawn from draws when they got to a round where they were matched to someone who would beat them (because tennis recruiting rates on head to head instead of points). These kids and their parents gamed tennis like they game college admissions (and later college itself). I think it is pretty sad. What a way to ruin childhood!

76

“I did witness the most atrocious conduct on the part of the parents who were micromanaging their child’s college resume from middle school onward”

– No doubt. But that’s not the case in this discussion. In fact, OP isn’t even the parent. And the overwhelming advice was for the student in question to do what he enjoys the most.

77

@lostaccount

Do you think atrocious parental conduct is unique to junior tennis and squash?

This sort of behavior is part of the beast that is junior sports. While unfortunate, it is what it is.,

Our son is a pretty good squash player, and in our area, there are not enough elite juniors to practice with, nor national-level tournaments to maintain his ranking.

As a consequence, he frequently has to practice with adults and the tournament travel is extensive and expensive. It would be nice to have some other families (regardless of behavior) involved in the sport to practice and travel with.

While switching to tennis may make some of these issues easier, he loves squash and the sport is more suited to his size and temperament.

78

@CADREAMIN Thanks, yeah I have no aspirations of pro tennis so d1 was never the way to go.

Overall it has been good, but I also know out of my crop 25 kids quit tennis and I am the only one left.

@superdomestique All sports have crazy parents, tennis and squash just have individual players with crazy parents.

I know I have gotten in my fair share of arguments with parents trying to call my lines or talking trash.

79

In my experience, a tennis player does not need to devote 6 hours a day to tennis in order to be a nationally ranked player. My kids were/are both five stars on tennis recruiting. (Oldest is now playing in college) They would hit with each other for 2 hours each day. Tournaments are time consuming, however, and eat up most of the hours on a weekend.

80

I went out to try squash, I have to say as far as how hard it is… the transition was not hard at all. I was able to hang with some of the better players at my lifetime fitness and played probably 3 hours worth in a day.

For those that say it takes more stamina than tennis though, in the last 24 hours I have played 5 matches in 90-95 degree heat with 100% humidity and no cloud cover.

I went into cramps my last match because I couldn’t drink as much as i sweat out without being sick. Today I played 2 singles and 2 doubles spanning 8 am to 7 pm with 1 hour rest in between singles and 30 minute rest between doubles.

I am now in the finals of both draws tomorrow.