With many people looking to focus on their fitness this January, we went down to the National Squash Centre to learn more about the game.
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00:00January is usually seen as the month to spend time and invest it in yourself
00:04whether it be in terms of setting new resolutions like being alcohol-free for
00:08a month or trying to find a new way to embark upon your fitness journey and
00:12here in Manchester we're lucky enough that we've got tons of great sports you
00:15can try out that maybe you haven't noticed before. With that in mind I'm
00:20here at the National Squash Centre. Squash is a sport that we played between
00:23two people although sometimes four is necessary and it was recently named as
00:28one of the healthiest sports to play simply because of how much moving
00:31around you do it is really a full-body workout. Now I've come here to talk to
00:35Tom who's one of the coaches here who's going to explain a little bit about the
00:38game a little bit about why it's important and why it could be key for
00:41you starting off your January in your 2025 right. So my name is Thomas Fairhurst
00:46and I'm head squash coach here at the National Squash Centre. So squash was
00:50voted the world's healthiest sport a few years ago by a Forbes magazine in the US
00:54because it's a full-body workout you do burn a lot of calories playing
00:59regardless of your level. If you have two people of a similar level you have a
01:03really good game. It involves lots of lunges, changing direction. So in brief we
01:10have lines on the wall, we have lines on the floor, we have a service box on the
01:14floor where you have to stand to start the rally. The service must go above the
01:19service line just behind my right shoulder here. Once you've had the serve
01:23in play you take turns hitting the ball. They can hit any wall as long as at some
01:27point it reaches the front wall behind me until someone does not return the
01:31ball back because it's either bounced twice, it's gone out of court or it's
01:35just been too close to the wall and they couldn't get it back in play. The scoring
01:39system is straightforward. It's if you win the rally you get a point. First to
01:43eleven, best of five games or you don't need to keep score if you just want to
01:47play for the fun of it. Squash is still strong in England. In
01:51Manchester we have the largest programme in the city here at the National Squash
01:55Centre and a number of the children do regularly compete for their county, their
01:59region and who knows one day they push higher on from that. But yeah we are
02:04doing well. The National Squash Centre has seven courts. It's got six
02:08regular what we call glass back courts and it's got one all glass show court
02:12which is only one of four in Britain. It's the only one the public can access
02:16on a daily basis. Squash courts are very affordable to book. They begin from six
02:22seven pound for a session so it's very affordable to come play. And courts
02:28can be booked any time of the day and weekends as well so there's lots of
02:31opportunities for people to come play. So I've just finished playing around half
02:35hour of squash with Tom and even though it was sort of a bit of a light gentle
02:39knock about already I'm feeling the benefits from it. I feel warmer which
02:42considering how cold it is today is a massive benefit. And I've got to say I
02:46can't recommend it enough they charge around sort of seven pounds for a 45
02:50minute slot here on these courts. It only takes two people it's easier to organise
02:54and based on what I've experienced I can't recommend it enough. So for
02:58Manchester World I'm Theo Houston-Betts