Reddit Squash Thought Experiment 03
This thought experiment was originally posted to r/squash on 1 August 2026 and is summarised here, with the original thread still open for comment.
Not which is most expensive. Not which would impress people at the club. Not even which you currently can't afford. Which would genuinely make the biggest difference to your squash, week in, week out, for the rest of your playing life?
Players who choose grips are usually more tactile than they realise — they notice feel, and how sweat or a slightly different thickness changes their swing. Players who choose strings are thinking about performance: strings affect power, feel, durability and control more than any other single component. Players who choose frames are the interesting ones — frames last years, so choosing free frames for life usually means you break them regularly, chase marginal gains obsessively, or haven't quite found the racket that feels right. Sometimes all three.
| 4Upvotes | 16Comments |
A selection of replies from the thread, lightly trimmed for length.
Read the full thread on r/squash ↗
Grips winning was a surprise. I thought people would pick strings. It's potentially the most expensive option when sued properly. In general, most amateurs don't restring their racket enough, partly through ignorance i.e. not knowing they should and how often, and partly through cost: one restring can be nearly 30% the cost of the racket.
But sweat and feel are things people notice every single moment, unlike a racket's tolerances or a string's tension curve, so the vote for "what I actually feel" over "what a spec sheet would optimise" tracks.
What I'd want to explore more is how many grips voters mentioned sweat specifically. That's a hot-weather/high-intensity problem more than an equipment one, and it might be worth a separate piece on grip and towel habits mid-match.
This page recaps one entry in the Reddit Squash Thought Experiments series — a monthly question I post to the squash subreddit. These aren't trick questions or coaching lectures. They're designed to get club players thinking differently about their game, spark honest discussion, and occasionally reveal something surprising about your own squash.
There are no right answers, nor wrong ones. Just squash players thinking about squash.