Category Archives: Squash Tips

Jonathon Power – The master of deception

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Jeff

I am watching a match between Jonathon Power and Peter Nicol on www.psasquashtv.com and am inspired by Jonathon’s play.  He uses all 4 corners of the court beautifully to stretch his opponent out.  What I find truly incredible to watch though is his use of deception in the front corners.  Even watching the match on the computer it is difficult to figure out what shot he is going to play.  There are really three things I believe that made him so hard to read at the front court.  His body position, racquet preparation and how good he was at hitting the various shots.

Your body position in the front corners is critical as it gives you the ability to hit the drop, the straight length or the cross court.  In particular leaving yourself the straight shot is critical and what Jonathon did so well.  It is a hard shot to play and most players don’t even leave themselves the option with their approach to the ball in the front corner.  Jonathon on both the forehand and backhand would setup the same for a drop, a straight drive or the cross court drive.

Racquet preparation is equally critical to your body position.  Jonathon’s racquet preparation when he was in the front corner looked the same for the drop or either drive.  It is very important to have your racquet in a position that will allow you to drive or drop. Many players when they are going to drop have already extended their racquet out in such a manner that prevents them from driving the ball.  Likewise they will only have their racquet back when they go in to the front corner when they are going to drive.  Focus on being able to hit a drop, or the straight or cross court drive every time you go in to the front corners.  Work on making your racquet preparation look the same for every choice.

The ability to hit a quality drop, a quality straight drive or a quality cross court drive front corners is the key.  Jonathon Power was great at all three shots.  He had an amazing drop.  He could kill it in to the nick given the angle or if the angle did not present itself he would keep it hugging the side wall.  His cross court drive had the width to get by his opponent at the ‘T’.  The straight drive from Jonathon was lethal.  It is a very tough shot as your can’t pull it at all, you can’t catch the side wall it has to be very straight.  Jonathon hit the straight drive from the front corner beautifully.

Jonathon Power was terrific in the front corners and his opponents rarely knew what shot was coming.  His body position, racquet preparation and the fact that he could play any shot with such quality from the front corners left his opponents guessing as to what shot he was going to play.

 

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Squash – Fluid movement back to the ‘T’

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Jeff

Many I am sure have seen this video from www.squashskills.com featuring the great Peter Nicol discussing moving back to the ‘T’.  Here is the video:

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His discussion on not rushing back to the ‘T’ is critical and not something that I think you hear discussed that often. Most people are taught to get the back to the ‘T’ which is of course critical but with too much emphasis this can definitely lead to players rushing back to the ‘T’. This can cause a couple of problems. Getting stuck as Peter mentions and getting hit behind as well I would think is a risk too.

If you arrive back at the ‘T’ long before you opponent is going to play their shot it is very easy to get got caught flat-footed. If your opponent is very good at holding their shot as Peter Nicol noted Jonathon Power was then if you are at the ‘T’ too soon you have to wait, and wait for your opponent to hit the shot. They will definitely be trying to catch you flat-footed. Arriving back at the ‘T’ right when they actually are playing their shot will help prevent this from happening.

I think another point to this is that if you are to aggressive moving back to the ‘T’ you risk having your opponent hit the ball back to where you just left if they take the ball early. Your aggressive movement out of that corner will make it difficult to change direction and go back to where you came from.

Getting back to the ‘T’ is critical in squash but definitely take the great Peter Nicol’s advice and try not to charge back to it. Move fluidly and try and arrive when your opponent is going to play their shot so you don’t get stuck and caught flat-footed.

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Squash – Racquet Preparation

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Jeff

Squash is a very tough game and when playing it we are typically under a great deal of pressure from our opponent. They are working hard to take time away from us to limit the shots we can play.  Early racquet preparation is critical as it gives us time and options in selecting which shot to hit

Good racquet preparation should be the start of every shot hit in squash. What is good racquet preparation though? One of the best answers I have heard on this is from Mike Way in one of his videos with Jonathon Power and Graham Ryding. He said the first part of good racquet preparation is getting the racquet back. If you have time the racquet will probably go up as well but your first thought should be on getting it back. It is also critical that your start your racquet preparation before you get to the ball. It should start from when you leave the ‘T’ and be complete when you arrive at the position you are going to hit the ball from. At the club level you will often see a player get to the ball in decent time but not start to prepare the racquet until they get there robbing themselves of time.

Racquet preparation also gives us options as to what shot we want to hit. We need to generate racquet head speed to be able to drive the ball past our opponent. Having your racquet back is critical to this. It allows you to accelerate the racquet head through the ball to generate good pace. While having your racquet back is essential in being able to drive the ball effectively it also still allows you to play a drop, boast or lob as well.

Consistency in your racquet preparation is also very important. Not only does it give you options as to what shot you want to hit but if your racquet preparation looks the same on every shot it makes it nearly impossible for your opponent to read your choice of shot. This is probably the most key element in deception. If your racquet preparation looks the same for a drive, drop, lob or boast you not only have the option of hitting any of these shot but your opponent will not see which shot you are going to hit from the position your racquet is in your back swing.

Are there situations where we can’t get good racquet preparation? Of course if your opponent as put you under so much pressure that you are at a full stretch to just get to the ball you probably won’t have time to get give yourself options as to what shot you are going to hit. If you focus on getting your racquet back as part of your movement to the ball you will find yourself in less of these situations though and your level of play will improve dramatically.

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Squash – Patience on the ‘T’

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Jeff

One of the most difficult situations you can find yourself in when playing squash is recovering from a weak shot.  If you have hit a loose shot to the front, whether forced or unforced you are in a very compromising … Continue reading →

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Squash – Pace of play

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Jeff

In the last post we talked about deception.  In particular using a hold to add deception to your shot selection.  Another very important method to keep your opponent guessing and off balance is varying your pace of play. Varying your pace of play can be an effective method to keep or change momentum in a match when needed. Changing the pace of your shots is also effective at keeping your opponent guessing.  Squash is a very physical game as any squash player can attest to but it is also very mental. Varying your pace of play is a good strategical method to help control a match.

When should we play at a fast pace or at a slow pace?  One of the best times to vary the pace of play is when you need to change momentum in a game.  If your opponent is pressing hard and has gained the momentum trying to slow down the pace of play can often help.  You can do this playing slower paced length shots using height to get the ball past your opponent.  Lobs will work very well in this situation too.

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Squash – Holding your shot

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Jeff

In squash as your level increases and you are playing better players it becomes more and more difficult to hit outright winners.  Points need to be constructed to be won.  You very often have to hit a series of shots to get your opponent out of position before you can hit a winner.

As it is so difficult to hit winners you definitely need to take advantage of the opportunities that your opponent gives you.  When your opponent has hit a ball that you can attack in the mid or front court giving yourself options is key.  Not showing your opponent the shot you are going to hit is even more important.  Holding your shot is a very effective way of doing this.

What is holding yout shot?  It is being in position to hit the ball early but waiting to play your shot.  Why do we hold our shot?  To force our opponent to wait and hopefully catch them flat-footed or better yet get them to guess. If we catch them flat-footed and have hit a quality shot they will most likely be late to the ball and will hopefully give us something that we can attack again and keep them on the defensive and working hard.  If they guess and pick a direction before we have played our shot we get to hit the ball the opposite way they are going and have a real opportunity to win the point outright.  At the very least they are going to have work very hard to get to the ball.

Deception in squash is key and one of the best ways to fool your opponent is make all your shots look as similar as possible. Learning to really hold your shot will definitely add to your deception and make it harder for your opponents to read the shot you intend to play.

 

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Squash – Clearing your drop or counter drop shot

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Jeff

One of the biggest differences between low to mid level players and higher level players is how fast they recover to the ‘T’ after playing their shot.  One the most noticeable areas I see this on court is at the front corners.

It is extremely common to see a player rush up to get a boast or drop that their opponent has played to one of the front corners, hit a drop and then get stuck in the front corner.  If their opponent gets to the ball earlier enough they can often end the point with a cross court drive as they have not been able to get back to ‘T’ to take that shot away.

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Squash Tip – Stuck in a losing pattern? Change it!

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Jeff

This is just a quick tip that I received while taking a lesson a few years ago. I was working with a much more advanced player than myself and was having problems getting drives on the backhand side past him and found myself stuck in a losing pattern. The objective of the drill was simple, hit a good enough shot to get the ball past him so that I could take the ‘T’ position away from him and then try to keep him behind me by taking the ball on the volley. I was trying to play a hard drive down the wall all of the time and I was not able to keep it tight enough to force him to let it pass. I found myself stuck in the back court and not succeeding at all with the drill. He stopped the drill and asked me what I was trying to do. I said that I was trying to drive the ball hard down the wall past him. His reponse was simple. It is not working. You need to try something different. You are not getting the ball past me with pace so why not use height to get the ball past me. Hit it high enough that I can’t volley it and will have to let it pass me.

While the example above is about trying to pass your opponent on a rail shot on the backhand side it applies to all parts of the game. If you find yourself stuck in a pattern that is not working you need to change it!

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Nick Matthew – High ‘T’ Position

Posted on February 13, 2011 by Jeff

I am watching a replay of the PSA World Open 2010 final between James Willstrop and Nick Matthew on PSA Squash TV and impressed with Nick Matthew’s position on the ‘T’. He is playing such a high ‘T’ position and putting so much pressure on James. Willstrop won the first game with some absolutely astounding accurancy but had to work so hard to do it. The second game was close to about 5 but after that Nick opened up a huge lead mostly because of the work James has had to do to that point.

The high ‘T’ position really allows Nick to attack short when he chooses, especially on his forehand side. The width that James has to get on a crosscourt drive to prevent Nick from volleying it is unbelievable. He is having to nearly catch the side wall at the centre of the court to get it behind Nick. Even when he does attain that width Nick only has to take a couple of steps back because of the angle and still play it without really having to give up too much ground.

Nick is also using a great hold on his drives while being so high on the ‘T’. This is forcing James to have to recover so quickly to the centre of the court, because he has to respect the drop before being sent to the backcourt to retrieve Nick’s drive.

Nick’s use of the high ‘T’ position really put so much time presure on James Willstrop that it really broke him down by mid match. James did have a much harder time getting through to the final than Nick did which definitely contributed to the fatigue but Nick’s play truly exposed it. A brilliant display of good tactical squash. Definitely shows that value of recovery to the ‘T’ quickly to dictate play.

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Squash – The hurry up drop shot

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Jeff

Today I would like to discuss the hurry up drop shot.  It is an extremely effective shot as it puts your opponent under time pressure.  It is best used when your opponent has been forced to boast out of the back corner and has invited you to the front. Take the boast as early as you can and play a nice safe soft drop shot. The focus of this shot is to hit it very early, soft and to keep it tight to the side wall when it bounces.  Do not worry about it being very low and tight to the tin focus more on hitting and early and keeping it tight to the wall.  We are not trying to win with this shot we are making our opponent work really hard to get to the ball.  Hopefully they will be late and hit something weak cross court so we can send back to the back corner and get them running the diagonal. The hurry up drop shot like many other shots is designed to put mileage on our opponent.  Use it to make them run and watch the court open up later in the match when their legs are not as fresh as they were at the beginning of the match.

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