Tag Archives: squash training

Long Way to the Top

Posted on February 20, 2013 by mike

I recently read a book entitled “Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin. Clearly this is an attention-grabbing headline, and flies in the face of many people’s beliefs about world-class performers in all fields. The notion of the book is that natural talent/gifts don’t necessarily exist. Rather, greatness is a product of many factors conspiring to provide an opportunity for someone who is willing to dedicate almost their whole life to this task. The book goes to great lengths to dispel the myth that greats such as Mozart and Tiger Woods were simply gifted in music and golf respectively. The author explains that to become world-class, a person needs to complete a minimum of 10 000 hours of deliberate practice at their chosen activity (more on this number later). Even “child prodigies” like the two mentioned above had put in far more than 10 000 hours of study and practice before the age of 16; they weren’t simply better than the rest by nature.

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Chokes and Regaining Confidence

Posted on March 13, 2012 by mike

The wisdom that “Squash is a mental game” has been heard by anyone who has ever played an organized match in this sport. Motivation, psychology and tactics are all integral parts of the game. This is a squash truism and needs no further discussion. Rather, I want to look at one of the lesser known mental aspects of the sport; an internal psychological battle that not many players have experienced. I am referring to the challenge of being a pro player trying to climb up the rankings from the bottom and having mediocre results. In my opinion this is one of the most interesting aspects of the game, but it is rarely publicized.

Allow me to provide some empirical evidence from a few months ago. On a Thursday in early November, I received an e-mail saying there was a spot available in a PSA tournament happening in Vancouver starting the following Tuesday. Despite the extremely short notice I jumped at the chance to play in a $20000 tournament and arrived in Vancouver the day before qualifying began. This was a huge opportunity to get a rare win and serious ranking points. I was drawn to play fellow Canadian Tyler Hamilton in the first round. Before the match I sat down and had a chat with myself, which went something to the tune of “It cost almost a thousand dollars to come out here. This is a huge opportunity. This is what you train for. Go out and play like your life depends on it.” With this deep motivation, I won the first two games with blowout scorelines and was poised to make the upset. I was playing my best squash ever. After dropping the third, I regrouped and had a 9-6 lead in the fourth. I remember thinking, “You’ve got this won. Two points. Easy.” I was finally going to break through and having a big win. You can imagine what happened next. I lost five points in a row, and the fifth game wasn’t even close. Feeling the match slip away was a sickening feeling; certainly one of the worst I’ve had in my career. Of course, comebacks do happen and I had to credit Tyler for staying calm under pressure. But when squash is your job and life, a loss like this is ten times harder to stomach. You work so hard for these rare opportunities, get yourself into a winning position, and then manage to lose. Instead of making decent prize money and ranking points, I left with 0 dollars and 0 points. This can be crippling for confidence, especially for someone like me who already struggles with self-belief.

My small-time example pales in comparison with other chokes. John White and Greg Gaultier have both had matchball in the World Open final and lost. Surely that is the ultimate disappointment you could ever have in squash. One of the great things about this sport though is the tendency to have great performances immediately following poor ones. Two weeks after my Vancouver experience, I was at a PSA tournament in Saskatoon. In the fifth game of the qualifying finals, I was 6-0 and 8-2 up against a better player. Needless to say, the Vancouver incident was at the front of my mind I would have been devastated to blow it twice in as many weeks. My hands were shaking between rallies and I felt a rush of anxiety and desperation, something that had never happened to me before. I managed to finally win the fifth 11-9 and record my best PSA win to date. The result went down inconspicuously on paper amongst dozens of others from that night. But on a personal note it was probably the best feeling I’ve ever had after a match. I liked squash again.

 

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Swing Like a Pro

Posted on February 24, 2012 by mike

The swing is one of the most important and scrutinized aspects of every player’s overall game. Good technique allows a few important things to develop in your game: consistency in ball striking, ability to hit the ball from compromised positions, and deception.  It is something that cannot be swept under the carpet; you will struggle to pass a ‘C’ level of play if you have major technical deficiencies. Most errors ultimately come from some sort of technical miscue.

One of the best ways to improve your technique is by watching top players and analyzing theirs. Be wary of trying to copy the aesthetics of your favourite pro’s swing though. Ramy Ashour, for example, has a swing that no one would ever teach a beginner. He has superhuman wrist strength and racquet head speed, and takes almost no backswing. Nick Matthew is another example of someone with a slightly unorthodox swing. However, there are some key points you can take from almost any top player. I think anyone can incorporate the following five tips into their swing while maintaining some individual flair:

1)      Keep your space from the ball. Most people get far too close to the ball. This not only decreases your potential power (the arm is strongest when fully extended), but also brings your body further from the ‘T’ and deeper into the corners. Spread yourself out as much as possible, let the ball come to you, hit quickly and take a short lunge back to the ‘T’.

2)      Hit the ball with a flat racquet face. Of course, everyone is taught to hit the ball with an open face to ensure consistency. But hitting the ball flat (or even slightly topspin) will increase the heaviness of your shot, and keep the ball lower as it travels through the court. Particularly useful when hitting from a position of advantage. Jonathon Power was a master of this.

3)      Use less arm when digging out a tight ball. When the ball is buried in the back corner or glued to the wall, taking a full swing will often lead to an error (and broken racquet). You can subtly control your racquet using only wrist and hand. You might have to hit a defensive shot, but it’s better than the other option. The tighter the ball is, the shorter the swing should be.

4)      Take a longer follow through. Following through will noticeably improve your power, but it will also help keep the ball straighter. If you can limit your backswing and instead rely on your follow through for power, you will minimize the inconsistencies that cause errors.

5)      Get in position to hit early. This is also a movement tip, but even when your opponent has played a soft drive or weak boast, get your feet and racquet set early. You will feel like you have tons of time to the hit the ball, and it affords you the chance to incorporate some deception. Without any crazy fakes or flicks, simply standing with your racquet up will freeze your opponent or lead them to guess.

Try to make use of one of these tips every time you practice. A match isn’t a great opportunity to bring in a new technical element for the first time. Good luck!

 

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How the Pros Train

Posted on February 9, 2012 by mike

Some of the most frequent questions people ask about life as a squash player (other than “How much money do you make?”) have to do with day-to-day training routines. After all, the main reason top pros are so good is the years of dedicated, methodical training they have done.  Most squash fans know that the average pro is doing two or three sessions a day five days a week, so without discussing the obvious I will try to give some insight into what myself and my training partners do in a given week.

Since the National Squash Academy opened last year, training for players based in Toronto has become centralized. Obviously this is a big step forward for Canadian squash. Any day of the week, you can find 6-10 of the best players in Canada and the odd international guest on court at the NSA. There are two sessions per day most days. One of them is either match play (three times a week) or drills involving lots of movement and options. The other one is usually a “closed” session, with the purpose of improving technique, accuracy and consistency. The more intense sessions are a great time to implement new skills being perfected in the closed sessions. Total time on court each day is usually around four hours, and there is always work to be done in the gym afterwards. Due to each player having different tournament schedules, it is rare to have everyone on the exact same program for a day. The core values of each session remain the same, and it is up to the players to tailor their training around tournaments as they see fit. This is a whole science of its own and often takes years to master.

Training full-time is a huge mental battle and there are ups and downs within each month, week and day. On the one hand, you have to put 100% effort mentally and physically into every session in order to see results. On the other, showing up to the courts every morning with weary legs and doing boast-drive for the thousandth time can leave anyone struggling for motivation. In my few months of being dedicate full-time I have started to understand two major points: 1) you absolutely cannot get caught-up in micro-frustrations. On a given day you might be a bit tired, a bit slow, or a bit inaccurate. This obviously happens to everyone, but letting bad days undermine your confidence and limit your enjoyment will only turn squash into a chore rather than a passion. 2) you can’t train with an insane intensity every day without burning out at some point. It can be tempting to exhaust yourself to satisfaction on a Monday or Tuesday, but the rest of the week will be compromised. Five days at 85% are better than one day all out. I’m always looking to derive new lessons from my training experiences. Hopefully they will pay off some day!

 

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Tough Week on court? Time to focus.

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Jeff

It was a tough week on the court this past week.  I seemed to have lost focus on what works well for me. Thankfully this was a week off from league but still definitely was disappointed in my play.  I am sure this has happened to all of us.  I think what is important to figure out what went wrong and work to improve.

So what went wrong for me this week?  Focus.  I was playing squash but not with any purpose.  I went on court without any clear sense of what I was trying to work on or accomplish.  I hit shots without any clear objective.  I was not trying to get my length shots to die in the back I was just hitting them.  I wasn’t going short with the intent to work my opponent hard.  I was just hitting balls.  My movement was also without focus.  I play best when I am hunting the ball and trying to volley as much as possible. I was not returning to the ‘T’ quick enough to be able to do that.

I am playing today and am determined to play with focus.  The serve will be hit with variety and with an objective.  It will hit the side wall when I am aiming to.  There will be a few serves at the body to try and keep my opponent off guard.  Length shots will be hit with purpose.  They are going to get past my opponent in to the back corner and my opponent is going to have to really dig them out.  When I go short it will be with the intent to really stretch my opponent out.  They may well get the ball back but they will have to work very hard to do so.  The focus is not on winning it is on hitting the best shot I can – every time I strike the ball.  I will hunt the ball and volley as much as possible to exert pressure on my opponent.

I will focus.

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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 – Being mentally prepared

Posted on May 8, 2010 by Jeff

Squash is a physical game as we all know. Being physically fit and prepared is imperative to success. Being mentally prepared is just as important though.

Being mentally prepared means having a clear vision of what you are trying to do on the court. It means controlling your nervous energy and using it positively.

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Squash – Shot Selection

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Jeff

Knowing what shot to play at a certain time is imperative. Most squash players will have heard that the squash court can be divided up in to 3 sections, the front, the middle and the back of the court.

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