Tag Archives: squash

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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Squash Practice with a purpose

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Jeff

Practicing with a purpose in squash is vital to achieving good results and to improving your game. All to often when players play practice matches they don’t set objectives. They just get on court and play. It is very helpful to focus on a particular part of your game.  Do this before you even step on court and then remind yourself of it throughout the game. It could be movement, watching the ball and your opponent, your front court game or any number of other things. The key is to remember to focus on what you have decided to practice on and to stick with it. This will help keep you focused during your practice match and help establish good habits.  Over time those good habits will make it in to your game even when you are under severe pressure.

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Squash – What are your strengths?

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Jeff

What are the strengths in your squash game?  It is very important to know what you do well. Playing to your strength is a very good place to start when you are playing a player you are not familiar with.  It is also important to know what patterns and type of shots work well for you on the court.  In addition it is to good fall back to your strengths if you are struggling in a game.

When you start a match against someone you have played many times you can go in with a strategy to attack that players weakness. What do you do if you have never played your opponent?  Play to your strength.  It makes sense to know what you do well to start off with.  As the game develops you will see if you are able to force your opponent to play in to your strength and if he has the game to deal with it.   If he can’t then stick to it.  If he is handling it well you need to try and establish what in his game is his weakness and try to exploit it.  To start though it makes sense to play to your strengths.

What works well for you on the court.  Are you good at getting your opponent on the diagonal?  Getting them buried in the back, forcing a weak boast out and the playing a hurry up drop to the front?  Are you good at getting an opponent trapped behind you playing length on the backhand side and then busting them short when they get too lazy to get back to the ‘T’?  What ever types of shots and patterns you are good at you should look for opportunities to play them and dictate play.

If you are struggling in a match playing to your strength is a good way to try and get out of a negative situation.  It gives you something to focus on.  When you are not playing well and struggling mentally trying to refocus your game on your strengths is a good way to break that negativity.

Overall it is very important to know what you do well on the squash court.  It gives you a place to start when playing an unknown opponent, patterns to look for on the court and way out of negative situations.  Enjoy your squash and know your strengths!

 

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Squash Racket Review – Black Knight Quicksilver NXS

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Jeff

Black Knight Quicksilver nXs Squash RacquetThe Black Knight Quicksilver nXs squash racquet has been an extremely popular racquet now for years. It is one of our best sellers. The current Quicksilver has been around for several years now and was preceded by the Quicksilver CXX which was also very popular.

The frame weight of a 130grams is quite light.  It has a fairly even balance.  Its light weight and silver paint are what makes this racquet live up to its name.  It is a very quick racquet to manoeuvre and its silver paint certainly draws attention.

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Squash Tactics – Taking your space

Posted on October 24, 2010 by Jeff

Squash is a game played in close quarters. You are constantly jockeying for position with your opponent.  It is important to remember that you have the right to play the ball where you want. There are two reasons that this is beneficial. The first that you get properly set for your shot and the second that we can force our opponent out of position.

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Squash Racket Review – Dunlop Aerogel 4D Ultimate

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Jeff

The Dunlop Aerogel 4D Ultimate Squash Racquet is one of the top end racquets from Dunlop. It is a great control racquet, has reasonable power due to its oversized head and has that great Dunlop feel.

The biggest reason for its great control is its 16 x 19 string pattern. 16 x 19 is a very dense string pattern for a squash racquet.  In particular it has two extra main strings more than the other Dunlop racquets that have the similar frame design.

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PSA Participation Policy and the PST Response

Posted on October 16, 2010 by Jeff

I was logged in to my Twitter account @controlthet yesterday when I received the following tweet from @usprosquash: “PST Responds to PSA Attack http://fb.me/zI4I53eC.” I followed the link, read the initial statement from the PSA (Professional Squash Association) regarding their new participation policy and the response from the PST (Pro Squash Tour). I opened my email and received an email from SquashZag blogging on the subject and read his response as well.  I then stepped back and thought about why the PSA would do this, are there parallels in other sports and whether they were justified or not.

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Prince EXO3 Rebel Squash Racquet Review

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Jeff

Prince EXO3 Rebel Squash Racket

The Prince EXO3 Rebel Squash racquet is the latest offering from Prince.  The EXO3 models have evolved from the Speedport and before that 03 series of squash racquets.

First lets take a look at the write-up from Prince:

“The Next Generation Of Racquet Design, only From Prince – EXO3 does what no other racquet can; it captures wasted energy at the moment of impact—up to 26% more—and channels it where you need it most—into every shot.

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Squash Player Profile – Shahier Razik

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Jeff

Shahier Razik has been the #1 Squash player in Canada for a number of years now.  With the retirement of Jonathan Power in 2006 Shahier has consistently been the best player in Canada.

I love watching Shahier play.  Why, because he plays a type of game that we can all strive for.  He certainly is extremely talented and can hit amazing shots but what impresses me most about his game is his efficiency on court, his patience and his work ethic.

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Squash – Open Spaces

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Jeff

I have been taking lessons from a great professional, Dana Castle and we have been discussing an important philosophy.  In squash there are no winners, just open spaces.

If you accept that philosophy what does mean to the game?  Well very simply it means that your opponent can get to your next shot so the best you can do is make him work for it.  Hit to somewhere he is not to do that.  Get him running the diagonal. Take satisfaction from making your opponent really struggle to get your shots.    He will likely get them all in the beginning but typically later in the match he will start to make more errors as you wear him down physically.

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