The mantra of 'keep your eye on the ball' often gets taught in squash, however, there is debate about whether you should constantly be watching the ball and nothing else, or, just watching it sometimes while trying to be aware of the rest of your surroundings, and I would probably lean towards the latter.
This is because it's also important to be aware of the rest of your surroundings on the court as well.
However, during the fast-paced game of squash, it's pretty difficult to look directly at your opponent, especially if you're on the T and they're behind you.
This is when peripheral vision comes in. Peripheral vision refers to the ability to perceive objects and movements outside the direct line of sight. It encompasses the field of view that extends beyond the central focus of our eyes.
In squash, peripheral vision plays a crucial role in deciding which shot you play, anticipating your opponent's shots, and maintaining situational awareness on the court.
Let's delve in...
Peripheral vision plays a pretty big role in the majority of sports, especially sports such as basketball, football, and hockey, where you need to be highly aware of your opponents and your surroundings.
As I mentioned in the intro, in fast-paced sports like squash, you don't have the time to turn around and look directly at your opponent to check where they are, especially just before you play a shot.
If you can figure out how to improve and capitalise on your use of peripheral vision you'll essentially be learning the ability to extend your vision beyond your direct line of sight.
This was something my coach incorporate into our training sessions pretty regularly when I was a junior.
He told me that the key to using peripheral vision in squash is to utilise small head movements.
These subtle shifts enable you to monitor your opponent's movements and maintain awareness of their positioning on the court without your eyeline straying too far away from the ball.
But what are the specific benefits of this?
I think that peripheral vision is at its most useful when you use it from the front corners, for example, if you've forced your opponent into the back corner and they've played a defensive boast (or even a back wall boast).
In this situation, you can then turn your head slightly as you move in for your shot. You just need to twist your head enough so that you can just see your opponent's silhouette out of the corner of your eye.
This allows you to make a fast mental note of where they are before playing your next shot, for example, if they're hanging back a little after their boast, perhaps this is the time to take in short with a drop shot.
Or, if they believe you're going to play a cross court and they're edging a cross to try to volley it, maybe this is the time to play a straight drive.
It's a great way to make your opponent work harder or even increase your chance of winning the point.
Obviously, getting a point in squash isn't always easy, but, if you've made your opponent work physically hard for each shot, it'll eventually start to affect their own quality.
You can also use peripheral vision at the back of the court. If you're moving in to the back to retrieve a deep drive from your opponent, chances are they'll be on, or near the T.
If you can just turn your head slightly for a moment to check where they are positioned before you play your shot, you can then tactically decide what the best shot to play would be.
If they're hanging back a little (which often happens if there have been a lot of drives in a row), then you could take in a quick two wall boast or a drop from the back.
If their shot is quite good, they may be edging across to try to volley your return, so then you could add a bit of height or even play a crosscourt to try to remove their ability to volley.
My friend recently took a video of a recent match for his Instagram story, in the rally I noticed that I demonstrate my use of peripheral vision.
My opponent plays a back wall boast, giving me plenty of time to move forward to retrieve it, as I move in to play my shot, I turn around to my left quickly to check where he is and make sure he's not running in to get a drop shot (if I play one), or me waiting for an easy volley opportunity from the straight drive.
After this, I just play a cross court drive to try to maintain control of the rally and hold the T in order to wait for another opportunity to play a winner.
I'll admit, the head turn is probably a bit extreme or exaggerated in comparison to what you would generally need to do to utilise your peripheral vision, but I thought it'd be a good clip to include anyway!
Check it out below...
Another factor that I haven't mentioned yet is that, in squash, I like to think that peripheral vision also incorporates sound as well as sight.
Even when there's a crowd, the audience is generally silent during squash rallies, plus, courts often also have an echo.
You can generally hear the movement of your opponent behind you whether it's their shoe squeaking when they change direction or their foot hitting a floorboard as they take a step.
You probably shouldn't make any major decisions based solely on what you can hear as, in the heat of battle, your ears may deceive you, but, you can use sound combined with peripheral vision to confirm your opponent's location on the court.
So, how can you practice this skill?
Well, one drill my coach used to do with me which worked wonders was essentially a back vs front conditioned game where he would have to play everything to the front and I had to play everything to the back.
He would sometimes do this just as a feeding drill, but sometimes it was more competitive.
Anyway, the other main condition that we would add to this drill was that, after he hit his shot, he would stand in either the left or right back corner and I had to hit it into the opposite corner every single time.
Essentially encouraging me to use my peripheral vision after his shot to check where he was standing, and then hit it into open space instead.
I honestly think this is the drill that built the use of peripheral vision into my game and it has stayed there ever since.
This is the best drill I know of for developing your peripheral vision, however, if you're actively looking to improve it then there are plenty of other drills and exercises that will help too.
In fact, I would say that any time you're consciously trying to use your peripheral vision in squash drills or training, you will be improving that skill.
Any time the drill involves the rallying and some element of shot decision-making (rather than just two shot drills like boast drive), you can try to utilise peripheral vision to inform your decisions.
It will slowly but surely become engrained into your game and will eventually become more of an unconscious thing, rather than something you have to keep constantly thinking about, which is a great asset to have.
Just make sure to remember that developing this skill is an ongoing process, it definitely won't happen overnight...
But, once you get better and better at it, your shot selection will become much better and you'll majorly increase your chances of physically damaging your opponent even more, and winning points!
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