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.
