In case you were wondering how things are coming with my ankle injury, it's slowly but surely getting better!
In comparison to the first month of recovery, improvements are of course a little less noticeable and have slowed down a little, but, that was to be expected.
I believe I'm over the worst hump of the injury, and, although my ankle is going to be slightly uncomfortable for quite some time now, I just need to be careful with it, warm it up thoroughly before any exercise, and make sure to keep doing my rehabilitation routine.
Anyway, I'm happy to be able to say that I'm now back on the squash court and able to play drills as long as I listen to my body and stop if things start to hurt.
I've been doing a bit of solo here and there to get my lengths back, but, today I had a training session with my friend and decided it was time to start working on my reactions, volleys, pressure, my ability to take balls early, and getting my swing speed back up to scratch.
We did a pretty enjoyable session and I thought I'd go through a few of the two-person drills we did in this article because most of them were new to me, so they may be new to you too!
It's worth noting that some of these drills are a little more advanced than others, however, I've tried to create a mix of different standard drills to cater to the different standards of reader that we have!
Plus, many of them can be updated, changed, or adapted to suit your level or to suit your goals. All that's needed is a little creativity!
Taking balls early, reacting fast, and being able to apply pressure are essential parts of an attacking strategy in squash.
It's not necessarily about hitting winners and finishing the rally then and there, what it is about is putting more and more pressure on your opponent, forcing them to work harder and make movements that put stress and pressure on their bodies.
The knock-on impact of being able to apply that pressure over and over again is that your opponent will slowly deteriorate physically, start to make mistakes, start making poor shot decisions and will also struggle to get into a rhythm of their own or put you under pressure.
Plus, last but not least, you will be able to stay in control of the T!
If you want to do some drills but can't think of a particular area to focus on, all squash players would certainly benefit from working on their ability to take the ball early.
So, let's delve into the drills...
Drop, Drive, Drive, Drop, Drive... Repeat!
After hitting some balls back to ourselves and doing some boast drive as a warm-up, we jumped straight in with this one at the start of our session.
It's a little complicated to explain (and was also quite complicated to remember), which is why I wanted to go through it first while my memory was still fresh enough.
This drill involves one player standing a step or so behind the T line and a little over to one side of the court (let's say the forehand side to start with). We'll call this player 'player 1'.
The other player then stands around halfway between the T line and the front wall, this will be 'player 2'.
Player 1 starts by hitting a straight drop shot, player 2 then hits a straight drive, player 1 then returns it on the volley with another straight drive, and player 2 then volleys this drive with a volley drop of their own.
Player 2 then retrieves their drop shot from the front and hits a drive to start the routine again.
Now, I imagine this one sounds a bit all over the place to read on paper, but, once you do it a couple of times, it becomes much clearer and easier.
Essentially, to break down the routine, it goes as follows:
Player 1 (who is behind): Drop
Player 2 (who is in front): Drive
Player 1 (who is behind): Drive
Player 2 (who is in front): Drop
Player 2 (who is in front): Drive
REPEAT!
When the drill resets at the end and player 2 retrieves their drop shot and hits a drive, player 1 then hits a volley drop to reset the routine again.
So, player 1 who is slightly behind the T line, gets to work on both their volley lengths and their volley drops (while having just a little bit more time on the ball), and player 2, who is halfway between the T and the front wall, works on their quick reactions and volley drops.
As you can imagine, this drill is very fast-paced and is quite advanced.
If you find that you're struggling with it, perhaps both players should try moving back a few steps to give yourselves more time on the ball.
It's important to remember that, generally, this one is more about improving your reactions and working on your hand speed.
Of course, accuracy and hitting your targets are important, however, try not to get frustrated if your volley drops aren't landing exactly where you want them, and don't beat yourself up for making the odd mistakes.
Something else that is important to mention is that you're not necessarily just trying to smack the ball past your opponent and win the rally (as that's when this drill becomes a little too stop-start).
Try to keep thinking about it as a routine in which you're getting a lot of shots in a short space of time. Pretty much every single shot in this drill is taken early.
You want the rallies to last, but, you also want to hit quality shots. It's important to find the right balance here as, if you're battering your partner and 'winning' every rally, then that means you're not hitting many shots.
Remember, you'll only be playing on one side at a time, then swapping positions, then doing the same on the backhand side.
Just do a minute or two before each switch as this one can get quite tiring on your arms and wrists.
It doesn't take long before your shot quality starts to drop dramatically with this drill, and that's usually a sign to swap around and give yourself a little bit of a breather.
Get The Ball Past The Volleyer
You'll be thrilled to know that this next one is much simpler from the perspective of a shot.
It's kind of like a more straightforward variation of the drill above, however, it's still another great one for improving your ability to take balls earlier and working on your accuracy.
The positioning is pretty much the same (however, you can also make it a tad more relaxed if you're struggling), however, the difference is that this one is actually about trying to beat your opponent.
By beat, I mean get the ball past.
So basically, the player slightly behind the middle T line (Player 1) is playing only volley drop shots and has the job of trying to volley everything and take those balls as early as possible and apply pressure on player 2.
Player 2, who is positioned about halfway between the front wall and the T, is aiming to try to get the ball past Player 1 using hard, tight lengths to tilt the scales back in their direction and get the pressure back on Player 1.
Player 2 should be trying to glue their drives to that side wall and force either an error or a weak drop shot from Player 1. If they do that over and over again, they should be able to win the point.
Player 1, gets to work on their ability to cut balls off, react fast, and take the pace off of their opponent's powerful lengths.
I find this drill great for encouraging you to hit your lengths from the front with more power while keeping them accurate too.
Player 2 will generally be the one who begins to struggle physically, however, this is great practice for playing in those high-pace, high-pressure matches.
It's up to you whether or not you want to score or not.
It's always satisfying to win rallies, however, I don't usually score when I play this drill, but that's just me!
Photo credit: Steve Cubbins
Cross Court Volley Game
Here's where we begin to bring the angles in and work on our cross-court volleys...
This one is another favourite of mine and the aim is essentially just to get it past your opponent with the right width and power.
Both players should be stood on the T line on either side of the court. One player starts by hitting a medium height, medium pace cross court to the other player, then the rally begins.
Both players then have to volley every single shot and play a cross-court length to try to get the ball past their opponent.
This is another very fast-paced drill, however, it sharpens up your swing speed, reaction time, and your ability to take balls early.
Now, there are two approaches to this game.
You can do the more competitive version that I've talked about which is very fast-paced and can get a little messy at times (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), or, you can orientate it a little more around control.
To do this, you add in an extra shot each by hitting a straight volley back to yourself before hitting a cross-court volley to your opponent's side of the court.
You'll often see the pros warm up doing this very same thing as it's a great one for getting your swing speed, reactions, and ball control up to scratch either before a match, before a second game, or just to warm up a new ball.
However, I'd say that it works great in drill format too.
It helps you control and guide balls that are coming at you with pace, and, you're also working on your cross-court volley width to try to get balls past your opponent.
Again, like many drills that involve hitting many many shots, your wrist and arm will get tired quite quickly, so, it's important to have regular breaks.
If you're scoring, you could switch sides every five points or so and rest for 30 seconds between each switch, for example.
And that's more or less it for this drill, simple yet effective!
The Ball Can't Touch The Back Wall
This is one I used to play a lot as a junior and it's pretty tough.
I remember there was a period when I was in my mid-teens when there were many up-and-coming Egyptian players who were starting to dominate the junior scene using a highly attacking, fast-paced style of play.
Our coaches knew we needed to adapt to the same style if we were going to keep up with the progression of the sport, so, we started doing a lot more pressure drills that focused on attack.
One of which was a conditioned game in which the ball was not allowed to touch the back wall. If a player let the ball hit the back wall, they would lose the point. The only small caveat was that this only counted if the ball bounced off of the floor first and then the back wall.
If the ball hits the back wall first followed by the floor, then the rally would carry on (because there's no point in rewarding an overhit drive)!
This drill forces both players to take every shot as early as possible.
It's a lot harder than it sounds, because not only do you have to be constantly scrambling to reach your opponent's lengths, but, you also have to make sure that you're hitting your lengths with pace and purpose to get them tight and hit the targets.
It's a very fast-paced, high-pressure drill that forces both players to take balls as early as possible again and again.
A good approach is to progress this drill bit by bit, starting with the rule that every single shot had to land first bounce behind the T line, then, once you're used to that at a slower pace, your shots can land first bounce in front of that T line (as long as the second bounce is behind it), then, you can finally make it full court.
Again, score it or don't score it, that's up to you. I quite like to score this one since both players are on an equal playing field since it's not a routine, it's more of a conditioned game.
Egyptian 3/4
The last one I want to talk about is a drill I have indeed mentioned in previous newsletters, however, it's one of the best drills for improving your ability to take balls early, apply pressure, and deal with pressure at the same time.
This drill is called Egyptian 3/4 which is a nod to the fast-paced, aggressive style that many Egyptians play. The idea is that, after the serve, the ball has to land in front of the back line of the service box.
You can start out by saying that this only applies to the first bounce (meaning that the second bounce can be behind the back line of the service box), however, you then need to progress it to reach the stage where all shots have to land with both bounces in front of the back line of the service box.
You can imagine the pace at which this conditioned game is played at. Both players are often scrambling around the court while cracking balls low and hard, again and again.
But, something that's quite exciting about this one (and a reason why it's a fun one to end with) is that it allows players to get a little creative with angles.
You can start to throw in trickle boasts, reverse boasts, hard, low kills down the middle, body shots, and even softer cuts like drop shots too.
In theory, it sounds like you'd have some really good, long rallies doing this drill, however, most people find that, in practice, Egyptian 3/4 rallies are pretty short.
This is fine, it's just important to reflect on why you won or lost each point.
Was your attacking shot too loose or weak? Did you move your opponent around the court? Did you use space well enough?
There are a lot of factors to be aware of, and, since it's such a fast-paced drill, it can get overwhelming, so make sure to give yourself plenty of rests and breathers during this one as well.
It's actually generally a lot easier with three players (with one resting on the back door), because then everyone generally gets a decent rest.
Anyway, this is arguably one of the most famous and popular pressure drills in squash, and that's because it gets results.
I'd love to know if Egyptians actually play this drill, or, if it was just someone from another country naming the drill after the style they're trying to emulate.
Either way, I think it's a great idea and it's a lot of fun too.
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