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Delaying your shot off the back wall

One way to make yourself more dangerous from the back of the court and to vary your play is to hit the ball lower on the bounce as it’s rebounding off of the back wall. This is a great way to build some natural disguise into your play, as from this position you can easily play a straight drive, boast or cross-court drive from this position.

Building disguise into your game

It’s almost a form of brinkmanship, but if you allow the ball to get a bit lower on the bounce and a bit closer to the floor, you can really draw your opponent in expecting the straight shot. This means you’re in a great position to move between different shots like boasts, cross-courts and straight lengths from the back, which can help you to develop disguise in your game very easily. Even if your opponent stays glued to the T-Position, you’re still making it hard for them to anticipate your shot. This means they will have less reaction time once you’ve hit the ball and will therefore have to move faster to retrieve your shot. Not only does it create physical pressure, disrupting a player’s ability to anticipate also applies mental pressure which will be amplified if they are prone to frustration or losing belief in themselves.

On a technical level, it also forces you to really follow through the ball as you hit it, which means you often really hit an attacking, hard, low length if you do play straight. Peter Marshall was (and is) the king of this! These attacking drives can really apply immense pressure if you stop them coming off of the back wall too much as well, because they are hard to volley or intercept and give an opponent little reaction time, which means they are hard to return before they bounce twice.



You might have to open your racket face a bit more for your shots as the ball will be very low on the bounce and you might risk hitting the tin with the boast. If you’re aiming for a length shot, you may also need to aim a bit higher on the front wall, although it’s definitely a more effective attacking shot if you can keep the ball low.

This is quite an easy thing to practice and have a go at because of the amount of length shots people typically play. You can practice this very easily in a warm-up, as well as training or matches, so there really is no excuse not to have a go at this and see if it can add a bit more disguise into your game, and therefore put a bit more mental and physical pressure onto your opponents.



Following up short shots from the back & taking the vacant T 



Going short to go long. 

Traditionally the best way to get the T-Position back from an opponent has been to play to length. However, it can also be beneficial to go short before you go long for variation and also to counteract certain styles of play.

This is a tactic that was used to really great effect by James Willstrop in his recent match against Mohamed Elshorbagy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2USpFYYlGQ at the 2015 World Championships where shortly after recovering from his hip problems, he produced a tactical master class to outwit Elshorbagy in the 3rd round.

Taking away options in the middle of the court  

Part of the reason Willstrop went short from the back regularly (I presume – I’m not privy to his tactical and coaching discussions) is that it can be really effective against tall players, players who are very good on the volley and attacking the ball early around the middle of the court especially those who enjoy chopping it downwards. When you go short from the back, you deprive them of a length shot to intercept and you can force them off the middle. Elshorbagy is also very dangerous at chopping the ball downwards, so with the ball already being very low, it limited his options and denied him some of his favoured attacking shots.

When you’re playing a player who is very good at attacking around the middle of the court, this might be a way to turn the game on them.

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Following up a short shot

The way to make it really effective though is to make sure you’re pushing up high onto the T-Position, which hopefully your shot has forced them to leave, and looking to attack their next shot. The ideal scenario is for them to return your attacking boast, kill or drop from the back with a weak length shot, which you can pick off with a long volley and thereby force them into an end-to-end sprint.

More composed players may respond by going short or even lobbing the ball to try and deprive you of the volley, so you need to make sure you are on the T-Position with intent so that you can cover the short shot and still move back to cover a good lob or length shot if required.

The bottom line is when you go short from the back, follow it up and push high up the court looking for scraps to feed off. Much like a poacher or striker in football following up looking for a goalkeeper to spill the ball, you need to be pushing up, hunting for any sign of a weak shot you can attack and push to length to get your opponent moving up and down the court at speed. There is nothing worse than playing a great short shot and forcing a rushed return from your opponent, only to be too far back to take advantage of it.

Have a go no matter who you’re playing against. Short and long or long and short is the most simple but effective tactic in the game and this idea of going short first can be useful against any player. If you are playing someone with good ability on the T-Position or taking it early, it’s something to try in order to snatch back control of the middle.



Aiming for a tight back wall boast



Making a bad shot a little bit less bad. 

Sometimes you just can’t avoid playing a back wall boast, no matter how hard you try. Since it’s inevitable at some stage in one game or another, it’s worth considering how we can make it a bit more effective of a shot and not have it bouncing out high in the middle of the court for an easy shot for our opponent.

Gluing the back wall boast to the side wall 

We’ve all seen back wall boasts that have somehow bounced incredibly tight or even hit the nick and leave us cursing our opponent’s luck. Since it can be done though, it should be something we aim for when we are forced into playing the back wall boast. Rather than lumping the back wall boast straight into the back wall so that it sits up loose in the middle of the court, hit it to either side of the centre of the back wall or closer to the back corners. This way your shot will land closer to the corners of the front court and be a little bit trickier for your opponent to return. If you can get the angle right, you can get the ball to drop right by the side wall and actually behave like a very good drop shot. The back wall boast has something of a unique spin unlike any other shot in the game, so if you can get it tight it’s got a very good chance of being a really awkward shot to deal with.

Have a go and see if you can angle your back wall boast more and keep it to the corners rather than sitting it up in the middle of the court.

You can find out more about how to play a back wall boast with our video on our YouTube Channel here.



The rise of the two wall boast



In squash, when you think of a boast you tend to conjure up an image of a shot hitting three walls; the side wall you’ve hit the ball into, the front wall and then the side wall on the far side. This boast is a fairly defensive shot and in many ways fairly limited shot, as it often sits up quite nicely for the opponent to attack.

At the top level, three wall boasts are becoming few and far between. They are something of a last ditch shot on the majority of occasions with almost all boasts now being played with the aim of bouncing twice before the far side wall, making them only two wall boasts.

The reason the two wall boast is becoming so prominent is because it can put immense pressure on your opponent.

two or three wall boasts

If a two wall boast is played correctly (this is not always easy), the ball will hit the middle of the front wall and bounce twice before the far side wall, meaning your opponent will have to lunge down low to recover the ball, which will require significant speed and energy and leave them awkwardly placed.

Not that the three wall boast’s obituary should be written just yet – it can be better to play a three wall boast than attempt a weak length shot from a tight position in the corner and it can give you time if you are in trouble. A few are even playing the three wall boast at an incredible pace to make it bounce back to the middle so it is more awkward for the opponent, which we talk about in another blog post.

What makes the two wall boast an effective weapon is that you can be in a bad position at the back of the court and still have the opportunity to play it. In just one shot, you can go from being under pressure to being the player on top.

It’s a fantastic combination shot and if your opponent is deep and not covering the T properly or has started to drift towards one side of the court expecting a straight drive,  it can be a useful winning shot to have up your sleeve.

If played correctly (this is not always easy), the ball will hit the middle of the front wall and bounce twice before the far side wall, meaning your opponent will have to lunge down low to recover the ball, which will require significant speed and energy and leave them awkwardly placed.”

It’s also a shot you can experiment with and vary. A two wall boast can be played soft like a drop or fizzed in hard and low and can also be played at an angle so narrow that is stays on the same side as which it was hit.

Lastly, it is also useful as a combo shot as more often than not players will respond to a two wall boast by going to length with the next shot, often a cross-court lob, leaving you with a volley opportunity.

Try it and see if you can catch your opponent cold with a few two wall boasts.