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Playing at a slow tempo

Last week we discussed playing squash at a high tempo in order to keep an opponent off balance and under pressure, and when and how doing so can be effective. This week we’ll discuss playing at a slower tempo and how this can be effective in matches.

Playing at a slower tempo is often associated with older players, but disregarding it robs you of a very valuable tool and dimension.

When can it be effective to slow the tempo down?

When the court is cold, playing a slower tempo can be absolutely devastating. You’ll need to take a very high T-Position though as the ball won’t rebound off the front wall as much. It can also be effective on a warm court where the ball is bounce high, as playing a slower length shot may enable you to prevent your shots coming off of the back wall too much. 

You can see more tips for playing on a colder court here, and tips for playing on a warmer court here. 

As with playing a high tempo against a player who wants to play slow, playing a slow tempo against someone who loves a fast-paced game can be lethal. Changing the pace is a great way of disrupting your opponent. If you try to play their game, or don’t impose your game enough, you are likely to struggle. If you can’t take your opponent on at a high tempo, try slowing things down a little. 

How can you slow the tempo down?

Taking longer between rallies can be a bit risky, and you don’t want to take so long that it is considered cheating or immoral. Just taking a few extra seconds than normal can help to compose you and also just to slow down your opponent a bit, which can be really useful if they are having a strong sequence of points. 

Hitting slower and higher length can be really useful for all players. If you’re tired or if your opponent is on top, doing this can give you a better chance of getting your opponent to the back and getting yourself back to the T-Position. 

An accurate lob serve can be the staple of a slower tempo game or spell, as if you get the ball dropping in the back corner, you can force an incredibly weak shot and have the chance to play a winning shot straight away, which will lead to more shorter rallies and a generally slower pace.  

Delaying your shots is not only a great way to wrong foot your opponent, it can also really disrupt their rhythm and movement by causing them to slow down all the way to a stand still and then sprint again for your shot. Delaying shots off the back wall is similar in that regard and will keep the pace a bit lower if you need it. 

See if you can recognise when you are tiring or your opponent is on top and have a go at playing a slower tempo for a few rallies and see if it can help get you back into the game. Of course, if your opponent is dominating you with the slow tempo, you might want to look at our post on playing at a higher tempo! 

Add more strings to your bow!

Playing at a high tempo

Tempo is an invaluable weapon for keeping an opponent off balance, particularly if you are able to change it unexpectedly during the course of a game.

Playing at a high tempo doesn’t necessarily mean hitting the ball hard, although it might involve that. Playing at a high tempo means giving your opponent less time between their shots by hitting the ball earlier, typically done by using the volley or half-volley more or hitting the ball higher up the court, i.e. closer to the front wall. Playing your shots early again and again over the course of several rallies adds up and it will make your opponent work a lot harder than they otherwise would, which can lead them to tiring quicker and making errors.

When is it effective to play at a high tempo?

  • When playing someone who isn’t as fit
  • When playing someone who is is more skilful than you are 
  • At the start of games 
  • When the other player is trying to slow the game down
  • When the other player is older
  • Almost always!

I would argue that there’s very few times where it’s a bad idea to play a high tempo. There’s a school of thought that says you should throw your all into every rally, regardless of whether you won’t be able to keep it up for four or five games. This is because it might be enough to wear your opponent out doing it for two games and it also will help you to get fitter and stronger and get to the stage where you can do it for five games if required. However, you may want to avoid playing at a high tempo if:

  • Your opponent is also playing at a high tempo – you may not want to get drawn into their game (or perhaps a high tempo suits them) 
  • You are very tired 
  • You are unable to hit the ball accurately enough at a high tempo to win any given match

I believe it’s always effective to start a match at a high tempo. Lots of players start slowly, so if you can come out of the blocks flying, you might build an early lead and quite possibly even take the first game. This will also test your opponent mentally, as even if they get going in the second game, they’ll now be 1-0 down and will have to stave off fears that you can sustain that tempo for the entire match, or that you are even that much better than them. The same goes for the start of games. If you can get off to a good start, you can test your opponent’s mental strength. 

It’s also of course a great physical test. If your opponent is older than you or of questionable fitness, you can try to burn them out by playing at a high tempo. This is particularly effective against players who are more skilful than you, but lacking in fitness. 

It’s also good if your opponent is trying to slow the game down. Refuse to be drawn into your opponent’s game! 

How do you play at a higher tempo?

  • Recover all the way to the T-Position between shots – where the two lines meet – with your racket ready! 
  • Volley and half-volley as much as possible – especially when hitting a short shot
  • Volley all serves 
  • Hit dying length 
  • Move quickly in a straight line towards the back of the service box to intercept lengths before the back wall 

Naturally, if you want to play at a high tempo you need to volley. Don’t let serves bounce, and use the volley to stay on the T-Position for as long as possible.

One classic mistake that players make when playing at a higher tempo is overhitting. If you take the ball early, you’ll take time away from your opponent. However, if you’ve hit the ball so hard – or played it so that it bounces very close to the back wall – that it rebounds off of the back wall a lot, you’ll give that time back to your opponent. So, make sure all length shots you hit are dying in or around the back corners. If you are going to hit the ball very hard, make sure you hit it low on the front wall, but do your best to keep an open racket face so that you are still getting the ball to bounce behind the service boxes and actually get to the back of the court. If you get this right, your opponent will have to return most of your shots before the back wall, which is demanding physically and technically and will effectively force them to play at a high tempo.

Also, it’s really good for you to look to intercept their length before the back wall. The best way to do this is to move in a straight line from the T-Position towards the back corner and aim to take the ball around the service box. This can take a bit of practice, and even if you have to hit the ball a bit higher on the front wall, you are stopping your opponent getting settled on the T-Position. 

See how many people you can unsettle and keep off balance with a high tempo! Look out for our next post on how you can use a slow tempo to great effect.

Practice playing in different environments

Playing on cold courts and with skiddy balls

It’s important you practice under varying conditions and in different court environments if you want to play competitively at a high level. Courts can vary massively from club to club. If you’re playing in a County League or tournaments you’ll play on all sorts of courts at different clubs. Therefore, if you want to be successful it’s important you practice on different courts and in different circumstances so that you are prepared for abnormal situations. 

The court

The most common variation is temperature. Often clubs will have courts that are warmer than others, and so players will be familiar with the fact that the ball bounces a bit higher on warmer courts. It’s important you develop your ability to play on warmer and colder courts, as you’ll play on all sorts of courts temperature wise, and you want to have the experience to be able to make little changes to your game and not be thrown mentally by a different court temperature. 

How weird are your home club’s courts?

It’s not just temperature that can make playing on a particular court unique. Most of us won’t play on full glass courts very often – which really is a different experience – but playing on even just a glass-back court is slightly different. The bounce off the back wall is slightly different and the added distraction of people behind the court and/or being able to see through at what’s going on behind can be off-putting if you haven’t played on a glass-back court very often. 

You might also occasionally play on courts where the front walls are not covered in the typical plaster and are actually covered in boards which make a really loud bang when they are hit by the ball. They can be very distracting at first; the ball doesn’t rebound off them anywhere near as much as you would expect, or as much as the sound it makes would suggest. Sometimes the ball won’t rebound off standard walls as much as you would expect, as it’s not uncommon for the front wall to be colder than the rest of the court because it is an outside wall.

Sometimes even on a warm court the ball may not bounce very high because the floor is older and ‘dead’. This may even cause the ball to ‘skid’ and have a quicker, longer and lower bounce. It’s therefore important you practice on courts which have different floors. If the ball is skidding, play lots of boasts and kills! 



The ball 

The best way to familiarise yourself with different bounces of the ball is to play with different balls. Use single yellow or red dot balls to simulate a really bouncy ball or summer climate. This is also a great ball control exercise. Be sure to also use balls of different ages. Brand new balls tend to bounce a bit more, and so again might be good for simulating hot weather or bouncy courts, but it’s also a good exercise to use really old balls that will skid more and bounce differently, as you never know when you might get a funny ball or end up on a strange court where the ball behaves as if it were old.

Preparing yourself for anything 

The idea is to be ready for anything. There’s a general belief that both players have to cope with any situation such as a dodgy ball, cold court or whatever else, but the truth is that more often than not the conditions favour one player. On the outside courts in Egypt there were complaints about the wind, and while both players had to put up with the wind, there’s no doubt if your game involved a lot of high shots it was going to be affected more than someone who played a very low, attacking game. The same is true of colder or warmer courts. It is likely to naturally suit one player more than the other, and maybe even disadvantage one player. 

So, the message is to be the player who has the advantage on as many courts and in as many situations as possible. Start by varying the court you play on at your local club. If you are able, try to player at other nearby clubs where the conditions are likely to be different still. Use different balls of varying ages and bounce so that you are prepared for all sorts of bounces. 

If you are familiar with playing on difficult courts and lots of different balls, you are likely to have more confidence and a composure that you can’t teach or fake, because you know that you have been in this situation many times before, and that is half of the battle. With your self-assuredness, you can adapt your game to cope with whatever the different conditions are for the match. We won’t go into detail about what you changes you can make in colder or warmer weather, as we do that in our guides to adapting your game in warmer weather and colder weather. 



Watching for signs your opponent is tired

When to go in for the kill

We’ve discussed a little bit on the site before about when the crucial moments are in a match, and examined the need to come out flying at the start of the first game, the benefits of putting your all into the third game when the score is tied at 1-1 and how to see out the match when you have a 2-0 lead in games.

Today more generally we are going to discuss how to identify potential turning points in matches and how you can take advantage of them.



Looking for signs

Looking for signs your opponent is tired is a big part of knowing when to go on the attack, and changing your style accordingly to take advantage of that weakness. Signs of tiredness in your opponent can include obvious things like hearing them breathing harder, watching them pretend to tie their shoe laces or take an elaborate route to the service box between rallies, but sometimes they can be more subtle, especially if the player is fit. Other signs may include:

What to do with this information 

So you’ve spotted your opponent is tired, what do you do? Sometimes they’re tired because you’ve had a gruelling game, and so you are also tired. Now is the time to dig deep and show you want it more: if you can press ahead and go on the attack at this point you are likely to overwhelm them into submission before you become exhausted yourself. It is better to be the one on the attack as tiredness sets in, as you’d be surprised at how many people lose hope if they come under a renewed attack when they are tired. They will rarely stop to think whether you are also tired, and will mostly believe that you must be still going strong. It is a bluff of sorts. If you’re not as tired, then it’s not a bluff and you need to really up the intensity.

The best ways of going on the attack in this instance are:

  • Keeping your opponent moving, without aiming to hit the winning shot. This is a delicate balance, as you want to take opportunities that come your way but most importantly, you want to keep making your opponent run and not give away errors. Hitting into empty space is the best way to achieve that. This is a good strategy against a player who is quick or who is very fit, as even though they’re tired, they’re likely to still be reliant on their physicality and are probably experienced enough to be able to draw on it even when tired. Hitting into open spaces keeps the pressure on them and keeps them moving. 




  • Taking the ball earlier wherever possible. Look to volley and make use of the half-volley, and hit the ball as high up the court as possible to give your opponent less time to recover between shots. This point is a great strategy if you know you are fitter than your opponent, or you have enough energy. It’s also good if they are starting to make mistakes, as it will increase the likelihood of them making even more. 
  • Making sure you get your own length shots past the serve box. This point is particularly important if you are playing a highly experienced player, as they will likely be able to cope with their own fatigue and still produce decent play. This keeps them pinned behind you, which means you will get more opportunities to attack, and they will be less able to attack, giving them no respite. Win the length battle.

Be on the lookout for the various signals your opponents give off during your next few matches, and see if you can work out how best to take advantage and improve your game management.