Tips Archives • Squash Company

Trying to win the first game before your opponent is ready

Taking advantage of slow starters

We’ve talked before about coming throwing your all into games like the match is just a best of one game before, and this is more true than ever in the first game.

Getting the edge on your opponent

The majority of players don’t bother to warm-up enough or even at all. This means they might not start hitting their rhythm until the second game, which is a fantastic opportunity for you. If you can catch them off the pace in the first, you can deal them a mental blow as well as taking the lead, which might even be enough to demoralise them and give you further advantage going into the next game.

Really throwing your all into the first game can make a massive difference if you are playing someone more experienced or who may even be better than you, as it can make them uncertain, help you to build momentum and confidence and of course give you the lead.

How to make sure you are ready

It’s important that you warm-up not only your body, but also your mind and hitting.

When warming-up your body, try to hit the following areas over the course of 3-5 minutes:

Running forwards and backwards – the change of direction at each end of your run is particularly important.
Sidestepping and cross-over stepping
Lunging at the end of the run – after a couple of minutes of the running and sideways movements, start putting in a lunge at the end of each movement. This should be shallow at first and get deeper as you do more.
Jumping/skipping/hopping – doing just a few jumps forwards and backwards and side to side is great for getting your fast-twitch muscles moving and helping you push off explosively into and out of shots, something which is often difficult in the early stages of a game

Warming-up mentally is always helped by warming-up physically too. This part of your pre-match preparation can really depend on the individual. It’s best to try and get yourself into the mindset that works for you, be it relaxing or getting yourself fired-up. For more in depth advice, check out our posts on warming up your mind and for coping with over-motivation.

Warming-up your racket means getting to the stage where you can hit all shots to the best of your ability and also be able to move it as fast as you possibly can, known as racket head speed. The best way to do this is to try and get on court before your opponent and play a variety of different shots. Most people will focus on just hitting the ball hard, but do your best to incorporate lots of volleys, lob shots, drops and as much movement between shots as possible so that you are also practicing moving onto the ball as much as possible, not just standing still whilst hitting. For further advice on this, please take a look at our post on warming-your racket up.

The first game is a great opportunity. Make sure you are the one who takes advantage and not the one who is taken advantage of.

For further detailed tips on how you might make best use in our series of posts on the knock-up and in our post on winning the warm-up.

How to improve your movement to get counter drops back

I always found that having a tall and rather large build meant that I was vulnerable to counter drop or short shots; short shots which my opponent plays in response to my short shot. This was most apparent when I played a short shot from the front of the court and so was required to move into the front corner twice in quick succession; once to play my shot and then again to cover their counter.

How can you improve your movement to deal with counter short shots?

Weight transfer is the most important thing when you are moving out of the front corner, as if you keep your centre of gravity in the right place you can leave yourself the option to move into the front again.

The first part of the weight transfer is the lunge, squat or planting of your legs when you go to strike the ball. If you are lunging to an extent – whether it is as full stretch or a fairly shallow lunge – try to make sure you are using your back leg and non-racket arm to help you move out of your shot. This is done by allowing your back leg to drive through towards the ball as you follow through and keeping your non-racket arm back and out to the side. The momentum of the back leg driving through and the non-racket arm’s balance can then be used to help you move out of a shot and back towards the T-Position.

Now comes the part where you need to really watch your weight transfer. Like a sprinter moving out of the starting blocks, it is really important that you stay low as you move backwards to the T-Position. It is very easy to spring out of a lunge and end up standing completely upright, but by doing this you will shift the majority of your weight backwards towards the T-Position, thereby throwing all of your eggs in one basket and making it very difficult to go forwards again. If you ‘unfold’ yourself gradually and stand upright again only as you get back to the T-Position, you will find it easier to shift your weight and move back towards the front corner again if necessary.

Whilst you are staying low and unfolding, you need to make sure you are taking small steps back towards the T-Position. The lunge might be a big step (of course assisted by the back leg and non-racket arm), but after that, you need to make sure that your steps are small and skimming the floor. Small, low steps also help to keep your weight in a more neutral position, as when you take big steps in any direction, you are committing your weight and therefore yourself to that direction and making it very difficult to change. That won’t help at all here given you need to go back in the opposite direction to which you were previously moving.

Moving with shorter, lower steps is comparatively easy to practice compared with the lower centre of gravity, which can take a bit more practice and awareness. Ghosting and practicing the movement pattern is a very good way to start so that you can really feel the size and height of your steps, and also where your weight is as you move. You can then build that up by having someone feed you shots to the front corner, then the front corner and the back corner in a fixed order and lastly the front and back corner at random. You can then swap sides and add in more shots to make it more match-like.

One final thing; it can also help to change your grip as you move towards the ball. As you are taking your first step towards the front corner again, shift your hand down your grip to the very bottom of the handle in order to give yourself a touch more reach. You can read more about that on our post here.

Best of luck in maintaining a low centre of gravity and covering the front corners repeatedly!

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.

Swinging towards the front corner

A small change to your swing to boost your accuracy

It’s just a short post today to discuss a small tip that can help you to get the ball a bit tighter to the side wall from both the front and the back of the court. Sometimes it can be hard in a match to keep straight shots tight to the side wall, especially if the tempo is high. We’ve talked before about following through with your racket beyond the point of contact, but it’s also important to note that when you play a straight shot you should try to swing outwards and away from your body slightly. Doing this, you will be swinging towards the front corner of the court on the side which you’re playing the straight shot. This causes your shot to get that little bit tighter towards the side wall, and is particularly necessary if the ball is in the middle of the court.

What is an outward swing?

The outward swing should be led by your lower arm as you follow through a shot, and should end with your racket almost pointing towards the front corner of the court at the end of the follow through. Just as you are striking the ball, control your forearm so that your hand points towards the corner as you finish striking the ball and following through your shot.

The swing’s outward direction is usually quite subtle, as if you overdo it the ball can end up hitting the side wall too early, or even hit the side wall first. Although, it might need to be less subtle if you are in a central area of the court because your opponent has played a loose shot.

It can take a little bit of practice to judge how much you need to swing your racket towards the corner. Fortunately, given the amount of straight shots we play, it’s very easy to practice swinging outwardly towards the front corner during the warm-up or knock-up, most training exercises and matches. So, make sure you have a go and see if you can use an outward follow-through to make your straight shots tighter to the side wall.

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.

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.

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