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Lewes Junior Open 2016

The second Lewes Junior Open Bronze Event took place on Saturday 30th April with 68 juniors entering across the U11-U19 age categories for a shot at glory in the shade of the rolling South Downs Hills.

A big thank you to HEAD for supplying the Prizes for the event and to the Southdowns Sports Club for supplying the courts! And of course to all of the entrants for coming and playing in good spirit and to their parents for giving up their time.

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BU11’s

Sonny Flint of Surrey (Upper) defeated Jake Sim-Baskar of Sussex (Lower) to take the BU11 title.

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BU11’s Plate

Xiang Cheung and Zack Greengrass of Sussex battled out for the BU11 Plate, with Xiang defeating the youngest ever competitor at the LJO at  6 years of age!

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GU11’s

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Lottie Hill of Kent (pictured above) edged out Renitha Srindan of Essex (below) to take home the GU11 Title.


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BU13’s

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Caleb Boy of Kent (above) saw off the challenge of Thomas Greengrass (below) to take home the U13 Competition and a rather nice matching bag.

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BU13’s Plate

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Congratulations to Lewes Squash Club’s and The Squash Company’s own Sam Bebbington (top) for winning the BU13 Plate against Liam Ferris (below).

 

GU13’S

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GU13 Champion – Anje Bryant (Sussex)

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GU13 Runner-Up – Emily Winton (Sussex)

 

BU15’s

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BU15 Champion – Frankie Smith (Sussex)

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A massive congratulations to Lewes Squash Club and Squash Company Player Dom Moorhead as he continues his comeback from an 18 month injury lay-off by finishing as BU15 Runner-Up!

BU15’s Plate

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Sujan Srindan from Essex (top picture) saw off Ashley Hughes of Sussex to claim the BU15 Plate.

 

GU15’S

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The GU15 Final was an all Kent affair with Maddie Hill defeating Jemima Morris to take the crown.

GU15’s Plate

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Florrie Edwards of Sussex took home the GU15 Plate title.

BU17’s

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BU17 Winner – Lucas Hughes (Sussex)

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BU17 Runner-up – Sebastien De La Vega (Surrey)

BU17’s Plate

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BU17 Plate Winner – Fin McManus (Surrey)

GU17’s

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GU17 Champion – Alice Hill (Kent)
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GU17 Runner-up – Rachel Moss (Surrey)

BU19’s

Congratulations to Surrey’s James Wyatt who pipped Essex’s Joe Blackmur to the BU19 title.

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GU19’s

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Girls U19 Champion – Boo Burki (Surrey)

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Girls U19 Runner-up – Lily Taylor-French (Kent)

Using the side wall to shorten your Kills



Making your short shots even shorter. 

Squash is all about the small details. Anything you can do to make your shots that tiny bit better or get back to the T-Position a second quicker is worth doing. In this case, there’s a small thing you can do to make your Kills a little bit shorter and make them that bit more deadly.

For information on playing a Kill, please visit our page on how to play a Kill here. 

Using the side wall to slow the ball

To make your Kills that bit shorter and cause your opponent to move further up the court, you can angle them to hit the side wall – ideally the nick. The best way to achieve this angle is to make sure you get really round the ball and very side-on – almost too much so. It can also help to hit the ball a little bit later than normal.

You do of course also need to use a very nasty high to low swing to generate the downward angle to give you a chance of hitting the nick.

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Deception from the back 

I find this is a particularly effective way of playing a Kill from the back of the court. If you go into a shot at the back of the court with a big swing, it looks like you’re going to play a Straight Drive and so often people will start dropping back. This makes it all the worse when your Kill hits the side wall and ends up even shorter than a normal Kill would.

Do your best to push high up the court hunting the Volley or an attacking shot as people will often play a loose ball of middling height in response as they are caught out by the angle.

Have a go and see just how short you can make your Kills go.

Take a look at the 2016 Shot of the Year – Omar Mosaad playing a fantastic Straight Kill into the nick. 

 




Playing Cross-Courts from the back



The easiest shot to play badly.

Playing a Cross-Court from the back can be a really effective shot. Often players will drift in anticipating a straight return and when they do this, the Cross-Court can be a great way of catching them out, seizing the T and putting them on the defensive as they have to turn towards the back wall.

However, as a lot of people know (except almost all junior players…), it can also be a liability of a shot. If you play it badly and it’s either loose and in the middle or too short, you can come under a lot of pressure or even lose the rally.

So how do we make it a weapon and not a liability?

The Technique

There can be a number of reasons why Cross-Courts from the back don’t make the grade. Some people get too ‘front-on’, which is to say their body faces the front wall as they hit the ball. If you do this, you typically lose engagement in the hips and torso which means you don’t get the same swing, which can cause the shot to come up short.
Do your best to remain more ‘side-on’, having your body facing the side wall, although you may need to play about with this and find a middle ground between being side-on and front-on.

Another thing to be aware of when playing this shot is the follow-through. A lot of players finish their follow-through very quickly, which means they lose a bit of their accuracy and ball control. Your hand should go through the ball when you’re playing this shot by quite some distance, so just check you are allowing it to do so and also letting it do so in the right direction!

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It can also be an idea to snap your elbow and lower arm more, especially if the ball is in the back corner or getting behind you, as this can give the ball a little bit more impetus for making it to the other back corner of the court.

Added Deception

An added benefit of remaining more side-on is that you take up roughly the same position that you would if you were going to play straight, which means the shot can have some natural disguise, which could help to make it an even more devastating attacking threat.

Make sure you don’t play any rash Cross-Courts from the back but wait for the right opening and then make sure you achieve that depth and width with the quality of your technique!




Cross-Courting as a Return of Serve



When to do it and when not to do it.

The Return of Serve is such an important shot, as in combination with the Serve, it sets the tone for the rally and decides who will take control of the T-Position and control the early stages of the rally.

Timing it right

If you time a Cross-Court Volley badly (or of course hit it badly), you can end up putting the ball right onto your opponent’s racket, giving them a great opportunity to attack you and apply pressure.

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If you are going to Cross-Court Volley a Serve, or hit a Cross-Court Volley at any time, try to take it as early as you can. This not only takes more time away from your opponent but it also means they are less likely to be established on the T-Position after their previous shot. If you can hit it early enough, you will hopefully catch them with their body weight going towards the T-Position as they move forwards, which would make it very hard for them to change direction and return a well hit Cross-Court.

Alternatively, you can look to Cross-Court on the Volley a little bit later as a player’s serve comes off the side wall. The idea here is to catch them when they are starting to drift in towards your side of the court anticipating a Straight shot. With their weight heading away from the T-Position, a sudden change of direction can be lethal and leave them scurrying to stay in the rally.

In conclusion, if you want to Cross-Court Volley more effectively as a Return of Serve, either hit it very early or a lot later.




Facing the front wall when you move



How should you position your body as you move? 

Whenever you move in squash, you should strive to keep your body facing the front wall where possible, particularly in the back corners. In doing this, you keep your options open as from this position you can easily change direction if you need to, as sometimes you will over anticipate or simply guess your opponent’s shot wrong. If you start to turn too much to face a particular part of the court, you begin to commit and this can be spotted and acted upon by a clever opponent. It can also leave you struggling to return a shot played in an unexpected direction, as that split-second it takes to stop and change direction is often too long.

Moving backwards

It is very tempting and easy to turn and run towards the back corners when moving in squash but if you do this, you will find yourself getting closer and closer to the side wall and worse – chasing the ball. Once the ball gets behind you, you need to do your best to stay composed and try to get around the ball again or use your ‘wrong’ leg as a way of shifting weight behind the ball again. If you turn and run, you will find yourself having to stretch and try and flick a weak shot back from a very awkward position.

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Do your best to stay as close as you can to the middle of the court and move backwards first, before turning in to face the side wall only as you begin to stretch in to play your shot.

The idea is never to over commit to anything when it comes to movement. Always be ready and in position to change direction at any moment.

This is something that’s quite small and easy to incorporate into your game which could save you lots of points and mileage! Take a look at your game and see where your body faces as you move into the shot.