Squash Blog

Watching the ball properly on the Return of Serve

That shot could be even better if you watched the ball…

It still amazes me how many players don’t watch the ball. I’m now occasionally prone to losing the ball from time to time when I’ve been coaching for hours as my mind starts to wander, but there’s no excuse for not watching when playing – especially when waiting to receive your opponent’s serve.

Returning Serve

A lot of people don’t watch the ball when their opponent is serving, which still strikes me as amazing. Firstly, I’m amazed that they don’t think to watch the ball and I’m often amazed that they are often able to return it – often on the volley. Think how good they could be at volleying if they only watched the ball! They’d be able to take it so much earlier and take even more time away from their opponent, which would make their volley twice as dangerous.

Not watching the serve might not lose you the rally immediately but it will leave you in a weaker position that you could’ve been in. If you’re doing well anyway, just imagine how much better it could still be simply by watching the ball.

When you watch the wall, you miss the first half of the ball’s travel and therefore miss out on valuable cues and information about the serve’s direction. This can affect your movement and positioning in particular, as if you watch the ball your feet will start readying you to hit the ball. If you don’t watch it, your feet will typically either not move or drift over in auto-pilot and leave you too close to the ball. Both of these will reduce the quality of your shot and this could prevent you from getting into the rally properly, as your opponent may be able to attack this weaker return and put you under pressure. The way you watch the ball is important too, as depending on your eyes you may need to turn your head so that you get both eyeballs on the ball.

This is not something limited to beginners either. I’ve seen lots of players do it at Division 1 and even Premier Level County Leagues before. Check you are watching the ball as your opponent serves it. All the way from their hand to the racket to the wall. Every step of the way. If you see your friend doing it, tell them to watch the serve too – but only after you’ve taken full advantage of it and beaten them.

Squash is good for your tennis.

And tennis is good for your squash.

I’m always interested in the way people learn sport. Coaching is a pursuit for the perfect formula which you could use to make anyone a master player. It’s all well and good knowing what somebody needs to do, but actually getting them to do it and do it well and then also do it well under pressure is a real challenge.

One thing I have noticed though is that the players who have played multiple racket sports (and multiple other sports) are always far faster learners, more creative and capable of a far wider range of skills. This may seem obvious but sometimes there’s a lot said about playing one sport being bad for another.

At the end of the last junior season, our top six junior players were all players who had played at least two of Squash, Tennis, Badminton and Table Tennis on a regular basis for sustained periods of their life. One is even involved in the County set-up for Squash, Badminton and Tennis. The next group of players below them stood out because they didn’t play more than one racket sport, or squash was their only sport entirely.

I don’t buy into natural talent at all. All of these players had just played so many different sports and several different racket sports throughout their life and it has given them so many advantages.

The Badminton players have such a knack for volleying and drop shots. The Tennis players are very good at creating space for themselves and had a particularly vicious ability with the ball overhead – they weren’t at all concerned by lob shots. They also tend to be capable of a wider variety of spins.
Encouraging people to play multiple sports

The bottom line is we should be encouraging people – particularly children – to participate in multiple racket sports. It’s of course also better socially and for life experience to have a go at a wide range of activities.

It’s not just about fun though, it’s performance too. The more able players have played a huge array of sports growing up and it has given them an edge over those who are just used to squash. They’re often lambasted for playing a ‘tennis shot’ or ‘badminton shot’ or for not playing ‘proper squash’, but that’s only by people who can’t find a way to deal with the challenge they are facing. This extra edge is what separates them from the rest of the pack.

At a level approaching professional, it probably won’t be good practice. Not least because physically and time wise it would be demanding. Up until that point though, there is no doubt for me that all young children, including those who aspire to be professional, should play multiple sports when possible and definitely try to do different racket sports.

The importance of the grip

Allowing for a full spectrum of shots and effects.

I fight on an almost daily basis with the players (particularly the juniors) about how they hold the racket.

It’s fiddly and it’s niggly and it’s not easy to practice but ignoring your grip is a very short-termist way of playing as it creates more and more problems the further you get in squash.

The most important factor of any grip in my opinion is that it allows for flexibility and manoeuvrability.

For more information on how hold the racket, go to our Squash School Page on the Grip here.

Range of shots: Drops and Lobs

The most common problem people have with their grip is that they hold it so that the racket face is ‘closed’ – meaning the racket face is either facing downwards or is horizontal. The grip should ensure that the face is facing upwards slightly, called an ‘Open’ racket face. The big problem comes when attempting to play a variety of shots. A bad grip might not stop you from hitting good straight drives or hitting the ball really hard, but it becomes a real problem when you start trying to use more areas of the front wall, particularly the top and bottom. The most difficult shot for players with bad grips is the lob shot, as they find it very hard to lift the ball when their racket face is naturally facing downwards or flat. They have to seriously adapt to have any chance of getting the required height for a good lob shot and this is difficult to do consistently and very hard when under any sort of pressure and not good given how important lobbing is!

It can also affect drops in a similar way. If someone has a closed racket face, they will find it difficult to get a consistent drop shot, as the ball will always want to go downwards when they hit it. You might not think this is a bad thing when aiming to play a drop shot but it means the margin for error is much smaller, as if they were to hit the ball when it’s a little bit lower on the bounce, it’s very likely to hit the tin. A player with this sort of racket face would have to always hit the ball when it’s quite high on the bounce to avoid hitting the ball down, which won’t always be possible or desirable.

It means you don’t have flexibility or manoeuvrability, which for me is the main job of the grip.

Errors & quality

As suggested above with the drops, having a bad grip can lead to errors when playing the drops but it can also have a negative impact on just about every shot. If the racket face is too closed, a player will struggle to achieve a high standard of length on a consistent basis, especially from the back corners. The racket face being flat or too closed will lead to the angle of the shot always being downwards, which isn’t always a bad thing. I’ve talked in other blogs about how it’s important to swing downwards, but the problem here is that it’s not deliberate. It’s worth saying one more time that your grip should allow you a full range of options, not restrict you to just doing one thing with the ball.

It’s never too late to change your grip. It really can revolutionise every aspect of your game, so do use our grip page to check how you’re getting on.

Lewes Schools Squash Cup 2015: LOGS vs. Priory

Underdogs LOGS edge Priory in inaugural Lewes Schools Squash Cup

36 pupils from Lewes Old Grammar School and Priory School Match took part in the inaugural Lewes Schools Squash Cup at the Southdown Sports Club, Lewes. The event was split into three categories, with LOGS edging the Year 7 event thanks to stellar performances from Jacob Stammers and Joe Hunt, only to see Priory storm the year 9/10 event 7-2 in matches.

It couldn’t have been any closer in the elite category though, where county star Cam Baker’s win for Priory meant the tournament went down to the final match. It was to be LOGS’ day though as the underdogs triumphed, with Richard Boyne, an alumni of LOGS, defeating Jacob Prosser of Priory 2-1 in the final match to claim the trophy and silence the partizan priory crowd.

It was a fantastic debut for the Lewes Schools Squash Cup, which it is hoped will expand to include four schools for 2016.

You can read about the 2016 Lewes Schools Squash Cup here.

Lewes Schools Squash Cup 2016: LOGS vs. Priory

LOGS vs. Priory 2016

LOGS (Lewes Old Grammar School) went into the 2016 Lewes Schools Squash Cup against Priory School looking to defend their title despite losing a few of their players to University over the past twelve months.

You can view information about last year’s Lewes Schools Squash Cup here.

The Cup was split into three events again with players participating in the Year 7-9 Event, Year 10-11 Event or Elite Event.

It didn’t start well for LOGS as an incredibly strong generation of Priory Year 7’s starring as Priory stormed into an early lead in the Year 7-9 Event with Priory’s 1st Team beating both the LOGS 1st and 2nd Teams, with only Jacob Stammers of LOGS avoiding defeat. The LOGS 1st Team managed to edge out Priory 2nd Team in a closely fought match with Oskar Filskow just beating Charlie Branton but it wasn’t enough as Priory 2nd Team saw off both the LOGS 2nd Team and 3rd Team without dropping a game.

In the Year 10-11 event though things got off to a far better start with illness and absence depriving Priory of a few of their players and the Event which they won so emphatically last year slipped away from them as Patrick Duffy, Dylan Patel and Gabriel Leggo defeated Priory’s 1st Team without losing a game. Priory 1st Team were able to beat the LOGS 2nd team 2-1 in matches but it wasn’t enough to stop LOGS claiming the event.

LOGS’ victorious Year 10-11 Team

As with last year, the Cup went down to the Elite Event. Priory named a formidably strong side featuring three players in the County Squad and Qualified Coaches in Cam Baker, Dom Moorhead and Jake Prosser. With Hal Knox also joining them, the quartet overpowered the Elite team from LOGS with newcomers Josh Jacobs and Jake Norland unable to stop the rampant Priory side who won all of the Elite matches.

Given the ability emerging in Priory’s Year 7 group it might be some time before LOGS are able to wrestle back the trophy unless they are able to find an influx of their own.

PREVIOUS WINNERS:

2015 – LOGS

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