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Extending your racket in the front corner 

Sometimes when someone plays a really good drop shot, you need every bit of help you can get to return it with interest or even return it at all. Any little extra thing that can help is worth knowing and today we’ll be discussing how you can go full stretch with your racket by changing your grip as you move into the shot, which is an incredibly important skill to practice.



Holding the very base of the racket 

The end goal is to hold your racket at the very base of the grip to the extent that there is only a small amount of the grip between your thumb and fingers. You will of course be surrendering a lot of control over the ball by doing this but when you are at full stretch, keeping the ball in has to be the main aim.

As you move into the front corner, and do try to move very directly straight towards the ball, shift your hand to the base of the grip and the absolute lowest point you can keep hold of the grip without losing control or dropping your racket. You are aiming to essentially bounce the ball off the very top of the strings and into the front corner. It certainly won’t have a lot of pace on it but with a bit of practice and the right body angle – having the body facing towards the front corner – you can keep the ball fairly tight to the side wall.

If you are able to, also try to make sure you are also able to stretch back out towards the T-Position too in order to cover a long shot.

For more information about how to hold the racket, check out our page on the grip. 



Tips for playing in colder weather

How to take advantage of the colder weather and negate the disadvantages.

Following on from our blog about how you can adapt your game in warmer weather, we will now look at how you can make small alterations to your game to be effective on a cold court, which is very relevant with autumn underway and winter on the horizon.

Negating the disadvantages

Stepping higher up the court

One very important thing you’ll need to do is to step higher up the court. The ball won’t come off the back wall as much in cold weather – if at all – and so you need to make sure that you are in a position to intercept the ball before the back wall, or before it loses too much energy and starts to drop.



You’ll also be in a better position to take advantage of the increased number of volley opportunities, which come more frequently on colder courts as the ball comes off the front wall slower.

Volleying serves

As well as getting more opportunities around the middle of the court, you need to be looking to volley serves as a necessity as you cannot afford to let ball drop in the back corner. This is especially the case if you are returning a lob serve. Do your best to to stand higher up the court when returning serves and volleying as much as possible, because if you let the ball drop in the back corner, you’ll find your options very limited as the ball will have almost no energy on it. Additionally, you’ll have very little space to generate any energy with your swing. If you do find yourself in this situation you can check out our tips for using your feet to deal with such a situation here and your racket here.

Aiming higher up the front wall & opening the racket face more to get length

During cold weather you may find it harder to hit an accurate length when playing drives or lobs. Naturally, the colder weather can make the walls as cold as the ball which means your shots may not come back off the front wall as much as you would think. In order to ensure your length shots are still long enough to get into the back corners and force your opponent off of the T-Position, you may need to either aim higher on the front wall or open your racket face more than usual. You could of course try hitting the ball harder, but in cold weather this can have mixed success. Depending on the temperature, you may have to hit your normal straight drive at the very least one foot higher on the front wall than you would in warmer weather.
Rotating your forearm will help you to further open your racket face and will also help you with getting the angle for extra height on the front wall and more importantly, give you some cut. This cut will give the ball a bit of extra momentum off the front wall, helping the ball to come back slightly longer.

Taking advantage of the colder weather

Capitalising on drop shot (and two wall boast) opportunities

We’ve talked a lot about the negatives of a colder court, but of course it can have major advantages too – most notably when playing drops. In cold weather even the most average drop shot can become a winner because of how much the front wall slows down the ball and how much lower the ball bounces when it is cold. Therefore, it goes without saying that you should go for drop shots more often than you would normally in warmer weather, especially when in front. Just be wary of the counter drop though as that can be just as slow or slower than your original drop! You can cover this eventuality by taking very small backwards steps towards the T-Position – but not going all the way back – so you can change direction and push forwards again quickly. The slower ball off the front wall also means you do not need to get all the way back to the T-Position, as you’ll have a bit more time to react if your opponent does respond with a reasonable length shot, but also you will still be able to cover the counter drop if it comes.



Using lob serves and lobs

We’ve mentioned how you should aim to volley all lob serves without fail during such weather and you might also like to dish out some tricky lob serves. Like the rest of your long shots, you may need to hit the ball a bit harder, as well as higher, to achieve length and you might really need to open your racket face to get extra cut and the little bit of momentum this can bring to your shot.

For similar reasons, it might be very effective to play more lob shots from the front of the court, especially if you are able to disguise it as a drop shot and lure an opponent forwards into the front, leaving space at the back. With the ball dropping like it does in cold weather this can be an unstoppable outright winner.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST – Warm-up!

You really need to warm-up thoroughly. Even putting potential injuries to one side, you generally need to get down lower in winter as the ball is bouncing lower. This is very hard to do if you don’t warm up and it’s very hard to volley more and position yourself higher up the court if you’re cold.
We’ve written several detailed posts here at the Squash Company on how to warm-up properly including a series covering warming up yourself, your hitting, your racket speed and your mind, as well as a post on trying to ‘win’ the warm-up.

There you have it! Hopefully you will now have a fantastic winter season and dominate your boxes, leagues and friends! Additionally, for your enjoyment, you may wish to use a bouncier ball in winter. Check out our guide and our video on all of the different balls in squash and advice on which one is best for you and your circumstances.

Swapping the frying pan swat for a high to low chop

A small tip for improving your forehand volley

When hitting a forehand volley above the head, it is a very common but lazy technique for players to ‘swat’ at the ball with a frying pan style. By this, I mean starting with the racket face and inside of your wrist and palm directly facing the front wall and swinging downwards by bringing your hand straight towards the floor, not unlike a tennis smash. This style can be effective from time to time in hitting the ball hard and bringing it low but it can also result in errors and is rarely as accurate or consistent as an overhead volley hit with proper technique.

Opening the racket face and chopping

The way to achieve greater accuracy with overhead forehand volleys is to really open the racket face. For these forehand volleys, you can open your racket face by rotating the forearm clockwise (right handed players) or anti-clockwise (left handed players) so that the edge of your racket goes towards the ball first. If you can hit the ball with an open racket face, even when the ball is up high you will have much greater control over the shot. To bring the ball low, you will need to swing the racket from high to low, almost in a chopping motion. This ‘chopping’ motion as part of a high to low swing with an open racket face gives you far greater fine control over the ball than using a flat, frying pan swat swing.



This chopping motion can be particularly useful when dealing with a high serve or when you are presented with an opportunity to attack a ball in the middle of the court, so have a go and see if you can improve the quality and consistency of your overhead volleys.

Following through on backhand serve

As we’ve previously discussed on this blog, the backhand serve has so many advantages over a forehand serve when the server is serving from their forehand side of the court. It allows the server to move straight towards the T-Position as they hit the ball, to watch their opponent and it also creates an angle that keeps the ball closer to the side wall after it hits it. This last point means that returns of serve are often significantly weaker, which is perfect for you as it might give you an easy opportunity to attack or win the rally immediately, leaving your opponent struggling to get into the game.



The common mistake

Almost everyone serves using their forehand on both sides of the court when they start playing, which can make the backhand serve seem unnatural. This often leads to people having a go at it but giving up on it when it feels awkward or gangly. The easiest thing to do is to treat the backhand serve as a backhand volley, which is exactly what it is. By imagining that you are hitting a backhand volley, a player can shred some of the awkwardness that often causes backhand serves to be short or go out of play. Players with perfectly good backhand volleys will often go to play a backhand serve with a really strange and awkward looking technique and movement.

Throwing the ball 

As well as the awkward swing, the other thing that often hampers players playing the backhand serve is throwing the ball too close to their bodies as they go to serve. This adds to the awkwardness of the swing as the server then has little space in which to swing. When you throw the ball up for a backhand serve, make sure that it goes away from your body and gives you space enough to step towards the ball and swing with plenty of space. You might need to try a this a few times to get a feel for how much space you need to provide yourself with when you throw the ball. You can also check out our posts on using different throws when you serve and how to use the throw to make your lob serve even deadlier.

If you are struggling with the backhand serve, persevere. The dividends in the long run will be incredible. Experiment with the throw a little bit to ensure you have enough space and make sure your swing is fluid and resembles the swing you would use when hitting a backhand volley. It won’t be long before you get the hang of it and it will start to become a staple of your game.

For more tips on how to play the backhand serve, check out our page dedicated to it here. 



Moving around the ball instead of backwards



How to deal with loose shots using your feet 

When the ball is coming towards you – perhaps at an awkward or unexpected angle – do you step backwards or do you move more sideways and around the ball?

Getting your weight through the ball and staying central 

Moving backwards can be detrimental as since you and your body are now going backwards, it can be difficult to transfer your weight forwards again and through the ball when you hit your shot. This might mean you end up stretching forwards or flicking your racket at the ball, resulting in a weak or inconsistent shot.

Instead, when the ball is coming towards you, try to move ‘around it’ – moving towards the centre of the court in order to create space for the ball to the side of you, rather than in front of you. Think of how a matador tries to get a bull to run towards the red cape to the side of his body as opposed to having the red cape directly in front of his body.



Turning or rotating to create the angle 

Getting around the ball might involve a couple of small, quick steps or maybe even a larger step depending on your movement style, but it almost always involves some rotation to turn your body towards the side wall. This turn is the key, as if you are able to turn your body towards the side wall, you have more ability to guide the ball towards the corners of the court.

Another benefit of this sideways movement and turning is it can also keep you closer to the T-Position, resulting in less time and movement required to get back to the T-Position. It can even create a better angle for hitting the nick!

Have a look at how you are dealing with loose shots and balls in the middle of the court and see if you can rotate, turn or move sideways quickly in order to generate a more accurate, tighter shot.