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The importance of the serve in attack (and defence!)



It’s very easy for the serve to get sidelined in squash. It’s not very fancy and has never been described as spectacular and no one is ever overly enthusiastic about improving or developing their serve. It’s just something you have to do to start a rally of squash. I can’t think of a shot people like to practise less and in truth, it’s not always very fun or energetic to coach, as even with jazzing it up it still basically involves lots of serving and not much else at times.

The serve as a creator of chances

 Spectacular or not, you should ask yourself what your serve adds, or possibly takes away, from your game. Does it create chances for you to apply pressure to your opponent or even set you up for a winning shot opportunity? Worse, does it do this for your opponent? I guarantee there is at least one player at your club or in your leagues who wins the majority of the points from serving and then puts away a weak return with a drop, drop volley or little boast. Typically this person is older and needs the serve – commonly a lob serve – to create chances for them as they can’t compete physically and win points through retrieving or through creating opportunities with consistent driving. Why though can’t even the fittest and accomplished players extract weak returns with their serves? The serve should be seen as a shot with the potential to start off an attack. If your serve is hard to return, you can force a weak shot so you can start attacking to apply pressure immediately, maybe even win the rally. Why waste such an opportunity to create an opening? The serve is a great opportunity due to its unique nature in giving you the time to line up your shot and play it exactly as you wish without pressure.

Take a moment to reflect on your game and think about whether the serve creates any chances for you to attack or if it actually gives your opponent an opening. If it is giving your opponent a chance to attack or isn’t creating anything for you, it’s worth taking some time to practise your serve.

You can check out our pages on the serve for tips on different types of serves you can play and how you can make them more effective.

 



Disciplined drop play



Only dropping when you are ready to combine it with another shot.

It is important you get into a stable, balanced position before playing a drop shot, as you need to be ready to follow up whatever shot your opponent hits in response to your drop. Sometimes of course the drop can be the correct shot choice, even when you’re out of position or off-balance, if your opponent is also in trouble. In general though, I believe it is best to go short from a position of strength.

Do you have the ability to hit an accurate shot?

It is easy to try and force a drop shot because your opponent is behind you, but if the there is something making it hard to control a drop shot, it might be best to wait. Perhaps the ball is coming towards you at an awkward angle or it is getting behind you or your body positioning isn’t great for whatever reason. Maybe you can still go short with a less risky short shot such as a kill, but it might be best to use a lob or another length shot to work a better position for the drop.
This is not to say you want to hit the ball back to a player who is behind you but rather that you don’t want to rush an attack prematurely and end up carelessly gifting them an opportunity to attack, thereby wasting the early ground work you have put in building the rally.

This is especially important in the heat, as it reduces the potency of drop shots. It will rarely be your first or most attacking shot that wins you the rally most of the year, but this is particularly true in summer.

Ability to recover the T-Position

It’s really important you play the drop when you are also able to get back to the T-Position quickly, as quite often an opponent will get your first, second and maybe even third attacking shot back. You often win the rally with an easy shot once your opponent is well out of position because of your initial accurate, attacking shots. This is particularly true of the drop shot, as a lot of the time the winning shot comes not through the drop itself, but the shot you play to the back when your opponent is now stuck in the front of the court.

A lot of players play an accurate drop shot, only to be caught out by a horrible, loose length shot because they stayed at the front or were unable to get back to the T-Position quickly enough. If you are back on the T-Position quickly after the drop, you can easily intercept any weak length shot your opponent plays. This might not be the case if you are unable to get back to the T quickly. Therefore, you want to play that drop shot only when it can help to put your opponent under pressure as part of a sequence of shots, not on its own in isolation. If you are not in a position to get back to the T-Position and play plenty more attacking shots after your drop, it might be best to use a shot to buy a bit more time – like the lob shot – and wait for another opportunity.

We all love short shots at The Squash Company so don’t be discouraged from playing short shots when they are on; just make sure when you play a drop shot that you are in a position which won’t negatively impact the quality of your shot or your ability to get back to the T-Position when you play it.



What to do at match ball



How to adjust your play to help you win a high-pressure point.

Players are often able to conjure up amazing feats of energy and fitness at match point that make spectators and coaches wonder why they didn’t play like that earlier in the match. Today we’re going to discuss how you can adjust your tactics and play on important points, such as game balls and match balls, to help you be more successful in converting match balls or saving them if you are on the receiving end.

Match ball up

The first thing is to ignore it. Ignore the score. Even the best intentioned of players can start to become sloppy, even while being focused. It’s very easy to drop a bit deeper on the court and hit the ball a bit later and all of a sudden the quality of shot, intensity and movement isn’t there and the other player is closing in. Make sure you focus on putting pressure on your opponent with each shot you play and ensuring that whatever you do, you don’t let your opponent’s shots bounce twice. Always make sure you fight tooth and nail when at match ball – do not let the ball bounce twice. While the ball is in play, your opponent is under immense pressure, so bust a gut to keep your opponent under that pressure as you never know when it might get to them.
Second of all, similarly to what we will discuss when match ball down, you should try to be more disciplined when closing the match out. Don’t attack half-chances or go for short shots unless you are sure it is on and you are in a strong position. This will likely result in you playing a lot more length shots, which is fine so long as you hit them accurately and at a good tempo, which means taking them early where possible and not letting the ball hit the back wall. By doing this, you might even panic your opponent, who at match ball down, might be feeling the need to try something spectacular and so might do something rash out of frustration in response to your disciplined play.

Match ball down

When match ball down, there is an argument to say you should just go gung-ho and spectacular but most comebacks I’ve ever achieved have started, and often finished, with very boring, predictable lengths. I don’t like the idea of playing not to lose very often during matches but at match ball down, it is in my opinion the best tactic. You can make yourself very hard to beat and also really test your opponent’s mindset, as if they’ve lost a tiny bit of focus or are a bit hasty in wanting to finish you off, lots of length shots might make it impossible for them to break you down. This can start to put them under pressure as they start to worry about you catching up, which in turn plays into the tactic of keeping it long, as they may become increasingly edgy and impatient and start attempting shots that aren’t viable.
You need to hit your length shots early though. If you play at a really slow, steady rhythm you can allow them to attack you and give them an advantage. Make sure you try to step forwards and hit the length shots somewhere around the back of the serve box so that you are not only hard to break down, you are also hard to break down at a high tempo, doubling your defences.

Next time you are game or match ball up or down, have a go at the suggestions made here and see if you are able to be more successful in winning these crucial points. Best of luck!



Facing the front wall when hitting



A balance between speed, accuracy and recovery.

Body positioning in squash is ever evolving with the pace of the professional game with many of the traditional techniques and ideas being revised to cope with the new tempo. Positioning when hitting the ball has really changed at professional level, as players now need to be in position faster to get the ball back and this has been trickling down to all levels of the game over the past few years. Traditionally, players were almost universally coached to be ‘side-on’ when hitting the ball – having their chest and body facing the side wall – but now shots are played a lot more from a ‘front-on’ position with the body facing the front wall.

Speed vs. accuracy vs. balance

Facing the front wall can have great advantages in a game as it is a quicker position to get into than being side-on. It is also typically more deceptive, as when a player is hitting the ball in this position it is harder to tell what shot they will play.

When someone is ‘front-on’ – facing the front wall – it can be very hard to anticipate their shot.

The downside though is that your shot accuracy can suffer and in some cases players lose balance or are unable to recover to the T-Position quickly.

Avoiding loss of accuracy through improvisation  

When you hit the ball from a front-on position, your arm and racket naturally want to hit the ball across the court to the other side, which is why players often hit the ball down the middle or a looser shot when they get front-on. In order to avoid this (assuming you want to hit straight), you need to really control your follow through and your hand and ensure that they are exaggerated and go outwards – away from the body – and towards the front corner of the side you are on. If you don’t really control your hand and follow through, the width of your shot will suffer.

If you do want to play cross-court from a front-on position, still make sure you really control your follow through, especially the direction your hand goes in, as the width and direction of your shot can still be disrupted by being completely front-on.

Balance – bending the knees

 It has been traditionally recommended that players play shots from a side-on position, as well as leading with their left leg on the right hand side of the court and their right leg on the left hand side of the court, because this is the most stable position from which to play shots. When you go for a front-on position, it can be easy to lose some of this balance unless you take steps to counteract it. Try to ensure that even though you are front-on, you still bend your knees. Some players stand very upright and or lean back slightly when front-on and this reduces the weight in their legs, which disrupts their stability and therefore ball control. As long as you are aware and in control of where your body weight is and transferring it to your legs and thereby grounding yourself, you can play accurate shots from a front-on position reliably with practice.

Try to weigh up if it is worth being front-on for the shot you are playing. If your shot is accurate and you are able to get into and out of the shot quickly, you probably made the right decision. If you lose one of these three things, you may need to try something different.



Tips for playing squash in warmer weather



Four small suggestions for being more effective in the summer.

It has felt like summer is on the way in the last few days and the courts have been warmer and the ball bouncier, which does change the game quite substantially. Below are our top tips on how you can effectively adapt your game for playing squash in warmer weather.

Patience – working your opponent

One of the most important things to remember when playing squash in warmer weather is that very few of your shots will be winning shots. The rallies will typically go on longer as the ball bounces more and so you will need to be more patient in going short; only going for the drop or other short shot when you have a real opening. If you lose your patience and try to force a short shot, you may find that you lose accuracy and the bouncier shot sets your opponent up at the front. Focus instead on really moving them around the court and when the looser ball comes, then go short.



Avoiding the smallest margins

 It can be tempting to start really going for the lowest and tightest shots because the ball is bouncing around so much and refuses to bounce twice, but typically this just leads to an increase in unforced errors, which can be compounded by the heat going to your head!

In any case, with the ball bouncing so much, even your lowest and softest shots might not be enough to win the rally, which means the risk isn’t as worthwhile as it is when the temperature is lower, as the likelihood of reward is less. As mentioned above, I also think it’s very easy to start getting frustrated in warmer weather and allowing yourself to start attempting more and more perfect shots in a quest to make the ball bounce twice or roll out of the nick.

Boasting and killing

I tend to like playing more boasts, kills and stuns than drops when going in short in warmer weather, as I find they sit up a bit less than drops, especially when the boasts are played off just two walls. They also enable you to maintain a higher tempo, which can work well in hotter temperatures as it can work very nicely with the heat to tire people out. You still of course need to go short in order to move your opponent around, so don’t cut out drops completely as no shot moves an opponent to the front quite like a drop.

Using disguise and deception

Another effective way of trying to win rallies and attack in warm weather can be to use more disguise or deception. Typically, the bounces are a bit higher, giving you a bit more time and space and thereby a few more opportunities to disguise your shot – for example lining up as if to play straight and then hitting cross-court. If you are able to disguise your shot and send your opponent the wrong way, you are able to negate the effect of the weather somewhat as they’ll be going in the opposite direction. Of course, if the ball really is bouncing they might be able to still recover in time.

Have a go and let us know below what you think and if you have any other suggestions for playing squash in warmer weather or on bouncier courts.