The Cross-Court Lob is one of the most underrated shots in squash and yet it is a very versatile shot.

You can use it when you are in great peril to claw back time to recover your positioning (especially the T-Position) and your breath as it travels a long way on the court at a very slow pace. It can also be an incredibly dangerous attacking shot if you can draw your opponent into the front by pretending to play a Drop.

One advantage a Cross-Court Lob has over a Straight Lob when it comes to attacking is that with a Cross-Court Lob you can aim for more contact on the side wall, which slows the shot down even more and can make it incredibly difficult to dig out of the back corner.

The Lob is a great shot to use if you want to slow the game down or change the pace.

Play a good Cross-Court Lob shot in five steps:

You may recognise a few of these steps from playing a Straight Lob. As well as incorporating those steps into playing a Cross-Court Lob, you also need to step towards the front corner and hit the ball early like you would for a Cross-Court Drive.

Get down low – Make sure that you get down low as you are going to need to get your racket underneath the ball to be able to get the required height consistently.

Open Racket face – Make sure that your racket face is open as you are hitting the ball. If your racket face is closed, you will struggle to get the height you need consistently.

Face the front corners – The first key difference between hitting a Straight Lob and Cross-Court Lob is opening your body up more. When going for the Cross-Court Lob, step towards the front corner, putting your body at a 45 degree angle to the front wall. This helps you to get good direction on the Cross-Court.

Hit the ball early – The second of the two key steps is striking the ball when it is in front of you. Taking the ball early also helps the ball to go Cross-Court without much effort.

Lift the ball from low to high – When you play the Lob shot, use a lifting motion. Don’t rush the contact – you should be guiding the ball upwards from low to high.

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→ Check out our other related Length Shot pages:

Straight Drive | Cross-Court Drive

→ Recommended posts for those looking Lobbing :

The Importance of Lobbing, The Length Battle, Changing the pace of the game