Improvisation

I watched almost every match on Squash TV at the recently completed Tournament of Champions. There were some amazing matches and as a player and coach I'm constantly analyzing and marvelling over the ability of the top players. The level of the game has never been higher and each year the bar raises. I thought Momen was going to take the event, but he had a few mental spats against Marwan Elshorbagy, Ali Farag and in the finals against Mohamed Elshorbagy.

What I watched at the TOC inspired this week's episode of Squash Shots and also today's blog post. Episode 36, titled 'Improvisation,' can be watched on the Serious Squash Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/tv/B7i7o-TpTe8/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

I was impressed with how fit and strong both Paul Coll and Joel Makin were. They hit so few unforced errors and with how well they move and for how fit they are, they must be a nightmare for almost everyone on tour. There's very few players in the world that can hang in there physically and mentally with those guys. Even still Makin and Coll haven't won a major title. Will they be able to with the style that they play or will they have to adapt their game? Can they adapt their game at this stage of their careers? Surely they can't get that much fitter, stronger and faster, can they?

In my opinion there are a number of players who possess the ability to hit anywhere at anytime. Players like Farag, Momen and Gawad are so smooth and are nearly unreadable. Diego Elias is also a guy who you could put into this category. Elias was the better player, but eventually succumbed to the physicality of Makin. So clearly being silky smooth and having world class ball control is not enough without an incredibly high level of fitness.

Gawad, Momen and Farag, just like the great Ramy Ashour not only have an immaculate short game, but they can also adapt their racquet preparation under pressure meaning they're nearly impossible to read. They play with very little tension in their arm which allows them to generate a lot of whipping action in their wrist so they can flick the ball to any part of the court. Coll and Makin on the other hand have a couple of very set, rigid preparations and they are more easily read by the top players in the world. It's this contrast of styles which is so enjoyable to watch, but I certainly prefer watching and cheering for the smooth moving and hitting Egyptian players.

Mohamed Elshorbagy's game is transitioning from a hard hat, Nick Matthew style of play. For years he basically played at a pace the rest of the field couldn't handle. Now there are a few that can and with the aging of Elshorbagy he has no choice, but to begin to refine his game. This is what Nick Matthew did as he aged. Matthew was able to find a few areas to be more deceptive with his shots. He couldn't continue to dominate with simply being super fit, disciplined, mentally tough and accurate. Would Matthew in his prime be able to be world #1 with today's pool of players? He'd be one of the top competitors, but I don't think he would win more than 1 or 2 titles per year as the depth of talent is simply too deep and talented now.

Nowadays there are a loads of players who are hunting the volleys, playing a high T position and are super fit. Back when Matthew was playing there were very few players who had this effortless style of play and the racquet skill that the top few do now. The ones that come to mind are of course the GOAT, Ramy and the maestro, Amr Shabana. When either of those legends were fit enough to hang in with Nick or Greg Gaultier they would have the edge. But when they're not 100% fit, healthy or strong they would have trouble hanging in there.

How do these top Egyptian players develop the uncanny ability to have such a relaxed, accurate and unreadable swing? A lot of it has to do with their decision making. They understand what their opponent is reading and they know how to create space on the court by having countless options from a variety of set positions.

Many other players prepare the same way every time they move to a specific part of the court and have maybe 2 or 3 options, but they can be fairly easily read compared to the players who have adaptability in their swing. The ability some of these squash magicians have to accelerate and decelerate their swing at the last second to change the speed and angle of their shot is what makes them so great to watch. Doing this means their opponent has to wait longer on the T and expend more energy to move off the T, which also dictates that they will be at the ball a little later and generally keeps their opponent off the volley. Squash is a sport where fractions of a second make all the difference and dictates if a player has to defend or attack and how hard they have to work. Even the top movers and fittest players in the world can only take so much.

A good example of being unreadable and smooth was first two games of Farag and Coll. Farag was reading Coll like a book and was on the ball so early. Coll on the other hand was under a lot of pressure trying to just get the ball back and hang in the rallies. Coll's tenacity and fitness was almost enough to be able to come back and win the match, but ultimately Farag had just enough in the tank.

If Gawad was fitter would be have beat Elshorbagy? What if Momen got better calls or was mentally a bit stronger and handled those decisions better? I would say they are technically the two best players in the world and when Momen is in the right mindset and Gawad is fit they are almost untouchable. The reason why? In my opinion it's their ability to use all 4 corners with tremendous accuracy and their ability to adapt their swing to hit into the open space. Have they practiced more than the other top pros or have they just practiced differently and if so what exactly was it that let them develop their world class racquet skills?

Back when I was doing my masters I did my final project on decision making at the front of the court for professional squash players. So this is a topic that has always interested me. Can you teach a player to make better decisions and be tougher to read at the front of the court? Definitely yes, but I've never seen a top player successfully change their style from a grinder to a smooth attacking player. Some ideas I would try is relaxing the arm, varying the timing of hitting the ball, having 4 or 5 different set racquet preparations and doing a lot of shot option drills and conditions games. Part of it will also come from video analysis of watching their matches and seeing where they are being read and where a new shot or two could be helpful.

Is the future of the top of the PSA be based on speed, strength and fitness? Or will players with superb racquet skill dominate? Or will a mixture of the 2 be what is necessary to win major titles? If a player is at the highest end of racquet skills can they ever be as fit and fast and strong as Coll and Makin? And can players like Makin and Coll ever develop magical racquet skills? I don't have all of the answers, but it is sure a lot of fun to watch.

 With so many amazingly talented players right now, there is 1 thing I do know for sure. TO be world # 1 for any length of time is going to take the consistency of results that will only come to those that are fit enough to back up big matches and mentally strong enough to pull out close matches. In these situations do you back the super fit or the more relaxed and technically gifted? Beating 3 or 4 of the worlds best in consecutive days it's not going to be easy to win any big trophy and that's what is going to make in 2020 so much fun to watch.

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Getting The Ball By Your Opponent From The Back Corners

Today is geared more towards advanced players, but a lot of it is still applicable to any skill level. Is your opponent dominating the T? All of us that have played  at a decent level of squash understand that one of the most important skills is being able to get your opponent off of the T and into the back of the court; if we can accomplish this they are furthest from the front wall and we have time to regain the T. For beginners being stuck in the back of the court is almost always the end of the rally, their only goal is to get the ball back to the front wall. When we get a bit stronger we have options from the back and unless you're under a lot of pressure you often more options than it may appear.

We know who controls the T generally wins the match. Today I'm going to talk specifically about how to get your opponent off the T and into the back of the court from the back corners. The simple theory is to hit the ball tighter or wider which of course will help, but there are others tactics we can try which can allow us to achieve the same outcome.

Hit It Tighter: we all know hitting it tighter is a goal of playing winning squash. Being able to do this under pressure with little space in the back corners is quite difficult. To hit good length when pinned in the back corners you have to know how to shorten your swing and flick the ball high and deep, and oh yes tight! It takes a lot of practice to get good at this, but it can be done. It has to be high because we don't have enough force otherwise to get the ball deep, but we also have to hit it tight because we have no other options and are opponent will be waiting to volley our shot if we don't execute it properly.

Change the height of your drives: I was guilty of this for a long time too! Many of us focus so much on hitting the ball tight that we don't think about the height of our drives. The height that most drives are hit to get to the back wall go through mid court around shoulder height. Shoulder height is comfortable for people to volley and attack especially if they are off the wall. If we hit the ball lower or higher it will be much more difficult for your opponent to handle.

Pick up the pace: the harder you hit the ball the less time your opponent has to react. The danger here is that this also gives you less time to get out of the corner and back up to the T. If you want to pick up the pace you will generally get away with being a bit less accurate.

Lift the ball: I already mentioned changing the height of your drives above, but this is more focused on lobs and specifically crosscourts. This is how I coach kids that are smaller than their peers, but anyone with the right skill set can apply this tactic. To me it doesn't make sense to play to your opponent's strength, even if that is how you like to play. I believe this is one of the rarest ways I see people try and get their opponent off the T which I find strange because it can also be one of the most effective. Especially in the junior squash and the men's game, we often resort to pace so I find that lifting the ball can be extremely effective to get your opponent off the T and into the back. If you can hit the ball consistently high and tight or wide your opponent will have no choice but to try scarping a ball up high off the wall or will have to move back and will relinquish the T. I also like playing crosscourt lobs from the back of the court and if you hit them correctly even if volleyed they will be behind you with a difficult shot to hit accurately. Strong squash players practice hitting drives their entire careers and spend much less time trying to hit a volley drive off a lob moving backwards off the T, so I encourage you to try this for yourself. This is also an effective way to vary the pace a bit and catch a quick breath during a long point. This is something Shabana did exceptionally well. Here is a link of Shabana doing this brilliantly against Shorbagy. Skip to the 1 minute and 20 second mark to see what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db4XWCHiZAo

Hit Your Crosses Wider And Deeper: many of us have heard that we should hit the ball straighter. I can't argue with this previous statement, but I do say what gets people in trouble is not always the fact that they are hitting crosscourt, but that it is that their width is not wide enough. If you don't hit the ball wide enough the ball will be able to cut it off. Most of us spend a lot of time working on our straight drives and not as much on our crosscourt length; it's no wonder most people can't hit a good width. For me a good width means that it is out of reach of your opponent so they have to move back to play it, normally this means hitting the sidewall across from where your opponent is standing, but this can change if they aren't looking to volley. Furthermore a more successful width limits what options your opponent has left.

A good rule on crosses is if you've hit a good width your opponent should not be able to hit the ball back crosscourt. Knowing you've hit a good width and your opponent is unable to hit it back crosscourt means you are now in a good position to cut down the court and look for either a straight drive or a boast. Remember that this goes both ways. So if your opponent hits a good width and you are limited with your shot selection there isn't much you can do besides try and execute the given shot to the best of your ability. The real problem was your prior shot that gave your opponent enough time and space that allowed them to hit this excellent width.

Pay Attention To Your Opponent's T Position (and yours):
Lateral T Position: many players will cheat to cut off straight or crosscourt drives. Especially when you are in the back backhand corner where we can't generate as much pace, strong players will be expecting a certain shot (straight or cross) and will be looking to cut it off. If you notice your opponent is poaching to cut off all of your straight drives hit it crosscourt; if they are always waiting for a crosscourt, keep it as straight as possible. If you do this long enough you will find a few times where you can sneak in the alternative shot to keep your opponent honest. Just make sure that you hit your crosscourt extra wide, with pace or high and soft if you are playing someone that hunts crosscourts. If you're playing someone that is overly aggressively looking to cut off your straight drives then try your best to hit at a height or pace that makes it difficult for them to volley. This of course means you need to be set with time in the back to do so. It's very difficult to hit accurately when under pressure and this is when we are slowest to clear.

Depth of T: some people hang far back and a few too high on the T. When you're too high on the T you don't have enough time to get to the back corner and hit an effective shot. When you're too far back you may block your opponent's clearing path and you are susceptible to a short shot. Finding the right depth on the T so you can cover both the front and back, clear around your opponent properly and most importantly give yourself enough time to get back to the corner and hit a decent shot is key. This is why most people drift further and further back as the match wears on; they get tired and drawn back from all the length being hit. If you are aware of this maybe you shouldn't be hitting a length from the back, but attacking short. If you find yourself too far back on the T practice your length with a small target for returning to afterwards on the T. To improve T awareness and movement, I'll often have people touch a target up on the proper T depth between shots with their foot, racquet or even racquet handle.

Become Less Predictable: I'm going to discuss predictability here in shot selection, bot disguise or deception (which is next). Amateurs normally hit crosscourt when they have to, not when they want to. This is one example of someone becoming predictable. If you watch and play enough squash you will pick up some players tendencies. Another popular one is most people hit their forehand lengths all crosscourt and their backhand ones straight. If you find this situation developing over and over you better be careful. If your opponent is guilty of this come up with a strategy to take advantage of their pattern. Learning how to exploit a predictable pattern and force someone to adjust can instantly change who has the upper hand.

Disguise Your Shot: if you arrive at the ball with enough time and space you will have option See below for a great picture of Joe Lee, who although is in the back backhand corner and the ball is only a few inches off the wall, he is prepared early and can hit the next shot anywhere. This is why his opponent's T position is neutral. I find that most people don't concentrate on disguising their length from the back of the court. If you are under pressure you don't have this luxury, but if you have some time and space you should think about your posture and prepare the same way for your straight and crosscourt drives; in fact Lee could hit to any corner from the below setup. A good condition game for working on this is 1 player can only hit to 1 of the back corners and the other can hit anything deep. The player who has to hit everything to the 1 corner will have difficulty returning a good crosscourt with a crosscourt. Learn how to watch on the T and read your opponent's body position. Most people open up their shoulders and hips earlier when they are gong to crosscourt. If you do this condition game your goal should be to get all of your crosscourt by your opponent.

Don't Give Up The T so Easily: until you get to a high level most people always prefer to let the ball bounce so they have more time prepare and decide what to do with the ball. Taking your time can have its benefits on your shot accuracy, but it also gives your opponent extra time to get to the T. Just because the rules state that the ball can bounce once, it doesn't mean it should! Learn how to dominate the mid-section of the court and you will have to worry less about how to get your opponent off the T.

Under Pressure/Knowing When We Don't Have Options: okay, so you're under a lot of pressure and you either don't have a lot of time or space in the back corner. Here a more skilled player can play open stance or adjust their swing to produce the desired result (get it deep). But this post isn't about how to get back a shot under pressure in the back corner. Just know that if you are under a lot of pressure play the simple shot. Sometimes people try to do too much under pressure because they know their opponent has them trapped. If you're under this much pressure just try your best to hit the ball straight, high, tight and ideally deep. This is a skill set that can be achieved to a high level of accuracy if practiced.

I've discussed a lot of different ways to get the ball back deep and even 1 tactic for avoiding this situation in the first place. It's incredibly challenging learning how to move backwards to play the ball out of the back corner and to be able to hit it deep again. We need to have quick racquet preparation, proper footwork, quick feet, good balance and be able to adjust our swing and possibly our grip depending on the amount of space and time we have. If you have the technical and physical skills to hit length from the back then you may be ready to attempt some of the more advanced ways like disguising your shot.

As you can see there are a number of ways that you can improve your ability to get your opponent off of the T. The stronger the opponent the tougher this will be to accomplish, but this should still be your goal. Learn how to get your opponent off the T and your opponents will begin looking for tips like these so make sure not to share them! Enjoy your battle for the T and one you get it don't give it up so easily. Remember there are plenty of ways to improve your ability to get your opponent off the T; not simply hitting it tighter (although that does work too!).

Drop It Like Shabana

Today I'm going to talk about furniture, a clock and Amr Shabana. I know strange combo, right? Well I'm going to use pictures of Shabana to demonstrate how to vary your swing path for different types of drop shots. The furniture and clock parts are things that I like to use for visualizing the swing paths of various drop shots. As you learn to do this your swing path will stay on line and your drops will become more consistent; perhaps even resembling the great Maestro!

Shabana hitting a forehand counter drop

The height you receive the ball is the main determining factor for your swing path.  The distance off the sidewall and pace of the ball are all factors as well, but today I will only get into the receiving height and how this influences your swing path. Let's get right into and use some examples for you.

Dropping From The Height You Want To Hit On The Front Wall

Below we have a low coffee table. I like to use this as an image when explaining how to hit drops that are hit just above the tin. You are hitting the ball at a height that is already at the target you want to hit on the front wall, so you simply swing right across the low coffee table. I find many people drop their follow through or start with their racquet to high for this shot. The length of the swing can greatly vary even at the highest level.

We can also look at this picture of Shabana and visualize how his swing would have been right along the above low coffee table. Basically the height of the ball is just about where he is aiming on the front wall so we will be swinging parallel to the floor and following through on this same line. Considering I don't see his opponent in sight, I think it's safe to assume he won this point!

Shabana swinging across the low coffee table with a relatively flat racquet face on this forehand drop.

Dropping From Above The Height Of The Tin

If you are going to hit a drop from higher on the bounce or the volley you want to aim down, meaning you will have to swing high to low. The amount you swing from high to low depends on the angle you have. The higher the ball is at contact the more severely you can cut down on the ball. You can either lift the back part of the coffee table, or think of a the hands on a clock as an example. For example if using the clock, you can swing from 2:00 to 8:00. In the example below you would swing from approximately 2:00 (high) to 8:00 (low). 

Shabana about to slot this into the nick swinging from high (2:00) to low (8:00) with an open racquet face.

Also important to note here is the angle of the racquet face. If your racquet face is closed and your swing path is from high to low you have a good chance of hitting the ball into the floor or the tin, or at least hitting the ball too hard. So having an open racquet is an important characteristic of a drop when making contact from higher than your target on the front wall. I don't want to get too complex here, but very skilled players will actually swing from high to low (like the clock above) and will finish up again, close to the height they initiated their swing from. This means their swing path is high to low, straightening up through contact and then back to high again. This allows them to put a lot of slice on the ball and also keep the ball above the tin as the follow through has a major influence over the direction of the shot.

Dropping From Below The Height Of The Tin

If we look at a drop which is struck from under the height of the tin it is easy to visualize how we need to start our swing low (under the ball) and finish higher then we started (see another great example of Shabana doing this below). You can tell Shabana had struck the ball below the height of the tin and because of this the ball is rising on the way to the front wall. This is how he can get the ball over the tin. The problem with this is that we are hitting up on the ball and that once the ball hits the front wall it is almost surely to still be rising slightly. If you also include that the swing preparation for hitting a drop lacks deception, you can tell why it isn't hit very often from below the height of the tin. If done it is almost only done so well from the very front of the court as counter attacks where deception doesn't matter and we are hitting the ball so softly it won't rise much (or at all) after contacting the front wall. 

Shabana swinging with an open racquet from low to high on a forehand counter drop.

Shabana playing an overspin forehand counter drop off of a low and tight receiving ball.

In the above picture you will see that Shabana has received a tight ball and it was pretty low to the floor. To get under the ball and keep it tight, Shabana used a slight overspin/topspin shot. You'll see the pros do this most of the time when the ball is really tight and once in a while from mid-court if they are really feeling it! It's a much easier to play on the forehand side.

I felt like it was fitting to pay some homage to the recently retired Maestro, Amr Shabana. I normally wouldn't use a lefty for examples, but he is one of the very few lefties that I've ever seen with an exceptionally smooth swing. If you want to have a smooth swing path and drop it like the Maestro, try visualizing a clock,  low coffee table, or some other piece of furniture you have in your house. It goes back to what an earlier post I wrote about the follow through. The ball 'usually' goes where our swing is aiming. If you want to ensure you hit your target, make sure that just prior and just after contact your swing is going towards your target and you will increase your accuracy. 

You can visualize different objects to help you with all types of shots. For some people the clock works, others like to use items. You could for example hit a lob from below your hip to above your head. Or to a kid you could say you want them to swing up along a slide. There are lots of ways that people learn. Find one that works for you. If you're good at billiards or geometry you will probably enjoy squash. If you've played any net game you should also have a decent understanding about angles and when the best opportunities are to attack vs. defend based on the reception height of your shot. 

Delaying And Varying The Timing Of Your Shot

Today I'm going to talk about an advanced and rarely used skill set used by most players. Today I'm going to discuss varying the timing of your shot. There are a number of benefits to doing this, but first I'll get into some of the reasons why most people don't do this.

Most people just hit the ball when they get to the ball. This seems like an obvious way to play your shot. You get to it so you should hit it! A lot of the times people are happy just to get the ball back. You could do very well playing like this. Even some top players (more so women) do this. The difference when these top players set up to hit a shot is that they don't look rushed. They are balanced and look like they could hit a number of various shots. The reason I said above that more women just get to the ball and hit it is because to delay your shot it takes two things; first you have to be at the ball early and second you have to be able to delay your shot/swing. Some women are able to do this on the forehand side and it is equally challenging for anyone to do this on the backhand.

So what exactly is holding the ball? It's getting to the ball early and set up as if you were going to hit your shot before you actually do. Can you tell which shot Shabana (below) is about to hit and when exactly he is going to strike the ball? Is he going to just hit the ball normally or is he going to use a late rapid racquet head acceleration to flick the ball into a drive or a trickle boast? If you can do this well you will cause your opponent some  major headaches.

Why the headaches you ask? Holding the ball messes with a persons natural movement and split step at the T. If this person splits too early or has their weight shifted to one direction before you hit they are in a vulnerable state. In this fragile state their centre go gravity is not between their legs and slightly in front of them. The person may become flatfooted or leaning to one side and will have a lot of trouble if the ball is hit in the other direction. Basically you take the person out of their athletic stance and make them move like an amateur would with no anticipatory skills. That is if you do it well!

I started playing with the timing of my shots when I was a kid as I idolized Jonathan Power. I began to realize that there were a lot more options and ways to be creative and deceptive if I learned how to do this. Here are a few key points I leaned about this skill along over the years.

1) When you play a stronger player you don't have enough time to delay your shots
2) #1 leads to this points. That you need to hit high quality shots (namely length) to set up these opportunities
3) You can really tire out someones legs quickly with a few holds
4) You should take the ball early sometimes (like volleying a back wall boast) or a half volley as they call it in tennis (where the ball is rising) so that when you decide to delay your stroke it is deceptive
5) It takes a lot of solo hitting to strengthen up your forearm to be able to do this extremely well (shorter swing with greater power means more deceptive and possibilities).
6) You need to shape up like you are intending to hit the ball for a delay to be most effective
7) Most people who can hold the ball well do it too much and use the same hold(s) too often
8) A hold will work best when you've set your opponent up for it and when they are fatigued
9) A hold can make the court play much bigger for your opponent
10) It's a lot of fun to 'taxi' someone!

If you want to work on your holds and varying the timing you hit the ball here are some of my favourite drills and pointers.

Tips
- try changing the velocity of your swing (speed it up or slow it down part way). slowing it down I find to be much more challenging.
- learn to get onto loose shots at the front as quick as possible, shaped up and ready to hit
- be creative
- watch for this from some of the creative players on psasquashtv.com
- it's all in the timing
- try changing your pattern of when you step and hit (can you make them closer together and further apart)? This creates delay
- most people show tension in their arm when they intend to hit it hard as the approach a ball at the front. think about this tension and how you can minimize it so you can disguise when you want to drop.

Drills
1. boast and drive (players driving has the option to drop to themselves first and then drive)
2. Same as #1 but the back player has to retrieve the drop with a counter drop
3. Same as #1 but the players switch front to back when a drop has been played (so the back player plays a straight drive off the drop)
5. A boasts, b has the option to hit a straight drop of crosscourt drive, if B drops A crosscourts and you switch, if B hits crosscourt then you boast. You can also tweak this drill by adding a switch on a volley on the crosscourt drive to make it more challenging).
4. A game serving with a back wall boast/or a high boast from the back. You can play a whole game with one person starting in the front or switch so the winner starts in the front in the attacking position.
5. Solo hit from the front of the court to shorten your swing and strengthen your forearm.

That's it for today. This is one of my favourite subjects. You need to be patient with it, but it can be a big weapon if you master the art of the delay. Have fun changing the timing and rhythm of your swing; hit the ball early, other times delay it and you will be adding an advanced skill to your bag of tricks.