2017 Canadian Junior Nationals

I always enjoy not only coaching my only athletes at the nationals each season, but also watching the top kids and how they're developing. I wrote a review from a previous nationals and I mentioned that kids were not shooting enough. That has certainly changed and today I'm going to go over a few other things I noticed from the top kids. Here's a link to the draws if you want to take a peak: https://squashcanada.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=0B5066C6-BCD8-48CD-B57A-ADF9E4B706B6

The nationals this year was held in Vancouver, British Columbia. Although we weren't at altitude 4 of the 6 courts were quite bouncy while the 2 back courts were quite cold. Kids definitely had to be able to make major adjustments to their targets, T positioning and tactics depending on which court they were on. The 4 bouncy courts tended to lead to a lot of overhitting by the older kids. I was quite surprised how the top kids rarely hit a medium paced drive; they either chipped the ball with no pace whatsoever or they hit the ball as hard as possible, which would land way too short or bounce way off the back wall. So for me 1 of the biggest problems was the lack of dying attacking drives from the back of the court. Because of this lack of well weighed drives there was an obvious lack of volleying from the midcourt as well. Here's a short clip on how to easily practice some attacking drives.

Another challenge on the bouncy courts was bringing the ball short. The kids still went short, but they were still trying to hit winners. The top kids are all excellent athletes and very fast so trying to hit outright winners with a bouncy ball certainly cost them more mistakes. I really think they should be aiming for the angle of their drops and to get them tight and focus on them being a working shot, not an outright winner. Their so fast there's no need to try and hit a drop with no margin when they can cover the next shot anyways. It's the mindset that really needs to adjust here. They should focus on working their opponent and making them do hard movements and pop out lose balls by being accurate with their weight of drives and keeping their drops tight. And here again is a short clip on volley drops. Hit it with slice and get it finishing tight off the volley. If you aim for the nick it will likely bounce back away from the wall with such a hot ball.

An area I see some of the kids developing nicely is deception. A few of them have some nice holds from the front of the court. This holds true for even a few of the younger kids. It's enjoyable to see different styles and a more attacking brand of squash being played by the top kids. Even though they often play the attacking shot incorrectly and force the ball short when out of position it's a better to be a little overly aggressive than passive for their long term development in my opinion.

There's something that was blatantly poor from almost all of the kids at the event. This was their serves. I can't recall how many times many of the kids would simply put the ball in play and hit it right to their opponents racquet without breaking it off the sidewall. There was also very little creativity in serve variation. This is something I remember hearing a lot about when I was young and I guess kids still overlook the serve and the importance of how it can set up the rally.

I can't wrap up this summary without a quick mention of the refs. Oh boy. I hate picking on people that spend 4 full days doing a thankless job, but there were some pretty brutal decisions. I witnessed foot faults and no lets when strokes should have been awarded. I heard that the refs were told to make the players play the ball and to award no lets if they didn't make every effort, but clearly when it's an obvious stroke this shouldn't apply. I also think a foot fault warning would suffice. It's also disappointing that a few matches ended on blatantly incorrect decisions. This did demonstrate how well behaved almost every single kid is at this event. I was pleasantly surprised with how well the kids handled the refs calls, even when they were match decisive.

Lastly, I'm more than a bit concerned about the future of our top kids. They've clearly dedicated their lives to getting to the level their at, but where to they go after juniors? I'm sure some will go to a school and play squash, but what happens after that or if they want to pursue a pro squash career instead? There is zero system in place that helps with this process and there is no funding for them as well. There's also not enough small PSA events throughout Canada that these kids would be able to compete in to gain some affordable experience. As of now there's only 2 options in my book. The first one is to build up the resources themselves around them. It takes a big support team around an athlete to help someone play successfully at the pro level. This option may indeed be best set up at a top post secondary squash team at the moment.

The second option would be to go to another country and try and get in a training group with some other pros. There's many pro leagues in Europe which you can play in and make some extra money in. It's really a shame there isn't a better system to help our top kids get from juniors to the pro level. Instead of Squash Canada worrying about if they should have a under 11 divisions and specializing an athlete too young, they should focus on helping those that have dedicated their lives to squash and have no system to help them take the next step. We all have ups and downs in our squash career and it's so important to have a team to help keep you in line and on track during those dips in confidence or motivation.

Did you play in or watch any of the Junior Nationals? Please share your thoughts and stories. And if you were 1 of the kids that had some troubles with the areas I mentioned above, checkout the new film I recently released. The Secrets of Solo Hitting is a 64 minute advanced instructional film which contains 30 of the best solo drills. The drills are sectioned into 3 categories: Straight Drives, Midcourt/Volleys and The Short Game. There is also a Technical Testing section which would be extremely useful to use over the summer months to set some goals as you develop your technical skills and consistency. Over 70 copies have been sold so far to people from all over the world. Check out the preview video below and order your copy today at SeriousSquashShop.com/collections/coaching-video

Lose The Battle, Win The War

It's easy to see when you're opponent is really having to work hard to get a ball back. Maybe they hit a short length and they don't have time to get to the T and you go ahead and play a drop as they are so far away that they have to sprawl out completely just to get a racquet on your shot or even better they can't reach it at all. Making someone do a diagonal and get the tour in a rally is also quite enjoyable and it's obvious to both players who is going to win if these type of rallies continue. As you get better in squash it's not always so obvious to the observer or even the players who is doing more work. Assuming both players are equally fast and fit and have similar skill level, the player who has to work just a bit harder will likely break first, either mentally, physically or both. We all have a limit where out shots start to lose accuracy because we're late to the ball and even later recovering to the T. When we get fatigued we tend to make more poor decisions and the mistakes can tally up in the blink of an eye. Today we're going to talk about how to get someone to this breaking point and to tally up quick and easy points once they do.

One way to break your opponent is to lengthen the rallies. Even if you are equally fit, if you move more efficiently the duration of the rallies shouldn't hurt you as much as your opponent. If you can hit great length and width and minimize your opponents attacking opportunities they will eventually wear down because they are less efficient moving around the court than you. This tactic can also be effective if you're playing someone that is carrying more mass around the court. If you lose the first game or two, but the rallies are long don't panic; stick to your guns and keep the rallies really long. Your opponent may just win the war, but you have a good chance at coming back and winning the battle if you make it tough enough for them.

Another way to break your opponent is to increase the intensity of the rallies. Making the rallies harder does not necessarily mean that the points are any longer in duration. Learning how to make a good player work hard in a rally is tricky. At a high level we generally have to get our opponent out of position before attacking. If you can volley this is a good way to take time away from your opponent. Even a simple volley drive can be quite difficult on the legs and the lungs. This brings me to my next points. Think about which movements on the court are the most physically taxing on you. Are these the areas which are most demanding on your opponent as well? Perhaps it's a 2 wall gut wrenching attacking boast that makes you rush off the T and make a big stretch to the ball and then hustle equally as hard to get back to the T. Maybe it's having to rush to defend a perfect weighted length. Maybe it's going back into the same front corner twice in a row. All of these are certain shots which may not result in us winning the point out right, but can put quite a bit of work into our opponents legs, lugs and mind.

If you can make your opponent have to dig deep to stay in rallies, the outcome is really irrelevant. If you can find certain shots or combinations that are making your opponent play shots at a full stretch, at top speed, stop and change directions over and over you have a great chance of winning the match. This is tough to learn as a competitor and also to notice happening as an observer. I play a lot of holds and use deception a lot in my game and most people that don't see deception much get super tired quite quickly regardless of how fit they are. For someone like Paul Coll he uses his counter drops often and even plays them sometimes when his opponent is already high up on the T and expecting it. He's not always playing these drops as winning shots or even to set up a winning shot, he's simply trying to stretch out his opponent and make him do lots of work over and over again because he feels he is going to win the physicality battle when it's all said and done.

I've always said that it's important to make your opponent pay for going short from the back of the court. It's super hard work moving up there and getting back to the T so if at all possible I like thinking about counter attacking so they don't continue to employ this tactic. If your opponent is getting weak replies off a boast from the back they're going to keep going to the well. If you go up there and play a great counter drop or drive and put the pressure right back on them, well it may have been hard work for you to do so, but your opponent may think twice about playing that same boast again. So if you get beat on a short attacking ball from the back you have to look out for it again right away. If you were nowhere near the shot your opponent is going to think you were not watching, were flat footed, too far back on the T or perhaps you're just too slow or getting tired. Whatever the actual reason is, you have to be ready for it the next rally. Get back up on your toes, stay up on the T and watch your opponent closer. If they do go right back to this shot again get up up to it faster and make sure you do something with it, otherwise it's going to be a long and painful match (actually probably a very short match). So learning how to take away these openings which your opponents use to make you do the hardest movements are equally as important as learning to exploit them.

Another example of putting pressure and not going for the outright winning shot is playing volley drives off of your opponents length. When someone hits a ball that you can volley they are generally forced to run to the T faster and sometimes they get in front of you before you get to hit your volley. When this happens you should think about volleying it deep and make them have to back up and go dig it out again. This is such a tough movement if you hit a good volley and it can lead to another opportunity to volley. Many amateurs just see a ball they want to volley short and do it every single time and think that their drop just needs to be better. In this particular situation it's about how quickly their length was struck. If you can volley quickly, prior to your opponent getting up high on the T the short shot might be the best opening. If on the other hand the ball was not hit that fast and your opponent has time to get back up high on the T, you can assume a good player is up and covering the front of the court and now the open space to attack into is back deep again. This takes a lot of skill and practice to get to this level, but it's an important part of learning how to have some patience and to focus on making your opponent work hard so you can win the battle.

Attacking drives, boasts, counter drops, holds and volleys are all so critical to working your opponent. At the highest level these shots in themselves rarely win points outright, but they eventually lead to a mental or physical breaking point which leads to cheap errors or slower movement, weaker lunges and easier opportunities for you. Learning to take the ball early, use the whole court, move the ball around and make your opponent rush back to the T only to hit it back to where they just came from or even have to change directions are so tough on the body no matter how fit you are.

Don't always think about winning a point or get bothered by the result of each rally or even of a game or two. Focus on being efficient with your movement and making sure you can get out of trouble within 1 shot whenever possible and at the same time making your opponent twist and turn, stop and start, rush, lunge, reach, stretch out and scramble. There is nothing quite as enjoyable as the feeling of breaking a strong opponent and then reaping the rewards of easy points and certain victory. Which also leads to the point that if you and your opponent are both working equally hard with the same fitness and skill levels the difference is going to be between the ears. Mind over matter is what it comes down to. Oh how great is squash? The perfect mixture of skill, mental toughness, physical fitness and tactics.

Next time you get out on court think about what movements or shots give your body the most trouble and notice what shots give your opponent the most too. Just because they return the shot or even hit a great shot, they still did some work and eventually with enough chips of the hammer that will reveal itself. Just like the San Antonio Spurs sign in their dressing room reminds them reads, "When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it -- but all that had gone before."

 Coming soon is the first full length Serious Squash film titled 'The Secrets Of Solo Hitting.' The video portion is almost complete and then it's the editing and audio portion. It will be available for purchase at SeriousSquashShop.com once completed. For now check out some of the clips from this project on the Serious Squash Instagram or Facebook page or on my youtube channel at cchsquashpro. 

What Exactly Defines A Good Length?

I've asked a lot of people the simple question of 'what is the purpose of hitting length?' I've heard all sorts of responses to this seemingly simple and obvious question. We all know that length is important and there are many important things that good length does. When you begin playing squash just hitting the ball to the back is almost a guaranteed point. As you improve you begin to return those deep balls with more deep balls. I find most people are so focused on hitting it tight and hard that they don't actually know what the main goal of a length is.

Paul Coll has time and space to take an unimpeded swing so although he is behind his opponent he is actually in a strong position within the rally

Yes the most important past of a length is to regain T position; you get your opponent behind you and you get behind them. It's quite difficult to apply pressure and attack from the back of the court, but this is changing and players at elite levels can pretty consistently apply pressure from any part of the court if they have 2 essential qualities, space and time.

A shortened swing played off the back leg forced by a good length by Joe Lee

So although it may sound simple and true that getting your opponent behind you is the main goal of length, but what exactly does a great length entail? Many people here say 2nd bounce in the back corner. This is generally true, but without any pace the ball could easily be taken before the ball gets to the back corner. So does this do enough to define what good length is? And furthermore is this a type of length you should be aiming for on every length you hit? Many will say yes, but I disagree.

Let's first get at how I define good length. A good length is a short hit to the back corners which simply makes your opponent adapt their normal swing. The more you can make them adapt their swing the better for you. Of course a major bonus is time pressure. If you hit your length with pace and you force your opponent to get to the back faster and try and play the ball off their back foot they will not be as accurate and will be forced to lift the ball, playing defensively.

So which is a more important quality of good length? Time pressure or the lack of space? You can certainly make excellent claims for either one. But we all know the player that hits really hard without any accuracy, so I don't time pressure is possible without some form of accuracy. This is why I like to tell the kids I work with that the goal of their length is to limit their opponents space in the back corners. The less space the player has to work with the more defensive they will be. Of course at a really elite level players can return a ball deep off of almost any length, but they are less likely to be able to reapply pressure when they have a very short swing, are choking up on their racquet and are getting super low to get under the ball. When I see my opponent doing any or all of these things I begin to move my T position not only over, but also forwards an extra foot or so and expect a loose ball to volley.

Coll in trouble due to lack of time and space!

When you begin playing you are unable to adapt your swing at all and hit a decent shot. This is why we see people resort to back wall boasts and the 2 handed shovel when they get stuck in the back. They are out of space and have no other options. As these players improve they will learn how to make the above noted changes to their swings to lift and get the ball back deep, but even for top players they won't be accurate or be able to hit with as much pace and they definitely won't be able to disguise their shot when they have this little of space to deal with. So if you want to improve your length and volley more think about trying to make your opponent shorten their swing and lift the ball from the back corners. Even if they have time it doesn't mean they will hit a good shot. If you play someone fast or has good hands this should also be your goal.

So although yes you need to get the ball by your opponent to get the ball to the corner, that in itself is not a sufficient definition for a good length in my books. Learning how to get the ball to die in the back corners is the tough part. As the ball gets bouncier this is even more challenging. If the ball is really warm you actually will want to take some pace off the ball, perhaps using a shorter punch type swing and/or aim to hit the sidewall with your length in the back part of the court so it takes additional pace off your shot. If your shot hits front wall, sidewall, floor and then back wall there won't be much energy left on the ball unless you've greatly overhit it. Learning to use some slice can also help take pace off the ball, but this can also make the ball pop out off the sidewall (on some courts more than others). Using slice and the sidewall to get your length to die in the back are tricks the old boys used a few decades ago when the game was much more attritional and it was difficult to shorten your swing and flick a length out of the back.

If you really want to help someone visualize their goal of a good straight length simply tape out a target for the second bounce on the sidewall, floor and back glass. Can you picture how this would make 3 sides of a cube and an excellent target for a good length? This also means that it is really important to learn how to dig ball out of the back and adapt your swing to get out of pressure. But it's tough to win by only absorbing pressure, you also need to be able to apply it.

I have to mention 1 last thing about good length. When I'm teaching someone the basis of the swing this is why it's important to learn how to have a compact swing and to swing forwards (and not backwards first) so you can get more balls out of the back corners with your regular swing without hitting the back glass. So the bigger your opponents swing is the easier it will be to pin them in the back corners.

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Explaining The Subtleties Of Attacking Drives

Instead of writing a few hundred words trying to explain my point I decided to do a short video and explain my blog today. I should first apologize for the poor quality by the filming crew, but I hope the content is expressed well. Sit back and watch and listen.

What do you guys think? Did this make sense? How many of you are aware of these subtle changes you should make depending on the drive you're about to hit? It's not just about hitting it to the back corner and hoping for the best. Learn how to create pressure and why it happens.

Even if you miss your targets, but they are correct spots you are well ahead of the game. Think about this the next time you do some rotating drives or boost drive.

If you haven't done so yet, please check out my new online squash clothing store at SeriousSquashShop.com I'll be adding lots of product to it over the summer and it's only just getting going. Squash clothing doesn't need to be so bland anymore, am I right?