Today's post is going to be all about me! I've already said that I don't like talking about myself, so you may be asking 'what happened?' Well I'm going to ask myself a hypothetical question that I thought would interest some of you...if I could coach a younger version of me what would I do? How would I coach myself? What would I have done differently? I'll also answer a question that I've been asked many times, why didn't I play professional squash? Obviously we all learn as we get older and our wisdom we've gained over the years are valuable resources for the younger generation. This is one of the main reasons I became a coach. When I was a kid, maybe 11 or 12 I was completely certain that I was going to be a professional squash player. There was no doubt whatsoever in my mind that bot only was I going to be a professional squash player, but that I would be the best in the world. I had a lot of success when I was this age and I was determined to do whatever it took to continue winning.
So obviously I never purchased a PSA membership and I never became a world champion. I'll give a quick background on ow I got where I am. As I said I won a lot when I was 11-13 years old. I won the provincials, the Canadian Junior Nationals, the U.S. Junior Open, and many smaller events throughout Ontario. I played up an age group in most of the smaller junior tournaments to get good competition. My family sacrificed a lot of time and money to take me all around the country, not just for tournaments, but for league games, lessons, and camps. Twenty years ago the junior nationals were supposed to be out west somewhere, but my mom was sick and eventually passed away so my brother and I didn't go. I'm sure my mom passing had a part in what happened next, but I do not say this is why my pro squash career failed to evolve. The next year I sill had a lot of success, but I was also having injury problems with my knee. I don't remember it being too serious and I don't recall how much time I missed, but I also moved up into the under 14 category. Even though I had been playing up in the age divisions this was still a big jump. I was a very small kid when I was 12 and 13 years old. This is when I started getting beat by some physically stronger and just bigger kids and I'm sure inside my head I told myself my knees were the real reason I was losing. Even though I still finished 3rd at junior nationals that year and 2nd at the U.S. Junior Open I was seeded first and didn't win. I only played squash for another year or so until I eventually gave it up all together. So within just a couple of years I went from winning almost every tournament to quitting. What did I learn from this? If there was a kid in a similar situation how would I help him/her?
Well first of all I think that my drive and determination was what allowed me to be so successful. But I also did not handle losing very well. I think having so much success at such a young age was actually damaging to me. I felt like people should look up to me, that I was special, and that although I never shied away from working hard, I always thought success would continue. When it didn't I couldn't accept it. I identified myself as the best squash kid. I didn't have any balance in my life back then. I didn't even want to go to school. I knew kids in Egypt and Pakistan were practicing all day and barely went to school, so I would go to squash before school and solo hit and then spend almost every hour after school at the squash club. How else was I going to win on an international stage against all these kids that didn't have to go to school for 7 hours a day? I remember begging and pleading for them to let me dropout of school. They never caved and would always say, 'what happens if you go and get injured and you can't play anymore?' Oddly enough I replied, 'I'll coach.'
The first thing I would tell my younger self is how to deal and learn from losing. I would also attempt to explain the important of balance in my life. How it is possible to excel in squash and school. I'm sure this would be a difficult sell to my younger self, but I would try. Even though I would still encourage my younger self to pursue my dreams and play professionally, I would try and make sure I didn't identify self solely as a top squash player. I would also focus on strategies about how to deal with playing bigger and stronger kids. That being smaller has its advantages too! And that I need to play smarter to beat them, and I need to move well, hit accurately, be mentally tough, and most importantly persevere.
When I was going through this period in my life it was difficult for someone to relate to what I was gong through. I was lucky to have some good coaches through different patches and I owe them a lot for my success, but I still believe that a good mentor/role model (not necessarily a squash coach) could have made a difference. When we are young we live for today and have difficulty accepting what I believed to be as failure. I had lofty dreams and very long term goals when I was young, but I was more focused on winning than seeing myself improve and letting the outcomes happen as a by-product of hard work.
Finally, I also believe that some form of sport psychology would have been very useful for me. When I was a kid I always had trouble visualizing myself play winning squash even though I was winning a lot. When I tried doing this I always lost rallies and played poor shots. I expect most kids wouldn't buy into this (but I didn't want to be most kids), I think learning to focus and concentrate by meditating and visualizing yourself being successful would be very beneficial for the development of an athlete.
So that is a short summary about how I got where I am and why I got into coaching. I have to remember sometimes that the kids I work with don't all have lofty professional goals like I did, but thankfully most of them have a good balance of sport and education. I also try and emphasize personal growth and try and to be equally humble in winning as in defeat.
You may be wondering how I got back into squash and got to the level I did. Well I started playing again when I was about 19. I was pretty pathetic, even my brother kicked my butt;) One rally and I was exhausted. But I kept believing it would all come back to me. It took a couple of years, but I finally got back to an A level (which I was playing at 12) and then an Open level surpassing my ability when I had quit. Even though I still had thoughts of playing professional squash now and again I knew my 5 year hiatus during some prime developmental years would make this an extremely challenging task. I first coached in 2004 and soon realized I still wanted to play competitively as I missed so many of these years and tournaments. So I decided to go to Western because they had a good squash team and my brother was there. I trained pretty hard and improved a lot over my 4 years there and upon graduation I got back into coaching.
I think one thing in particular that I've learned since I've been out in Victoria has been crucial in my development as a coach. I think my ego (which was created when I was a kid) from being a good player and wanting attention was still clouding my coaching. Coaching is an unselfish profession and one day I realized that I have to work as hard for my pupils as I did trying to improve my own game. When I work with someone now, I don't want them to come off court thinking about how good of a player I am, I want them to be the star attraction and to have fun. I want them feeling good about their game and where their going. I want that person to believe in their ability and be motivated to keep going and trying to be the best they can be. Maybe this is why many good ex players don't make good coaches.
I have to accept never achieving my lifelong childhood dream, but I've accepted this now because I'm in a position to help others try and achieve theirs. And this belief I had when I was young and all the hard work I put in has made me a successful person; I know I can do whatever I want to do. Yes of course if I could turn back the clock I'd love to be playing against Ramy and Nick on the tour now, but even that would only last for so long. Eventually I would need to learn that life is about giving back not how good I got at squash. How good I am at something is a selfish act unless it's coaching, because the better I get at it the more I can give back. Even though it took a while to forgive myself for giving up on my dreams as a kid, it has all worked out for the best. I am in a position where I can help people with a lot more than just their squash game.
Friday, July 11, 2014
How to Hit With More Power on Your Backhand
Today I'm going to talk about how to hit the ball harder on your backhand. This is an area that limits mot players. I have some simple techniques to help you generate more pace. I have separated this topic into 6 subcategories for easier reference.
The Swing: 1) Racquet Prep/Torque: There are a lot of important points on the backhand swing. The first for me is getting the racquet prepared early enough so you can move forward (toward the front wall) to contact the ball. The backswing needs to have more than just your racquet prepared, you also need to rotate your shoulder so you have your power set and a lot of torque in your body. Most people don't have enough torque or do this too late. To improve your torque, try focusing on dipping and rotating inwards your leading shoulder. SquashSkills describes this nicely with good pictures here http://squashskills.com/blog/31/2005-the-backhand-diamond. While creating this torque in your swing it is important to keep your head still. If you are not flexible enough you will have to work on this. I like to think of my backhand swing as leaning into my shot, because most of my power comes from this torque and shoulder/core rotation. 2) The Downswing/Contact Point: Your forearm and wrist extension is important in your backhand swing. This gives you that extra 'snap' as your racquet heads catches up to your swing. You can hear this and how your swing velocity increases just by taking some practice swings without hitting the ball. Do this and listen for the swish sound your strings make. Finally, on the 3) Follow Through: even though this is after you've made contact I feel it is important to have a full follow through and to finish with your elbow extended and your racquet pointing towards your target. If you have an abbreviated follow through this means you will not have contacted the ball with maximal force. A full follow through as an added benefit as well as its momentum helps you clear towards the middle of the court. I should also mentioned here to be careful, you don't want to have a dangerous and excessive follow through.
Footwork/Approach: it doesn't matter how good your swing is if you don't have proper footwork. Most people have an easier time moving forwards and hitting with pace. And although I can hit comfortably on an open stance on my backhand I cannot generate nearly as much power on my backhand, so if I want to be attacking on this shot I try and hit off my front foot (closed stance and for righties your right foot) whenever possible. Here is a footwork tip moving to the front of the court. If you are approaching the ball but it is a foot or two further in front of you and this means you will end up hitting off of your back leg, instead try practicing a hop/skip on your left leg so you can get further up the court and hit off of your front foot. Moving backwards is a little more challenging. When doing this I want to get behind the ball so I can step forwards (towards the front wall) so I can get more power. This also allows me to hit crosscourt if I like. Moving from the T to the back corner I push off of my right leg, so my first step is with my left foot towards the corner, my second step is with my right foot and it goes slightly behind my first step. My third step I try and get back and behind the ball so I can then step forwards and lean into my shot with my fourth and final step (on my front foot/hitting closed stance). I like to think of good footwork as the key to putting the squash ball on the tee..for example, sports like golf or tee ball, you want to hit off of a tee from a specific distance away from the ball, this is the same in squash, but we need to move very quickly to get into this correct spacing to put the squash ball on our invisible tee. If you can do this consistently you will hit the ball harder and more accurate.
Balance/Spacing: here it is important to give yourself adequate amount of space between yourself and the ball. If you get too close you will have a restricted swing and if you're too far away you cannot step/lean into your shot. A proper base of support has much to do with your footwork and how you approach the ball. You need to be stepping forwards with your front leg which is an abduction motion of your hip joint to get maximum amount of power (as opposed to just stepping beside you). Many people don't get low enough. Make sure you get your hips down and bend your front knee so you can really lean into and transfer your weight onto the ball. The taller you are the lower you have to get. Even just getting a couple of inches lower will make a big difference. Get to the height of the ball you are striking and this will also allow you to stay a little further from the ball.
Off Court Training/Gym Exercises: I believe that doing rotational core exercises are important here. There are a number of good ones you can do without any equipment and others you can do with medicine balls. When doing these core exercises, try to think about focusing on the plane that your swing is on. You can also use the heavy duty plastic bands/tubing and tie it to something and take some backhand swings. With the tubing you will only have the resistance in one direction (the backswing or downswing/follow through). I believe the downswing, contact point and follow through is where you should have the resistance, which means having the tubing tied up behind you (if you're a righty then behind your left shoulder) to a door or a sturdy piece of equipment.
Squash Drills/Routines: for practicing hitting the ball with more pace one needs to have someone feed or use a ball machine. While doing this make sure the ball is fed nicely in front of you so you can step forward and lean into your backhand drive. You can also try doing some sidewall to sidewall drives. In this exercise you are hitting by yourself and you hit a forehand into one of the sidewalls which hits off the other sidewall, next you hit your backhand into the sidewall and back to the other. Here you alternate hitting forehand drives and backhand drives and you can hear the pace you are striking the ball with. After these drills I would then move up to boast drive and some drive drive drop, drive drive boast, and see if the person driving from the front can play more attacking and powerful drives from the front corner especially. You can also put down a target such as a cup or a shoe. Because although you are trying to get more power, an attacking drive is also about the placement of the shot not just how hard it is struck. Finally, here is a good fun game. You play a normal game but you try and strike every shot as hard as you can. Obviously sometimes you are not balanced and don't have time, so in these situations as hard as you can may not be very hard. And yes, this also includes your serves. Of course you will have to call your lets and be careful about giving your opponent space and calling your lets when you feel like you are being crowded. It is a fun game and you learn a lot about how to prepare and approach the ball to hit it with more pace.
How to Hit it Even Harder: I would only advise high open level players to attempt this or else you could endanger your opponent with this larger swing. And if you can't hit a regular backhand well, maybe wait until you get that sorted out first. When I want to hit the ball with as much more force as I can I actually flatten out my swing and hit the ball with a closed racquet faced and even with a slight topspin. I do this by starting my backswing starting much lower, no longer over my shoulder anymore, I'd say more around mid-torso (but I still produce a lot of torque) and I finish my swing at shoulder height or even just above, so the plane of my swing is no longer flat, it's low to high (but not as much as tennis!). I figured out how to do this while solo hitting and only do it when I'm feeling really confident on court. Even though my opponent can clearly see that I'm setting up slightly different I can produce a lot of power and most people struggle moving into the backhand under pressure. If I was still working on my own game I would continue developing this shot and try and couple this set up with other shots (like a boast and low hard crosscourt drive) to make it harder to read. I attempt this from the front once in a while (but it takes longer to clear and your opponent can tell you are not going to drop), but mostly hit this shot from the back corner when I have lots of time to prepare. I feel this type of swing gives allows my swing to have a full arc and larger radius and this is how I can hit the ball hardest..most accurate, well probably not..but this post is about maximum force production!
So these are my tips for hitting with more pace on the backhand. You need time and space to be able to do this. If you don't have one or both of these than it's the wrong situation to try and hit the ball so hard. I would always pick control over power, but having both is much better!
The Swing: 1) Racquet Prep/Torque: There are a lot of important points on the backhand swing. The first for me is getting the racquet prepared early enough so you can move forward (toward the front wall) to contact the ball. The backswing needs to have more than just your racquet prepared, you also need to rotate your shoulder so you have your power set and a lot of torque in your body. Most people don't have enough torque or do this too late. To improve your torque, try focusing on dipping and rotating inwards your leading shoulder. SquashSkills describes this nicely with good pictures here http://squashskills.com/blog/31/2005-the-backhand-diamond. While creating this torque in your swing it is important to keep your head still. If you are not flexible enough you will have to work on this. I like to think of my backhand swing as leaning into my shot, because most of my power comes from this torque and shoulder/core rotation. 2) The Downswing/Contact Point: Your forearm and wrist extension is important in your backhand swing. This gives you that extra 'snap' as your racquet heads catches up to your swing. You can hear this and how your swing velocity increases just by taking some practice swings without hitting the ball. Do this and listen for the swish sound your strings make. Finally, on the 3) Follow Through: even though this is after you've made contact I feel it is important to have a full follow through and to finish with your elbow extended and your racquet pointing towards your target. If you have an abbreviated follow through this means you will not have contacted the ball with maximal force. A full follow through as an added benefit as well as its momentum helps you clear towards the middle of the court. I should also mentioned here to be careful, you don't want to have a dangerous and excessive follow through.
Footwork/Approach: it doesn't matter how good your swing is if you don't have proper footwork. Most people have an easier time moving forwards and hitting with pace. And although I can hit comfortably on an open stance on my backhand I cannot generate nearly as much power on my backhand, so if I want to be attacking on this shot I try and hit off my front foot (closed stance and for righties your right foot) whenever possible. Here is a footwork tip moving to the front of the court. If you are approaching the ball but it is a foot or two further in front of you and this means you will end up hitting off of your back leg, instead try practicing a hop/skip on your left leg so you can get further up the court and hit off of your front foot. Moving backwards is a little more challenging. When doing this I want to get behind the ball so I can step forwards (towards the front wall) so I can get more power. This also allows me to hit crosscourt if I like. Moving from the T to the back corner I push off of my right leg, so my first step is with my left foot towards the corner, my second step is with my right foot and it goes slightly behind my first step. My third step I try and get back and behind the ball so I can then step forwards and lean into my shot with my fourth and final step (on my front foot/hitting closed stance). I like to think of good footwork as the key to putting the squash ball on the tee..for example, sports like golf or tee ball, you want to hit off of a tee from a specific distance away from the ball, this is the same in squash, but we need to move very quickly to get into this correct spacing to put the squash ball on our invisible tee. If you can do this consistently you will hit the ball harder and more accurate.
Balance/Spacing: here it is important to give yourself adequate amount of space between yourself and the ball. If you get too close you will have a restricted swing and if you're too far away you cannot step/lean into your shot. A proper base of support has much to do with your footwork and how you approach the ball. You need to be stepping forwards with your front leg which is an abduction motion of your hip joint to get maximum amount of power (as opposed to just stepping beside you). Many people don't get low enough. Make sure you get your hips down and bend your front knee so you can really lean into and transfer your weight onto the ball. The taller you are the lower you have to get. Even just getting a couple of inches lower will make a big difference. Get to the height of the ball you are striking and this will also allow you to stay a little further from the ball.
Off Court Training/Gym Exercises: I believe that doing rotational core exercises are important here. There are a number of good ones you can do without any equipment and others you can do with medicine balls. When doing these core exercises, try to think about focusing on the plane that your swing is on. You can also use the heavy duty plastic bands/tubing and tie it to something and take some backhand swings. With the tubing you will only have the resistance in one direction (the backswing or downswing/follow through). I believe the downswing, contact point and follow through is where you should have the resistance, which means having the tubing tied up behind you (if you're a righty then behind your left shoulder) to a door or a sturdy piece of equipment.
Squash Drills/Routines: for practicing hitting the ball with more pace one needs to have someone feed or use a ball machine. While doing this make sure the ball is fed nicely in front of you so you can step forward and lean into your backhand drive. You can also try doing some sidewall to sidewall drives. In this exercise you are hitting by yourself and you hit a forehand into one of the sidewalls which hits off the other sidewall, next you hit your backhand into the sidewall and back to the other. Here you alternate hitting forehand drives and backhand drives and you can hear the pace you are striking the ball with. After these drills I would then move up to boast drive and some drive drive drop, drive drive boast, and see if the person driving from the front can play more attacking and powerful drives from the front corner especially. You can also put down a target such as a cup or a shoe. Because although you are trying to get more power, an attacking drive is also about the placement of the shot not just how hard it is struck. Finally, here is a good fun game. You play a normal game but you try and strike every shot as hard as you can. Obviously sometimes you are not balanced and don't have time, so in these situations as hard as you can may not be very hard. And yes, this also includes your serves. Of course you will have to call your lets and be careful about giving your opponent space and calling your lets when you feel like you are being crowded. It is a fun game and you learn a lot about how to prepare and approach the ball to hit it with more pace.
How to Hit it Even Harder: I would only advise high open level players to attempt this or else you could endanger your opponent with this larger swing. And if you can't hit a regular backhand well, maybe wait until you get that sorted out first. When I want to hit the ball with as much more force as I can I actually flatten out my swing and hit the ball with a closed racquet faced and even with a slight topspin. I do this by starting my backswing starting much lower, no longer over my shoulder anymore, I'd say more around mid-torso (but I still produce a lot of torque) and I finish my swing at shoulder height or even just above, so the plane of my swing is no longer flat, it's low to high (but not as much as tennis!). I figured out how to do this while solo hitting and only do it when I'm feeling really confident on court. Even though my opponent can clearly see that I'm setting up slightly different I can produce a lot of power and most people struggle moving into the backhand under pressure. If I was still working on my own game I would continue developing this shot and try and couple this set up with other shots (like a boast and low hard crosscourt drive) to make it harder to read. I attempt this from the front once in a while (but it takes longer to clear and your opponent can tell you are not going to drop), but mostly hit this shot from the back corner when I have lots of time to prepare. I feel this type of swing gives allows my swing to have a full arc and larger radius and this is how I can hit the ball hardest..most accurate, well probably not..but this post is about maximum force production!
So these are my tips for hitting with more pace on the backhand. You need time and space to be able to do this. If you don't have one or both of these than it's the wrong situation to try and hit the ball so hard. I would always pick control over power, but having both is much better!
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