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.

Improve Your Game By Making More Mistakes

Today I'm going to discuss why making errors are so important to improving. In a previous post I discussed a similar topic; I talked about 'Staying Positive After Errors.' If you're interested in reading it you can find the previous post here http://www.serioussquash.com/2014/12/staying-positive-after-errors.html. Today though I'm going to talk about why we have to make mistakes and how to view these on a more positive note.

We all get upset when we miss a shot, especially an easy shot, or even worse yet our favourite shot. This is all just percentages though. Nobody can execute a specific shot 100% of the time. Especially when you add in fatigue, shot selection and perhaps you're trying to hit it under a bit of pressure or your opponent is right on your heels. There are a lot of reasons why we can make an error. Sometimes we just slightly miss the shot. The ball changes temperature and most courts play slightly different depending on the number of people in the club and the weather outside. String tension also slightly changes over time and you aren't always 100% in the zone and focused. These are just a few examples of why we make errors. Of course the most obvious one I have yet to mention is that we are trying to execute a shot with a high degree of difficulty. If we are trying to play a crosscourt volley nick there is a smaller margin of error than a standard drive. There may also be that second voice in the back of your head almost catching you mid-strike, the coaching voice saying, 'who do you think you are? You're not Ramy?'

So whatever the reason is we make an error is not the issue we're talking about today. Today I want to talk about why we needs to make mistakes. I feel players begin to plateau in their game mostly because they become more consistent with their shot selection and execution. They don't beat themselves, but they also don't try do do new things when they play because they have had those poor shot selections and errors weeded out of their game. Of course you can do this and play at the highest level. There is no argument there. But I believe there is always more you can learn and improve in your game. If you limit yourself to say, never attacking from the back or always hitting a straight drive return of serve it doesn't mean your game will suffer. You will probably do extremely well because tactically these are excellent choices. But you are also probably limiting yourself by using the terms always or never.

If we continue making the same mistake over and over do we give up on the shot or is this just a sign that shot is extremely difficult? Like some ridiculously challenging skateboarding flip? If it's a trick a skateboarder can land every time there isn't really any new learning taking place; there is no new speeding up of the myelin connectors. Same goes for a basketball player. If they never practice shots they have trouble with they will never tend their range. We get to a point in squash where we can become very consistent and precise at our squash skill, but there is always something more we should be playing around with and experimenting with. Even if this is only in practice.

So as you can tell I like people making mistakes. Mistakes equals learning. As long as they aren't making mistakes because they lost their focus. I feel most coaches limit squash players into a style where they play not to loose and limit what they could do on a court.

Obviously the thing here is that making mistake after mistake can be very damaging to some peoples confidence. This is why only some people become creative squash players. They aren't afraid or trying new things and failing from time to time. These new shots or skills are like trying to solve complex puzzles. Maybe it's a puzzle that nobody has a solved yet, but that doesn't mean there isn't a possible solution.

If you want to become great you have to take great risks and never stop trying to improve your game. I hope this post has shed some light onto the importance of mistakes, even if we can't stand them. We need to make mistakes to expand our game otherwise we are limiting our potential. I've brought up this fact in a previous post; how many tins do you think Ramy has hit in his life? I bet it's a lot more than probably anyone else on tour. Just like young Mazen Hesham, he too has surely made un uncountable number of errors. He still plays like a junior and is beating top 10 players. I'm sure he'll find the right amount of discipline to compete and eventually make his way to the top of the ranks. I'm not so sure the same would have happened without him hitting millions of tins along the way! You can tell the top players don't like playing him because he doesn't allow them to play in a rhythm.

That's it for today. Hope you can see the bright side of your errors. If you aren't happy with giving away so many free points on a specific shot you just need to keep practicing it. It definitely won't get any better by shying away from it. So go ahead and make some more errors! If you can handle it mentally in the short term it will be good for your game in the long run.