Tactical Talk: Meat and Potatoes With A Side Of Gravy

Today I'm going to talk about tactics. In particular a simple and effective strategy for playing a solid game of squash. You need to have the basics, which I refer to as the meat and potatoes. The basics are the length, width, serve and return of serve. If you do the basics well you will beat most people. The basics is the area that most kids don't enjoy practicing because they don't understand the importance of what exactly defines good length and width; they prefer practicing hitting winners. The fancy finishing shots is the gravy, but without the meat and potatoes to go with the gravy it will just sit unused in the gravy boat.

I like to play and coach an attacking style of squash, but this doesn't always suit everyone's game. Personally I never enjoyed just keeping the ball in play until the opponent made a mistake. This may make sense in a few tactical situations (e.g., your opponent is exhausted or self-destructing). If you hit a good length and force a loose ball, do something with it! This is the gravy part that takes a lot of practice to refine and this territory comes with a few mistakes, especially as you are learning and refining these shots. Many people make mistakes and shy away from the front of the court altogether. While some shooters don't have the basics down and force the ball short and make lots of unforced errors. If you can try and stick to a basic strategy of going for what you've set up, you'll improve and reduce your unforced errors. If you create a good opening go for it. This is what the purpose of good length is cause at a high level you won't win a bunch of points hitting everything to the back.

If you do the basics exceptionally well you may be able to go on the attack very early in the rally and roll over someone quite quickly. If you aren't applying any pressure with your serve, return or length you likely won't get many chances to attack the front of the court from a good position. I see strong attacking players completely give up on their length when they are unable to apply any pressure with their length against a stronger opponent. This will vey rarely ever work. Attacking from the back on occasion can be done quite successfully, but only if you can consistently get the ball by your opponent and have them struggle in the back corners. When this happens they will tend to start hanging back to cover the corners as this is where you've been hitting most of your shots into anyways.

I should also mention the positioning of you and your opponent when you go on the attack. If you're opponent is so far out of the picture you don't need to hit an inch above the tin. Hit the ball with conviction, but with a few extra inches for margin of error. Aim to hit it tight just in case your opponent makes a heroic effort and gets the ball back. You don't need to hit an outright winner, keep the pressure on without giving up cheap points on unforced errors from attacking positions. If you want to have a great attacking game (the gravy) you need to relentlessly work at it. For a lot of kids this isn't a problem; they love playing the nick game, but most adults don't spend time doing drills or getting the reps on short shots. So of course when they make an error or two they don't have the confidence to go for the next one and if they do it will probably be a couple of feet over the tin. Practice your gravy shots, but they are generally not what will win or loose you matches. This brings me to my next point.

I see people hit a great attacking shot and stand and admire it. All of the sudden their opponent gets it back and either wins the rally or you are struggling to get back a mediocre reply. Always expect the ball to come back until it's bounced twice. Get back into position as you're watching your shot and the play develop. Be ready for the next one and if your opponent is under pressure you should be expecting a certain reply. If you go short you have to cover your shot which is why many people don't like to drop right up at the front of the court. They are too far from the T and if their opponent hits it deep they will be under lots of pressure if they can get the ball back at all. This can also be an issue if you're mobility is limited or you're playing a very fast opponent. If you don't move well or your opponent is fast you'll have to really practice those attacking shots so they apply more pressure of be more selective about when to attack short.

So what's the best part of your game? The meat and potatoes or the gravy? The gravy is more fun of course, but you need the meat and potatoes first. But also don't neglect the gravy or you'll be stuck playing long arduous rallies. The earlier you begin incorporating some attacking shots as you develop and learn the game the better off you'll be down the road. Set it up, attack and cover!

Why It's Easy To Beat An 'A' Player

Today I'm going to talk about tactics once again. Today I'm going to discuss how to easily beat an 'A' player. If you play in the U.S. I think it's a 5.0 level.

When I was a kid I hated that I had to work so hard to beat hackers. I couldn't wait until the day I could beat them without any effort. Now obviously an 'A' or 5.0 level player is much stronger than the average hacker. An 'A' player has learned how to be more consistent, get the ball out of the back corners and hit somewhat accurately into the back backhand corner. After giving lots of lessons and playing many 'A' players over the years it is pretty simple to beat this level of players now. There are variations on how they play, but I've found many similar traits from one to the next. This is what I'm going to talk about now, along with how I take advantage of this patterns of play and limitations.

Most A Players Typically
- always hit deep from the back corners
- don't hunt the volley
- want to play up and down the backhand wall
- hang too far back on the T
- can be deceived very easily
- are uncomfortable playing against different styles of play
- are easy to anticipate their shot
- overhit their length on the backhand and under-hit it on the forehand side
- fatigue very quickly if you cut off a lot of shots and bring them short often
- have a sound aerobic base, it's not the duration of a match that tires them out, it's the intensity
- move their T to volley only off of straight drives, rarely off of crosscourt drives
- move before you hit, therefore they don't split step properly

How To Beat An 'A' Player
- volley as much as possible
- don't be afraid to bring them to the front, you'll learn to read what they hit from the front and it's usually predictable and with very limited options
- anticipate them always wanting to play the backhand side deep and cut the ball off and boast them around
- hit good wide crosscourts, these are rarely volleyed from my experience and it's easy to force them to boast
- move your T up and take the ball early, even if you get tired, your body will adapt to this style of play, while your opponents will not be accustomed to it
- work on holds from the front of the court; get on the ball early and sometimes hit it early, other times delay your shot. If you hold someone on the T it takes a lot out of their legs to wait until after you hit the ball to react.
- vary your serve. Most 'A' players don't volley a hard serve and have trouble with a good lob serve. This is especially true for men, as less men tend to play lobs serves and therefore they are normally pretty weak at returning it.

If You're An 'A' Player, How Do You Avoid Falling Into This Trap?
- play condition games that allow you to experiment with new shots and shot combinations
- try some of the changes in shot selection and court positioning noted above
- solo hit and improve your volley and forearm strength (which will increase your ability to be deceptive)
- move your T positioning up. Place a piece of masking tape near the T that you have to get up to on each shot
- learn to hit a good crosscourt from the backhand side, don't just avoid them
- learn to cover (volley) your opponent hitting crosscourts
- try some different serves, especially the lob serve
- work on some speed and anaerobic training
- work on your lateral movement around the T so you can volley more shots (fast reactions and racquet prep is also crucial around midcourt)
- work on your 2-wall attacking boast
- practice hitting your forehand drives deeper and not as hard
- practice hitting dying length on your backhand side. There's a time to overhit your length, but just being tight doesn't put much pressure on a good player. You need to limit their options from the back by hitting well weighted drives.
- work on your split step; being in a more neutral and athletic stance, prepared for any shot
- learn to anticipate; practice drills and condition with options against a variety of players so you learn to read your earlier

It obviously takes a long time to be able to do some of these things on the list. But this is how I've gotten to the point where I can easily beat an 'A' player. It usually only takes half of a game or so to really tire out an 'A' player if you volley a lot and move them around the court. I don't even try and hit winners, just hit to the open court and take the ball early. After playing at a high level you see the play develop earlier and it becomes easier to volley more and more. I find this the biggest difference. I force my opponent to hit a great shot to get me off the T while they usually give up the positioning far easier.

So, what do you think? If you're an 'A' player and wonder why stronger players can easily beat you, it probably has something to do with the above lists. If you can easily beat an 'A' player you likely know what I'm talking about, while if you're still on your journey of becoming an 'A' player, you can come back to this post once you reach that standard!