Monday 26 November 2012

Squash Tips - THE SHOTS OF SQUASH Part 1 : Drive , Cross-Court and Boast

The Drive
Is the foundation of all the game of squash. Improvement in your game should be measured by the efficacy of your drive, which should be ideally bouncing in the corner never to be retrieved.
Of course ideal is far from reality so what you have to focus on is simply that the drive is good enough that your opponent has to run in the corner.


The drive is fundamental in this game because is the one shot that , if properly executed, forces your opponent to move which is key to make him run even further.

Let's look at a squash rally as if it was a game in golf, we have a concept called PAR which means that you have reached the hole in x number of shot, so the par is a standard by which we can compare the quality of our game, same is for the drive.

This one shot won't give you a lot of points directly, but it is the foundation through which you build every point.


The Cross-Court
A great cross court is a shot that bounces in the corner never to be retrieved, in order to do so it has to go through the center of the court wich makes it a quite dangerous shot because if your opponent keeps ahead of the ball you'll loose you advantage.
This implies that you have to play a cross-court only when your opponent is kept away from the center (by using drives).

This one shot is often misused, not that it's not fun to just throw random shots changing sides everytime, but in order to increase your consistency you should play just a few number of extremely calculated attacking cross-courts.

How?

Watch your opponent , your shot should be designed in a way that your opponent is always moving.

if you always throw the ball in a way that your opponent has to move you're getting a huge advantage
For example if in a rally you're playing drive after drive and your opponent is getting used to that , you will see that he is waiting for your shot on the side of the T which means that he is expecting you to shot in that direction, obviously you should make a different shot. This is when Cross-courts and attacking boasts come in hand.

One last thing, Cross court volley is absolutely fine just try to have the best accuracy you can.


The Boast

A boast is by definition a shot that goes from the side wall or the back, to the front wall.

You surely can realise that by being an indirect shot, it is ''slower'' than a direct one.

But this doesn't mean that it cannot be effective and useful, the fact it's that the efficacy of this shot  is based on misguiding the opponent, so the best utility is reached when your opponent expects you to make a different shot.

The Boast could be both used for attack and defense.

Remember: You should always be able to make a drive, the defensive boast should be the last of your choices. To make a defensive boast just increase the angle of your plate so that it is more ''positive'' if you're making a defensive boast it should be as slow as possible so that it will give you the chance to return to the T.

The attacking boast should be used at max once every 20 shots, it should be just the ''pepper on your steak'' not the steak itself, so don't use it too much.
In order to perform a great attacking boast use all the strengh you have and try to throw the ball in a way that it bounces in the front corner.

No comments:

Post a Comment