Short Drilling for the Hardball Doubles Game- Slice Corners

SQUASH TIPS

by Jack Barnaby

SHORT DRILLING - SLICE CORNERS

First question: can you slice? Many tend to answer this question by saying, “You mean cut under the ball?” Please hear this: I do NOT mean "cut under the ball." Slice means to cut ACROSS the ball from the outside in. "Cut under" means you should contact the bottom of the ball. If you do this, the ball will go very high. This is a useful skill, particularly when you are in trouble and wish to lob high. But it is not what we are talking about now. When you slice, you cut across the back of the ball. The secret to success is in the preparation: your "back swing" isn't a backswing. because you prepare by taking the racquet out to the side, so when you strike you cut in across yourself. Think of the racquet as the pendulum on a grandfather clock: it goes left and right, not back and forth.

Here again (and there will be more agains) we come into conflict with that most common exhortation: “Get your racquet back.” When teaching, I fight this constantly. Then people say, 

“Criticism is unfair unless you offer something better as a substitute." I agree with that, and I also agree with the concept of early preparation (essential). But I would definitely offer a substitute: “Get your racquet READY." If you plan to drive, get it back; if you plan to drop, get it near the proposed contact point; if you plan to lob. get it below the ball and open faced; if you plan to volley, get it above the ball and more close faced. To say "Always get it back" means you are aiming to be one of those unimaginative players who drive everything and have no variety or change of pace. Is your objective that dull and unattractive? So getting your racquet "back" is only one of several preparations appropriate to executing several skills, each different. In the case of the skill we call "to slice" you get your racquet out to the side, ready to cut in across yourself like the pendulum on the old clock. 

As in the previous drill (for little shots), you must get your mind on how you get ready to hit rather than on how you hit, because if you prepare wrong, it is impossible (note that word) to play correctly. How can you cut across the back of the ball if you get the racquet back? You MUST hit straight into the ball in order to make contact. By contrast, if you get your racquet out, you must cut IN to make contact, and this is what we wish to do. We want our shot to be almost all spin,with very little "hit." Try to contact the ball with many strings rather than with one spot on the racquet face. When you achieve reasonable control of this skill, you should be able to swing quite briskly without making the ball go fast. It SPINS fast, but it doesn't actually fly through the air fast. It helps some people to say, “Yes, slice means 'cut,' but cut across from right to left (fore hand), don't cut under from back to forth." If thinking of it this way helps, by all means do so. Who cares how you think of it as long as you get the correct mental picture and do it well? It is the concept and the feel of it, not the semantics, that are important. 

I have taught some players who,doing just what I say cut in and whiff the ball entirely. They must learn to move their weight forward as they play, just enough to ensure that the racquet does press the ball, Most do this on instinct, but everyone should realize that a slice is a very queer thing when you analyze it - it is a combination of two moves: the racquet cuts in almost at a right angle to the proposed shot, thus creating side spin; the weight moves forward in the exact direction of the proposed shot. These two moves are almost at right angles to each other. The weight goes "through the ball." The racquet goes OFF the ball from the outside in to create spin, not “hit." The racquet cuts in, the weight glides forward. The two moves, together, produce a slice.

This all sounds super technical and complicated. It needn't be. Just press a little in the direction of your shot and put a little side cut on the ball with your racquet. There: you have sliced it. Practice this until it feels so familiar that you can do it any time. Do this just aiming at the front wall at first, until you feel reasonable mastery.

It is the concept 

and the feel of it, 

not the semantics,

that are important.

That is the first drill: to learn to slice.

A second drill is to cut across and under a little, so the ball goes UP and into the side wall about three to five feet from the front wall. This is the sliced corner shot. Why slice it? Because the slice (side spin) will whip it around the corner faster, the undercut will bring it down quickly from the front wall so it will take its first bounce sooner and have more room to take a second bounce before coming off the third wall, and by using spin you can get more deception and a deader ball WITHOUT going very close to the tin.

Why won't this work in soft ball also? Because the ball reacts so differently. Both reverse corners and slice corners in hard ball tend to flicker along across the court and take two quick bounces. The same shots in soft ball will hit side wall, front wall. then come out and hang. A quick ! opponent will gain a great advantage. There is only one little shot that is equally good in both games: the drop shot. When Hashim Khan - after defeating everyone at soft ball overseas came to the United States and took up hard ball, he could not make our corner shots. But it didn't deter him at all, because he had a beautiful dead straight drop off both wings, so he could play short whenever he wished. Of course he rapidly acquired corner shot skill and soon knew every trick in our game, but the point is he was very good without corner shots. He soon beat every one and dominated our game even as he had dominated soft ball.

The moral here is that with the rapid growth of soft ball in America, we may all soon be playing it. Therefore, it behooves all hard ball players to learn the straight drop so the transition will not leave them with no short shots that are effective.

Also, a little anecdote is in order. Hashim played a good match, won it, and was talking with admirers in the locker room. One of them said, "Hashim, I noticed you never use corner shots. Why not?" "Oh," said Hashim, 'corner shot very good if opponent is slow. Corner shot not so good if opponent is fast. Corner shot puts ball in open. Drop shot better; it keeps ball on wall." Amen!

A second anecdote backs this up. Someone asked Charlie Brinton (four times national cham pion), "What shot bugs you the most?" Charlie replied, “Those damn Harvard drop shots.” Inci dentally, Charlie developed a good drop shot of his own, and thus the shoe squeezed the other foot.

So: learn to slice, learn corner shots, but above all, learn to drop the ball. It doesn't take long IF you go at it right, which means you learn to put your racquet NEAR the ball rather than take it way back. Good luck!

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