A New Season will be soon upon us - Time to Sharpen up your Game

10 Simple Ways to Improve Your Squash 

Win More Matches – Have More Fun 

by Barb Cooper 

Level 5 Squash Coach ChPC 

Author of the Racket Sports Mental Training Website 

My name is Barb Cooper and I have been playing racket sports since I was 7. I spent my childhood hitting tennis balls against a wall morning noon and night. 

I practiced before school, at lunch break and after school. In fact it would be a very rare occasion for me not to have a ball in my hand or pocket. 

            

I was good at tennis and got to Junior Wimbledon level but was never going to be great and then I found squash. 

I was 19 nineteen years old and had just got married. 
My husband was a squash player and you know how it is, 
if you want to see him you had better join him. 

Wow what a great game! 

Squash felt so gladiatorial, I physically experienced my opponent, they were right there next to me and I could tell if they were tired and hurting or about to come at me again! I realized that tennis had been a little too civilized for me and I had finally found my sport. 

I practiced and worked at my squash game while I trained at Chelsea College in Eastbourne Sussex to become a Physical Education teacher. I loved squash from the start. it made sense to me   and by the time II was 24 I was thrilled to be selected for the English Women's Team. 

I had in England at that time great mentors and coaches and the British squad system was extremely effective in turning raw talent into world class squash players. 

That was the start of my squash playing career that saw me as a Professional on the squash circuit for 14 years travelling all over the world, representing both England and Great Britain in 3 World Team Championships (they were held every 4 years) and serving as the Captain Manager and Coach for 8 of those years 

My highest world ranking was #8 and in Great Britain #4. 

I won 10 World Masters titles and went on to represent my adopted country Canada in the World Team Championships in Guernsey and later became the Canadian National Women's Team Coach until I resigned. 

I was a Level 3 coach in England and I am now the only Level 5 Squash coach in Canada, as well as a Master Learning Facilitator for both Squash and Multi Sport. 

I am giving you this background not to impress you but to impress upon you that I have knowledge and experience in the sport you also love squash. All the thoughts and ideas that I express in this book have been tried and tested and proven over 4 decades so please do not let their simplicity belie their effectiveness. 

I ask you to take each idea and work it into your game diligently. I promise you that when I am coaching the National Team, National Team players or professional players I am saying nothing different. We work on all of these fundamentals, we are simply more particular the higher the players level. 

Squash Speak 

For those who are unfamiliar with the language and jargon of squash I will give you some of the terms that I will be using here with an explanation. 

Sequence refers to the order in which the physical moves are made. I always look for the decision to prepare the racket to be made first this will save time and create great efficiency when 

striking the ball. 

Follow-through refers to the swing after the ball has been contacted. The follow through should always finish towards the 

part of the wall you want the ball to hit. This will ensure it is safe for your opponent and efficient for you. 

Forehand and Backhand The forehand refers to a shot played with your palm coming towards the ball, and conversely the backhand is played with the other side of your racket face hitting the ball and the back of your hand leading the swing. 

Drive means to hit the ball with hard or with pace. The intention should always be to make the ball bounce twice on the floor before the opponent can reach it. 

Lob means to hit a slow high arching ball that hit high on the front wall, goes over the opponent and lands on the floor at the back of the court as close to the back wall nick as possible. 

Straight Length means the ball is struck so that it travels parallel with the side wall and ending at the back of the court with the ultimate aim of getting the ball to go past your opponent and having the second bounce land in the back wall nick 

Nick is the join between any wall and the floor thus there is a back wall nick and a side wall nick. There is also a front wall vertical nick where the front wall and side wall meet. Should ball hit any of these places the bounce is often very unpredictable and therefore it is an extremely useful and advantageous place to aim the ball. 

Cross-court refers to any ball that is hit from one side of the court to the other. The aim of your cross-court drive should be to go past your opponent and force a boast 

Boast refers to any ball that is hit indirectly to the front wall. Should the ball hit your nearest sidewall first it would be known as a sidewall boast; the back wall becomes a back wall boast and a reverse refers to a ball hit from the forehand side to hit the opposite or backhand sidewall first. This shot can be useful but sometimes dangerous as it is played across your opponent. This shot can be very useful on the return of serve depending who you are playing. 

Front wall the white wall you can see with the red service line painted across the middle. 

Back wall you can see here is glass and has the door. 

Front court is the third of the court closest to the front wall. 

Mid court the part bounded by the back of the service box to the front third of the court 

Back court the part of the court from the back of the service box to the back wall or glass. 

The "T" is the centre of the court where the red lines meet to form a T. The desired place to control. 

1. Sequence your stroke 

This sounds very straight forward but in fact when I watch most squash players they are usually out of sequence and therefore less efficient on the squash court. 

Efficiency is what every player should be striving to achieve. This is the same as a golf swing, painting a wall, and even cooking a cake. 

The golf swing is the shining example of what a squash player should do and I will return to it in a moment. 

First I want to ask you to consider the sequence of painting a wall. The wall is always prepared first, then the undercoat is applied and finally the top coat. To do anything else would seem to any rational person to be ludicrous! 

Squash players however do something similar all the time. 

Imagine you are about to bake a cake, to put it in the oven and then to turn the oven on would be seen as crazy but squash players do it all the time! 

What does this all mean? In squash what is your first decision to go to the ball or to prepare your racket? It should be to prepare your racket but many players start running for the ball and then have to try to set their racket when they arrive. 

This is hopelessly inefficient. Let me ask you this question "If your feet are moving do you know whether you will be hitting a forehand or backhand?" I am not asking you the type (straight or crosscourt, lob or drive) If you said yes then I believe your racket should be prepared so that when you get to the ball all you have to do is hit it and finish the stroke with a follow through. 

This is what I mean by sequencing your shot. Check yourself. If your feet are moving your racket should be prepared. You will save yourself at least half a stride by simply making this small adjustment of setting your racket somewhere useful as you leave too get to the ball 

2. Get the ball past your opponent when you hit length 

This is a general rule for the striker wherever they are positioned whether that is in the front of the court or in the back and it can be done in a variety of ways. There is no right or correct way to get the ball past your opponent. 

To hit a length implicitly means that the ball must get to the back of the court, should your opponent play the ball from anywhere else it must be deemed that the shot was unsuccessful or not effective 

You can now be aware of this desired outcome, evaluate your shot and if it was ineffective you should look to modify the shot by either striking it harder making it higher, wider or tighter to the side wall. 

One or more of these solutions will cause the shot to next time successfully pass your opponent and force them to play their shot from behind you. This puts you in the driver's seat and your opponent on the defensive. From the back of the court it is extremely difficult to hit a very aggressive shot, often the best you can hope for is a great defensive shot that causes your opponent to have to go to the back of the court themselves to return your shot giving you the opportunity to get in front and control the “T”. 

3. Volley to avoid your opponent passing you 

This idea is crucial to having an efficient and effective winning game. In my world everything is always a two way street. That means if I want to hit the ball to a length past my opponent, then clearly I want to NEVER allow my opponent to hit a length past me! 

I must own the midcourt. It must be patrolled and controlled by me. This is my area of potential attack. When I volley the ball from mid court my opponent will inevitably be rushed as they have less time to recover. Better than that I could pressurize my opponent by moving them quickly forwards with a short shot or push them backwards with a volley to a length. All of these scenarios are physically very taxing for my opponent and I love that! 

The first time a volley is necessary is on the return of serve. It is vital that you do not let the serve push you to the back of the court if at all possible and that you step up and volley it to give you a chance to own the mid court or "T" 

4. Improve your serve to force a weak return 

The serve is the one chance you have to hit the ball without your opponent affecting you, it is therefore very important as it sets the tone for the rally. What I mean by this is, once again we are in the fundamental exchange of how a squash rally evolves. The whole game of squash is who can get in front and control the middle of the court called the "T" 

We have already discussed that the intention when a player hit a length to the back of the court is to hit the ball past their opponent and play the next shot from in front of them. If this is the case I ask you is a serve a length? I hope you answered "Yes" then every time you serve you should be trying to make the ball go past your opponent, so that they have to hit the ball from the back of the court and your next intention should be to NOT let the next shot go by you but to take it from in front of your opponent in mid court. 

This way of thinking is much more powerful than simply serving and getting to the "T" as unfortunately getting to the “T' can be successfully completed but it has no future action attached to it. 

What I mean is there is no point in serving, rushing to mid court having a ball that you could volley, but you choose to leave it and go to the back of the court where you are very defensive because it feels safer! 

This sort of play achieves two things it puts you on the defensive as you cannot attack anyone when you are stuck in the back of the court, and secondly it makes absolutely sure that your opponent has had enough time to gather themselves, get balanced and get in front of you. 

Think about it, if you choose to go to the back of the court you can pretty much guarantee that your opponent is ahead of you, where else would they be? Therefore I am strongly suggesting actually begging you to think when you are serving to firstly try to get the ball past your opponent and then to look to hit the next shot from in front of them. 

Truthfully if you do this, whether you choose to hit short or long on your next shot does not make a huge difference to me. You are in a strong position and it is tough for your opponent to hurt you. 

Where I think players lose the advantage of the serve is often they are too willing to let the returned ball go to the back of the court, that to me makes no sense as the advantage is now lost. 

One guide to try to evaluate your effectiveness on your serve is to aim for 3 easy points per game. I do not expect service aces but I do think you should play the type of serve, be it a lob, a drive or something in between that means your opponent hits a loose ball that you can quickly take advantage of and start to pressure them. 

Remember you are hitting a cross court length when you serve so aiming to hit the side wall directly opposite where your opponent is standing to receive serve is a great spot. If you hit the same spot but vary the pace you may be able to find the window that causes your opponent stress and causes a poor or weak return. 

Players when returning serve are vulnerable not only to the angle of the serve but the combination of the angle combined with a certain pace. Every player has a spot on the wall where they are less comfortable and they have a pace that worries them also, when you can find both you will become lethal. 

However, you must remember “tomorrow is another day" and the next time you play or even in the game you are playing now your opponent adjusts, learns and gets smarter so keep doing it until they catch on and then change your serve. DO NOT CHANGE your serve if it is working. ONLY change it when they hurt you with their return. 

Remember with me it is always a two way street and if you want to force a weak return from your opponent, you do not want to ever hit a weak return yourself. You must practice your return of serve also so that you are able to hit the ball past the server consistently, regardless of the incoming serve. 

5. Have an amazingly reliable Return of Serve 

Once you can develop a reliable and effective return of serve you will not have to use it that much, because you will be serving! 

I cannot stress this enough, every player needs to have a rock solid effective return of serve or else they will be constantly battling to win points and frustrated that they never feel in control. 

Learn to hit whatever serve comes into you high on the front wall so that it arcs over your opponents head and you get in front of them. 

This sounds easy but I assure you it is not, it takes practice. 

Your racket path must be from low to high to give the ball the correct trajectory to the front wall. In truth practically every return of serve you will hit will be struck with your racket path being from low to high, even when you have to boast the ball. 

I do not think it matters greatly whether you hit it straight or crosscourt to start with, but I do think it has to be high enough to take the server to the back of the court. They should not be able to cut the ball off, this defeats the purpose of hitting length. 

Remember when you hit a length it is supposed to go past them! In a highly defensive situation as having to return serve it is often easier and more effective to go high over their head then to hit it hard as this is often in their reach and they will cut it off. 

Again I suggest practicing this against players who are weaker than you. If you cannot hit it past this player you will probably not be successful against a stronger player. 

6. Learn to hit a drop shot from the middle of the court 

Most of your attacking shots will be played from the mid court. Here to be able not only to hit a length but to hit the ball short effectively can devastate an opponent. When you have your opponent on the run and in the back of the court you must be able to drop or volley drop the ball effectively. 

When executing either of these shots either straight or cross court it is very helpful to aim the ball so that it catches the side wall, close to or in the nick This will help slow the ball down and give it a chance of hitting the floor twice before your opponent can reach it. 

Practice by feeding yourself a ball and then cutting it off short until your shot is 80% reliable. It is now ready to be tested in a friendly game against someone who is a lesser player than you. 

Once you can consistently execute this shot with reasonable certainty under NO pressure it is time to try it out against a player who is the same level as you or better. 

This progression is how I would advise you to build any skill in your game. First you acquire the skill by practice with no pressure simply repetition, then you add another shot and a bit of choice either in a drill or a practice match that has little or no intensity and when you feel the shot is fairly reliable then you try it out under match play circumstances and see how it stands up. 

You might have to go back and groove the shot again that is normal but when trying to put anything new into your game remember you cannot run before you can walk. It is often quicker to be thorough but slow, at each stage, and not move on until you are ready 

7. Work on your mental game to stay positive 

A positive mental outlook is probably going to be the single most important piece to your game and your chance of longevity in the sport. 

Noticing the small improvements in your game will keep you motivated. Learning from your mistakes and losses will constantly keep you evaluating and striving for excellence. 

Feeling optimistic when any normal person would feel like giving up and could have “thrown in the towel” a long time ago can often turn matches into wins when they should have been devastating losses. 

Squash is a wonderful game for the hard working optimist, it rewards endeavour. If you are prepared to hang in there and grind it out often by guts and determination you can wear your opponent down and prevail. 

There is usually a turning point where you senses your opponent weakening or giving in. You have made it all too hard and they do not want to put out that effort any more, or their mental attitude is not strong enough and they feel they cannot win. 

Catch yourself when you hear that negative nonsense where you have become a victim, or you are making excuses. Once you have started to think like this you have give away your power. 

Victims do not have control to change their circumstances. Only people who take responsibility have the ability to change things. This is an important concept. Listen to how you think off the court as it will be similar to on the court and take control of your thoughts and game, 

8. Improve your fitness 

Squash is one of the most physically demanding sports in terms of having to be quick, agile, flexible, strong, aerobically fit, and still remain balanced and accurate when striking the ball. 

Working on all aspects of your fitness both on and off the court will inevitably translate into gains on the court when playing matches. 

Being able to out-last your opponent means there is no rush to end the rally. You can take your time and wait for a really good opportunity to hit a winner or simply strive to wear your opponent down by extending the rallies and waiting for them to make an error.

In training there is one area I find players neglect and that is they rarely train running backwards. Squash players spend 30% - 50% of their time moving backwards players need to train for this. 

Shadowing court movement on court is a useful way to improve this skill. Start without a racket imagining you have just served then move to the middle of the court and sprint to the front or back of the court imagining the shot you play each time. Try to recreate rallies in your mind and move accordingly, but as you have no racket you can concentrate on your footwork and balance. Make sure you take the role of server as well as returning serve. 

Run as hard as you can and make the rallies random length, only give yourself 10 seconds recovery between each rally. Do this for 10 minutes and repeat it 3 times. You will get faster. Build this until you are able to work for 20 – 30 minutes the length of a hard close squash match you will be ready to take anyone on once you can achieve this. 

9. Avoid boasting from the back of the court 

Returning to our original ideas when we are pushed into the back of the court we want to hit the ball to a length past our opponent, but sometimes we are forced to boast. 

As soon as we HAVE to boast we are predictable to our opponent. Hitting a shot, any shot because we have no choice is something we must try to avoid. 

We must therefore try to CHOOSE to hit a boast not HAVE to hit a boast. 

Some technical things that might help you avoid boasting out of the back corners is to always drop you racket when you move backwards rather than raise it in the normal “Racket Up” position. 

Here is my thinking; once you take that initial step backwards what do you know about the shot you are going to play? 

1. Do you know if you are going to hit a forehand or a back hand shot? 

2. What will you racket path be for this shot from the back of the court? Will it be “low to high" or "high to low" clearly as you want to hit your shot to the back of the court it is going to have to be "low to high" as you have to aim high on the front wall, you will not be able to hit it hard enough to get it to go past your opponent. 

3. What speed are you going to put on the ball, fast, medium or slow? Usually the shot will be fairly slow, you need the recovery time and you do not have the room or body weight to hit it hard. 

I hope I have proved you know a practically everything! The only thing you do not know about the shot you are about to play is whether you will have enough room to hit it straight or whether you will have to boast it. It is only the direction of your shot you do not know! 

If this is the case drop your racket down as you make your first stride backwards. Your racket will be in a useful place if the ball hits the knick and bounces unpredictably and you can always lift it should you have the room and time to hit the ball with a bit more pace. 

10. Learn to change the pace from anywhere and at anytime 

Squash players must be flexible rebels. I mean that they must learn to play any way that makes their opponent feel uncomfortable. If your opponent wants a hard, fast, game, slow it down and send him to sleep because every shot you hit grows icicles it is so high and slow. Conversely your opponent like to have time to play their shots, speed the game up, hit hard, make the rallies brisk so that your opponent feels rushed, unsettled and never comfortable enough to start shot making. 

This is putting it in its simplest form. Most players are a combination of both so learn to switch paces to break up your opponent's rhythm. Changing the pace is very taxing to an opponent's senses and emotions. 

When you keep a consistent rhythm your opponent will often get into a groove and their shots in response to your get more accurate. Once you learn to break up the rhythm players have to watch the ball more carefully and must time it more accurately and you are changing that when you hit quickly and slowly in the same rally. When you delay some shots and then take others early you are once again causing your opponent to feel less comfy as they cannot predict the rhythm. 

To practice this I suggest you create rules for yourself. I used to play matches against players I could beat and would give myself the rule that the first ball had to be hit hard and the second one slowly. I enforced that rule on myself regardless of whether I was serving or not. If my next shot was hard and I had the serve I hit a hard serve whether I liked it, or was any good at it, or not. Obviously over time you improve and the biggest gain was to be able to hit effective shots regardless of the pace. 

This control, makes you very uncomfortable to play and that my friends that is the objective! ENJOY! 

Now all you have to do is celebrate your wins and learn from your losses 

I wish you a wonderful life, playing what I consider to be the best sport in the world. Squash has a unique culture and community of players who will welcome you wherever you are in the world. I recommend always check out the squash club instantly you will have a group of like minded people prepared to welcome you into their community. 

Squash is the most amazing sport for that! 

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