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Best Squash Racquet-Buyers Guide
Squash is a dynamic game, and the process of having a better squash game is complex. There is stroke technique, movement, shot-making, strategy and competitive mindset, to name a few of the basic facets of the game. And they are all intertwined. It is a complex game and when you focus on improving one thing, often another aspect suffers.
The steps to playing a better squash game is generally one step back, two forward, over and over. But it is continuous. There are a few things that you can do that are only positive and will make you a better player, and they are some of the most common mistakes that squash players make. Here are my top 3 things that you can do now to improve your squash game:
The most common mistake that beginner and intermediate players make is to not get their rails and cross courts deep in the court. By leaving the ball in the middle of the court you actually force your opponent to retain strategically superior positioning and the result is to be constantly on the defensive.
By lifting up rails and cross courts on the front wall the ball will go deeper in the court without hitting the ball harder. Now the T is open to you and you can take advantage of superior court positioning.
It is almost a reflex reaction for beginning and intermediate players to chase a ball to the back court and smack the ball into the wall for a boast. Inevitably your opponent is camped out at the T and is in great position to attack off of your “defensive” boast, and now you are running the diagonal to retrieve the ball. Players often think the boast is their only option and think in terms of hard and low boasts vs. high and soft boasts. But the right answer is to not hit the boast in the first place.
While there is a technical component to being able to hit a straight drive instead of a boast, namely: cock the wrist, keep your back foot away from the ball, and rotate your forearm, the even more important thing to do is to remove the boast in your mind as an acceptable option. It is impossible to get better at hitting the drive instead of the boast if you keep hitting the boast.
Force yourself to try to hit the front wall first, follow the technical steps mentioned above, and you will get better and better at it. The result will be that instead of giving your opponent a golden opportunity to run you the diagonal, you retain superior positioning and you will be the one looking to attack.
Take the shot on the volley! Letting an easy volley pass by only becomes a more difficult shot in the back corner. Often it is on the return of serve, and the player starts out the point with a very defensive shot with their opponent in great position. When a volley looks easy, that assumes the shot will remain easy and so it doesn’t matter if the ball is taken early or not. But the easy volley quickly turns difficult as it moves to the back of the court. Volley those easy shots and you will eliminate an unnecessary trip to terrible positioning.
Squash is a game that is interesting and challenging for players of all levels. That is because at every level there is a new challenge to take on, and depending on your skill level, there are different challenges.
A lot of players who have played for a long time say it is all mental. How productive is it for a student to work on strategy and tactics if they can’t even control the ball to put it where they want it to go? While the game at the highest level may be all mental, that is little help to beginning, intermediate or even most advanced players who have yet to ingrain all of the fundamentals.
A squash player must learn certain skills before they attempt to learn more advanced concepts. If they don’t, their efforts will end in frustration, failure, or just get them nowhere.
First, a new player must master the basic Technical Skills. These are skills like spacial alignment, stroke production, footwork, eye movement, and practice.
Second, a player can begin to learn Tactics and Strategy. This includes shot creation, shot selection, and match strategy.
Third, a player introduces Physical Training to their game: They learn how to improve strength, speed, endurance, flexibility and agility.
Fourth, and finally, a player learns the Mental Aspect to the game. This means incorporating strategic discipline, resilience, and a clear mind.
The 4 levels of squash skills does not prohibit one from learning more advanced concepts, or being intrigued by concepts that the very best players are focused on. The pyramid is not concrete. Rather it is meant as a roadmap for a player to be able to truly master the game.
Here we have some quick tips on improving your squash game: 3 tactics for better squash game
When a professional plays a professional match, have you ever seen them show up and just play? No, because they would lose! Your squash match preparation should be more extensive than just showing up to play.
Before your squash match, your preparation should be on calibration, nothing else. This is different than a practice session when you may be working specifically on mastering a shot or ingraining better movement. It is not time to learn how to do something new, but rather to fine-tune your game.
The 3 ways to prepare for your squash match to focus on calibration are your stroke, your alignment to the ball, and your movement around the squash court. There are many ways to do this, but here are the 3 things to do before your squash match:
A quick 10 to 20 minute session focusing on these 3 things before your squash match is just right for me. Just by knowing to focus your squash match preparation here, you have given yourself an edge over your opponent.
The other thing I like to do before my match is to watch some PSA matches on Youtube to visualize and have my mind focused on creating good squash.
Having said that, how you do your squash backswing is important. A good backswing can be the difference between being able to play the ball quickly and accurately or having to take extra time to play the ball or to play a bad shot.
A squash match is most often won by the person who can maintain dominance at the “T” and is able to attack to the front of the court from a position in front of their opponent. It is therefore essential to have a backswing that allows you to play the ball quickly and accurately in order to maintain and attack from this superior positioning in the court and not have to fall back to inferior positioning to play the ball.
The biggest mistakes that players make with their backswing are:
To improve upon your squash backswing, here is what you can do:
Along with list of tips for your squash backswing, consistent practice outside of squash matches will help your squash game too. We have discussed ways for you to improve your squash game.
