Digging out of the corners: the missing ingredient

The corners of the court are by far the most difficult areas to deal with. And saying that I mean both the back and the front corners. Usually players and coaches only talk about the back corners, and never really discuss the corresponding difficulties of the front corners. But I'd like to do so here.

The front and back corners are difficult for different reasons.

The back corner, as anyone who has had to hit a ball that has ended up there knows, is difficult because of the back wall restricting the racket swing. It is because of the back wall preventing a normal swing through to the ball, that many a boast are played as the seemingly only option.

And most of the time the boast played, it is a low boast the stays up front in the opposite corner. And of course this is exactly what the opponent has hoped for. Driving the ball into the corner, forcing a boast as the only option, and thus being able to amble up from the T, and softly return the boast with a drop into that front corner, very often for a clear winner.

The thing is, a low flying boast, is really only useful as an attacking shot, when you've got the opponent out of position. If your opponent is near the T when you hit a low boast, then really, you're only attacking yourself.

When we watch the top players, one should note that boasts hit out of the deep corners are almost always hit high, in particular when the striker is under pressure. Top players rarely hit low boasts out of the deep back corners, unless they are going for the surprise factor, or they are not under undue pressure.

The high boast out of the deep corners, does two things: it brings the ball back deeper into the court usually close to mid court, and the high boast gives the player time to move back to a more central location before the opponent will be able to hit the ball. The high boast that comes back to the mid court area, and gives the player sufficient time to return to the play, dramatically increases the odds that the player will be able to stay in the rally.

So all players who aspire to improve their games should be practicing and incorporating into their games the high boast out of the back corners.

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Looking at retrieving shots hit into the front corners, really the two dominant shots are the straight drop and the crosscourt (either high or flat). And it should be noted that beginners to intermediate players tend to hit flat when going crosscourt.

When a player is at a stretch, running to the front corner, the natural full swing will pull the ball crosscourt, and the more the stretch the more likely the shot will have a flatter flight path.

As for the player moving to the front corner and dropping the ball straight, whether at a stretch or not, it can be very difficult to get the ball to stay along the wall, or drop into the nick. And yet a hitting a drop at this moment, is really only effective if the ball goes into the nick, or stays close to the wall. Otherwise, a drop that is out from the wall, simply invites the opponent to come in and drive the ball hard to the back. And at many levels of play this is an outright winning shot.

Going into the front corner, a player really has two options: play a drop, or hit a deep shot. The drop is hit when the player feels he can reverse the pressure and trouble the opponent. Alternatively, if the player feels pressure retrieving the ball in the front corner, then a high lob to the back court is really the best answer.

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The most common coaching point given to players when they move into the corners is to: bend the knees. This is the first and foremost teaching tip. Of course bending the knees is important for nearly all strokes in squash. And I'd argue that, even for overheads bending the knees, if possible, is best.

But there is something else that players need to focus on in order to develop their game in the corners:

In both the front and the back, a player can improve their consistency, their control, and increase options by doing one simple thing.

When swinging and hitting the ball, the player should do their utmost to get their hand and wrist down to the level of the ball itself, so that upon contact with the ball, the racket is in a near horizontal position.

Doing this puts the biomechanical pivot point of the wrist on the same plane as the ball, this is what increases the player's options, power, and control.

Of course bending the knees helps to accomplish this racket position, and knee bend aids in generation of power, but only the knee bend without the hand/wrist getting as low as the ball, will still result in a restriction of the player's options.

Getting the hand/wrist low not only makes such shots as the high boast much easier to hit, but it also allows the player to straighten out the swing and hit any number of shots along the wall, avoiding the boast completely.

In the front corners getting low with the hand/wrist does the same thing, it makes a high lob relatively easy, makes controlling direction more simple, so hitting straight or crosscourt are options, whether high and soft, or flat and fast. And with this low hand/wrist position it is much easier to control a drop, and place it softly into the wall or nick.

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So the take away?

When you're going to the corners, focus on getting your hand/wrist down to same plane (level) where you'll hit the ball.

Once you're comfortable with hitting from this low hand position, then you can start developing your different shots: lobs, drives, drops, boasts, all from the same position (with the hand/wrist at the same level as the contact point).

To Be on the 'T', or Not to Be on the 'T', that is the question...

It is so oft said, "Get back to the T", that really, it is beyond worn out. Now, please note, I'm not dismissing the advise in whole, but in practice it's not quite accurate, and thus for beginners can be a hinderance to their understanding, and thus development as movers on the court.

Aspiring players, whether true beginners, or anyone else, should at least occasionally get onto YouTube and watch videos of the top professionals in action. And when watching these videos, one should observe with a keen eye, and the analytical brain cells switched on.

What you'll find is that when a player hits the ball into the backcourt area, that player will then not return directly onto the T. Typically the better player will be anywhere from 50cm-150cm behind the T, waiting for the opponent's return shot from the backcourt.

Why is this? Simple efficiency of movement. It is easier to run forward, than to turn one's body from facing the front to facing towards a back corner, and then running towards the back of the court. Since running forward is relatively easy, then leaving yourself more distance to cover in that direction is a favorable trade off, when it means being able to shorten the distance to the rearcourt.

When you play better players, or at play someone who can regularly hit the ball to the back court, you'll find yourself under less pressure if you don't return all the way to the T, but instead stop short of the T by at least one long step.

Play is continuous, but take a couple of seconds to plan your serve !

When I watch players of all levels, except the professionals, it is quite shocking to see that many, if not the majority of players about to serve, take absolutely no moment at all to mentally prepare themselves for what they are going to hit, nor what replies the receiver is likely to hit.

Tennis of course has the timed interval inbetween the end of a rally, and the next serve. But the other racket sports: Badminton, Squash, Table Tennis, all basically require play to be continuous. But that doesn't mean the server is not permitted to take a few seconds to compose themselves prior to delivering the service.

With the serve being the only shot a player has complete control over, and given that in most places we play the PAR scoring system (Point A Rally), as a coach I find it incredulous that players are not more careful about their serve.

A sloppy approach to the serve will too often give away the point in an error, and regularly give the opponent an opportunity to gain control of the rally with their return.

Service aces in Squash, like Badminton, and Table Tennis, are not the common intent of the server. What the server should be focusing on, is hitting a serve that achieves two goals:

1) The serve should not give the opponent a chance at either a kill shot nor a shot that puts the server under immediate pressure.

2) The serve should be hit with the intent to force the receiver to hit a shot that is weak or errant.

At lower levels of play, achieving the first goal is often enough to also achieve the 2nd goal at the same time. Because at lower levels of play if the receiver can't hit their normal return, then their next option is often at best only a weak and likely uncontrolled one.

Intermediate players with practice and experience will have a better range of service return strokes to select from. So for the server, the first goal should be the primary objective. As the server becomes familiar with the receiver's habits and strengths, the server can begin looking for serves that will achieve goal number two.

At advanced and pro levels of play, the skill, control, and consistency of the receivers make achieving the 2nd goal quite difficult, so you'll find that at these levels servers are generally only aiming to accomplish the 1st goal, of not giving the receiver an opening for a kill shot, or immediate control of the rally.

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The take away from this?

If as server, you don't take a couple of seconds and think through, and plan the serve, then you're leaving the success of the serve completely in the hands of your opponent.

Decide what serve you want to hit, what you want to achieve with the serve, before you step into the service box. Once you've stepped into the box, you should be imagining (visualizing) the serve you want to hit and the responses that you can reasonably expect. Clear your mind as you bounce the ball. Then just before the ball toss, you should 'see' the correct serve in your mind.

Serving: Sometimes you just need a small adjustment, to make a big difference

It's a well worn adage, that the serve is under recognized for its importance. Really, every player should be striving to make their serve more effective. A good consistent, well placed serve will allow the server to not only put pressure on the opponent, but also give the server the opportunity to dictate the likely responses from the opponent. Making it easier to predict what the opponent will do with the serve.

Good players develop one or two serves that they will consistently use, from each side of the court. Typically good players will play a little more variety when serving into the backhand.

Generally these serves get pretty well 'grooved' and will follow a very similiar trajectory and speed every time. And that's where the server can gain some advantage, because if the serve is well placed, then the responses from the opponent become quite predictable.

So when you're watching pros play, it's often noticible that the beginning three or four shots of a rally are often the same, as the players settle into the rally, and get moving up to speed.

The thing is, for those of us who play at lower levels, we may not notice very subtle differences that might actually be occuring either within a match, or from opponent to opponent.

For example, when serving from the left into the forehand of the opponent, I have a grooved serve that hits the side wall, and then into the back wall, if the opponent lets it go. But usually my opponents go after the ball, trying to attack. And that's fine if my serve hits the side wall then the attack of my usual opponents is not very pressuring.

This past week, I played with someone who was taller than most of my opponents, and he was basically crushing my serve on the forehand side. And I wasn't having trouble with the accuracy, it was going where I wanted it to go. But, the serve was right at an optimum height and speed range for him to zero-in and either win the point outright, or put so much pressure on me, that the rally was over in another one or two shots.

This is not good, as it meant that every time I got to where I served from the left, I was usually losing the point and of course hand out. Thus, it was very difficult to establish any momentum at all.

So rather than change to a completely different serve, I simply did two things: 1) I hit the ball a little higher on the front wall, and 2) I hit the ball softer. My toss, and swing were basically the same, just a tad slower, and a little bit more lift. Not making big changes to my service, meant that I still had good control over the ball's path.

What did this do? 1) It took the ball out of the opponent's comfort zone. He was having to stretch just a little bit more for the ball. Which resulted in less accuracy on his part. 2) Since the ball was coming in more slowly, it meant that his normal return was less powerful. These two effects, meant that now, his service return was much more manageable.

And when he tried to up the speed of the ball by adding his own power, his accuracy suffered even more. This then gave me even more control over the rally, because I was able to intercept more balls near the mid court.

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So the take away here?

1) Work on getting a couple of serves grooved for each side of the court. So that you can start the rally with some control, at least being able to anticipate more, what the opponent will hit.

2) If an opponent is getting your best serves, and hurting you with the returns, then before changing to a completely different serve, try slight changes, get the ball out of your opponent's optimum contact point. What you'll likely find, is that now this troublesome opponent is giving you the service returns that you are more used to. (and thus more opportunities to gain control of the rally within the first couple of strokes)