Squash Tips - SQUASH PHYLOSOPHY 101: ON MOVING TOWARD THE BALL

Choosing not to choose

One of the deepest understanding you need to have to become really good in squash is movement into the court.
The best analogy to explain the deep concept that you need to use in order to move perfectly in the squash court is in how to recover a 3 wall boast (a shot that bounces in order from a side wall to the front wall and then bounces of the other side wall).

This really simple example contains in it a deep meaning that i recommend you to try to understand. The best way to understand it is that after you read the article you go try it.

So how do you move if your opponent makes a boast?
The classical newbie mistakes (which show us a natural process in human nature that is to save energy and always try to get the hugest outcome with the least effort) is to rush cross ways moving fast toward the side wall, which is a waste of energy since they'll have to make a step back in order to create space to hit the ball.

The superficial explanation to how to move to hit the ball after a 3 wall boast is to just wait in the center. Fair enough it's actually quite accurate because if you wait for the ball to come to the center you save a lot of energy and the later you move the easier it is that you'll stay far from the ball and therefore hit a good shot.

Now I'll tell you what is the really best way to get the ball : this is the ''technique'' that will make you able to deal with all the possibilities even nicks. 

Choose not to choose

The way to get the ball is to move in such a way that you can always change your movement, in other words that you don't do it wrong because you just never choose. You just slowly and analytically keep on moving closer and closer to the ball till you reach it. In other words you move to a general direction to where the ball is, but by keeping the direction general you are always prepared to change your ''action-plan''.

Practically talking you do this by following these steps:

1) The first thing you realise when your opponent makes a shot is if the ball will be on you right or on your left. As soon as you realise this Open so that you're ready to make a swing.

2)The next thing you'll realise is the depth of the ball, in other words how close is the ball to the front wall , so what you have to do is move along the T line (i.e. stay in the center in proportion to the side walls, move ''up'' or ''down'') 

3)Lastly make the final side step that will make you hit the ball in the correct position.

As you know it's easy to write about this but when you're playing you're making all these processes in 1 second or less. So the only way to learn is to practice this alone and realising the different decision-making processes that are involved while playing.

Hope this will provide new training for you! Why don't you check out my new video tutorial on court movement?