PSA Squash: Two Of The Most Common Mistakes Even Pros Make
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Discover 2 of the most common mistakes even pros make, and improve your odds of winning.
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I don't know the name for it, but the satisfaction you get from nailing that 5% surprise crosscourt can easily outweigh the sober realisation that it is the wrong shot the other 95% of the time! Especially when tired, the prospect of a quick winner is hard to pass up in the heat of the moment.
Agreed Jim! If one can increase proficiency with the cross, and get the timing right more often than wrong, it's a fantastic shot to have! Wishing you well,
- Ahad
A forced boast is one of the 7 deadly sins of squash. A forced boast is when a player makes a boast not because it is tactically desirable but because he is technically compromised. In (at least) 8 ut of 10 games the player with the most forced boasts loses the game. Interestingly, the more ''missed volleys'' (another of the 7 deadly sins of squash) the more forced boasts.
Thanks for the information 👊🏼 do tell us more about the other deadly sins 👍🏼 all the best,
- Ahad
@@ARProformance I will but first let me give a little more detail about the ''missed volley opportunity mentioned above - it is another deadly sin. If you can volley you should volley. If you don't volley and you let the ball pass you then you may only be able to play a boast and this then is a forced boast, you are in the back and your opponent is on the T = not good at all. This can happen many times even in one ralley. Advantages can be won and lost and won and lost over and over in a rally - a coach must be able to spot this happening and label the ''sin'' instantly. When both coach and player are familiar with the labels the coach can communicate quickly and effectively. Once you become familiar with the 7 deadly sins you will understand that all sins (all ways of losing an advantage) fit into one or more of these categories and you will wonder why you were not ever taught this before even though it is not rocket science.
I will tell you a story to illustrate the value of understanding the 7 deadly sins versus the way coaches are (or at least were) trained in the UK later today.
I was sitting behind two British national coaches at a regional U19 squad training session. I had worked with one of the coaches for some years, the other I knew only by reputation.
After one rally these two highly qualified coaches argued about what went wrong in the rally and how to fix it. Here is what happened in the rally:
The server (player A) served from the right hand box with his right arm.
The receiver (player B) volleyed the serve straight down the left hand wall.
Player A came across to the T but as the ball had passed him he chased it into the back corner and played a boast with the ball ending up quite tight to the front right corner.
Player B then dropped the ball into the same corner.
Player A ran to the ball to counter-drop but put the ball into the tin. This is basically what happened.
Now, one coach argued that if player A had been fitter he would have got to the ball earlier and not been technically compromised so he would have steadied himself and got the ball up. The solution was to work on player As fitness.
The second coach argued that player A had got to the ball so fitness was not the issue - the problem was the technique failing under pressure. He said the solution was to practice drop shots under pressure.
Now both coaches are right in that if the player had been fitter or his technique had been better he might not have put the ball in the tin. But both coaches were wrong in that they failed to recognize the root cause of the problem and the contributing factors all of which were ‘’deadly sins’’.
Here is what I saw: Player As serve was weak - (a bad serve or return of serve is one of the 7 deadly sins). If you start badly you increase the chances of finishing badly. Player B attacked the serve with a volley down the wall and player A had to let it pass him as he had been slow to the T. He could have volleyed the ball but he didn’t. (this is the second sin - a Missed Volley Opportunity). Because he had to chase the ball into the back corner it was easier to boast than straighten - he made a forced boast because it was easier (a forced boast is another sin - number 3 compounding his problems. Player B dropped the ball in the front right corner and Player A was forced to the run the diagonal - the longest line in the court and then either through not being fit enough or technically challenged (most likely a bit of both) he put the ball in the tin. BUT the cause of having to run the diagonal was the forced boast, the cause of the forced boast was the missed volley opportunity and that cause of that was a bad serve and being slow to the T. The bad serve was the root cause and that is what I would put right first. My solution would have been very different to the solution favoured by the two other coaches (both of whom were qualified to teach coaches). The root cause of their problem is that match analysis is not taught to coaches (not back then, and probably not now.) This leads to a simplistic indeed a fundamentally flawed way to teach coaches. Coaches are taught to teach stroke production but the problem is we don’t play stroke production we play squash and that is a complex mixture of mind, tactics, technique and fitness. When I taught coaches I spent a whole day on match analysis. I had to develop my own way of doing this as the English SRA had no idea about it.
It's a breath of fresh air to hear your story and perspective. I approach coaching and situations exactly as you have mentioned - root cause identification first and foremost. If you're open to it, feel free to email me at ahad@arproformance.com and we can chat further. All the best,
- Ahad
I completely agree that CCs and boasts are risky shots to play if the quality is not there. That being said, I personally disagree that the shot selections shown in the video were necessarily incorrect - I think you do need some sort of variation from every position, especially at the top level, to avoid your shots being predictable and sometimes that might mean playing the wrong shot option. Of course, it really depends on many factors, such as how well you can use your racket prep to show many shot options with the same swing, and how well you believe you can execute the shot. I think Asal and Dessouky's shot options were alright, they just lacked the quality and ended up getting punished. I actually quite like Asal's shot, I think if he executed it marginally wider it would have put him in a decent position to get on top of the rally, while if he played a straight drive (the right shot), you can see that Dessouky was already moving left to cover the correct shot, and he may have ended up on the back foot anyways (getting volleyed). Let me know what you think.
Completely agree with what you said. I think I noted the idea of stability and position for proper execution. Variation is indeed essential at this level. My point was that at an amateur level players force these shots from totally suboptimal positions, due to lack of confidence in the ability to hit straight, and over mental unease :)
Wishing you the best,
- Ahad
You could call the crosscourt a mistake on one hand but it could also be the byproduct of immense straight volley pressure from your opponent weighing on you if you choose to hit straight
Indeed! I see two primary options (assuming one is already in this position). Avoiding this position as often as possible is obviously choice no. 1 :)
1. Increase confidence resetting straight. This is challenging but certainly possible.
2. Be aware of opponent tendencies and vary the cross accordingly. There are many options here.
Thanks for watching and commenting,
- Ahad
If I was to reflect on my shot selection it would send me into a depressive episode.😥
Haha, don't be too hard on yourself. As long as you step back for a moment to figure out the root causes of your shot selection, things will change. If you need help doing that, feel free to email me at ahad@arproformance.com and I can tell you more about how we may be able to work together. All the best,
- Ahad
Watching a video of myself playing in a club tournament 20 years ago shocked and depressed me. I had little gas left in the tank by that point in the tournament. The best way to describe me would have been "wooden". I seemed to be unable to bend my knees or move efficiently. So awful I was. Still awful, to some extent.
How has your progress been since? ☺️
- Ahad
Easily one of the most common ways to lose a point is the 'use' of a useless cross-court shot. You may have been ‘forced’ to do it though. You may have played it because you became unable to drive the ball straight, and you are trying to avoid the boast at all costs. If so, your cross may well be weak and your opponent may be able to put it away. In general though, why might you correctly choose to go cross-court, in a rally that has been a series of straight drives up to that point? Malcolm Willstrop advocated the shot that has both good width and length.
i) You see that your opponent has bodily drifted in to the side of the court on which the straight drives have been happening, that he is starting to ‘reside’ there rather than going back to the T smartly. A good cross-court will suddenly make him work harder.
ii) You have been given the gift of a fraction-of-a-second of extra time. Perhaps your opponent made the ball came off of the back wall with a considerable amount of excess height. This opens the option for a cross with excellent height and softness. This will be more effective if you shape for the straight drive when your opponent glances backward at you but play the soft high cross.
iii) The straight drive that has just played has caught some early side-wall and has come out, as a somewhat loose ball. You have quickly positioned yourself to volley it, probably by cutting over (sideways) from the T. Looking at a loose ball from this mid-court position actually presents you with many options, one of which is a hard cross court with good width. It is analogous to the idea of a passing shot in tennis. The receiver may feel that he has to reach out to attempt a volley (try to cut off the shot) but if the width and pace are very good he may be unable to do this, or the response may be poor because he made contact by stabbing at the ball.
Forcing your opponent to make progressively weaker shots (or a single very weak shot) is how you win at squash (or create an opportunity for a single winning shot). One of my problems with the weak commentating that we are seeing these days is that only the winning shot is praised. The latter was practically a gift, one that required relatively little skill (but a gift that the striker progressively created).
Love the detailed note 👊🏼 and completely agree about your last point around what I like to call "progressive pressure" (ie. Incremental pressure over the course of a rally, game, and match).
Wishing you the best 🙏🏼
- Ahad
Nice, haven't thought about it like that
How's your game coming along thinking about things this way Jim? All the best,
- Ahad
@@ARProformance Well, I am now a "Community Instructor" here in Canada, the lowest of the four coaching levels that Squash Canada has. I am getting older though (I am 67) and am now retired, and play squash almost every day. I also watch squash on UA-cam almost every day. The summer lull is here, I do other things (boating) but I am looking forward to September squash already. I want to watch an entire glass court tournament next year, maybe one in NY or Philadelphia.
Ahad do you have courses anywhere listed online?
Hello Fahad - Currently I offer bespoke 1 on 1 coaching, and I'm launching a bespoke group coaching program as well. I am also in the midst of creating a few other offerings. Please send me an email at ahad@arproformance.com and I can share more with you. I appreciate your support. All the best,
- Ahad