Hmm, weird, tournament season is drawing towards an end in the squash circuit. I hate that - tournaments are pretty fun, a good way to improve, and a chance to hang out with everyone that you get to know throughout the year playing squash.
Bevan and I have both made some big strides this past year. Our goal to become B level players at the end of last summer was in retrospect highly optimistic - I remember reading somewhere that you should expect to put between 500-1000 hours on the court before you're ready to move up a level. I guess we just assumed that we'd be able to act as an exception to that rule.
This time I think I'm going to go over what my goals were around this time last year and see how far along I've progressed, and whether or not I've still got some dangling things to fix up. The idea here is that I get more motivated because I see that I've fixed a bunch of things. The more likely option is that I realize I still need to work on everything and that nothing is ever good enough in squash and that I should just take up shuffleboard. I like those sticks they get in shuffleboard, and I hear you can play it a lot on cruise ships.
- Boasts
- Back court lobs
- Drop shots and volleys
My boasts suck ass. For those that don't know, and somehow still care, a boast is a shot that hits at least two walls before bouncing. Typically you hit the ball hard off the side wall, and it then hits the front wall, dying in the front corner. All of my boasts usually end up above the service line. A good boast should hit low on the front wall to pressure the opponent - although you don't want to use a defensive boast unless you have no other option (usually), you should at least be getting it as low as possible so that the opponent doesn't have a lot of options for their return.
Wow, no change here at all. I guess that's fair though - I've had it drilled into my head that this is one of the weaker shots to play. I think the key to the boast is that you use it sparingly to chagne up the pace and move your opponent around the court. The key to winning C level squash, at least in my experience, has been to keep your opponent in the back of the court. You can hit winners, sure, and go for drop shots now and then, but if you keep driving the ball hard to the back corners, you're eventually going to either force an error on your opponent, or hit the ball clean enough that they won't be able to get to it in time for a return. Given that, I have a tendency to neglect practicing boasts in favour of the shots I use more often - drives (of course), drop shots (the obvious winner shot), and lobs (my favorite shots, and most difficult for me to get down properly).
So, back to practicing boasts again. I was working on volley boasts with Dan the other daym, and goddamn I suck ass. And not suck like "go suck an egg". Suck like that thing they jam in your mouth to suck out your tonsils for you when you go to the dentist (does anyone think this is really necessary? Does that thing have a setting lower than "harvest internal organs"?). It's all part of the fun of becoming a more rounded player.
I have a semi deceptive backhand boast that I can pull out now and then when around mid-court and my opponent is expecting a drive. I'd at least like to be able to make this shot on the forehand side too. If there was one thing in particular I noticed when watching Kevin and Dan play on the weekend, it was their effective use of this shot - it wasn't used gratuitously, but every time it was played, the other guy looked like he was really put under pressure to get to it and make a clean return.
Nate and I spent a bunch of time tonight doing this specific drill. Although I feel pretty good about my length for standard drives, I'm not happy with my lobs from the back court. I talk about this shot all the time, but I have so much more room to improve in it. When I make these shots, I'm putting too much power into them, and that means that they're coming off the backwall - this makes a big difference to the quality of the shot, and I'm never going to graduate from being the chaser to the person sitting on the T if I can't master this shot.
Hey, that's not bad, I've done a lot of work on this shot over the past year, and used it to get myself out of trouble more than a few times. I still never seem to pull this shot out when I most need it though - under pressure. I think I might need to follow some of my older advice and play some games where I limit myself to two shots - drop shots and lobs, and just practice hitting a clean lob from the back of the court when under pressure.
One variation on this shot that I've been using lately, and found quite helpful has been a crosscourt lob from deep in the back corner. I've done a few drills with my friend Jesse on this shot, and have noticed that it's a great way to subtlely put the opponent under pressure, especially if they're starting to cheat over anticipating a hard drive down the rail. So there's one thing I'm not too worried about working on, at least, not for a little while yet.
I'm also spending a lot of time working on drop shots and volleys - I need more practice with volleys, to try and get better accuracy and to better be able to make dying shots that don't rebound off the back wall when volleying to pressure the opponent.
I've put so much time and effort into drop shots over the past few months that I'm sick of them. The biggest hurdle I've had to overcome in the past two months has been this weird crazy forehand drop shot thing I do where I randomly decide to turn my racquet nearly sideways, and presumably do the world's greatest rimjob shot. Then, if everything goes according to play, the ball goes straight into the tin, and I call myself a dillhole.
Ben made a comment on one of my previous entries suggesting that I apply the same notion to squash that I do with dancing, and stand in front of a mirror. I was one step ahead of him on this one, and after a particularly grueling lesson with Stu and Jarryd dissecting Bevan and I's games, I got Stu to show me what the shot should look like in the mirror, and then practiced it for several hours each night for the rest of the week. I looked stupid, and my arm was sore for a while, but I think it's helped. I can keep my wrist a lot stiffer through the shot now, and I get to call myself dillhole slightly less often, which is something I'm obviously very stoked about.
Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. There are a other things I'm currently working towards:
- Cross-court drops
- Court movement
- Don't run in a diagonal line straight towards the corner when someone boasts.
- Clear properly after a forehand drop!
This is a shot that isn't really worth practicing until having moved up higher in rankings than C. In the C level, if you're drop shots are marginally low and above the tin (don't laugh, this only happens 50% of the time), you're probably going to get the point. B division players are watching the ball more, keeping the ball in the back more often, playing longer rallies, and able to get to more shots (or so it seems to me).
The consequence of this is that deception begins to play a larger role. Although I'd like it, I'm not trying to move towards weird Jonathan Power shots where he deliberately misses his first drive shot so he can do some wacky drop off the backwall. I just want to have more than one option when I'm given a loose ball up at the front. I find this shot particularly challenging, because I've spent so much time keeping my wrist cocked and stiff on a drop shot that breaking the wrist to come across court on a shot throws everything off. Practice, practice...
Everytime I have a lesson with Dan, we warm up with me hitting the ball deep into one of the two back corners. I say we warm up, but he never looks like he's sweating very much. What a prick. Anyhow, the one thing I notice more than anything is that everytime he hits a good boast into the forehand corner, I run straight for the ball, head first, like a moth to a flame. Not even a smart moth that would take a good path either, but a retarded moth that all the other moths hate because he's awkward and not very good at flying towards flames.
So. These are my court movement rules:
Run from the T, towards the front wall, then square my shoulders to the side wall so that I can hit a wide variety of shots and make a clean return (and most importantly, not get a stroke called against me).
Why is this causing me so much trouble? I have no idea. But it's something to keep in the back of my mind. Dan takes great pleasure in pointing it out every time I screw it up, so I've been secretly installing viruses on his computer when he's not looking. I'd say we're about even. Anyhow, move in for the shot in the manner described above, then move out in the same direction - back towards the center of the court, and then back towards the T. Noone likes losing points to strokes.
Okay, so, that's everything I'm going to be working on in the next few weeks. I think I'm going to see when the next reffing tutorial that Gerry will be putting on is, and make sure that I set aside time for that. You can get away with making a few mistakes when reffing lower level games, but as you move up, you start to expect a higher level of reffing yourself, and in doing so, it's only fair to provide that same level to other players that you referee.
My first game in the club champs is against Nikki, who should be able to defeat me soundly. That means that goal is to play a relaxed game of squash, and take one game of squash off of her. No worries about winning, and don't think too much about pressure.
On a positive note, the feedback about squash journals has been really good motivation, and gotten me back in the writing mood. Part of the trouble is that sitting down and firing off a good size bit of writing is time-consuming. With squash, working out, making dinner, practicing dancing, tending the girlfriend (I don't really tend her, it's more like she puts up with me), and playing video games, I don't really find a lot of spare time floating around. I think I can make it work though.
One of the things I wanted the most when I started out was anecdotes and stories of other players like me that were trying to make it up through the ranks - it can be discouraging getting shown the thirty billion things you're doing wrong during your first lesson and trying to improve on them.
On another vein I'm apparently getting pretty infamous for "doing the robot". Stupid internet. I keep practicing whenever I have a chance, and make videos of the practice sessions so I can watch them and learn from what I'm doing good/bad. A few people asked for some basic isolations and moves that they could do, so I'm going to put together a few videos, when I have the time, and show a few simple moves, like a basic twist-o-flex, and the theory behind a glide.
That's all from now! Good luck to everyone playing in their respective club champs tournaments!
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