Hi members - it is strange that this topic should still be current when Liz Irving, the coach of Nicol David is in town.  We had lunch this week and of course talked squash non-stop for about 4 hours.
One of the topics I posed to Liz (who has recently been to Hong Kong watching a tournament)
"what do you think of the standard of play with the power game and fitness of the players now, has it changed for the better"?
Liz "no, the ball still bounces low, and the players are hitting and running onto the ball, and never get to the ball and stop, to get some idea of where the opponent is on the court, and half the time especially on the backhand the ball is landing half court.  Most of the time the face of the racket is flat, and they are making errors especially on the backhand side".
I said "so the ball is bouncing higher now with the extra power, so the swing has changed and the open racket face is not being used"?
Liz "no, there is a lack of tactics, since they do not know where their opponent is half the time, and with the racket face flat it is causing the half court shots and errors. There seem to be a reluctance to get to the ball early, stop, and then play the shot away from the opponent".
Liz went on to say "I have six top players, within the top 30, coming to train when I return home (to Amsterdam) and I need some more exercises and drills to work on the open racket face; can I meet you another day and we go through all the racket work, ghosting, feeds, etc as it can get a bit boring when you do this 6 hours a day".

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Hi Shuaib,

Many good points are made here, and tactically the longer rally will be employed to physically "break your opponent". At the beginning of a match the rallies will be longer to tire the player. What I mean by this is that a player with great raquet skills may be defeated by an opponent with less shots and lesser skill by playing a restrictive game; ie do not give the player the room to play his shots restrict him to corners and pressure his physical condition. Look to take the ball early (volley) and move the player the maximum distance in least amount of  time. What value to the lesser skilled player is putting the ball away. I would say none as the shorter rally is not to his tactical advantage. The fact that the shot player has all his shots returned puts emense pressure on his accuracy thus making him hit with a finer margin so more errors will occur. At the highest levels the error rates are much lower and outright winners even less, so physical pressure and pace is one of the main tactics used.

A change in thinking can be to not try to hit winners but always move your opponent the maximum distance in the least amount of time, but you want him to get the ball back as he is expending greater energy than you; this will take pressure off you to find a winner that is not there. Your error rate will diminish greatly.

Errors that players make during a match are                                                                                                          1. technical- ie bad technique with raquet or movement

2.tactical-hit to the wrong part of the court-back to the opponent-wrong pace ie rythym that the oppent is comfortable with.

3.physical-not fit enough -continue the rally past the level where the opponent is comfortable and they will attempt to finish the point from a bad postion.

4.Mental-pressure by volleying or constant retrieval will induce a greater error rate.Showing the opponent nothing emotionally can mentally flatten his/her resolve to play  when it gets "tough".

Pro players work with coaches overseas to work on defiencies in their games; ie PeterNichol/NeilHarvey....James Willstrop,Lee Beachill,NickMatthew/ Malcolm Willstrop....David Palmer/ShaunMoxham....Thierry Lincou/PaulScibberras....Jonathon Power/Mike Way. Anthony Ricketts/Mike Johnson.  The training is far from going through the motions.   Australian players have traditionaly headed to Europe with nothing organised for themselves prior departure. They often landed thinking they will get coaching work to sustain them but this is the path to ruin as a player, as no Top 10 players have coached while maintaining this level in the sport. Time spent coaching is wasted where self developement is concerned.They have no contacts and soon end up on the scrapheap of past players who came before them following the same path. THIS IS JUST LACK OF RESOURCES. A training base must be found prior departure as well as contacts to for coaching training and accomodation. Contacts are a vital resource.

Failure to plan is planning to fail.

All the best

David M.

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Oh well, good replies - and we will never know the right answer!!
In reply to Viper's comment, about these players having coaches, remember:

• most of these players do not have regular personal coaches, and certainly not travelling with them
• except for the top couple of world seeds, cannot afford to pay a coach but are selected in their country elite training squads, coaches appointed by the establishment, and the "carrot" is paid a retainer by the establishment too.
  
• seldom do coaches travel with the players except on National/International events
• our Oz AIS sponsored players, in the main, have  resided overseas for years, with their coaches, eg Geoff Hunt and Rod Martin residing in Australia and with limited contact with the players, except to return for a National title.

Sorry to report Viper, but I have watched players training, with and without their coaches, and to me they seem to go into "auto mode" more often than not - and at times I have wondered if they have not got their eyes closed while still going through the motions.

Sad, but true, until this sport can obtain sponsorships, by  attracting a greater audience, thus affording to pay players sufficient money, which in turn will enable them to employ their own personal trainers, coaches, psych etc  our sport is still, unfortunately, sort of amateur in certain respects.  Sounds like the chicken and the egg.

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hi shuib - good post!

just adding to what had already been said

• the back hand is the most accurate shot, that is why you see more rallies down the backhand wall
• "good length" means different things with different levels, situations - if the pros played a backhand to die on the back wall in the situation you describe, the ball would be too short and open to attack.
• the players hit cross court to keep opponents honest (otherwise they tend to move to the bh side to cut off the drive) they disguise the cross court well so it is not easily picked
• the reason why they play so many down here at times, is three fold
1. they think it is their safest option to prevent an attack by the opponent,
2. they are hoping the opponent will make an error for them to attack
3. they will sometimes do it to settle themselves down after a few errors
• I know it doesn't necessarily always figure, but, especially in the case of the first two points, it demonstrates a defensive attitude - they are not "creating" opportunities but playing a waiting game
• They can all play attacking sqash but do not necessarily feel comfortable doing it at that level

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I would agree with viper from what i have seen it is still a safety first environment as it is too hard to hit winners and attack every shot.  The side wall is safe even if the ball rebounds off the back as you will be in position and it still limits the shots that can be played.  It looks to me a lot like the club squash i play taken to extremes, only attack when the ball and opponent's position are right and due to the accuracy of the pros this takes longer to occur.  The tactics in some matches are interesting when you get defensive v offensive minded players or two offensive styled as to who will break from the defensive rally first.  I like watching the pro squash, some matches are better than others (the ricketts parke match on monday 13th feb was awsome) and i wouldn't change much of it or else it is no longer the tactical endurance game it is now.

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These pros and their coaches study the game to a very minute degree, I reckon they play this way because it is the most sure way of winning, if there was a better way they would change, ie, lots a side wall, lob, drops etc, but clearly evolution of the games dictates the current style as being the most successful at present.

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Shuaib - welcome to the forum.
I feel, those comments of yours are very interesting and accurate of the professional game.  I will give my personal view, as I have watched squash go from amateur to  pro (full time) over 4 decades:

• I think there is an ebb and flow in most matches where the players are sort of settling down as well as getting their adrenalin flowing, and also maybe feeling out their opponent's form on the day.
• Yes, I do not make any sense of continually hitting the ball down one wall at a great rate of knots, for say 12 hits, with the ball getting hotter and bouncer with every strike. This in turn makes the serve harder to control and takes a lot of importance off the serve too.
  
• There seems to have been a shift (since pro squash) with greater emphasis on being an athlete, and I think sometimes that comes secondary, at the sacrifice of skills. But then, I love skills.
  
• Players become scared to try shots when they know the opponent is fit and will get back into play most shots.
• In amateur times the fitter players would spend the first two games tiring out the opponent by moving them around the court using boasts, and volleys, and  then use the touch shots, when it was safer to do so.
  

Shuaib, I could not agree more with your sentiments.  If our game is to attract an audience it has to be more exciting to watch, and it does become boring with such repetition.  I think a change of format, and a bit of experimentation, in our professional matches would do heaps to pep up the game (the players would compete if the prize money was a carrot), eg

• Reward points for outright winners
• Reward points for shots that die in the back of the court, etc.
• And, to be a bit radical, it might be more interesting watching the players do a few 100m sprints, then play best of three as the players would just about be knackered by then and want to play shorter rallies.
• Now, while I am on a roll, would this not also save the back and hips in the long term.

I guess not every players wants to know about tactics, so maybe what we are talking about leaves some imagination for tournament organisers to consider.
Squash players can be very single minded too, but who knows, if it is not tried.  I believe our game could do with a shot in the arm.

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