sorry about the delay adam

you obviously have it figured out. this image is of a right handed serve from the left box (hit with a forehand shot)

as you suggest, if you can get it to hit the side wall  the spin that it generates makes it bounce parallel to the back wall - this is the ideal.

the problem is, that any one who is any good will always volley the serve. still, it is a bit of fun and can add a touch of variety, but unless you are very well practised, it is a low percentage shot.

the higher you can get it to hit on the front wall (i would suggest a little higher than 3/4 up the wall - try about 1 metre from the top), the better as it will generate more spin and be more difficult for the opponent (but more risky for the server)

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Woah, I've found now that the weather is getting warmer in australia, my corlscrews are getting good, they hit generally the siude wall just before the back wall, about 3 quarters of the way up, and then spin sidewards, hugging the back wall, making them impossible to return, it either that, or they hit the back wall, and spin down into the side wall nick! which looks insanely cool!

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awesome

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give me a couple of days  and i will work up a diagram for you.

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if it's not too much trouble.. can someone put up a picture of how the ball should be hit, please? i mean the angle of the shot? for some reason i cant figure out where exactly to hit. (because the ball ends up landing in my own half of the court)

thanks

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Hi fellow squashies,

Yes, I find the corkscrew from the front corners can be a very effective shot to have in your bag of tricks, but it was far more effective in the 1970s when most players paddled their volleys.  Now that players are all trained to follow through on volleys (dominate the spin on the ball), it is far less effective. Though it does work against players who play tennis during the summer and still paddle their volleys.  They spin off their racket and shoot sideways on to the floor nicely.

 

The double yellow dot balls (mostly Dunlop, but a few other brands as well) that we use in competition have to be very hot to get a decent corkscrew from the front of the court, mostly they drop short and allow the opponent an easy volley.  They corkscrew service is even worse and I haven't seen anybody who can get these balls high enough with a corkscrew service to strike the side wall above the reach of a player of average height..   This is due to the court structure as well. 

You need a fast court and bouncy balls to make corkscrews effective.  A court with slow walls will take too much pace off the ball with striking the second wall to be effective.  Same with a very slow ball.

Keep yr corkscrews for opening the celebratory drinks

Sagey 

 

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I'd Say That You Just About Covered That - Thankyou Adz!

Good Luck to All with Squash In The New Year!

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Okies! Loads of little questions there....... Here goes in sequence..........

Where should they land?

• Front corner corkscrew:

A corkscrew which first strikes the front wall will have a spin that will normally bounce perpendicular off a side wall (or there abouts). Becasue of this, the ideal corkscrew shot should always strike the side wall as close to the back corners as possible and not too high so that an opponent will have difficulty in getting the ball out of such a tight angle in the back.

• Serve corkscrew:

Once again this shot will have a spin that will cause it to bounce off the side wall at a perpendicular angle. Because this is a serve, your opponent will be already stood in the correct place to receive the ball. This means that your serve has to be very high, looping over your opponent and striking the side wall VERY far back (almost at the back wall) and quite high (otherwise you wouldn't have gotten the ball over an opponent that can volley!). This serve usually works best against an opponent who cannot volley very well, and who tends to leave the abll go into the back corners on the serve.

 

What type of bounce should they have? In a perfect world? NONE! The perfect corkscrew (or indeed any shot) will hit the nick and immediately stop with no returnable bounce-out. Of course in practicality, this would be impossible to pull off EVERY time. So I guess the ideal type of shot and bounce is covered in the descriptions above.

 

The corkscrew only fools players who rarely come across them. So the weird spin that you talk about, I'm afraid it doesn't exist. Once you have seen these shots played often enough (or played them often enough yourself), you will know exactly how each one will bounce upon landing. Then the mystery is gone and they become just another shot in your arsenal.

 

Strength is nothing to do with this shot. It is about the correct placement of the ball onto the front and then side wall in order to get the correct height to reach the rear section of the opposite side wall. Forehand or backhand is irrelevant, but most people begin to play these shots on their forehand. Once again, with experience, all shots become easier to play AND TO READ!

 

When doing a corkscrew serve which hits the front (upright) nick, I personally would allow the shot and give the server the benefit of the doubt. The unlikeliness of this shot every actually being a winning serve after striking the upright nick is so remote that if ever questioned by the returner I'd even go so far as to give a let. If neither player has a problem with the serve then let it stand if you're unsure, or play a let. Unless you are sure that the serve was a fault you should NOT call it as a fault. Always play a let. Also by hitting the perfect upright nick, technically the ball did not hit the side wall first. It hit BOTH walls at the same time. Once again this is highly unlikely to ever happen, and you can get a good idea of which wall was struck first by looking at how the ball bounces out of the nick. If it bounces out away from the side wall (closer to the front wall), then the ball would have struck the FRONT wall first (of course this shot is hardly likely to reach the service area of your opponent!), and if the shot pulls more towards the centre of the court then is it more likely that the ball struck the SIDE wall first.

 

So in conclusion.........

 

When should you play the shot? When your opponent is not good enough to play against it. When your positioning is perfect to play the shot. When the ball is fast (warm) enough to play the shot. When it feels like the right shot to play against other more effective shots (like a simple drop-shot into the nick!).

How should it land? Well this depends on what you want the shot to do! If you want it to be a winner and are playing it as such, then it should land in the nick and die. If you want it to put your opponent under pressure then it should bounce off the side wall and back along the back wall. If you just want it to look good then it doesn't matter where it lands.

My only closing advice would be to use these shots in EXTREME moderation. A better opponent will take them to pieces VERY easily, as will a player who is good at getting into position quickly, or one that is good at volleying the ball.

Adz

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