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improving

Published: 27 Feb 2007 - 10:12 by fatness

Updated: 24 Sep 2008 - 16:12

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Hello there,

 just thought i would let you know about my own personal experience of trying to improve at squash. I have been playing for about 6 years now. After my first few years playing squash i got some coaching to improve my technique. my squash improved really quickly and i went up 3 divisions at club level. However , in the last few years i hit a plateau. I felt that i stopped improving. even weaker players begam to beat me. About 6 months ago i got injured and took a few weeks off. when i came back, i began playing an older man at my club who was a really good player years ago. he asked me why didnt i do drills?

I never thought of doing drills before, and began doing them with this man. I have to say my game has improved dramatically as a result. i find during drills you can really concentrate on getting technique and movement right, and make it ingrained in you so you will carry this over into your matches.

Anyway, i firmly believe that drills are the key to improvement but just make sure that you get proper coaching first so as to ensure you are practising the correct technique diring drills. If you dont do this you may be just be practising the wrong/ bad technique over and over again.

Hope this helps,

regards,

J.

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From SuperSage666 - 27 Feb 2007 - 21:53   -   Updated: 27 Feb 2007 - 22:04

LOL iamspartacus and fatness.

I have used drills and restricted games from the very start of coaching.  There are drills to help develop the basics, like grip and stroke techniques and there are drills to develop more advanced strokes and techniques, but I found (probably like rippa has) that a lot of drills do develop unhealthy match habits, like hitting the ball back to your opponent.   I also used a lot of altered games for developing certain movements and strokes.     These games also inject more fun into training than drills do and are excellent for keeping learners participation rates up.

Another training method that has not been mentioned here are 'Patterns'.  These are basically drills with variation according to a rule that is based on good match tactics.

Example:  "(Boast or Drive to rule) Drop Drive-to-Length" Pattern.   Players A and B.    Player A serves the ball to 'B'.    B  must  Drive-Deep.   Both players must now follow the rule:  "Boast (take the ball short quickly) if you are in front of your opponent or Drive-Deep if your opponent is in front of you."   Lets say that A didn't get across from the service in time to be in front of  B and had to go deep.  Thus A must now Drive-Deep to which B cuts this off with a Boast.  A must now go diagonally to retrieve this shot and must perform a Drop.   B must cover this drop shot and perform a Deep-Drive to which A must cover and the above rule (Tactic) comes into play again.  Thus a pattern is a combination of a drill and  game tactics.       

So, like rippa suggested, to get to the next level, you should start studying tactics, watching and identifying other players weaknesses and strengths, so you can start to develop 'game plans'.     I have a basic game plan for new opponents that I haven't played before or I've forgotten how they play and different game plans for all the opponents I know.  Some game plans involve shot selection, some even involve mental tactics (mind games) that I know unsettle my opponent.

Enjoy,

Sagey

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From nickhitter - 27 Feb 2007 - 20:20

what on earth was your first coach doing if he never did any drills with you! hope you didn't pay him.

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From rippa rit - 27 Feb 2007 - 18:17

fatness - if you are happy with your strokes and footwork it might be time to look at the tactics.
In the Squash Library in the menu above there is a big tactics section.
Also take a look at restricted games to develop some of the tactics into your game.

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