Good post Adz. It does seem as though England has a greater depth of players than Australia at the moment. Boswell and Pilley hover around the 17-20 ranking for Australia, then we have no one until about 40, then 60. It's entirely plausable that when David Palmer retires Australia won't have any top 10 players for a while.

I think deception also goes hand in hand with shot making. Jonathan Power was the epitome of a deceptive player but he still used basic tactics as approach play to create those opportunities.

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It really is a tough one to call about "traditional" styles of play vs the more "modern" styles.

I think the transition started quite some time ago, where players realised that an aggressive, shot-based game can sometimes overcome the attritional game if you have a player good enough at playing it!

I think two excellent examples of this comes from Peter Nicol and Jonathon Power.

Nicol is what I think of when someone asks me about the ultimate attritional player. He retrieved EVERYTHING and what was worse, he did something with it. His movement was excellent, game style was more solid than your average rock and when he imposed his game on his opponents many struggled to match.

Now when someone asks me about the ultimate shot player, I always think of Power. Here's a player who regained the world no.1 spot at 185 lbs in weight, which to be honest for a 6ft guy at a professional level seems pretty heavy to me. A lot of players on the tour at the time considered him to be unfit and out of shape, but no-one can doubt the shot abilities he has.

Of course the changes in rules and scoring systems of the modern game must certainly have had an effect on the style of play involved. Attritional players are no longer the masters of the world as the new PAR11 scoring would mean that a match is over (around 90 mins tops??) before most attritional players outlast the normal shot players.

Going back in the day the World Squash scene was dominated by the Pakistanis. The mixture of shot ability with awesome attrition made them the best in the world. The sport had developed to the point where the player that could retrieve the best became the best and the longest matches seemed to go on forever and a day. Many of the top countries in the world took the Pakistan model and tried to copy it (UK and Austrailia being two of them!). And to be honest the Aussies got it far better than the UK did and produced some really top quality players over the last 20 years.

But now the game mentality has shifted. Crowds will only turn up to be entertained and to make the sport a world renowned entity certain changes have taken place to add a bit of spice and excitment to the game. Someone who doesn't know how difficult it is to reach a tight drop for the back of the court cannot appreciate just how physically demanding the sport is. They only watch to see the shots fired in from crazy angles, or the occasional mad ralley when one player is getting everything back and the other is trying to kill the ball (or the opponent!!). To the layman, THAT is what is so great about watching squash. That is what makes it exciting when you don't understand the dimensions of the court, or even the rules!!

So how has this changed the cultures of the world? England and Australia seem to now be opening themselves up to a more fluid like game (e.g. James Willstrop). A style where shot play is the ultimate form to suit the generation. Even France seems to be following suit where Lincou has passed the torch to Gaultier.

These new generations of players are beginning to emerge and after following this sport for over 20 years I am happy to say that this style of play is some of the best squash (from a spectator's point of view) that I have ever seen.

There's no doubt that Egypt is leading the world at this stage. Creating an almost endless stream of players (just look at the Junior results for the last 3 years!!) who all "fit" into this new style of squash. But let's not rule out the ability of the other countries to adapt. Persoanally I'd say England is doing really well to catch up the trend, but I worry that the other major world powers are struggling in this area. With the exception of Cameron Pilley, who is coming through for Oz after Palmer? Except for Gaultier who is coming through for France after Lincou? What happened to Pakistan after the Khans? Wales after Evans and Gough? Scotland after White?

I think the next 3-5 years will be a telling time for the squash federations around the world where everyone will be playing catch-up to the Egyptians. If other countries can "copy" their methods (much like England and Oz did with Pakistan so many years ago), then we could have some interesting times on our hands!

Fun times either way!!

Cheers

Adz

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I don't know much about Jonah Barrington's style of play, but I'm guessing given the era in which he was successful that it was a traditional, attritional style (?). So it seems he's a good enough coach to change with the times and work with the skills of a given player.

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I understand what you are saying Mike.  My view is El Shorbagy used the tactic of breaking up the driving game, and of course angles is the way to do it.  The AIS are very much into basic length type strategies, a legacy from the days of Geoff Hunt being the Head Coach for many years. Actually I am not sure if Brad Hindle was a Scholarship holder before going to the Netherlands. Those players that have flair will/can stray away from that strategy in tournaments I have noticed, and still feel confident.

Mind you, Brad has improved, though was never a star in his junior days whereas El Shorbagy is an ex World Junior Champion, with tons of experience.  I was surprised to read his coach is Jonah Barrington.

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