My squash coach is in his fifties - but his fitness puts a 38-year old guy like me to shame!! Normally, our coaching follows a particular regimen and right now he is trying to make sure that I get moving properly around the court. We do various drills to improve my movement from the front of the court to the back and then back to the front again - all the while trying to hit the shots that he mentions.
Once in a while, we play - what he calls "rallies". In "rallies", there are no points but everything else is like a normal game. So, today morning as we were playing "rallies", I was trying to slam the life out of the ball - it has been an old malaise - trying to slam the ball too hard. After a few rallies, that had left me completely breathless, coach gave me a piece of advice that was distilled from his years of experience in playing and coaching squash to novices like me.
He said " This game is not about hitting the ball hard and running harder. So, do not try to smash every ball. Imagine that this court has three parts - front, middle and back court. Now, think where you want to THROW the ball (notice - not hit the ball!!) - front court, middle court or back court. This will decide how high you will hit the ball on the front wall and with how much power."
I found this to be a very different perspective and a correct one at that. That squash is about positional play was something that I had not been thinking at all during my training and playing sessions with other players. Now this is something I have to cultivate - "Send the forehand passing shot to the back court - so hit the ball high and not so hard" - will need to put this into practice over the next few days and see the effect on my game.
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