BetterSquash.Com

Time for a squash license?

07 June 2022 2 Comments

Crazy right? Asking people to take a course before playing squash. What faster way is there to kill a sport? Well, firstly, it would be optional and secondly free.

07 June 2022 2 Comments

Squash Tips, Drills and Training Advice — Notice how carefully he is watching the ball

Squash is an absolutely fantastic sport. It’s great for the mind and body. It can be played indoors and outdoors, yes, outdoors – although there are currently only a handful of outdoor courts, that is going to change soon. Because it is mostly played indoors, it can be played at any time of the year, i.e. the season doesn’t matter, in fact I prefer squash in the summer! But I will admit that squash does have its issues and ignoring those is wrong. I am not affiliated with ANY organization, manufacturer, event, team, player or anything official in squash any more, so anything I say or write is just a personal opinion, but because I don’t need to worry about “keeping my job”, you know that what I say is my honest opinion. I do write for Squash Player magazine but I don’t have to worry about following any rules. Squash is not hard to learn, although racketball is probably easier. The rules are quite simple, except for Lets and Strokes, but with some guidance for most recreational and club players that issue can be addressed. The balls are a little more problematic and as I have said many times, that’s Squash community’s fault. And finally because of long rackets, a smallish space and lots of movement, safety can be an issue, especially for new players. So how do was address these issues? Well, how about a Squash License? Seriously, A Real License? Well, I mean no, not an actual license, but a course that covers the different balls, and when and why to use them, the basic rules and scoring (including strokes and lets), and finally safety. Isn’t that all covered by group coaching courses? Maybe, maybe not. But this course wouldn’t be about coaching at all. It is NOT trying to teach you how to swing a racket or how to move – well, maybe a little about…

Beginner, Improver, Recreational

Don’t Play With Shiny Squash Balls!

06 June 2022 Leave a Comment

Too many new players think you can keep playing with a ball until it breaks and they are wrong, Oh so very very wrong.

06 June 2022 Leave a Comment

One of the constant issue new players have with squash is the balls. I am not going to lie: the way squash organizes and promotes the different squash balls is ridiculous. However, this article is about a related topic and that is shiny balls. What are shiny balls you ask? and I say, look at the photo. Can you see how the balls are not completely black? How they have a whitish surface? This is a combination of being old and collecting the paint/plaster from the wall. Think of it like a piece of sticky tape that has lost its stickiness. The fact is, that it hasn’t lost it’s stickiness but dust or other particles have stuck to it. The Effect of Shiny Balls When a squash ball is shiny, it skids on the floor. Skidding means that instead of bouncing higher it stays low and is very difficult to hit. This makes squash boring. Who wants to try to hit a skidding ball? Not me. This all comes back to the fact that because the ball is not “broken”, too many people continue to play with these balls. As a player, when somebody gets a ball like this out of their bag, refuse to play with it. make sure you have a newer one available and use that. A beautiful new squash ball! How To Clean Shiny Balls I recommend putting them in the washing machine with your sports kit at 30 degrees. the abrasion of the clothes with the ball should be enough to remove 90% of the shine. other people simple rub them on carpets or even use sandpaper, and those methods definitely work, but since I am lazy, cough cough, really busy, I use the washing machine. So, make sure you clean your squash balls! Somebody actually made a device to “scrap” squash balls clean, but after 5 minutes searching I couldn’t find it on the…

Beginner, Improver, Recreational

Can You Hit The Ball With Two Hands In Squash?

04 June 2022 Leave a Comment

Yes, there is nothing in the rules to stop you, but more importantly why do you want to?

04 June 2022 Leave a Comment

Can You Hit The Ball With Two Hands In Squash?

Let me start by saying that as a coach, I feel it’s fine to allow pupils freedom to try and use different swing techniques. Humans are not machines and prescribing exactly how a player must swing can be counterproductive. There are limits though, because outside of that limit the chance of eventually creating something powerful, accurate AND consistent is very small. The player in the featured photograph is called ex-professional squash player called Peter Marshall and as you can see he is using two hands to prepare to hit the ball. Follow the link if you are interested to learn more about him, but I will tell you that he reached world number 2, behind Jansher Khan. Coaches and advisors had been trying to get him to change from two to one hand for years, some hoping he would “grow out of it” as he got older. And he is the key to peter’s use of two hands: when he was young, he was quite small for his age and the racket was big. It’s not unusual for small children to hold the racket in two hands when they first start playing, but as they get older then get stronger and stop using both hands. Unless you are a small child, which I will assume you aren’t, there really isn’t any benefit to using two hands. You can’t reach further, you can’t hit the ball more consistently, you can’t hit the ball harder. It’s often used due to a lack of good technique which may be caused by not having coaching or by playing completely isolated from experience players. Of course, you see it all the time in tennis and you can hit the ball harder with two hands in tennis, but the swing is different, the rackets are heavier, the ball is heavier. One thing to notice is that even tennis players use one hand when stretching for the…

Advanced, Beginner, Club, Improver, Recreational

Squash Tennis

03 June 2022 Leave a Comment

I am sure you have heard of Squash (duh!), tennis, racketball, and badminton, but the fact is, there are over 25 racket sports and this is the first in a monthly series exploring and introducing those sports.

03 June 2022 Leave a Comment

When squash was first “exported” to the United States of America, they built squash courts before they had equipment! Sounds stupid nowadays, but such is how new things are created. So basically, in the 1880’s, the boys at St. Paul’s School, in Concord, New Hampshire had some squash courts but no rackets or balls to play with. So what do you do? You find the next best thing and that happened to be the recently introduced game of tennis. So those enterprising youngsters took their rackets and the tennis ball and Voila! Squash tennis was born. This is the back of postcard describing squash tennis. And just like squash rackets, which by the way used to be the official name of squash (just in case you didn’t know), the actual rules didn’t really develop or at least were codified until 30 or so years later. Nowadays we understand and expect the size of courts, rackets and balls to be strictly controlled and adhered to, but back then, and I only slightly hesitate to use the term, things were more like the Wild West. Court sizes varied between locations, as they did in early squash. The balls used in Squash Tennis have also changed over the years, from originally regular tennis balls to specialist green high-pressure ones. As I have mentioned, courts sized varied until they eventually chose a size that was close enough to a regular squash (as it was originally played on anyway) that people could use those too. Echoes On Modern Squash There a sentence in the Wikipedia page that says “A faster ball was preferred by advanced players, but it discouraged novices.” and it’s fascinating that Squash Tennis had the same issue as modern squash in the sense that advanced players wanted or required a different ball than novices and I can’t help but feel that is crucial to the development of the sport. Dead And Gone…

Beginner, Club, Improver, Recreational

Should I wear Squash Goggles?

01 June 2022 Leave a Comment

Yes, there’s no other answer, so let me repeat it.

01 June 2022 Leave a Comment

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Advanced, Beginner, Club, Improver, Recreational

Is Swimming Good For Squash Training?

31 May 2022 Leave a Comment

The simple and direct answer is YES! However, like most activities, it also depends on doing it properly. Having good technique when swimming is just as important as having good swing technique when playing squash. In fact, it might be more important due to the potential for injury. I’ve seen some terrible strokes that look like they do more harm to the person than good! So make sure you stroke technique is not terrible.

31 May 2022 Leave a Comment

Squash players can suffer from back, hip and knee issues because, and let’s be honest, squash is a very physically demanding sport. Some courts do not have a sprung floor, this means that moving around a court for 45 minutes puts a lot of pressure on your body, especially if you are not a good mover. To compensate for this pounding, exercising in water allows the body to recover, but also allows you to exercise your cardio system and your muscles, while giving your bones a rest. Often people ask questions like, “How often should I swim?” and “What type of swimming should I do?” and the answer is more or less the same for everybody. Anything less than once per week is more useful for the mind than the body. If you swim less than once per week, you body will not become accustomed to the exercise and it won’t really benefit you. This is of course assuming that you are playing squash at least once per week and some other training too. Perhaps make swimming a regular session the day before your weekly match or club night. That way, you do some exercise without straining yourself too much. I probably won’t recommend more than twice a week either, simply because the time might be better spent on court doing solo or pair drills. Swimming should be seen a supplementary to your core squash training. Use it to give your body a rest from gravity. The next question is what type of swimming. Well, the first part of the answer is a variety of strokes. Ignoring the butterfly, which most people can’t do, if you can do the other three strokes: front crawl, backstroke and breast stroke, do them. All three work the arms, shoulders, back and chest, but the breast stroke is great for hip strength and mobility. You can mix some long swims with shorter more intense…

Advanced, Beginner, Club, Improver, Recreational

Squash Etiquette

30 May 2022 Leave a Comment

In the past, squash came from an upper-class game called Squash Rackets, which was played in public (private) schools. The people who played squash tended to be well-educated and professional people, so there could have been quite a lot of formality surrounding the sport. As squash became more popular, more types of people started playing. At first everybody was expected to wear completely white clothes (well, maybe a navy blue or green stripe was allowed here and there, but generally white or cream) and people were expected to behave in certain ways.

30 May 2022 Leave a Comment

I don’t want to keep the old traditions alive simply because “that’s the way we have always done it”! Compared with many other sports, squash seems to have a reputation for being as fair and as honest as the complicated and “open to interpretation” rules allow. So, what modern squash etiquette is there? Nowadays, you can wear almost any colour clothing that you want and almost any style, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your opponent. You can bounce the ball as much as you want before a serve – yes, they actually stopped players from doing it in the past, as well as stamping your feet when you hit the ball. Fortunately, we don’t seem to have an “grunters” like they do in tennis. Players generally try to avoid each other on court, and sometimes off it too, but occasionally you will find the odd Neanderthal whose seemingly sole purpose in life is to bump into you at any and every opportunity. We should always say “Let, please?” even if we think it is a stroke. We would also have shaken hands with our opponent, but since the pandemic, some just touch rackets and to be honest, I prefer that. In some important matches, players were expected to shake hands before playing too. The choice of who serves is still decided by a spin of the racket, but I prefer the idea of a mini-skill challenge. Next is the idea of opening and allowing the loser of the game to exit first, but some players take that to the extreme and ALWAYS want you to go first – that’s a kind of mind game in my opinion. Video Squash Coaching from the comfort of your sofa! When knocking up *the first few hits before you start scoring), it is generally caused polite to not hit more than 3 shots back to yourself at any one time, although juniors…