By Richard Millman, Director of Squash, Kiawah Island Club
The ability to place a shot under pressure is an enormously valuable skill. No doubt you’ve seen top players sticking the ball precisely where they want it to go with apparent ease and monotonous regularity. However, no matter whether you are a beginner or a pro, you have to build a portfolio of targets that are so indelibly singed on your brain that you know where they are at a moment’s notice and without looking.
Clearly a top player needs to be able to hit the ball anywhere that it needs to be hit. However, that ability notwithstanding, the typical leading pro usually has a range of anywhere between eight and 12 standard targets on each side that they drill until they have grooved them and automatically can pick them out without thinking.
Some of the classic targets that you should work on are:
1) Drop/Drive, target
Hitting the line on the back of the service box on a straight drive—the second bounce will typically land in or near the nick. Count how many times you can hit the line over the course of 100 shots.
2) Boast/Cross-court, targets
On the cross-court hitting the nick two feet behind the service box—the second bounce will often ricochet into the back wall nick.
On the boast hitting the three-wall nick. (However please note that this is purely a demonstration/practice of control—you should rarely if ever employ the three wall nick in match play, unless you have consistent accuracy and you can play the three-wall boast as an attacking shot—don’t play the three-wall boast defensively!).
3) Side wall solo drill, target
Set a stopwatch for three, four or five minutes (depending on your experience, don’t do five minutes unless you’ve mastered three and four first). Then practice keeping the ball tight to the side wall (within three floor boards; two if you can do three), from three positions: Position 1) Midway between short line and front wall, Position 2) On the short line, Position 3) Midway between the back of the service box and the back wall.
Be patient and stick to your task. Gradually you will absorb a kinetic sense of the wall—it’s what I call ‘learning the wall.’ This is an 18-30 minute practice, depending on whether you do the three, four or five minute sets.
4) Service drill, target?
You can stick a target on the wall if you like, or just focus on a ball mark. Then, following your usual service ritual (if you haven’t got one, work on one and stick to it) and never stopping throughout the drill, do 50 consecutive serves, moving towards the center as you strike the ball, checking where the ball strikes relative to the target and, gathering the ball, refocus and adjust your aim accordingly. All the while develop your feeling for the court around you so that gradually you are almost on autopilot while you are targeting your shots.
This is a simple selection of targeting drills and there are many more. I want to emphasize though, that repetition is the only way. You’ve got to get in the groove and that takes multiple shots ad infinitum! Only when you ‘feel’ the target without looking at it, will you be able to hit it under pressure and at will.
Choose numbers of repetitions that you can manage without fatigue and build up. For advanced players working together in drills like boast/drive, Drop/drive or boast/cross-court building up to 100 or 150 reps before you switch is a good number. That way you can get into a rhythm and build your muscle memory into almost a trance-like state!
Good luck, and get those targets burnt into your brain!
Next month: The etiquette of Squash—Do’s and Don’ts to help you enjoy the game.
Skill Level Tips
Simple practice tips for 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 players
3.0
As I said in an earlier article, the magic spot—the top three feet of the front wall—is a great place to hit the ball. Try combining the magic spot with a trashcan! Literally place a trash can in the corner where you want your ball to land, and see if you can land the ball in the can. Have a competition with your friends and see who can get the ball in the can the most times.
4.0
Put a couple of magazines eighteen inches behind the back of the service box against the side wall as targets and put a couple of magazines a racquet’s length back from the front wall against the side wall. Then do a boast and drive drill. Whoever hits 10 targets first wins!
5.0
Leaving the magazines behind the service boxes, play a length game—every ball has to bounce behind the short line—except if you can make the ball bounce on the target, you win the point outright. Stop your partner from hitting targets by volleying before the ball lands on the target!
