05 December 2012

HOW MUCH YOU ROTATE YOUR UPPER BODY: MOHAMED EL SHORBAGY vs. KARIM DARWISH

Young and old generation of the steady school of Egyptian squash, Mohamed El Shorbagy and Karim Darwish. There are less angles than with Shabana or Ramy, they don't go short as much as them; also the higher part of the frontwall is used less (since they use less variation of pace, less lobs as Shabana and Ramy) but still, they can play all the shots, they have the deception, read the game as a book and are quick (Darwish a bit less compared to the old himself). 
This camera angle also allows us to see that these two players do not use that much the momentum of their upper bodies to hit the ball; this is one of the reasons why they are hard to read; a club player or even a lower ranked pro often unveils his intentions through his body preparation: more rotation of the upper body for drives, and even more for cross court drives, less or no rotation when preparing for a drop. El Shorbagy, and Karim Darwish even more evidently, hardly rotate their upper bodies, or in other words, their body language is not unveiling their intentions; a drop or drive is looking similar as far as body preparation is concerned.
Of course there is also another school which uses exaggerated upper-body rotation for deception; I remember Lee Beachill having often exaggeratedly opened up his upper body to show a cross-court whilst he went instead for a straight drive. But this type of deception you can only use it once in a while (in the current field Tarek Momen does this to fake a drive and then go for a boast from the back of the court). 
Anyway, keep in mind that deception is a result of mastering the full body-language, not just the wrist.