NO LET! THE SQUASH VIDEO BLOG

NOTES ON A ONE-SIDED RIVALRY: NICK MATTHEW vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

2012-02-01T15:30:00.002Z

It all started at the 2009 British Open. Nick Matthew and James Willstrop met in the final that ended 12:10 to Matthew in the fifth; the two players exchanged some heavy words, Matthew for example asking Willstrop if he had been taught how to block by Malcolm (James' coach/father).

Before that match Willstrop had his fair share of wins, ever since he hasn't won a single one of their 12 meetings up to date (the last one at the 2012 TOC Final, as video below). There was one occasion when he got close - one that will surely remembered for long, some calling it even the greatest match ever - a two-hour five-game semi final at the 2010 Canary Wharf Classic. All the others were rather one sided, at least result-wise for sure.

It is rather unusual to have such a head-to-head between two top (very top) players. It must be a mental thing (related to that 2009 BO Final), as we can't say that Matthew would have progressed so much more than Willstrop himself in the last times; in this three-year span Willstrop has beaten several times everybody else (Ramy, Gaultier, Shabana and Darwish) and Matthew has lost a couple of times to players (Peter Barker, Daryl Selby) against whom James keeps winning rather easily and has never lost to (non considering his sole loss to Barker when he was visibly injured, 2011 CW). But it is also a tactical thing.

I just can't understand that after all those losses how come Willstrop keeps playing the same way against Matthew, how come he doesn't try to slow down the pace in a radical manner? He keeps hitting the ball mostly hard from the back, and as soon as they are slightly loose, the 'wolf' volleys them; and as the ball was hit hard, James doesn't allow himself to get back to the 'T' in time. Even Ramy Ashour - the only man who can play at an even higher pace than Matthew - employs regularly slow/high balls to break Matthew's rhythm (and vice versa Matthew doing the same to Ramy).

Another note on the rivalry is that their matches - notwithstanding their personal conflict and the very high standard of squash - do not generate real enthusiasm in the public. As long as commenting/chat was enabled on squashtv, I've seen so many people mocking about "robot 1 having stronger batteries than robot 2..." This is not exactly my point, but fact is that Ramy, Shabana, or Gaultier (even paired with any of the two English men) induct way more emotions and positive reactions from the crowd.

Last note, regarding the relative high number of 'Lets' that occur in their games; Matthew and some others pretend that Willstrop is slow to clear the ball. I think this does not reflect the truth. James has the best hold in the business; if the opponent plays anything loose James will hold his volley and only execute his shot when the other guy has already committed in a way or in another. Hence most players are so clearly wrong-footed, that even if they bump into Willstrop, they are most likely to receive a 'No Let'.

The problem is, that Matthew, on the other hand, can not be wrong-footed easily. Even if he commits as anybody else when James holds his shot, he is so strong and quick to recover and change direction (and subsequently, to bump into Willstrop at times) that he gets his 'Lets' from the referees - am not saying unrightly, am just saying that the interference is not created by Willstrop, but by the player who intercepts the wrong way in these cases.

Anyway, it's a complicated story between these two, and as long as Willstrop doesn't change his tactics radically, it will remain somewhat robotic for us, and somewhat painful for him.

SQUASH GOING CRAZY AGAIN - TOC 2012: AMR SHABANA vs. MIGUEL ANGEL RODRIGUEZ

2012-01-25T10:04:00.002Z

Slowly but surely more and more people learn to know what an outstanding entertainer Miguel Angel Rodriguez is . He is goddamn fast, he loves to run (also the wrong way, just to exploit his speed in a funnier way), hits magic exhibition-like shots (he acquired first world fame with this shot), but has also a very smooth basic technique. He is one of the very few players who generates smile on people's face who watch him play. On top of that, Rodriguez generates smiles even on his opponents face after his extravagant, funny solutions. The below rally is the last one of his second round match against Amr Shabana at the 2012 Tournaments of Champions in New York. What a crazy rally to finish a tight five-gamer! To add to the fun factor in a broader perspective, this match is almost perfectly mirroring last year's semi-final between Shabana and Nick Matthew in the very same place. In that 2011 match, Shabana came back from 2:0, in this match Rodriguez came back from 2:0 down. In that 2011 match Shabana ended up losing 3:2, in this one he ended up winning 3:2. In the 2011 match the final rally featured crazy four-corner squash with Shabana tinning a backhand drop shot, in this match it was a similarly crazy rally and a similar backhand drop tinned by Rodriguez that finished the match as you can see it below. And both years, the spectators erupted and gave the players a long standing ovation. One more time proved: New York Grand Central Terminal is bringing out the very best of the players.

NEW YORK TOC 2012 DRAMAS START IN 2ND ROUND: MARWAN EL SHORBAGY vs. TOM RICHARDS

2012-01-23T12:42:00.000Z

The J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions has always been producing thrilling matches throughout its 16 year history. This year, already in the second round there were high quality games. For example between mighty Amr Shabana and the "Charlie Chaplin" of squash, speedy Miguel Angel Rodriguez, 3:2 (unfortunately too late for me to watch live but according to reports very entertaining). Or Mohamed El Shorbagy beeting Cameron Pilley with the same score. But the most noticeable one was Mohamed's younger brother, Marwan El Shorbagy against Tom Richards (they both feature in our up-and-coming players of 2011 post). Marwan came through the qualifications where he already had to beat good players (Martin Knight world #39 and Adrian Waller #59). Then in the first round he beats the legendary Boudhist Monk Tiger that is Thierry Lincou. Only a few months ago, Marwan lost to Lincou simply and quickly 3:0. Now he beats him 3:1 in 46 mins. Very impressing. Both the fact of beating Lincou and the speed of the learning curve. Then yesterday he has to play up-and-coming Tom Richards, fit and fresh from his quick and easy first round match against Max Lee. And it turned out to be a drama. Five games of high quality squash. First, just to Tom. Second to Marwan, with 9 consecutive points after being 2:4 down (the below video shows the last few rallies of that game, have a special look at the boast at 1:08, the cross drop nick at 1:39 and the kill into the nick at 1:57). Third again to Tom. Forth again to Marwan. At this stage the 18 year old ran already on empty, he seemed half-dead. And this is why it was so impressing: this young lad played so intelligently at this stage. He slowed it down with ultra high backhand drives, he kept it straight with quality for a while in each rally, just enough time to have a breather that allowed him to get to the balls once Richards decided to go short. And in the front little El Shorbagy is very inventive (without over-complicating the deception). I don't want to make this post too long, so I conclude here: I don't think Marwan has much left to resist Daryl Selby's steadiness in tonight's quarter final, but I do belive he has a very bright future in squash. If I said a few times that his older brother might succeed Karim Darwish (style-wise, in terms of how he hits the ball), then I might be tempted to say now that Marwan might become the successor of Amr Shabana (again, style-wise, in terms of shot-selection, playing intelligence). Anyway, some intriguing stories to come from the Egyptian brothers in the following years, am pretty convinced. Stay tuned!

THE 2012 TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS AT GRAND CENTRAL STATION NEW YORK IS COMING

2012-01-18T14:59:00.000Z

This post has been written for two reasons. First: as indicated in the title, the 2012 Tournament of Champions is about to start (qualifications today, main draw first round: January 20, that's when squashtv starts to transmit it live). Generally it's one of the best events of the year. The beautiful and vibrating settings of Grand Central Terminal in New York seem to inspire the players to come out with some of the most spectacular squash. You surely remember when last year 'squash went crazy' with Shabana and Matthew, the shot of the century by David Palmer or the Ramy Ahsour masterpiece - it all happend at the TOC. Unfortunately no Ramy this year, but a revitalized Shabana, a newly crowned world #1 Willstrop, an again-on-fire Gaultier and a back-from-injury Matthew shall make it more than intriguing to follow the event. The latter one will be also eager for some additional reasons: Nick has been a former three-time finalist without having ever won the event. In addition, if he wins this year, he is warrantied to get back his world #1 ranking in February (for the same reason, James will be keen on doing well too in order to keep his new crown). So get yourself a ticket to New York, or if that's impossible, follow the event live with squashtv. The second reason of this post is that No Let! is having a bad debt towards Tarek Momen. We have mentioned him as the most promising up-and-coming player of 2011, but unfortunately there is hardly anything to be found on youtube about him. Not that this clip shows him from his best side (in fact, he is losing 11 points in a row and hardly hits any decent tight ball), but it still shows the style of this unique genius: strange, exaggerated racket preparation (not recommended) no lobs at all (not recommended), drops from anywhere of the court without waiting for the appropriate opening (not recommended), and he can also clear all the drops he is playing (unlike Wael El Hindi for example). Momen was 19 when he played this match against Hisham Ashour, he is now 23 and last year he has added also a bit of patience to his game (did you see when he beat Nick Matthew in Qatar? The only man apart from Ramy to beat Nick 3:0 in the last couple of years). Before omitting it, there is also a third reason to this post: Ramy Ashour is co-commentating and it's always fun to listen to this quick-speaking buddy.

HOLDING YOUR SHOT - PETER BARKER vs. LAURENS JAN ANJEMA

2012-01-16T15:23:00.001Z

Holding the shot means that your backswing and swing are not tied up in one uninterrupted sequence; you get up your racket early and hold it before executing your shot. On pro level it's almost obligatory and even on club level you can find a good number of players who employ it efficiently. What do I mean when I say employing it efficiently; the point is that you want to create uncertainty in your opponent's mind about what shot you are going to play. Your hold should be simple and compact, so that you could eventually play both a touch shot (drop or lob) or a pace shot (drive or kill). As you can execute all four type of shots (plus the boast) with the same hold and compact backswing, your opponent will be always on his toes. For example Karim Darwish is a master of this on the forehand side at the middle and the front of the court, whereas James Willstrop employs it probably with the most effect all around the court. In fact, everybody uses it to a certain extent, except one guy: Laurens Jan Anjema. The 'Dutch Windmill' - as Paul Johnson from squashtv calls him gently - is a bull, and as such probably the second strongest guy on the tour from a physical point of view; he is also a keen player, he might not have the eye and variety of a Shabana or the steadiness of a Palmer or a Darwish, but he dictates a very high pace and plays the right shots and retrieves on a high level. The problem is however that he does not create uncertainty, exactly because he's got no hold in his shots; look how relaxed Barker looks in the rally, he can predict easily what shot will come out of those late and rushed backswing/swings. In opposition to Anjema, as soon as Peter Barker perceives what direction he has to take to get to the ball, he starts to raise the racket and holds it still for a split second before hitting the ball. This way he creates enough uncertainty to make sure that Anjema is less relaxed/harmonic on his feet whilst waiting/split stepping for the ball.

BEST EVER SQUASH MATCH II.: SHABANA - GAULTIER, PSA ATCO WORLD SERIES FINALS 2011-2012

2012-01-10T16:27:00.001Z

It's been breathtaking, from the first to the last rally. The first tournament of 2012 (concluding the World Series events of 2011) in the prestigious Queens Club in London, featuring the 8 best players (minus two injured) and a 91min epic final that will enter into the history of squash as one of, if not the greatest ever (next to the famous Matthew-Willstrop semi-final at the 2010 Canary Wharf Classic and few others of course). This time nothing to be analyzed, just to be enjoyed, each second of it.

THE EGYPTIAN WAY OF LIFE II.: RAMY ASHOUR GETTING OBSESSED WITH HIS TEA CUP

2012-01-09T14:04:00.000Z

Whilst Amr Shabana wins his first title on British soil (2012 World Series Finals, what a match, what a win!), Ramy Ashour is inventing toys not on British soil, but still around a typical British object, the "tea cup". Ramy has been struggling now for a few months with his recurrent hamstring injury. He tried to come back for the last tournament in India in December, but it was a failed try and he had to leave and get further treatment. He might be again out, but not down, as we could also see it from the previous tea-cup session. This time it's slightly less spectacular, but still, not bad at all, and mostly it shows again the good spirit that must rule in the squash club (probably the Heliopolis Sporting Club in Cairo) and around Ramy in general. I was however more amazed by the warming up of the ball; those backhand volley self feeds; what racket-head speed is this, my god!

WEEKEND BAGATELLE XIV.: LET, STROKE OR NO LET? KARIM DARWISH vs. AMR SHABANA

2012-01-08T09:53:00.000Z

Before coming to the referee's decision... This rally is from the final in Qatar 2010. From this sole rally you can see the difference in Darwish's game compared to how he played in 2011 and these days (4-8 January 2012) at the ATCO World Series Finals in London at the Queens Club; he is still a world class straight hitter of the ball, but he lost his confidence in his short game. In the below rally as for example, he plays the boast at 0:07 almost casually but still with accuracy and control over what his opponent is going to do with the ball, and at 0:09 he employs that famous big-shot-fake sliced forehand drop shot (he used to win a third of his points with that shot). I haven't counted exactly, but in his four matches at the Queens Club he's made hardly any, and he just looked like a few classes below Willstrop and Gaultier when it came to initiate. On the other hand, Shabana looks very much in the mood, he gave a master lesson to the current world #1 and we should all look forward to a great final today at 15.00 UK time against Greg (who looks to enjoy himself very much and who moves again as agile as a teenager leopard-crab). But for now, is the below rally a 'Let' / 'Stroke' or 'No Let!' ?

MOHD AZLAN ISKANDAR vs. JAMES WILLSTROP: 2011-2012 WORLD SERIES FINALS

2012-01-07T09:46:00.000Z

The World Series Finals at the Queens Club in London feature those eight players who gathered the most points in the 2011 World Series events. The tournament however is played in January 2012, hence the confusion whether to call it World Series Finals 2011 or 2012. This might be a promoting/marketing issue to be fixed in the future I guess by the PSA/WSA. Anyway, the best match of the third and final group stage day featured newly crowned world #1 James Willstrop and Azlan Iskandar. There was no real stake as James was already qualified for the semis and Azlan was already out as he has lost previously to both Mohamed El Shorbagy and Karim Darwish. Azlan played great squash and ended James' 17 match winning streak. James might not have given it his all, but he was far from playing badly or just letting it go. It was Azlan who was just so much better today compared to the previous days. Azlan is a relaxed, cheerful character and apparently he prefers relaxed situations, when the stake is not that high. For me, this is the only reason why he is not a top5 player. He should probably try to learn from Amr Shabana, the most relaxed character amongst the top players who, in opposition to Iskandar, can be slightly disinterested at less important stages of a tournament but is mostly a god of concentration when it comes to play the big matches.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SPLIT STEP: RAMY ASHOUR and PETER NICOL

2012-01-03T12:56:00.000Z

I might exaggerate, but I am almost convinced that within movement one of the most important things is how you master the split step. It is your very first reaction before starting to go towards the ball and it will determine the explosiveness of your movement. The split step is simple and complex at the same time. Simple, as you just need to jump up slightly with both feet before heading off towards the ball. Complex, as it needs delicate timing in order to avoid to land too early or too late.What is the main point about the split step? It will allow you to put the weight as quickly as possible on the relevant foot before making your first step. You jump off with both feet from the ordinary parallel position as you wait on the 'T', but you will land with one or the other foot in front of the other, depending where the ball was hit by your opponent. Let's put it in order: 1) you have to jump just before your opponent hits the ball - this is the most delicate thing, to time the detachment from the ground well. 2) you want to be with both feet still in the air when you perceive/understand where your opponent has hit the ball. 3) depending on where the ball goes, you will land with your feet and weight accordingly. Peter Nicol has always been extremely agile, but nobody employs the split step more intensively than Ramy Ashour; combined with his phenomenal reading of the game, this is what makes him so damn quick. After having watched the below video, you might want to have a further look on this one, showing Ramy in extreme slow motion with another legend, Jonathon Power.

LOOKING BACK AND FORTH II: THE UP-AND-COMING PLAYERS OF 2011

2011-12-30T09:38:00.001Z

In our previous post we had a look how the top 10 has done in 2011. Now it's time to give some well deserved credit to the most impressive up-and-coming players of the year:

#20 TAREK MOMEN (born 1988, last year-end PSA ranking: 27): very few people discuss that the little man from Cairo is a genius. In 2006 as an 18 year old teenager he beats players of the calibre of Daryl Selby, in 2008 he beats then world #2 Gregory Gaultier (who hardly ever looses to anyone outside the top8), in 2009 he beats David Palmer (again, very few people can pretend that) and in the meantime he is frequenting the Faculty of Engineering of Cairo University!!! 2010 was poor for his standards (well, still, wins against Iskandar, Boswell, Mohamed El Shorbagy and Pilley!) but now he has concluded his studies and it starts to show. In Quatar he beat world #1 Nick Matthew 3:0, and Matthew admitted after the match that the result (11:9,12:10,11:8, 44m) was even flattering for him. Beating Matthew is a feat in itself, but let's add that next to Momen only Ramy Ashour has beaten Matthew 3:0 in the lastfew years. The only question mark is Tarek's determination. He has proven that on a one-day basis he can beat anybody. He is also probably the quickest man on the circuit with Miguel Angel Rodriguez; he's got the cheekiest backhand drop-shot on earth that he is capable of executing any time, anywhere. If you play short on his backhand side he'll counter-drop 8 times out of 10 and he'll still clear the ball each time (there are sooo many 'Lets' normally with other players in this situation...) But his concentration and determination can let him down at times. He's got something of a school lad, that makes him extra nice, but am not sure if that helps to become world #1, notwithstanding all the talent he's got to get there - even if he's the only pro player who basically omits the existence of the lob!

#21 TOM RICHARDS (born 1986, last year-end PSA ranking: 31): he might not be the kind of genius that Momen is, but he's showing constant improvements. This year he had very good wins over Laurens Jan Anjema, Hisham Ashour (twice), Ong Beng Hee and Tarek Momen, even if the last two have then avenged the loss. Someone as terminator-solid as Darwish (even though on slight decline now) still beats him 3,4 and 6 in 37 minutes. But I see him humble, and humbleness is one of the best secret weapons in long term.

#23 NICOLAS MUELLER (born 1989, last year-end PSA ranking: 37): he has shown qualities from the very first moment he stepped on court on the pro tour. This year has demonstrated also that he has serious intentions, not only style- and technique-wise, but also ranking-wise, he definitely wants to be in the top5 in the future. This year he's got the scalps of Adrian Grant (twice), Borja Golan, Iskandar and most eminently of all: Amr Shabana (even if we know Shabs is lacking inspiration in last few months). He's shown also some exceptional squash against some other greats even if he ended up losing: first game 11:2 in 5 minutes in Qatar against Darwish!? Anyone ever heard anything similar? He also gave a good run of four games to James Willstrop, who hardly lost any other game in his last 15 other matches of the year.

#24 SIMON ROSNER (born 1987, last year-end PSA ranking: 33): a few years back, Rosner looked really bad. Strange technique, no results. He now looks good, really good. It's still not textbook technique (that ultra high elbow at his backswing, funnily only him - the tallest guy - and Aamir Atlas Khan - the smallest guy on the tour - employ this technique that does not favour deception. But he still kills the ball second to none in the front and shows also delicate touch notwithstanding appearance; he's got really quick feet and very good movement for someone as tall as him; and he's not afraid of anybody. He's beaten Adrian Grant, Aamir Atlas Khan, he's had matchball against Karim Darwish in Sweden (okay, Karim coming back from serious injury, but still!), brought Ramy to 5 quality games in Paderborn and got his heart-warming share of win against Shabana (in similar fashion as Mueller, but still!) He is also keen, and when a German is keen, well, anything can happen.

#33 ALAN CLYNE (born 1986, last year-end PSA ranking: 51): some of you might be surprised that I include him in the list, but I think he deserves to be mentioned based on this year's performance, even if he has had a bad end of year with four first round losses at the last four main events (still gave David Palmer a good 5 game run in Rotterdam). But beforehand he was impressing with his mixture of strange technique, huge stamina and a great heart. He might be not the most beautiful to watch, but he is efficient and a tough nut to crack. Ask Hisham Ashour or the promising young Egyptian Karim Abdel Gawad who both have twice as many shots in the pocket but still lost to him.

#45 MARWAN EL SHORBAGY (born 1993, last year-end PSA ranking: 174): Ramy-like stellar rise, almost 130 places within one year with the scalps of Daryl Selby and Omar Mosaad (both top20 and not friendly at all when it comes to battle...). Marwan is junior world champion and obviously extreamly promising: we know his pedigree with his older (still very young) brother already in the top10 and excellent coaching background by Jonah Barrington around Bristol/UK alternated with training camps in Cairo. Some say technically he's got even more potential than his brother. To be seen remains if he's also as tough and determined as Mohamed. Anyway, if the Ashour brother's don't make both the top10 within one family (due to Hisham not being capable of making a regime longer than five weeks;) then the Shorbagy brothers could well fulfil this highly respectable and funny historical feat.

LOOKING BACK AND FORTH I.: THE TOP TEN IN 2011

2011-12-27T13:06:00.000Z

Apologies, exceptionally no video, just text. A brief analysis of the main tendencies within the top10 in the 2011 PSA Squash season :

#1 NICK MATTHEW: continues to amaze. We have to remind ourselves that Matthew has never been ranked better than #4 before 2010, and he was already 30 years old by then. This year not only he occupied the #1 spot throughout the year, but he visibly continues to progress and improve technically, as that is probably the least developed part of his game. It's been a great year for Matthew, even if he beat Ramy Ashour only once and lost 4 times to him (with the 0:3 loss at the World Team Championships included), and even if, due to end-season injuries, he will lose his #1 ranking in January 2012. But be assured, he'll be eager to fight back. Will he also be able to fight the age factor for another season?

#2 JAMES WILLSTROP: his year started as it ended in the previous one. Plays beautifully, beats anybody, but loses to Ramy Ashour and Nick Matthew. At the end of the year, not only Ramy and Nick got both injured, but Willstrop seemed to raise his already outstanding technical and tactical level to an even further level and won three World Series events in a row and as a result, he'll be ranked for the first time world #1 in the 2012 January rankings. He must be extremely happy, but I guess there are things left to prove: is he by now really better or equal with Ramy and Nick? If all three of them will be healthy in 2012, expect a hell of a season, with a lots of pride on stake!

#3 GREGORY GAULTIER: the tragic figure of the tour is back! After a long hiatus he finally won again a major title and made a few more finals. You never know with Gregory. Will he be disappointed that notwithstanding the good form and great results, he is pretty far away ranking-points-wise from the top spot? Or is he ready to dig in and improve his only weak factor (the mental side) as Matthew does continuously with his (the technical side)? If he is not willing to understand that he must improve this part of his game, there is little chance that he can add to the sole month he has been ranked world #1 in November 2009. If he can take this hurdle, then he could still have the best times in front of him.

#4 RAMY ASHOUR: whilst he was healty, he seemed to be unbeatable (except for a 5 game loss to Matthew early in the year, but this has been revenged with 4 wins). It has been said often, Ramy is the best thing that could ever happen to squash, but unless he (and his team, does he have one?) start to find a solution to his injury issues, we might risk to see the best thing struggling and leaving the circuit prematurely. Then the best thing could turn into the greatest shame that could ever happen to squash. Therefore, let's just hope he comes back (and remains) healthy in 2012, it would make just such a difference for us, spectators.

#5 KARIM DARWISH: I have a lots of respect for Darwish, having analysed his strengths in a number of posts. In 2009 he was world #1, in 2010 he was the only man to beat both Ramy and Matthew. However, in 2011 he hardly had any noticeable win (except maybe against James Willstrop to conclude the final for Egypt at the World Team Championships). He still beats mostly comfortably the lower ranked players (however not anymore always that terminator-like as beforehand), but he struggles with the equal ones. It might be due to the rather serious ankle injuries he has suffered in the last 18 months, he is not that balanced anymore on the stretch, not that lethal anymore in the front. The world's best forehand drop shot was working 10% less efficient as beforehand, and this is enough to lose that edge that made him so redoubtable in 2009-2010.

#6 AMR SHABANA: Like Darwish, Shabana went down this year. But not in the same way. Whilst Darwish has been very consistent (when not injured) Shabana was extremely fluctuating. He was off for personel reasons for almost 6 months, then came back and won nonchalantly the US Open, beating everybody, world #1 Nick Matthew included (never seen anybody taking a win of a major title that indifferently). Then again Shab lost interest, but still flew off to the events, just to see the young up-and-coming lads (Nicolas Mueller and Simon Rosner) beating him both times in half an hour. Nevertheless, it is still to his name that we can link probably the best match of the season. Shabana is a god, and we all now, gods are moody.

#7 PETER BARKER: Barker is not a god, but he gets, as wine, better with time. It has been pointed out that you can get in the top10 by being solid, but there is no way to make the top5 if you are not inventive, and don't owe a real short game. Barker has made a big step forward in this regard and we are very curious to see if he can finally not only push, but also beat the guys in front of him on a constant basis. It shouldn't be impossible, Barker disposes of such a harmonic footwork and fluid racket preparation when it comes to hit the basic shots, to adapt this to his short game is only a matter of liberating a mental barrage (through explicit short-game drills a few hours day-in day-out at training).

#8 MOHAMED EL SHORBAGY: two World Series semi-finals (including beating Darwish) at the end of the year indicate that he is now ready, really ready. I personally expect big things from him in 2012. From a certain point of view, he will substitute Darwish, he is less fleshy than Ramy or Shabana, but still capable of doing anything with the racket. On the top of it, just like Darwish, he's got the patience and is rock solid on the technical-physical front. An intriguing affair could be to see how he will deal with his younger brother, Marwan; the battle between the two brothers could make some headlines should the current world junior champion make it as well to the top10 (what only few would exclude by now I guess).

#9 DAVID PALMER: the great 'marine' has signed off in style: at the age of 35, he still finishes in the top10, even without playing the last few big events. He will be missed and not easily substituted. Such a dense blend of discipline and determination is damn tough to achieve I guess. As a good-bye present to the whole squash community he immortalised himself also with an exquisite shot, probably the shot of the century. Another great Australian player, Stewart Boswell also signed off just before the end of the year. Australian squash now will be eager to produce some new talents, as the sole representative in the top20 is Cameron Pilley, who, notwithstanding excelling in some aspects of the game, is not very likely to achieve anything close to these two greats.

#10 MOHD AZLAN ISKANDAR: to be honest, 2011 is not even Azlan's best season, notwithstanding reaching the top10 for the first time in his carrier. But he's been consistent, loosing rarely to lower ranked players. Azlan has always been a great talent - he had carrier wins against almost all the top-top players - but he probably is just not the character to take anything too seriously. To be world #10 without being super serious is pretty much an achievement. Now that he moved back to Malaysia, and managed to convince his coach Peter Genever to follow him there, will he be keen to raise his determination to his tactical and technical level?

In our next post we are going to have a look at the most promising players outside the top10. Of course feel free to add your comments or discuss our points.

TECHNICALLY GREAT, BUT TACTICALLY? GRAHAM RYDING vs. ANTHONY RICKETTS

2011-12-21T14:30:00.000Z

Graham Ryding is not an all-time great, but still a former top-ten player and sparing partner of all-time-great Jonathon Power. For us he is a very interesting example, as technically very sound, even virtuoso with the ankle (watch those behind-the-body defensive shots at 0:06, 0:08 and 0:10), however he had the problem typical of racket-wise very talented players: they don't always chose the right (probably more boring) shot instead of the funky one and go for conclusion when constructivism would be more appropriate. In this rally he did so many things right, except the very last decision; he turned defence into offence first at 0:20 with a good hidden cross-court flick followed by a greatly held and ponded almost-dying straight drive at 0:23 and a good volley-drop at 0:26; another extreme wrist flick at 0:33 made his opponent Anthony Ricketts run even more, then at 0:37 he plays a wise long drop shot faded into the mid-court sidewall, but after a tight exchange of a few counter-drops he goes in the wrong moment for another flick with the wrist, and notwithstanding he tried to deceive by turning his head towards the cross-court, Ricketts easily intercepted the straight pass that lacked tightness, pace and/or heights. In fact, this rally terribly resembles another one where Ryding played David Palmer and where he lost the point in the same corner in a very similar fashion.

THOSE TIMES WHEN SHABANA WAS STILL FULL OF MOTIVATION: 2007 BEAR STEARNS TOC

2011-12-19T16:03:00.000Z

Time goes by, and even though some champions are still there with their body, they are not really present anymore with their heart. Whilst I had the feeling that David Palmer was, and Thierry Lincou still is giving their all on the court, Amr Shabana looked this year somewhat half-hearted, a bit even at the US Open where he nevertheless beat everybody, Nick Matthew, the world #1 included. If you watch this rally against Ramy Ashour from 2007, you see a Shabana bouncing like a ball, split-stepping like thunder and even arguing passionately to receive a 'Stroke'. He was a lot less energetic most of 2011, and mostly the last few tournaments. I know, at this stage of your carrier, you must have a few redundant pains/injuries that make life not easier (this might be also Karim Darwish's case, another Egyptian monster on noticeable decline this year). Concerning the below rally: beyond creativity and energy, the other key word is sportsmanship; first Ramy playing a great cross volley instead of stopping for a 'Stroke' at 0:32, then the friendly handshake between the two after the 'Let' decision even though Shabana was after a 'Stroke' - I think even rightly, as Ramy's shot was pretty loose at that stage, but the referee might have considered Ramy's fair-play attitude at 0:32, where Shabana's ball was probably even more loose. If you consider only the shot, it could have been a 'Stroke', but I think it's the right refereeing philosophy taking into account the whole rally/game when deciding about borderline situations. Anyway, Shabana, after having skipped the Punj Lloyd PSA Masters last week, could still come back strong in London in a few weaks at the ATCO PSA World Series Finals, he seemed to enjoy himself there very much last year, probably also due to the shorter best-of-three games structure.

WEEKEND BAGATELLE XIII: RAMY ASHOUR AND THE CHOCOLATE

2011-12-17T00:05:00.002Z

At the current 2011 Punj Lloyd Open, Ramy Ashour made another failed comeback from his hamstring injury. He seemed to dominate Peter Barker when suddenly a wrong step made the injury reappear. On top of that, as a really bad habit, Ramy kept on playing instead of withdrawing, risking therefore further damage. On one side the heart breaks to see probably the most intriguing player of all times willing and struggling to play, but on the other hand one might also wonder how come he is not capable of judging realistically the state/degree of his recovery process. Anyway, the great thing about Ramy is that beyond being the most spectacular player of all times, he is also such a lovely dude outside the court. We had recently the example of the coffee cup, or further back his singings, and now the fun impressions and emotions around a simple present of a children's chocolate. Great little 'bagatelle' footage, thanks to the I-love-squash team and the German organizers of the 2011 World Team Championships in Paderborn.

2011-2012 ATCO PSA WORLD SERIES FINALS AT THE QUEENS CLUB, JANUARY 4-8

2011-12-14T08:16:00.000Z

2012 will be a big year for Squash in London. Canary Wharf Classic in March, British Open in May (yes, in the O2 arena!) and most closely the ATCO World Series Finals between 4-8 January 2012 at the historical Queens Club. Last year's event was probably the best ever set up squash tournament in terms of event management, court/colours/lighting settings. Unfortunately the tent that hosted the event lost pressure just the night before the finals should have been played between Nick Matthew and Amr Shabana (shown here below at one of their recent battles at the ROWE British Grand Prix 2011). The good news are: there will be no tent this year, however the great dark/pink court/colour/lighting settings will be maintained, if not even further improved. The eight best male players (those who gathered the most points in the World Series events throughout 2011) will be playing in a best-of-three games format (instead of the traditional best-of-five). This format encourages attacking squash, and combined with the both cool and dramatic visual settings, players seemed to be very inspired last year to go for some extra solutions. On top of all, this year will be a combined men's and women's event with the eight best women players joining the show. For further information visit the official World Series Website, or buy your tickets with ticketmaster.co.uk.

ONE RALLY, FOUR CORNERS, FIFTEEN LOBS: NICK MATTHEW vs. RAMY ASHOUR

2011-12-08T09:59:00.000Z

Ramy Ashour and Nick Matthew can produce some heavy metal squash as we could see it in earlier examples. But there is no way to be the best players in the world if you are not good in mixing it up; squash is not a straight line but a streaming thing. In this rally the most outstanding tactical element is obviously the lob. Not necessarily the one that you play in the front out of necessity, but rather the one from mid- or back-court, chosing it instead of a drive. Observe the one at 0:16, Ramy's length was very good, hence the most common solution would have been to reply with a tight drive, but Matthew chose to make an ultra high cross-court lob that almost stuck in the backwall nick and created him a great opening. Then at 0:28, a Ramy special, the cross-court volley lob instead of the more conventional straight long volley. And again, it forced an opening as Matthew could only keep the rally going with a high loose boast. The good thing in the lob is that it is a low percentage shot, even if it is not perfect, you at least gain time to get back to the 'T' without rush (of course if you completely fail it it gives a total opening to your opponent, but that's true for every type of shot). Another note can be made on Matthew's drop shots at 0:21 and 1:00. He went in both cases for the low-risk version by playing them high over the tin, faded into the sidewall. Being the most skillful player in the world, Ramy managed to scrap them off decently, but if you hit them as accurately as Nick did, your opponent will rather end up hitting the ball back to himself or, on lower club levels, even break his racket ;) If I were James Willstrop's coach, I would show him every morning this rally in order to demonstrate how to try to play against Nick. You don't beat Nick Matthew with heavy metal squash, do you?

THE EGYPTIAN WAY OF LIFE: RAMY ASHOUR AND A BUNCH OF YOUNG LADS

2011-12-05T11:47:00.001Z

I had the pleasure last week to meet some young up-and-coming Egyptian players at the 2011 London Open. To be precise, four of them. Farah Abdel Meguid (19 years of age, world #65) who finished runner up in the ladies event, Karim Abdel Gawad (20, #44) who made the semi finals, Andrew Wagih Shoukry (21, #74) quarter finalist and Mohamed Abouelghar (18, #84), the runner-up to Marwan El Shorbagy at the last Junior World Championships. I had a few pleasant chats with them about how the pro squash scene is structured in Cairo; I might probably write about it more in detail in the near future, but if you want just a quick and very expressive picture of the Egyptian way of living and playing squash, just watch the below video. Watch the little chap who plays soccer with the squash ball; watch Ramy Ashour in jeans, hitting a corkscrew lob and making sure that the ball - after hitting five different planes of the space - ends in a coffee cup outside the court; watch the smiles and listen to the joyful, Mediterranean noises in and around the court. This is one of the secrets of Egypt's squash: world #1 and world #120, the seasoned pro and the 8 year old chap, all together in one place, working and having fun day in, day out. Last note: after having shown this clip to my wife, she suggested Ramy could switch to golf, he could easily become a millionaire...

HEAVY METAL STUFF III.: NICK MATTHEW vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

2011-12-01T13:09:00.001Z

James Willstrop has won 2 World Series events in a row, first in Hong Kong then in Kuwait. In those 10 matches he's lost one only game in a tie-break to Karim Darwish in the Kuwait final (Darwish was the opponent also in the Hong Kong final). Both times, Willstrop beat convincingly a form-and-confindence regaining Gregory Gaultier in the semi-finals. In Hong Kong one could have thought that Gaultier had too heavy legs from his 90 minute quarter final match against Nick Matthew, but in Kuwait it was just clear that on such a cold court James is the better player (as I think on a hot court Greg is the stronger one). Willstrop's deaf touch is second to none and this coupled with the right discipline of steadiness (accurate length and width) and patience (right shot-selection) makes him almost impossible to beat when Ramy is not around on such a cold court as the one in Kuwait. I even presume that for the first time after uncountable beatings, in Kuwait, Willstrop could have fancied good chances against his nemesis Nick Matthew. Now that Nick has awful lot of points to save from last December, the battle for the year-end #1 spot will be decided in India, at the Punj Lloyd Masters in warmer conditions. The below rally demonstrates perfectly why Nick is such hard nut to crack for Willstrop, and even more so on hot courts. Let's consider also that for Matthew, this is just a normal rally, if required, he can go on like this for 90 minutes, whereas Willstrop can't cope with him in this rhythm for five games, at least he hasn't been capable to demonstrate the opposite in the last two-three years. This is an awesome rally, even if I think that at the winning volley drop Nick has blocked James in the same way as Ramy has blocked Nick in another famous rally in a very similar situation. Apparently the refs consider that the previous shot in both cases was loose, but I still think that this does not justify to clear into the genuine path of your opponent.

FROM NOW ON THERE WILL BE A BIT LESS CLASS AND ACCURACY

2011-11-28T14:04:00.001Z

They often say: "He's been a great artist, but a horrible person..." Well, Stewart Boswell has been an outstanding pro squash player and one of the finest souls I have ever met. And now, after losing in the quarter finals of the 2011 World Series event Kuwait Cup, he announced his retirement to the amazement of the whole squash community; he recently looked so fresh and strong, giving age-defying lessons to the up-and-coming players and beating old time rivals David Palmer and Thierry Lincou for example. Of course, Bozza must know better his own reasons, nevertheless he - as much his person as his squash - will be very much missed on the PSA tour. Boswell broke into the world top30 as a junior and a few years later he was already world #4. Very few exclude that he would have been a strong contender of the top spot of the rankings hadn't he undergone that terrible back injury that forced him to quit the circuit for almost two years. He however came back in style, winning the first seven (!) tournaments he entered and reasserted himself for a brief period again even in the top10. Ever since, he has been one of the most consistent players on the tour, hardly ever loosing to lower ranked players. His consistency is due to the extreme high degree of discipline in his game. Tactically he hardly ever choses a wrong shot, technically he is impeccable: movement fluid, racket-technique academic. He's not that quick on the feet, however he's earlier on the ball as many of the quicker players, due to his phenomenal perception and understanding of the game. He's been also widely considered as one of the fairest players ever to play the game on such high levels. If I were to be a coach, he'd be one of my first choices to demonstrate to the youngsters how to do things on the court. In tennis, when Edberg retired, the governing body, the ATP, has introduced the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. If I were the PSA, my first thing now would be creating a similar award with the name of Stewart Boswell on it.

WEEKEND BAGATELLE XII.: YES LET OR NO LET? RAMY ASHOUR vs. AMR SHABANA

2011-11-27T14:10:00.000Z

This time I am saying nothing, it's up to you to let me know whether the ref was right or not in according a 'Let' to Shabana. You will probably consider three factors. 1) Did Shabana take a genuine way towards the ball 2) Was it or not a minimal interference? 3) How good was Ramy's shot? Was the ball dying at second bounce before the backwall? In any case, Ramy contested, the referee reacted with a charming and clever 'thank you', which generated a lovely little smile onto Ramy's face. Whether the decision was right or not, it was dealt with great professionalism from both sides.

HOW (NOT) TO START A MATCH: RAMY ASHOUR vs. GREGORY GAULTIER

2011-11-23T13:54:00.000Z

You probably remember that post which shows Ramy Ashour finishing off a match with a boast into the nick off the serve against Gregory Gaultier; a pretty stylish way to win a match, but a part from Ramy who else would have the guts (and the talent) of risking it? If he hadn't found the nick, Gaultier could have easily counter-dropped or killed the ball and who knows if you get a second chance? Anyway, if there is a moment where I would expected even less this kind of a shot is the very first point of a match. It is pretty common even for shot-makers to have a steady mentality at the beginning of matches, keeping the ball flowing, observing the other guy's weaknesses instead of initiating precipitately. Even historical greats like Jansher Kahn were famous of playing long long rallies in the first half of the first games, even against way weaker players, in order to get their legs a bit shaky before going short. But Ramy, we know, is different: he has been having hours of one-man training sessions all his life, and he has tried to find the nick from any point of the court in those sessions. He obviously remembers now which are those geometrical constallation from where he has a good chance to make the ball roll out off the nick. And apparently this situation, when the opponent hits a good serve that stacks close to the backwall, but not that close to the sidewall, is one of those geometrical points. The other thing to note in this rally is Ramy's second shot: he miscalculated Gaultier's semi-lob and had to turn in order to hit the ball which again stack close to the backwall. So many players stop in this situation, whereas if the only shot that you are realistically likely to be able to hit is a boast you must play that shot as your opponent is not in your way even if he covers the frontwall. Many players in a similar situation pretend they could have played the frontwall, but Ramy respects the quality of his opponent's shot and goes for the high boast in order to allow himself to get back to the 'T'. Then comes that famous flick-of-the-wrist-backhand-cross-court-length-kill and to conclude the cross-volley-drop into the nick. All this, within the first few seconds of a match. Do not try this at home!

WEEKEND BAGATELLE XI.: MAD MAX IN ACTION AGAIN

2011-11-20T14:19:00.000Z

It's a bit unjust towards Anthony Ricketts, but what can I do of these are the videos that pop up in Youtube with him. Well, he was an animal, both in the good and bad sense of the term. He ran like crazy (or even more crazy here) and was famous for difficultly determinable oral-verbal expressions and body-language. It must have been no fun to get on the same court with him, unless you were Ramy Ashour, and you knew how to make fun of him. In this case he's hitting his 'good old friend' Jonathon Power deliberately with the ball, and the best is that the ball - in opposition of the referees assertion - was not going towards the front wall. Power then returned the favor, but in that case nobody was contesting that Ricketts was standing in his way. Joey Barrington recently suggested that this rule shall be somehow revisited by the PSA... it's not easy though, as the rule shall also encourage players to clear the ball sufficently in order to allow the opponent to hit a cross court. But then again, if you feel your opponent covers the frontwall, stop and ask for a Let to get a Stroke. This might be a solution, admitted refereeing (video refereeing included) evolves to a point where such occurrences can be easily verified in case of an appeal.

THE FADED KILL II.: by MIGUEL ANGEL RODRIGUEZ

2011-11-18T09:44:00.001Z

For once nothing extreme - except that little horizontal clearing at 0:03 - from the lovely Miguel Angel Rodriguez, just some very smart squash. First a good, wide, greatly pounded backhand cross-court at 0:14 that bounced off hardly from the backwall, forcing the loose length from Lincou. Secondly, a perfect faded kill into the sidewall. The faded kill is a subtle weapon. I for example have not seen, not understood the existence of it until Professor Marcus Berrett has once pointed it out to me. This shot has been one of the main weapons of Jonathon Power, he has been initiating a large part of his attacks with this shot. What's the point? What's the difference compared to the 'real' kill? You hit it less hard (70-80%), slightly higher, less riskier over the tin, with emphasising the slice, and instead of looking for a quick second bounce you want to make sure that the ball fades into the sidewall with not leaving your opponent a chance to take the ball before it bounces on the wall (as the ball is still too quick for it) or to hit it after the bounce off the sidewall (as the ball is already on a down-course close to the floor). This shot does not have to be a straight winner, the goal is rather to make your opponent scrap off the ball the sidewall loosely. Well, JP or Rodriguez might both be magicians, but they employ also less fancy stuff in order to create situations where they can exploit their creativity. This is squash: a subtle mixture of intellectual engineering and instinctive magic.

NOSTALGIA I.: PETER NICOL vs. JONATHON POWER, LET or NO LET?

2011-11-12T16:45:00.001Z

I've reposted a few days ago probably the greatest rally ever, featuring Peter Nicol and Gregory Gaultier. This here is another famous rally with Peter Nicol, this time against Jonathon Power. However, I am not aware of the squash community's position in regard of the 'No Let!' decision that generated Power's extremely furious reactions. We might cause some discussion, but in my eyes this one was an excellent decision. Let me tell you why: 1) Nicol hit a good deep straight forehand volley. Not a really tight one, but with the deception a sufficiently good one to make sure Power could not have volleyed the ball 2) JP was anticipating and going in the wrong way, he moved forward, expecting probably a volley drop. 3) realizing he had to change direction, JP slipped and instead of making an effort to go towards the ball just opened his racket to demonstrate he was ready to hit the ball (the volley that he had wished, hadn't he gone the wrong way and hadn't he slipped), but in reality he was not even making a single step backwards to prove that he could have gotten to the ball. 4) JP has created the interference himself by going the wrong way and was not originally obstructed by his opponent. Opening the racket in this situation was rather a desperate act of 'fishing' (even though understandable in the heat of the situation).
These are my points why I would have come to the same No Let! decision as the referee. I can of course understand Power's reaction, it was a crucial rally and he was dominating it mostly. However, these are unfortunately not circumstances that a referee shall take into account. This is why I wonder why Martin Heath - who I consider a very good commentator - did not notice a single of the points above (notwithstanding his co-commentator Alan Thatcher tried to analyze the situation objectively). It's even more strange as Heath even says that "in principle the referee is actually right, he is interpreting the rulebook by the word..." I think, Martin was as excited by the rally as Power and had slightly too much sympathy for JP. Me too, I love all that JP brought to the world of squash, but this does not deflect me from trying to keep a cool analytic eye on the game. Well, you are welcome to through stones at me if you want;)

WEEKEND BAGATELLE X.: A RARE INSTANCE, MATTHEW WINDED

2011-11-12T16:32:00.001Z

This rally is from the recent 2011 US Open final, where Amr Shabana made his nonchalant glorious return to the PSA World Series stage after almost a 6 months of non-playing. This rally is just a little bagatelle, a very rare instance to see Nick Matthew that winded in his movement. And as a consequence look how low and loose the quality of his shots are. I have always believed that in squash the shots come from the legs, at least the quality of the shot is mostly determined by footwork (path/position to the ball and strength/balance of leg). And Matthew seems to think the same if you consider his reactions at 0:15... he indeed hated his legs at that moment...

LIKE AN INVISIBLE MAN ON THE COURT II.: RAMY ASHOUR vs. AMR SHABANA

2011-11-10T09:58:00.000Z

In the first few years of his stellar break-through Ramy Ashour managed to beat pretty much everybody in the top10 at the first or second attempt. But he was suffering against Amr Shabana. It was only at the 4th attempt that he managed to beat him. What was it? Probably too much respect? Maybe. Shabana just so clever? Sure. In any case, these two are the two main heroes of what we might call the Egyptian Revolution of squash; these two have shown first that as a professional - with 15 years of training behind you - you are supposed to be capable to go short from any point of the court; and at the same time, you should be capable of covering the space in case your short attempt went loose. Of course, the game of squash is inconceivable without a steady basic long game; and these two without question are also great masters of the basic shots; it's just as they they have made a pact: "we are similarly good in the basic game, so why hitting first 25 deep shots before going short, let's make it within 5 shots..." And as they are used to this mentality since their early junior times, they have learned to read the game also when the ball is hidden and the opponent is in front of you. It's shoot-out squash, with hazardous nick-attempts off the serve (0:11), cross-court drops (0:13) and "invisible man" running across the court (0:15) - probably not as invisible as James Willstrop was at another exquisite occasion - but still, pretty invisible to generate a friendly & funny body-check from Amr Shabana. By the way, it was an important point; Shabana led by two games to one and 8:6. With 9:6 in the fourth it would have been tough to beat him, whereas by winning the point Ramy managed to come back in the game and then also won the fifth (...and then the final against Karim Darwish to become World Champion, at the age of 21!) Shabana then avenged the loss next year in the final, whereas in the last two years Ramy was injured at the World Open. Unlucky for him and the spectators, lucky for the rest of the field...

FLYING AROUND THE COURT II.: ALISTER WALKER vs. THE ILLUSIONIST RAMY ASHOUR

2011-11-08T15:56:00.000Z

Another spectacular rally from the fantastic venue of the 2011 World Open held at the Luxor Theathre in Rotterdam. A clearly injured Ramy Ashour played the always entertaining Alister Walker. You might remember Walker from another rally where he was flying around the court with another great entertainer, Wael El Hindi. Well, Ashour normally estinguishes Walker almost in a humiliating way. I remember, last January I saw them playing in the flesh in the World Series Finals in London, Ashour once again was just recovering from his usual harmstring injury (the same one that he was carrying in this tournament) and he gave there Alister a pretty incredible beating notwithstanding literally playing on one leg. At the post-match interview when the presenter Jake Humphrey asked Alister how it felt to get beaten like this, he was not reacting in a funny way at all I can tell you. This time however Walker seamed to be more aware of what he is supposed to do against a physically restricted genius, in the first two games he held his shots longer and made Ashour twist and turn which resulted in Ashour being constantly late on the ball (which also means that he either had to make a bigger last lounge and risk to worsen the injury or to accept to hit the ball out of position/balance). So Walker went 2:0 up, but somehow Ashour started to anticipate better and the result was really exciting, both of them flying and diving around the court several times as it can be seen in the below rally. In fact, spectacular squash often results from lacks; Miguel Angel Rodriguez's extreme speed and extravagant solutions is aided by the fact that his reading of the game is not at the heights of the top players; and in Alister Walker's case it's the quality and the reliability of the basic strokes that opens up the court slightly more for his opponents - but then, due to the fine mix of lightness and athleticism, he often recovers from the resulting attacks and the rallies become crazy - just funny and crazy.

WE WILL MISS YOU, MR. PALMER

2011-11-06T12:52:00.001Z

David Palmer is retiring, he announced to have played his last PSA match when he lost to Karim Darwish in the quarter finals of the 2011 World Open in Rotterdam. In this blog, we have mentioned and analysed several times the amazing professional qualities of the 'Marine'. His main weapon was always his physical and mental strength; just by appearing on the court he made opponents doubt, and at crucial stages of a match his concentration and self-belief might have achieved at times 'Übermensch' levels. Technically too, he was very complete, very solid, steady basic game coupled with a beautiful backhand volleydrop (enabled by great anticipation qualities). Palmer made himself also a reputation for his spectacular dives. With age he also made his squash evolve into a very intelligent lower-pace high-percentage game with looking to fade the ball into the sidewall instead of going for the just-over-the-tin shots (even though there were of course exceptions, like his hilarious and famous drop shot against Ramy Ashour at 2011 TOC in New York). However, there is also the other face of the coin; Palmer, in many regards, is also a representant of a type of squash that is less to our likings; the squash of the eighties, nineties, the squash of subtle and less subtle blocking, the squash of asking for 'Let' at the slightest interference (nevertheless caused by yourself due to a loose previous shot or going initially the wrong way). If PSA were capable of recording bit more elaborated statistics, I am pretty sure that Palmer's name would lead the list of most 'Lets' played in avarage. And that's no good for the general image of the game and also a bit of a shame in an era where the likes of Peter Nicol, John White, Shabana, Willstrop or Ramy (just to mention the main ones) have proved that it is possible to get to the top by playing free-flowing squash. Of course, the below rally is an extreme example, as Jonathon Power and David Palmer had a specificly tough story of their own within the history of squash, but it is still demonstrating the strange kind of rugby player qualities of this great squash player. Let's finish this post by emphasising that the positives of Palmer's game weight still heavier than the negatives, and he will definitely leave an unfilled hole in the pro circuit of squash.

2011 ROTTERDAM WORLD OPEN: ANOTHER MIZUKI by HISHAM ASHOUR

2011-11-04T12:12:00.000Z

If in our last post we showed a special shot, a shot that only one player, Miguel Angel Rodriguez is playing, then the Mizuki is the other special shot linked basically to a sole player: Hisham Ashour. The below rally happened just a day ago at the 2011 World Open in Rotterdam. Hisham won the first game against Amr Shabana in just 4 minutes, he was up then 2:0 and it looked like this could be his first ever win on the PSA Tour against his "older brother", but as so often with Hisham, his lack of stamina or fitness enabled his error-count to grow to undecent hights and made him lose the match at the end one more time. Still, his movement is so much more fluid, so much more streaming compared to just a year ago; he should definitely give it a big push training-regime-wise as, given his age, it might be his last chance to become a top10 player in the next 12 month. I remember having asked/suggested the same to Mohd Azlan Iskandar, and indeed he became top10 just a few months later. If Hisham won't make it - I hope he will - then he might retire into history as one of the best players ever not to have figured ranking-wise within the world top10. Come on Hisham!

PROBABLY THE MOST STUNNING SHOT OF ALL TIMES: by MIGUEL ANGEL RODRIGUEZ

2011-10-25T14:15:00.000+01:00

Holy moly! I only believe my eyes because I've seen from Miguel Angel Rodriguez a similar attempt last year at the 2010 London Open. Well, the man who likes to go the wrong way as we called him last time, or if you prefer, the quickest man on earth on 5 meters likes not only dancing on the court but also has shots that only a Zen Buddhist Karate Matrix Magician - who has the power of slowing down the time and even foresee the future - should be capable of. Rodriguez, of course, went again the wrong way, then turned 180 degrees to hit this volley out of the blue and am afraid I called David Palmer's famous shot at the 2011 TOC in New York a bit prematurely the shot of the century. (By the way, Palmer and Rodriguez train these days together, let's hope that will enable this funny genius to go less often the wrong way and strengthen also the "boring structure part" of his game in order to get into the top10 - which would be just great for squash in general). Back to the current video, it is pretty funny how the commentators reacted: long seconds of silence before Joey Barrington started to employ various superlatives ("outrageous shot", "that's ridiculous", "who plays a shot like that?"). It's a shame this rally did not happen in front of a larger crowd, like Palmer's at the TOC, and that the referees did not see at first that the ball has passed Lincou by far by the time he raised his racket to appeal for a Let. But this time I don't really blame them, I guess they were as amazed as anyone else in the audience, facing a never seen, an almost religious-like revelation situation, kind of Jesus walking on water. Luckily science - video review - allowed to award this shot with what it deserved, a clear No Let! and point! Thank you Mr.Rodriguez for existing.

WEEKEND BAGATELLE IX.: ANOTHER CLASSIC NO-LET: DAVID PALMER vs. GREGORY GAULTIER

2011-10-22T15:21:00.001+01:00

This is a perfect example of a tough but still evident No-Let! situation; at first sight it might look as a stroke, as David Palmer's ball was loose and Gregory Gaultier managed to stop it. But! Palmer's ball was so fast that Gaultier could only stop it behind his body, therefore the question weather the frontwall was open or not does not apply. Gaultier could have only played a boast or in the best but unlikely case a straight drive and there was room to make both shots. Because there was no way of hitting a cross-court, the safety consideration is also not applicable, therefore Gaultier should have played the ball. As he hasn't, the decision should have been clearly a No Let! And Gaultier knew it best himself, just look at the expression on his face after the stopping.

HEAVY METAL STUFF II.: RAMY ASHOUR vs. NICK MATTHEW AT THE ROWE BRITISH OPEN 2011

2011-10-20T20:33:00.001+01:00

If the Nick Matthew-James Willstrop pairing is considered as the ultimate heavy-weight encounter (from a physicality point of view) then close next to it follows the pairing that has determined the top of the rankings in the last two years: Nick Matthew vs. Ramy Ashour. Let's don't be mislead by the fact that Ramy is a crazy genious, he is nevertheless very much conscious of Matthews' exceptional combination of strength, speed and fitness, and therefore pays huge respect to his gutsiness and retrieval abilities. A part from Darwish and Gaultier, Nick is the only player against who Ramy does not allow himself to go short any time from anywhere (he does it even against Shabana as I think they consider their matches as a kind of showcase of Egyptian squash flair). The below rally states it as well, Ramy, when he has to, is ready to construct the rally as patiently and accurately as it takes to tire the "robot" (as Joey Barrington calls NM at times).

HEAVY METAL STUFF: NICK MATTHEW vs. JAMES WILLSTROP AT THE 2011 US OPEN

2011-10-13T14:14:00.001+01:00

In the past 130 posts of this blog I've been citing a few great pairings on the tour, such as Willstrop-Ramy, El Hindi-Darwish, Ramy-Gaultier or again Willstrop-Shabana; pairings that bring out the best from each other, players who inspire each other. But let's do not forget a hard core pairing: Nick Matthew vs. James Willstrop. These two have quiet some history with each other and they are the protagonists of probably the greatest squash match ever. The below rally is reminiscent of that match played a year and a half ago at Canary Wharf; it might not be audacious "Egyptian Squash", they just have too much respect towards each other's retrieving skills to go for unstructured attacking shots. But there is so much going on on other levels, on a constructing-structuring level; so many variations of trajectories, rhythm and pace. These two play the game on the highest physical level, nevertheless they are constantly entering into each other's mind in order to find that little breach of deception that will allow to squeeze out a sufficiently loose opening form the other one which then probably - probably I say, not sure - will allow to play a winning shot. And as hard as the rally is, it can also end with such a soft and delicate drop shot as the one Willstrop is demonstrating. However, one more time, all those incredible skills were not enough to beat the beast that Matthew is.

NICK AND AMR: THE NEVER PLAYED FINAL AT THE 2010 WORLD SERIES FINALS

2011-10-11T15:58:00.000+01:00

First of all, the quality of squash was so high between these two at this match (Round Robin). I had the luck to be there at the Queens Club that evening, and apparently this best-of-three-games format liberated the players mind (knowing that in three games there will be no stamina issues, so one can go for all right from the word go and for all the duration of the match). The other great thing about this event - the 2010 World Series Finals - was the colour and lighting settings; squash has never looked as good both on the screen and in the flesh. I've been waiting for long that PSA understands that squash courts need to be dark in order to see well the tiny white ball; the pink-brownish color of the court was elegant and friendly for the eyes, the lighting was dramatic, just like in a good theater (spectators are sitting in the dark). A shame the tent had to collapse the night before the finals (which would have been a repetition of the Matthew-Shabana match in the round robin stage). Just last weekend however Nick and Amr were allowed to meet in the final of the 2011 US Open, but Matthew being slightly diminished physically, had no chance against mighty Shabana and lost 3:1.

WEEKEND BAGATELLE VIII.: HITTING THE OTHER CHAP'S FACE: DAVID PALMER vs. JONATHON POWER

2011-10-08T10:27:00.000+01:00

Poor Jonathon Power! He has revolutionized the game of squash (deception, extra-compact backswing), but he was for some reason (maybe for that reason) not always welcome by the fellow players. You remember I guess the weekend bagatelle from a few weeks back when Ahmed Barada kicked him in the leg; this time, even though without any intention, it was David Palmer to hit him brutally in the eye with his after-swing. If JP has introduced the compact backswing and the the extra sliced shots into the game of squash, then Palmer is definitely a representative of the old school at least in regard of his extra long and round after-swing and the almost top-spin like backhand drives.

THE MAN WHO LIKES TO GO THE WRONG WAY: MIGUEL ANGEL RODRIGUEZ

2011-10-06T17:06:00.000+01:00

Finally I have found some footage about one of my favorites from outside the top20 on the PSA tour; Miguel Angel Rodriguez, probably the quickest person on earth on 5 or 10 meters, by the way a lovely squash player with a particular type of deception in his shots and a funny Gaultier- or crab-like lateral movement. Well, as we said, he's got definitely the quickest feet on the tour (yes, quicker than Gregory Gaultier or Aamir Atlas Khan) and he is also a clean striker. So why is he stuck outside the top20? Probably because back in his home country Colombia he lacks serious training partners. For me, this guy should come to the UK, and under the guidance of the likes of Peter Genever for example he could easily become top10 if not top5. So which are his weak points? Definitely his reading of the game. He often goes the wrong way, even though he almost seams to like to go the wrong way to exploit his hilarious speed. He is the only player on the tour to make on a constant basis 360 degree turns (like in the current video at 0:48 and like I've had the luck to observe in the flesh at the 2010 London Open; once there he was even doing it on the volley, and fellow PSA player Joe Lee who sat next to me said that this would have been the greatest shot ever if it hadn't hit the tin...) Once we said, that what distinguishes Amr Shabana from the other dive-kings on the tour (John White, David Palmer) is his ability to get up after a dive. Well, have a look at Rodriguez' get up at 0:22, and you will probably agree that Shabana is only number two in this respect.

2011 US OPEN, ANOTHER SUPERB DIVE AND TOUCH: WAEL EL HINDI vs. AMR SHABANA

2011-10-04T10:09:00.000+01:00

It's not the first time that Wael El Hindi is showing his exceptional touch and balance by playing a drop shot on the run, behind his body on the backfoot! This time add to the bill that he was just recovering from a dive in order to lob back a good faded drop by Amr Shabana. EL Hindi, in general might not be at the levels of a Ramy or a Shabana, but in this respect - playing drops from behind his body - he is probably the greatest on the PSA tour. Without looking specifically for the subject, we've already had previously three other similar solution by El Hindi here on the no-let blog, check'em out in this video at 0:33, in another one at 0:37, and in this one at 1:02. But don't try this at home!

WEEKEND BAGATELLE VII.: FAIR PLAY AT ITS BEST: JAMES WILLSTROP vs. PETER BARKER

2011-10-01T10:03:00.000+01:00

This is not a very special rally from a squash quality point of view. However we include it in our blog as it shows a very rare moment of an extreamly high level of fair play: James Willstrop overrules a 'let' decision against himself and concedes the point to Peter Barker. I've been watching now pro squash for a few years but I do not remember to have ever seen a similar situation. Hats off to James, really! It's another question that, even in the heat of a live pro match, how the hell could come to any referee's mind to give a 'let' in this situation? James then, in the rally that follows, shows his other great quality: his incredible touch, that allows him to play probably the best deep backhand drop on the tour.

LIKE AN INVISIBLE MAN ON THE COURT: JAMES WILLSTROP vs. RAMY ASHOUR

2011-09-23T09:29:00.002+01:00

It's a shame we don't have the outcome of this rally, but that behind-the-body shot by James Willstrop at 0:18 itself makes it a must for the blog. Extra pleasure to listen to the commentator's amazement in the box. Another thing to note: I often observed that Ramy Ashour, whilst running and stretching towards the front, in extreme situations puts his hand down to the ground in order to help to keep his balance, just as you can see it in this rally at 0:15.

WEEKEND BAGATELLE VI.: NO COMMENT

2011-09-18T08:40:00.000+01:00

At first sight this video seams a simple demonstration of Hisham Ashour's exceptional touch (and nerves, as he was finding the nick at game ball down). If you keep watching the video after the end of the rally you will hear Hisham shouting towards the referee, and this is why we included it in our 'Weekend Bagatelle" section. Then in the replay even the reason of the shouting becomes clear: Peter Barker deliberately hit Hisham's hand whilst the latter was looking the get the ball from him. No comment.

WEEKEND BAGATELLE V.: NASTY SQUASH, AHMED BARADA vs. JONATHON POWER

2011-09-10T16:27:00.001+01:00

That's pretty much the worst in terms of ugliness I've ever seen on a squash court (to be fair am only following squash in the last five years) and I know in the eighties-nineties sportsmanship was on a total different level compared to today. Well, what happened there? Ahmed Barada, whilst running and stretching into the front right corner to recover a drop shot, simply decided to kick with his back-foot into Jonathon Power's leg. You wouldn't believe it if you wouldn't see it.

DON'T RUN, WALK! II.: ONG BENG HEE

2011-09-07T09:59:00.000+01:00

It's another debt we are trying to minimize by showing finally some stuff with great player Ong Beng Hee. To be honest, as exquisite it was, that final nonchalant backhand volley into the nick is not that much a main characteristics of his, however, as you can see, under no pressure (6:10 down against the world #1) he is pretty much able to demonstrate his geometrical skills. More significant and characteristic about him is his movement: just as in Azlan Iskandar's case, it's funnily slightly square - but that's just an aesthetic note; more important is his economy: he is basically walking all the way down the rally! We've showed some time back John White doing the same, but he was doing it against a lower ranked player, whereas Beng Hee is doing it against the world #1! It's a one minute rally, with quiet a few short balls and swifts in momentum, and it's Beng Hee's perception/reading of the game that allows him to be that economic. On the other hand, Matthew seams to run all the time, not only because he is mostly dominated in this rally, but apparently also because that kind of dynamism is in his nature; he is also one of the hardest trainers on the tour so he can allow himself to spend more energy on the court than others; and running instinctively to every ball also enables you to be early on the ball which has its obvious advantages. However, if I were allowed to advise one thing to Matthew, then nothing else would come to my mind than telling him to observe and implement at least partially into his game the Beng Hee type of economic movement.

EXQUISITE TOP SPIN VOLLEY WINNER: by KARIM DARWISH

2011-09-05T12:58:00.001+01:00

This is a short few seconds rally, however with a very unorthodox and exquisite shot that you will not find in the books. To understand it better it makes sense to rewind and watch Karim Darwish's previous volley, a lot more conventional one: he hit the ball at service line heights with mid-low pace slice, looking to make it as tight as possible and as dying as possible. In comparison, the winning volley was hit with a totally unconventional top spin pretty low (however without risking to catch the tin); funnily even though it was a full pace shot, the ball died exactly in the back-wall nick, even if that was not necessary as Nick Matthew was going totally the wrong way, due to Darwish turning his upper body in order to fake a cross-court. Also, his backswing/swing was so quick, that it might have indicated a cross-court (straight drives, as they require more accuracy, are executed with slightly slower backswing/swing). Anyway, amazing shot from an amazing wrist as it has already been noticed in other examples too.

NICK AND RAMY KEEP IT ROLLING - AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2011

2011-08-31T09:01:00.000+01:00

After a long break on the tour, the squash elite came back on scene in August in Camberra/Australia. As so often in the last 24 months, it was Nick Matthew and Ramy Ashour to decide about the title. It's been a thrilling 5 gamer, with Ramy coming out fresher and more concentrated in the fifth. Absolutely no doubt, the below rally is good material both for our 'greatest rallies ever' and squash-analytics section. First thing that hits the eye is the speed and quality of some of the retrievings that are out of this cosmos, with probably the most surrealistic one at 0:48 by Ramy after a perfect nasty trickle-boast by Nick, and then the next one at 0:52, again by Ramy after a really good over-head volley-drop by Nick. Second thing to note is the way Ramy plays the cross-court: he turns the bust towards the side-wall and lets the ball slip almost behind himself to fake a straight drive, and indeed Nick is pretty much each time on the wrong foot (most noticeably at 0:22 and 1:04). Last thing I would like to note, even if it might seam a heresy in the middle of a celebration: I think at the last winning volley-drop (at 1:07) Ramy was considerably blocking Nick's path to the ball. The least to say is that the drop was far from being lethal and he cleared the ball in the wrong way. I know Nick was not asking for a 'let' (nor the commentators, Lee Beachill and Paul Johnson were contesting anything), but in my eyes this is only due to Matthew not wanting to spoil such a great rally with a 'let' outcome; I know my theory might sound naive, but I feel Matthew's general attitude (highly professional, conscious and also intellectual) enables him to look at the 'big picture' and sacrifice a point in order to raise the profile of his sport.

FOUR-CORNER SQUASH II.: KARIM DARWISH vs. WAEL EL HINDI

2011-08-18T12:36:00.001+01:00

After our last post with the same two protagonists, here we have another example of 'total' or as I allowed myself to call it: 'four corner' squash, even if the right back corner was only visited once (this is how much they mutually respect each other's forehand). And if in the previous rally Darwish finished it off at full stretch, here he concludes by keeping the arm close to the hip at the moment of impact to enable him to control the drop as much as possible; interestingly this drop was not looking for the nick, Darwish preferred to find the front-side-wall angle to make the ball bounce quickly twice on the ground. He had to play this drop with a pretty fast swing, and it was the angle's task to brake the speed of the ball and make it bounce quickly twice in a row close to the front-wall. Last time Darwish maintained control and pace whilst flicking the wrist, in the current example he could hold the wrist firm all the way down of his swing for this drop winning shot (it was the 8th drop in this 40 second rally!)

FOUR-CORNER SQUASH I.: KARIM DARWISH vs. WAEL EL HINDI

2011-08-15T14:06:00.000+01:00

If we've said that one of the most entertaining pairings in the current pro squash circuit is composed by Ramy Ashour and James Willstrop, then closely after them follow Karim Darwish with Wael El Hindi. You might remember an earlier example of hilarious attacking/retrieving squash by them, here we now another rally where they make each other visit all four corners of the court a couple of times within those 50 seconds. In the current sample I would specially like to point out Karim Darwish's wrist. We've talked a lot about his extremely compact backswing that enables him to hit any shot from any position without allowing the opponent to anticipate it; however, normally the compact backswing involves decreased power/pace. So how come Darwish can still hit the ball so hard notwithstanding the lack of momentum of the arm? The only explanation I can see is his wrist, the extreme stiffness of his wrist in the moment of hitting the ball in any position of the racket. As it can be seen, he is able to handle that wrist even in such extreme situations like at the last shot: he still managed to deploy power and total accuracy in a situation where he had to use an extreme flick of the wrist. "Well, that's what they call the Egyptian wrist" - says the commentator, Robert Edwards. Well, yes, Karim Darwish disposes of a pretty complete package in terms of an ideal squash arm: compactness, power and touch.

DOUBLE FAKE, THE CORRECT WAY: JAMES WILLSTROP vs. THIERRY LINCOU

2011-08-08T10:59:00.000+01:00

In our last post we've had a slightly over-confused double fake by Amr Shabana, here we have James Willstrop showing the most classic way to employ it correctly right after a highish counter-drop; after a good drop your opponent digs deep to 'grab out' a counter drop, he is still about to get back from his lounge when you threaten with a big swing and a quick fake swing-through to hit a hard cross-court kill; that makes him stuck or even move back slightly and that's enough for you to execute quiet securely a second drop.On club level you might expect it to be a winner straight off, pros like Lincou might get there again to scrap the ball off the ground, but without the time to recover your next winning shot (volley in the below case). The point is to employ the double fake only when the ball (and both you and your opponent) are pretty close to the front-wall, I think.

DOUBLE FAKEING YOURSELF: AMR SHABANA vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

2011-07-21T14:05:00.001+01:00

It has been said a few times, the great thing about Amr Shabana is the mixture, the perfect balance of keeping it simple and being tricky at the right times. However, sometimes it can happen even to the greats that they become confused with themselves, just as it happens to Shabana in the below rally at 0:30. He employs a double fake, I guess as a variation to avoid to proceed to the more usual holding of the shot or just taking the ball as early as possible (which both are better solutions than the double fake when your opponent is so close to you I think).Anyway, some mess will always come with creativity, you just have to make sure that their number remains restricted.

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THE RAMY ASHOUR MASTERPIECE IN 2011 NEW YORK TOC

2011-07-19T08:34:00.002+01:00

This one is one of my favourite one-sided matches ever. Ramy Ashour in general is probably the best thing that could ever happen to squash, but this semi-final match against James Willstrop at the 2011 TOC in New York Grand Central Station was probably his most outrageous masterpiece he has ever created (If you have a subscription with PSA Squash TV then you can watch it in the 'Replay' section). Beating the world #4 in about 30 minutes tells in itself the story. And don't think James was injured or played badly. Not at all. It's just that Ramy was more on fire than ever before, probably because he just had behind him a long and frustrating injury and recovery time and even against David Palmer in the previous round (with the shot of the century!) he seamed to be careful and hesitating at the start. Ramy probably felt euphoric not feeling any pain or fear for the first time after long. What ever the reason was, here we have the last three rallies. I just find it so intriguing when all four corners of the court are being used, when all kinds of pace (slow-fast) and trajectories (high-low) are employed in an embarrassing variety and when players are not afraid to go for the geometrically most risky solution: sending the ball into the nick. Add to this an exceptionally high level of sportsmanship (keeping playing when others might stop is search for a 'Stroke'), the direct and honest expression of admiration by the opponent (the mutual clapping after the first and second rally) and the warm friendly hug at the end. You just can't pretend to ask more than that form the phenomenon called squash, can you?

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WEEKEND BAGATELLE IV.: THIS, A LET? JAMES WILLSTROP vs. PETER BARKER

2011-07-10T09:40:00.001+01:00

If two weekend earlier's 'bagatelle', with Shabana and Willstrop, had a funny but probably right 'Let' outcome, the current one is a sample of exemplary bad refereeing. The decision is even worse knowing that for the first time in squash history, a challenging system with video replay was employed (what a great thing though). Should have been simple: there was minimal if any interference, Willstrop was not blocking or clearing in the wrong way, Barker had straight access to the ball, he didn't raise his hand for a 'let' at or before the moment of the minimal interference (exactly because he knew it was only a 'minimal interference'), he went through and was ready to play and chose not to do so because of the quality and tightness of Willstrop's faded drop. One or two of the above mentioned would already be enough for a 'No Let!', but if all of the above mentioned points are applicable, then there should be no question - also because cheap 'Lets' damage the profile of the game. Otherwise, congratulations to Peter Barker, this was his first ever win against Willstrop.

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HOW TO FINISH OFF A MATCH: RAMY ASHOUR vs. GREGORY GAULTIER

2011-07-07T11:54:00.001+01:00

You can't finish off a tight five-gamer (or just any match) more stylish than that, can you. And the amazing thing is that Ramy was definitely going for the nick-boast as everything else would have put him under huge pressure (even if we know that he doesn't mind allowing his opponents to get in front of him). Concerning the Ramy-Gaultier story of the last couple of years, as incredible as it sounds, before their last encounter in Hurghada this year - which was won by Ramy 3:0 - their five previous matches went all to five, with each time Ramy coming out as the winner. If you have a subscription on PSA Squash TV I suggest to watch their quarter final match at this years North American Open (where the below rally is from), last year's final at the Hong Kong Open, their semi final at the Australian Open and mostly their 2010 quarter final match at the TOC in New York.

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FROM THE BEST DIVES SERIES: AMR SHABANA vs. RAMY ASHOUR

2011-07-05T09:18:00.005+01:00

The overall dive kings are David Palmer and John White, but close after them comes Amr Shabana. In one respect Shabana is clearly superior to Palmer and White: his aptitude of standing up after the dive. I guess being shorter helps in this respect, but even taking this into account the athleticism factor - the speed of getting back to his feet - of the below recovery is hilarious.

WEEKEND BAGATELLE III.: YES LET, CONDUCT STROKE... WARNING... THAT'S FINE!

2011-07-03T09:39:00.000+01:00

If these two, Barker and Matthew were not the good mates they are, I could have imagined some more upset reactions from the guy who has been pushed. Just translate this situation into, let's say, a Palmer-Power, or Ricketts-Power context... Matthew argues funnily and intelligently with the referee just to clear the misunderstanding. He did not want to lose a point (conduct stroke) but was totally fine with a conduct warning. As a prologue let's mention that Matthew ended up losing this match, which ended also his incredible 6 months-long winning streak. After match ball, in his frustration, he threw his racket brutally into the glass-wall. I guess if there is a moment Matthew would have the power of cancelling from his squash-past, that one would figure high in the list.

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WRONGFOOTING RAMY ASHOUR: MOHAMED EL SHORBAGY

2011-06-28T08:43:00.000+01:00

We've had so many examples with Ramy intercepting beyond reason, here for once he's been taken on the wrong foot. To achieve it El Shorabgy bended extremely and played the ball relatively late, close to his body. Such preparation generally suggests a drop, and as you do not stretch your arm to hit the ball, you can relatively easily flick the wrist late and go suddenly for a cross-court. So even if some coaches teach in general to stay away from the ball and to hit it as early as possible, to add a higher deception factor to your game, you might rather chose to allow the ball close and hide it with your body. This way you will hold the shot and have more options (creating more uncertainty to your opponent) and also more control if you chose to go for the drop. Of course, to increase even more your deception factor, it makes sense to hit the ball at times also early and straight forward without any deception. Just like in chess, you look to drive your opponent crazy, and to do so, you have to keep being unpredictable.

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WEEKEND BAGATELLE II.: STROKE, LET, NO LET - AMR SHABANA vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

2011-06-26T12:17:00.000+01:00

The three referee system was definitely a wise thing to introduce to such a quick sport as squash. Three pair of eyes see more than one and the players are disabled to argue with one person - it's a committee they are facing. Situations like the below one - where the three referees make three different decisions - show the complexity of the referees' job. There are so many borderline decisions to make, therefore one of the most important principles is consistency. However, in the current case in my opinion the borderline was more between 'Let' or 'No Let', even if Willstop's shot was loosish, but it was way too fast and Shabana reacted too late to get a 'Stroke'. Funny acceptance of this funny situation both by Shabana who counts by name the different decisions and by Willstrop who notes somewhat sourly: "All different".

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LOW PACED HIGH BALLS: RAMY ASHOUR vs. MOHAMED EL SHORBAGY

2011-06-23T14:09:00.000+01:00

You will definitely like the final trademark backhand volley into the nick by Ramy. But observe also the heights and the low pace of his shots in the early part of the rally. His first six shots are all lob-like, El Shorbagy either has no chance to volley it at all or can volley it only behind the service box without much harm. Lobbing the ball constantly will also make your opponent's 'T' position push back by a few feet, which is beneficial once you decide to go short. I remember Nick Matthew, when he had that unbeaten streak for a six months span in the first part of 2010, the only guy who made him doubt for a game and a half was Mohammed Abbas at the North American Open, employing exactly these tactics.

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CRAZY ANGLED TRICKLE BOAST: AMR SHABANA vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

2011-06-21T13:16:00.000+01:00

The greatness of Amr Shabana consists in the mixture of simplicity and high creativity. We've been saying this already a couple of times: creativity and deception supposes you have also a steady basic game, otherwise your tricks will not work. Shabana is a master of both, and when you expect the trick, you'll get just a tough and tight basic length, whereas when you expect the basic length, you'll get unseen shots, just like this very rare angled crazy trickle boast. Observe it, remember it and employ it - not in every game though, not even in every match, but once in every 2-3 matches it might serve I guess - but only after having played already deep from the same position a couple of times earlier in the match. Extra note: it's funny that Shabana teaches a trickle-boast angle to James Willstrop, the master of trickle-boasts himself.

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WEEKEND BAGATELLE I. - FUNNY SELF-PARODY: DAVID PALMER vs. GREGORY GAULTIER

2011-06-19T13:07:00.000+01:00

WEEKEND BAGATELLE is a new series at No Let!, showing humorous or just strange situations from the pro squash circuit. Eventually we could have started with our previous post where John White produced that funny little scare to Gregory Gaultier. As for now: well, as far as I can judge, the majority of club players cheer for Shabana, Jonathon Power, Ramy, John White and Thierry Lincou. I've hardly ever heard that David Palmer would be someone's favourite player. I think people also look at sports as circus, and Palmer's personal appeal lacks maybe some charm. Well, myself I am almost a fan of his squash, of his steadiness, mental strength, shot selection, but one thing has always disturbed me: his clearing after playing drop shots. A part from Anthony Ricketts and El Hindi, nobody blocks that much tendentiously in this situation. The below rally is a perfect demonstration of this, with the funny addition that Palmer, realizing maybe that he really exaggerated the blocking this time, thought it might have been useful to emphasize his action even after Gaultier was calling for 'let'. I guess Palmer intended to demonstrate his opponents behaviour, but instead - as Gaultier is all but a blocker - he ended up doing a slightly absurd self-parody.

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A LITTLE SCARE: JOHN WHITE vs. GREGORY GAULTIER

2011-06-17T10:56:00.000+01:00

It's been always a pleasure to watch John White on court, as well for the quality and high entertainment factor of the squash as for the human aspects. He never refused any opportunity to make some fun; the below joke was slightly scary, as you don't want to be hit by anyone, and surely not by one of the hardest hitters ever. However, even the scared opponent, Gaultier appreciated the joke. We might appreciate the sportsmanship spirit even more knowing that all this happens in the middle of a main tournament, at 5:6 in the deciding fifth game! As far as I know the history of squash, it's been John White to introduce this kind of relaxed, funny and friendly attitude on court. And to become world #1 with this attitude deserves the highest ratings of our appreciation.

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PREPARING THE RACKET FOR THE VOLLEY

2011-06-16T15:44:00.001+01:00

Some time ago we've already featured a rally with Adrian Grant and Aamir Atlas Khan as a demonstration of the difference of high and low-elbowed racket-preparation. This time I refer to the bellow rally mostly because of what Peter Barker is explaining in the commentary box. He is reproaching Grant's racket-preparation not in technical but rather in tactical terms. He is saying that instead of looking to keep the racket-head in front of him in search for a volley he immediately positions the racket backwards. I feel this point is very true and concerns not only Adrian but in general the old-school British attitude (except Matthew and Willstrop of course). How many times do we see mediocre cross-courts that the player lets pass himself to hit it then off the re-bounce from the back-wall. Looking for the volley does not mean looking for cheap winners, you are welcome to hit it deep if you feel it's not time to go short, but if you have the opportunity to volley a ball just do it, it will take away time from your opponent, which means less recovery for his body between two shots and more uncertainty about where the ball goes as from the 'T' where you volley you have definitely more options than from the back of the court. As the volley is often a reaction-shot, without time or necessity for a back-swing, a firm wrist will help the precision of your shot. Therefore - to follow Peter Barker's suggestions - it makes sense to keep the wrist already cocked when the racket is in front of you whilst you wait for your opponents shot.

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TOM AND JERRY: RAMY ASHOUR vs. AAMIR ATLAS KHAN

2011-06-08T10:22:00.001+01:00

Amr Shabana, Nick Matthew, Karim Darwish, Gregory Gaultier. And a bit back in time probably David Palmer, Thierry Lincou, Anthony Ricketts - these are the players Ramy Ashour has/had to give it his all to beat them. (And James Willstrop? Well, even though he has lost to him at a few occasions, in general Ramy looks deeply relaxed against James, just as at their last PSA meeting in New York this year January, where Ramy produced one of his most outrageous masterpieces in about only 30 minutes). But then, outside the top10, he just plays cat and mouse with his opponents. He just knows where the shot goes before his opponent plays the shot. And this is particularly amusing against someone as quick as Aamir Atlas Khan. No disrespect to Aamir - one of the quickest feet ever to run over a squash court - but there as very little he can do against the magician; as little as Alister Walker could in this older example.

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FROM THE DYING LENGTH SERIES II.: RAMY ASHOUR

2011-05-25T16:30:00.000+01:00

It's nice to have an opportunity to point out that Ramy is not just all about attacking; he's got amazing defensive skills and he is one of the best if not the best in knowing how much 'weight' to give to the shot to make it die in the back corner. We've already had a similar sample from Ramy, that time on the volley and against El Hindi who got so frustrated after the rally. But let's start from the beginning. At 0:03, Ramy's service return volley-drop was very loose - but this is exactly what I have already pointed out so many times: the top Egyptian guys don't have to worry about the quality of their short balls as their perception/reading of the opponents' shots (when being behind them) has developed to immensely high standards due to incorporating relevant drills into their training regime from the very early junior ages. As weak as Ramy's first drop-attempt was, as incredible was how quickly he got to James Willstrop's excellent counter-drop at 0:05. And then at 0:07 - after James's excellent deep and low cross-court kill-attempt - he made sure to hit his defensive boast in a way that it rebounced around mid-court - (when you are stuck in the back you will always look for the boast that lands high in the middle of the court as this will give you time to get back to the 'T' and less options to your opponent to play a quick drop whist you are still in the back-corner of the court). Then at 0:14, after a few mutually loosish shots, comes the perfect dying backhand length from Ramy: good width (so that the opponent can not volley it) and fantastically controlled speed and height (in one word: weight) of the ball to make sure that second bounce stacks in the back corner. Interesting to note that this shot was played almost exactly from where James himself likes to play his very deceptive deep trickle-boasts'.

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GAINING COMPOSURE: NICK MATTHEW vs. RAMY ASHOUR

2011-05-19T10:35:00.000+01:00

This is a rally from that famous last match of 2009 in Saudi Arabia which decided who would replace Karim Darwish as the new world #1 in the 2010 January rankings. Beyond the entertainment factor I am referring to this rally for the following reason: according to the Nick Matthew that could have been seen in the last 12 months, I feel like the one shown in the below video is slightly less composed and slightly more hectic in his racquet preparation. I am referring to nuances, but we all know how much the tiniest detail can make the difference, probably in squash more than in any other sport. And especially if you gain general composure, that can allow you to stay calmer and more focused on the court, hence react and think better. However I don't know if the current, more composed Matthew is due to the fact that he has matured mentally or if he became mentally stronger because of the gained composure? Anyway, I find it very remarkable when someone can improve and adjust his game at a relative late stage of his carrier and on the very top of the scale. It's not that he became top20 after having been stuck in the top30, no: he boosted his game, at the age of thirty, to become from an established top5 player the world #1. And on top of that, according to his recent interviews, he is planning to stay there for a couple of years. And indeed, it seams that there is only one guy who could interfere into this project: the one who plays that delicate counter-drop at the end of the below rally.

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NO LET! Post Nr.100 - PRAISING JONATHON POWER

2011-05-10T14:26:00.000+01:00

There's unfortunately too little to find about Jonathon Power in an acceptable resolution on YouTube. But even the mediocre image quality does not disable us to appreciate his genius in the below rally. I've pointed out in the past a few times how effective Karim Darwish's extremely compact racquet preparation is in terms of generating deception. Well, the inventor and godfather of the compact backswing was indeed Jonathon Power. Observe how close he keeps the elbow all the time to the hip, you never know if he is going for a drive, a boast or a drop, therefore the opponent is so often wrongfooted, just like Amr Shabana at 0:56. But there's more to observe here, for exemple the concluding backhand drop: even though Shabana was far in the diagonal back corner, knowing his speed, Power made sure to raise the racket head high enough to threaten with a drive or cross-court which made Shabana stuck at the 'T'; as this example shows it too, compact racket preparation does not mean that the racquet head is not up! And the third thing that is pretty apparent in this rally, is in fact the other famous weapon of Power: the faded kill into the sidewall, you can see it at 0:14, 0:16 and at 0:37 on the volley; it's not a real kill, as played only with half-pace and a lots of cut to make sure that the ball does not bounce off much the sidewall. In general terms it's interesting that Power often hits even the drives not too deep, bouncing around the top end of the service box; he wants to avoid the overhit drive that rebounces off the backwall and gives plenty of time to the opponent to hit the ball, he is rather obsessed with making the opponent scrapping off the ball from the sidewall. To put it in one sentence: the great stuff about Power's game is that it's a very intense mixture of shot-making and preparative shots - and on top of that, due to the uniform compact racquet preparation, you never know which one to await.

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THE VOLLEY LOB: by RAMY ASHOUR

2011-05-05T14:13:00.001+01:00

The volley lob, in certain situations, is one of the best preparative shots to force the loose shot from your opponent. At 0:15 there was already an excellent traditional lob played in the right front corner by Nick Matthew that forced a desperate loose over-the-head cross-court volley from Ramy Ashour, but Matthew couldn't convert it as his volley drop was of poor quality. Four shots later at 0:23 comes that wonderful volley lob played from the left service box. Note that Ramy's previous volley was straight and hard as he found the ball pretty low at that moment. Whereas when he played the volley lob he found the ball at a similar spot of the court but way higher than the previous one. Why didn't Ramy go then for his trademark volley-nick? Because Matthew's shot was not loose and Ramy could hit the ball only from behind himself; and this can be set almost as a general rule: you want to lift the ball when you hit it on the backfoot.

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ECONOMY OF MOVEMENT: SHAHIER RAZIK vs. CHRIS RYDER

2011-05-03T15:16:00.000+01:00

We've said a couple of times that there might be more to learn (to be copied) from the pros outside the top5 or top10 for the club player. Movement-wise, in terms of economy of movement, there are few guys out there more efficient than Shahier Razik. The below video, filmed from a great angle behind the front wall (I wish psasquashtv would use this angle a bit more often in its live coverages) demonstrates really well Razik's impeccable smoothness and balance. Before the last step or lounge his steps are not only light-footed but also rather tiny, as this allows him to adjust easier in the search of the right path and distance when going towards the ball. The other thing to be noted beyond movement is his patience and intelligence: the shot-selection is almost always a percentage shot, avoiding the risk of unforced errors. Of course, this conservativeness might also be a complaint towards his game in terms of lack of spectacularity, but once again, I am rather an admirer of his deep backhand drops that is probably the only really attacking shot he employs to initiate. On the other hand, let's don't forget his opponent, Chris Ryder, a very good all-rounder himself, the only technical concern I would dare to observe is that his upper body position is way too upright. Based on the examples furnished by the likes of Matthew, Lincou or Willstrop, you are supposed to bend the knee and the upper body not only at the moment of hitting the ball, but even whilst waiting for it: this way, your first step will be more efficient, and I guess you will agree that in squash the gain of any split of a second might be decisive in search of hitting the most efficient possible next ball.

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OUT OF NOWHERE: JOHN WHITE

2011-04-30T09:15:00.000+01:00

As John White hits a couple of loose balls here and there (as a result of over-pacing the ball), I was rather concentrating on David Palmer, who keeps it as steady and disciplined as ever... And then, out of nowhere, from a slightly overhit lob that rebounced directly from the backwall, there you are, that incredible backhand kill from around the service box. The racket-head speed is phenomenal, and interestingly, in opposition to some coaching thesis that teach to hit the ball as far away as possible from your body, White, at the point of touching the ball kept his elbow pretty near to his hip. Based on my observations of the very best players, I always accentuate that if you keep your swing tight there will be more deception too your shots. And indeed, Palmer realized where the ball went more or less at the second dead bounce of the ball.

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DON'T RUN, WALK: JOHN WHITE vs. JONATHAN KEMP

2011-04-27T12:11:00.001+01:00

Not to be copied, that's what we've said about great John White a few posts ago. This time even though I would love to encourage anybody (myself first) to copy what he does - he is basically walking instead of running out there - but am afraid very few people can achieve this exceptional level of anticipation, a mixture of deep rooted knowledge of squash and extra fast perception. And White is not doing it against an average talented club player in an exhibition match, but against another pro, the ever solid top20-top30 player Jonathon Kemp (a mystery why never have been ranked higher). After this rally White was leading 1:0 in games and 7:4 in the second. Based on the cat and mouse type of difference that this rally is demonstrating, I guess you will be surprised to hear that Kemp, after being 2:0 down in games, came back to two-all, and finally lost only 11:7 in the fifth. But this is how squash is: just always slightly more complicated and more unpredictable than one could guess.

THE MAGIC OF JOHN WHITE

2011-04-26T08:50:00.000+01:00

Okay, you surely remember the famous rally that followed this one in the quarter finals of the 2008 Tournament of Champions; it was probably one of the greatest rallies ever, John White being 2:1 and 10:9 match ball down against Gregory Gaultier. White looked so 'winded' (as David Palmer said it in the commentary box) and had so much to recover before saving his life with a cross kill hit from out of balance. So here we have the previous rally, Gregory Gaultier with his first match ball, and if you have a look at this one, your amazement and appreciation of the big man will surely only grow. Saving a match ball with a crazy rally might happen, but with two crazy and high quality rallies in a row is really rare. In opposition to that other famous rally, White was most of the time dominating/attacking here (I feel like Gaultier was even provoking White with deliberately not hitting good lengths at 0:25, 0:29 and 0:31) but White was patient enough and came out with the magic shot, the cross volley-kill into the nick, at the very best of times.

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(FAIR)PLAYING THE BALL II.: RAMY ASHOUR vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

2011-03-23T12:56:00.000Z

One of squash's problem is that the beauty and the enjoyment factor of the game depends - beyond the physical and logical skills of the player - also on their fairness level. I am not only thinking of blocking, but also and mainly of 'fishing', when a player stops in search for a cheap stroke. I am not going to cite negative examples here, I rather prefer to have a look at a positive one, at one of the fairest pairings on the tour, Ramy Ashour against James Willstrop. The last winning mid-court trickle-boast was such a generous thing to play from Ramy - I don't mean generous to James, but generous to the sport itself and to the spectators.

PLAYING THE BALL EVEN IF YOUR PATH IS PARTLY BLOCKED: RAMY ASHOUR

2011-03-17T14:11:00.000Z

An excellent example to demonstrate that often it makes sense to keep going for the shot even if there's more than minimal contact (in other words: your opponent blocks or let's say so: clears in a doubtful way). Of course, strong and fast legs needed, as you might have to make one more quick step and lounge longer and deeper, and you still need to keep the balance to have an effective control of your shot. You also might need a strong wrist as you can not really get deception into your shot through a hold back-swing (there's no time for it), so to make your opponent guess the wrong way you might want to hit the ball with a late and quick flick of the wrist, which on club-level is tough I am afraid and even on pro level only the very best can handle it efficiently.

PLAYING THE BALL TO THE BODY: GREGORY GAULTIER

2011-03-14T15:30:00.000Z

A shame this rally had to finish with an error. But there is still a lesson for us to be noted: even if probably Gregory Gaultier's last shot was a miss-hit cross-court that ended up in the middle of the court, it makes sense to play the ball onto the body of the opponent from time to time, and maybe even a bit more often if your opponent is as tall as James Willstrop is in the current case.

HOLDING THE SHOT BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER THE SWING: DAVID PALMER

2011-03-10T10:16:00.001Z

In this rally I would like to point out two shots. The first one at 0:06 concerns mostly beginners: David Palmer received the loose ball almost in the middle of the court and hit a straight kill off his forehand; to allow his opponent to get to the ball, he avoided to end his after-swing on the other side of his body and kept instead his arm and racket still above his head. It wasn't just generosity from Palmer's side, as his shot was really efficient, it was absolutely in his interest to keep this rally going and not to give his opponent the chance to appeal for a 'let' due to having been hit by a presumed 'exagerated' afterswing. The second shot to be mentioned, at 0:11, is a fine detail for more advanced players: watch the hold of the shot as Palmer prepares his volley. It's this subtle retarding that makes his opponent, Ramy Ashour change direction and stuck for a split of a second in the middle of the court awaiting a volley drop, therefore the long dying length could be played with more probability of success (not to mention if you play it as precise into the side-wall nick as Palmer does in this case).

WHEN EVERY SHOT MAKES SENSE: THIERRY LINCOU

2011-03-07T09:33:00.001Z

A lovely rally from 2007 with Thierry Lincou still near to his top form and speed. If in my previous post I said that often it's better not to aim to copy the top players, then he is the living contradiction of that thesis: anything he does you are welcome to try to copy, movement, shot-preparation, shot-selection, anything. Watch this rally, every single shot has a purpose and except maybe one or two they are all executed with a very high accuracy level. Let's have a look at them one by one.
0:04 off a very good serve from Ramy it was a tough-to-play and very good defensive high tracked response that caught the side-wall sufficiently deep to get out of trouble.
0:08 fantastic deep drop, totally unattended by Ramy
0:11 faking a cross-court kill with a big swing to hit a straight drop that Ramy just managed to scrap off the angle
0:14 a great 'invisible' cross-court off an uncomfortable situation as Ramy's save came right in the middle of the front-wall and Lincou had to change suddenly his racket-preparation from forehand to backhand - outstanding wrist work too (this one will be tough to copy though for us;)
0:16 great forehand kill faded into the side-wall, however Ramy replies excellently with a wide and deep ball that nearly stacks around the middle of the back-wall
0:19 Lincou manages to avoid to get under pressure by replying with - instead of a conservative high and deep straight drive - a risky but very well executed cross-court that made Ramy twist and turn (into defense again)
0:21 excellent volley played from very low and dying almost in the left back corner
0:23 very advanced 'T' position to hit a deep cross-court volley, not a prefect one but still sufficient to keep Ramy under pressure
0:25 exquisite reaction volley drop, observe his impeccable balance
0:27 very similar to the 0:14 shot, Lincou again had to swap from forehand to backhand near to the front-wall in the middle; he holds the shot and choses this time to play it straight - again a considerable wrist flick included
0:29 the first time Lincou misses a shot in this rally, he had time to prepare for the shot, but the straight drive ended up having a poor length. He was lucky that Ramy's counterattack was even poorer.
0:32 he won't hit two bad shots in a row, so there you are with an immaculate drive faded into the side-wall around service-box depth
0:34 perfect width and depth at this cross-court
0:37 and here comes the second slightly weaker shot that costs him the rally; the volley drop is not soft/short enough and also a bit loose off the side-wall to allow Ramy to counterattack.
0:39 even going down in a spectacular split was not sufficient to save Ramy's trademark cross-drop and the rally was lost. Still what a demonstration of accuracy from Thierry, and of retrieving and genius by Ramy who didn't ask more than twice to win a rally where in 90% of the time he was clearly dominated.

NOT TO BE COPIED: JOHN WHITE

2011-03-04T13:31:00.000Z

Interestingly sometimes there is more to be learned from the secondary professionals as they are more conventionally composed movement and racket-technique wise as some of the top guys. One to be fully enjoyed, but not recommended to be copied is good old John White (whose legendary dive, by the way, initiated the existence of this blog). I am of course not talking about his game spirit (which was great: profoundly fair and funny at the same time) but mainly about his movement which could be described as slightly lazy (compared to the other top pros of course). He was pretty upright, he didn't bend the knee a lot as he didn't like to put a lot of weight on the forefoot, which resulted in that famous throwing of the upper body when he was on the stretch to get to a ball. But then again, who else can come up with an angle as the one on his final shot in the below rally. John was a great mixture of intensity and nonchalance and definitely one of the greatest entertainers of the previous generation next to Jonathon Power.

THE CASE PETER BARKER

2011-02-28T10:37:00.005Z

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that the shot that James Willstrop is missing - and that contributes to disable him to compete for the world #1 spot at the moment - is the volley kill into nick. He finds the nick on the drop shots, but hardly ever replies with the volley kill nick off the serve or even during the rallies when the loose ball comes around the service box around shoulder heights (he was finally trying though last weak with contained success against Martin Knight at the 2011 North American Open). Don't take me wrong, James is a highly creative player who, a part that missing shot, is pure joy to watch - nobody plays the deep drop better than him for example, and maybe even his backhand trickle boast off around the service box area is one if not the best on the circuit. Add to this an ultra fast racket preparation on the backhand side that enables him to volley very efficiently or play the ball in situations where most players would ask for a let.
Peter Barker is a different case. The question is not yet if he can make it to the world #1 spot, but rather if he can break into the top5. He's been now in the top10 for four years, peaking for a single month at #6 and usually standing at #8. If you watch psasquashtv, you might have noticed through the chat board that many consider him one of the most boring players to watch. Nevertheless, he's got some great qualities that for us club players must be valuable to observe. First of all, his movement - he's one of the most fluent movers on the tour. In comparison with Nick Matthew's brutal steps, landing generally on his heels, Barker employs more absorption due to landing rather on his toes (this is of course less visible in the below rally playing against Matthew as he has to do an awful lots of work to stay in the rally). If he seems to be a lot more 'lost' on the court against the top players compared to Matthew, this is due to the speed of perception and the reading of the game - factors in which Matthew is on the top of the scale, whereas Barker not. The other main positive of Barker's game is the quality of his basic strikes - as with the movement, racket preparation and the basic strokes are just pure and harmonic, close to perfect. The third positive is evident: his fitness level and his body strength are spot on, nobody can ask for more (there might be still an edge to progress his leg speed though).
Now to the weaker points. We already mentioned the reading of the game, but this is something that gets better with experience, so we might expect progression in this factor in the coming years.The second, and maybe main default is definitely his touch. His drops are lacking confidence and he struggles to find the right angles when he goes for the nick. But not being a natural talent shouldn't discourage, Nick Matthew's example proved it clearly, this is something that you can improve dramatically if you force it enough at training. And I do believe that Barker is finally aware of this, and started to focus on it. I was very much impressed with his performance against Matthew at the World Series Finals at the Queens Club in January: he was going short almost as frequently as Matthew himself and the quality was also way better than just a couple of months earlier. And in the below rally too, he plays some good counter-drops out of difficult situations (he does the fatal error though when he had time to prepare at the last shot).
To conclude, I would say that if Barker manages to analyse his weaknesses as coolly and consequently as Nick Matthew does his owns, and if he is keen to keep investing physically all the hard work that is required on this level to rectify them, I would not exclude that in two years time, or maybe earlier, he achieves the level that would allow him to break into the top5. And once you're there, you never know... and also, as said in the last post concerning Daryl Selby, let's remember: British players are often latecomers, they don't let themselves discourage because they are stubborn in the positive sense of the term.

LATECOMERS I. : DARYL SELBY

2011-02-17T09:01:00.004Z

English squash is on a high, Nick Matthew is world #1, James Willstrop is a pretty constant actor of the world top5, Peter Barker of the world top10 and recently, in the last 18 month it's Daryl Selby who shows incredible improvement both game- and ranking-wise. You might remember that epic rally that Daryl lost to David Palmer - according to the incredible quality of retrieving that can be seen in the below rally, I don't think he ever again would lose a single point from such a situation. I shall come back with some more detailed analysis about his game soon, and Peter Barker shall not be forgotten either as in the last couple of months there are definitely signs that he has understood what are (were) his crucial deficits that did not allow him to compete really with the top guys, but for now just lay back and enjoy the below one!

THE DIVING KING IN ACTION AGAIN: DAVID PALMER vs. WAEL EL HINDI

2011-02-10T11:36:00.000Z

It's definitely a funny collision, but I wonder how could the referee give a 'let' as Wael El Hindi played a great deceptive trickle-boast that made David Palmer go the wrong way and then the ball just came back towards him and El Hindi couldn't play his shot because he was collapsing due to Palmer lying next to him on the ground. Palmer pretends that El Hindi stepped on his foot and this is why he couldn't clear - but that's a poor reasoning as he was lying on the ground hence couldn't have cleared in time anyway. But it has to be said that Palmer is defending his false point a lot more professionally than El Hindi his right point, which means that intellectually he is more accurate and probably that too adds to the difference between a great and a 'just' very good player.

NOT BEING AFRAID OF THE NASTY PLAYER: RAMY ASHOUR vs. ANTHONY RICKETTS

2011-02-08T14:26:00.001Z

Let's talk less technique this time and bit more psychology; anyway, squash is full of psychological aspects as the two players are basically closed within a 'small cube' in which they are constantly very near to each other physically and also because of the very high degree of deception that one has to employ to win points. In the below sample, we have young Ramy Ashour playing furious 'mad max' Anthony Ricketts in early 2007. Ricketts is obviously frustrated with both Ashour's shot-making and retrieving. At certain moments, he expresses his frustration in some really strange manner, like for example that half kick-half flick in the air at 0:15. He is rude with the referee who misses the score and spreads some nasty look towards Ashour, without really looking into his eyes. And what does Ashour do at this point? Nonchalantly asks the referee if he's sure that the score is not the other one? I think this reply is just part of Ashour's natural genius; when someone tries to intimidate you orally or with any type of meta-communication on the court, the worst you can do is to try to counter it in a similar manner. It won't work as it was the other guy who started that 'game' and he will feel that he managed to pull you into his trap. The other wrong solution would be to express your disgust with any type of 'educational' comments - again, he would feel like he managed to derail your concentration and to get under your skin at some degree. A better solution could be just being quiet, make it look as if you wouldn't even perceive his behaviour. But this is risky as you very probably have some thoughts about what he is doing, and repressing them might be counter-productive. So the best solution seams to me the one that Ramy employed: humour and sarcasm; "you are upset, dude, no problem, I still enjoy the game, well I even enjoy that you waste your energy with upsetting yourself more and more, so if you like it, just go on...".

FLYING AROUND THE COURT: ALISTER WALKER vs. WAEL EL HINDI

2011-02-05T13:25:00.001Z

This is a really good example of an extremely attacking and counter-attacking rally (no lobs at all), with a spectacular ending (El Hindi's dive). But in my eyes the most interesting shot was the drop at 0:33. El Hindi was totally out of balance, not only on the back-foot but even on the back-run; according to traditional squash coaching guides, this is a position you are really not supposed to go for a drop, but apparently El Hindi doesn't care that much and made it a speciality of his as he is doing it more often than anyone else and also constantly at a surprisingly high quality. Funnily though, just as it can also be seen in an earlier example (at 1:02), after having created the opening due to this spectacular shot, it is at the next shot where he chooses the wrong direction, in the earlier example going for a useless cross-drop and in the current rally for a wide and hard cross - instead of a straight kill or straight dying length drive. Let's also pay credit to Alister Walker's athletic abilities. His movement might not be as fluid as the top guys' (throwing his upper body whilst lounging slightly John White-like), but he is still as quick as it can get.

THE SHOT OF THE CENTURY: by DAVID PALMER

2011-02-01T08:54:00.000Z

I've already pointed out a couple of times that David Palmer in general doesn't go for the inch-perfect ball, he rather looks to find the angle that makes the ball fade into the side-wall. And it's the same story in the below rally; watch the reaction volley drop at 0:08, the boast at 0:13, the cross drop flick at 0:15 or the counter-drop at 0:17, in each case the ball goes safely way above the tin and fades perfectly into the side-wall making his opponent stretch and cutting his options to return the ball in diverse angles. But then, at the end, there was no other option, after Ashour's lob that stuck near around the middle of the back-wall, he had to go for the inch-perfect shot, and with a shortened grip, David Palmer hit a Ramy Ashour-like crazy poetic deep drop into the nick. The public erupts and Joey Barrington calls it rightly "the shot of the century".

KEEPING THE COMPOSURE: THIERRY LINCOU vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

2011-01-30T16:01:00.000Z

This one is just a great classy rally with the two players who have maybe the most impressive physical commitment towards the game next to Nick Matthew. Thierry Lincou has got maybe the most majestic body language on the PSA tour whereas James Willstrop has got probably the quickest racket-preparation on the backhand side coupled with one of the best reaches on the volley. This match was played early 2009, I was lucky enough to witness it live, and after just having seen these two again a few weeks ago at the Queens Club, it's pretty evident that Thierry Lincou has lost some speed compared to two years ago - nevertheless, his composure is still royal, and a part the top3 he still sticks more than decently with anybody on the tour.Concerning James, he is remarkably strong but struggles to beat Ramy and Nick and I think he will continue to do so as long as he doesn't integrate into his repertoire the volley kill into the nick - a shot that the top three Egyptians - and in the last 12 months also Nick Matthew - use at every loose serve or in other similar situations where the ball comes at shoulder heights around the service box; Willstrop hardly plays this shot, he did one against Ramy in the semis of the Tournament of Champions in New York a few days ago and he was so happy about it - so let's hope that will give him some confidence and he'll integrate this kind of a drill into his training regime, so that he can employ it more often and naturally in match situations.

SQUASH GOING CRAZY: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS 2011 NEW YORK

2011-01-27T10:03:00.003Z

No Let! The Squash Video Blog is generally not about news and actualities, but this time there is no way not to mention this: yesterday's semi-finals at the Tournament of Champions in New York saw two contrasting matches that showed, each in its own way, the absolutely best of squash. In the first encounter, Ramy Ashour created an even for his standards rare and crazy masterpiece, executing the still very well playing world #4 James Willstrop in little more than 30 minutes. There must have been about 20 volley kills into the nick in the three games and, apparently inspired by Ramy, even James, who in general thinks twice before going for it, has found a hilarious one towards the end of the second game - receiving standing ovation both from the crowd and from Ramy. Compared to the outrageous fast pace and surrealistic shot-making of the first semi-final, the second match of the night between squash legend Amr Shabana and current world #1 Nick Matthew offered a steadier and more conventional rhythm, both players waiting patiently for the openings before going for the attack. After a tight first game, Matthew won the second easily and it looked all over after 2:0 to the younger and fitter player. But from there the drama has started, and after facing two match-balls, Shabana equalled it to 2:2. In the below example, look at the precision, the retrieving and the accuracy level that these two were capable of producing after 87 minutes and 11:10 in the fifth game on match-ball. Incredible. So folks, if you don't want to miss the very promising final between the back in form Ramy Ashour and the currently seemingly unbeatable world #1 Nick Matthew, you better stay awake late and get on psasquashtv or bet365 to watch the pinnacle of this beautiful tournament.

RUBBERMAN GREGORY GAULTIER vs. SHOT-HOLDER ADRIAN GRANT

2011-01-25T10:42:00.001Z

In general, pro squash players seam not to have joints, ligaments and tendons, the brutal forces and weights they put on them is just out of the reasonably conceivable. Probably the most flexible and the quickest of all of them is rubber-man Gregory Gaultier. Have a look at that incredible get in the left back corner at 0:14, he was down in a split, lost in between his racket, then picked it up with the left hand, passed it onto the right hand whilst standing up quickly enough to get to the opposite corner in the front, just to being sent back again to the back corner. Absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure there is any other sport that requires that much dynamism and athleticism. Let's don't forget to mention how beautifully Adrian Grant was playing his last three shots. First one would already have been a winner against many players; he did so well not to panic for the drop and at last played another perfect length. Observe the early racket-preparation and the extended hold he employed for the last two drives.

ADJUSTING THE HOLD OF THE GRIP: AMR SHABANA

2011-01-20T09:18:00.000Z

Last week I had the opportunity the watch Amr Shabana live at the World Series Finals at the Queens Club. I knew beforehand that he is often modifying his grip according to the type of shot he is facing, but I wasn't aware that he is doing it basically on every shot (when time allows it of course). It starts with the serve, he is holding the racket grip very high, then whilst waiting the return he swaps it into the conventional position just to readjust it at every single shot. Basically whilst he is waiting for his opponent's shot, his fingers are constantly 'playing' with the racket grip (- maybe also in order to have some 'air-conditioning' where sweat could appear quickly). This way, he adjusts both the heights of the grip and the angle of the racket-head. In general it's not one movement, but two or even three, as for a matter of precision his fingers have to look for the perfect position gradually. It's tough to see that on the screen, but in the below rally there is nice example as he is finishing the rally with a drop into the nick; at first sight it might look as if he was just shaking the racket to deceive an early shot, but in fact the racket was shaken because he was adjusting his fingers around the grip twice to enable him to hold the racket higher as he was in search for total control. Higher grip = more control; lower grip = more pace.

(FAIR)PLAYING THE BALL I.: RAMY ASHOUR vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

2011-01-18T09:38:00.002Z

One of the best spirited pairings on the pro tour is the one between James Willstrop and Ramy Ashour. So few lets, such free-flowing rallies. There would have been so many players other than Ramy (or even Ramy against some other less well-mannered players) stopping and asking for 'let/stroke' at 0:09 or at 0:16, and then it could have been Willstrop's turn at 0:19. But instead they keep playing the ball in the name of fun and fair-play. Another positive thing to mention again is the quality of the video; a main camera following the ball coupled with electrifying sound quality from both on and off-court (with some finely exaggerated echo-effects) make the non-live watching experience so much more enjoyable. Let's hope, psasquashtv transmissions will achieve this level too one day on a constant basis.

AMAZING DEEP DROP by GREGORY GAULTIER

2011-01-13T10:04:00.001Z

The commentators (Nick Matthew amongst them) just pointed out how much work Gregory Gaultier was doing in the previous rally, and he is 0:4 down and again totally dominated by Karim Darwish. So I think this totally unbelievable deep drop shot was more due to lack of breath and desperation than anything else. This is why we might call it genius, he comes out with the most amazing shot at the least possible moment. Talking about Gaultier, I really feel for him concerning his last year. End of 2009 he finally became world number one which made him lay back and lose motivation in the last couple of tournaments of the year. But except his match against Cameron Pilley in February he came back strong in 2010, played great squash just to lose so many times in the decider. He played 13 tournaments, won one, retired in two of them towards the end of the year (both times against Shabana), in the other tournaments he has lost 3:2 seven times out of ten (only against Ramy four times)! The whole year, he won one sole match that went to five (against David Palmer at Canary Wharf). For sure these losses were not due to lack of fitness, they were rather the result of some tough to guess psychological-mental issues combined with bad luck. I really hope he can work on these aspects and jump back strong in 2011 - like him or not, he is just a great addition on the squash scene.

CROSS DROP FLICK by MOHAMMED ABBAS

2011-01-10T16:51:00.002Z

It's a shame, but after more than seventy posts in this squash video blog, this is just the first time to feature Mohammed Abbas. What a beautiful player he is though, such a fluent striker, hits the ball like 'knife on butter', has a deception second to none and reads the game so well... and still, never made it beyond world #13. I shall have maybe entitled this post "The greatest ever non-great players I.", and have opened a series about players hardly known by the masses due to the lack of great results and high rankings on PSA level, but highly appreciated by the fellow pros. The prototype of this 'type' could be Marcus Berrett; few know who he is, but just ask the kinds of Nick Matthew, Lee Beachill, Alex Gough, Ong Beng Hee, Stewart Boswell or many other pros who used to play him in Yorkshire, they will all confirm the great respect they have and tell you that it was pretty tough to get a game off him on his home-court.Getting back to the rally: they both tried to keep the ball as much as possible on the backhand side, avoiding completely to go short on the forehand side. Therefore it became a 'rhythm' rally, and it was exactly the applied rhythm that was broken at the right time by Abbas with this funny cross flick. If I have seen it right, even Palmer was expressing his appreciation with a brief clap.

THE TACTICAL DROP by RAMY ASHOUR

2011-01-06T03:17:00.000Z

Great rally which I am posting not only because of its high entertainment factor but because of that drop shot played from the back on the backfoot at 0:53, a shot for which in England your trainer would condemn you immediately to do 50 push-ups, and even unorthodox genius Jonathon Power is shocked in the commentary box by saying "...oh can't believe he dropped that, that was such a tactical mistake". Considered from a short-term-efficiency point of view of course it was way too tough and risky to execute it rightly and therefore not beneficial to win the rally, but from a longer-term-efficiency point of view I think it's just part of Ramy Ashour's tactics to play any kind of shot form anywhere. It's this tactic that makes his opponents unaware of what will follow, so they will never know on which foot to attend the next shot. It's part of the tactics to risk, or even sacrifice a couple of points - not this time though, as he was so quick to get to Karim Darwish's forehand drop.

DROP / COUNTER-DROP DUEL - THIERRY LINCOU vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

2011-01-04T09:00:00.001Z

There are 7 drops within 16 seconds in this rally. I often point out how deep professional players bend with their bust to hit the ball (Nick Matthew and James Willstrop going down the deepest maybe). Bending allows you to make less/smaller steps, to hide the ball better and mainly, to put your eyesight onto a near level with the ball which enables you to control the ball better. And pretty certainly the drop is the shot that necessarily needs the most accurate control if you don't want to miss it or allow your opponent to counter-attack, therefore one needs to bend the most for this shot. The rally finally was won with a reaction drop, typically played as a volley off a loose ball. To be noted also that Lincou was not going for the inch perfect low drop, but rather for the perfect angle that made the ball fade into the side-wall.

LOB DUEL: by WAEL EL HINDI and THIERRY LINCOU

2010-12-30T16:14:00.000Z

It seems that there is a simple rule about the lob played from close to the front-wall: just look for the service line. If you stick to this you will only need to adjust the direction of the ball, looking to have the second bounce on the side-wall and ideally the third bounce into the back-wall nick. Another thing that eventually will help is - as always - the deception. If you manage to fake a drop then your opponent will follow up which disables him to volley/smash in case if your lob is not deep/high enough. In the below example Thierry Lincou hit two consecutive lobs, the first one at 0:35 with Wael El Hindi on the move forward guessing a drop as Lincou was bending and stretching, and the second at 0:40, El Hindi already more aware and waiting on the 'T' as Lincou's bust was almost totally upright. El Hindi escaped with both and on his turn, a couple of shots later, found an almost perfect backhand lob that got stuck on the back-wall. Few people play the lob on club level, which I find strange as it really enriches the game and, if efficient, might frustrate your opponent a lot.

PERFECT LOB by NICK MATTHEW and GENUINE CROSS DROP-KILL by AMR SHABANA

2010-12-23T13:53:00.002Z

Here at 'No Let!' we tend to show one rally at one time. This is not a rule, we just stick to it as it allows us to concentrate properly on a specific shot or solution. But now it's Christmas time, so let's have a look at a compilation of the best conclusions picked from the most recent tournaments in Saudi and Delhi. Hisham Ashour can't be missing of course, next to the mizuki volley that we've already posted a couple of days ago another one can be seen at 0:41, this time against Chris Simpson. At 0:54 we get the demonstration of the perfect lob by Nick Matthew and at 1:17 there is an Amr Shabana special, a shot that hardly anybody else plays (I wonder why as it has got a pretty obvious winning geometry): the cross kill-drop into the nick. Thanks to the unknown uploader on Youtube and Happy Christmas to all.

THE CROSS-COURT TO THE BODY: by NICK MATTHEW

2010-12-22T08:28:00.002Z

If there's a shot I've hardly if ever seen on club-level, it's this one, the cross-court to the body. Even on pro level, I don't really remember having seen it from players outside the top10. Nick Matthew and James Willstrop are the two who use it the most (and Lee Beachill pretends that it's his invention) so we might consider this as 'The English Tricky Shot' - not as fancy as for example Hisham Ashour's mizuki volley but maybe more efficient in terms of employability. So when do the top guys tend to employ it? Obviously after a good short ball, on the run, being late on the ball, which presumes that the only secure shot to escape is a wide cross-court; that makes the opponent anticipate to move towards the 'T' and to open his racket towards the open side of the court instead of keeping it in front of him; therefore he'll have no time to get it back to the other side to enable himself to ask for a 'stroke'. To dare to play this shot: quick thinking and intelligent risk-assessment needed!

CREATIVE, ATTACKING SQUASH by HISHAM ASHOUR

2010-12-19T16:09:00.000Z

I've always thought Hisham would just be a funny caricature of Ramy: even though his shot-making ability is close to his illustrious younger brother's, movement-wise he used to be disaster. Due to his overweight he used to be constantly late on the ball, and as a consequence made silly choices and hit the tin more often than the front-wall. So it's pretty astonishing seeing him within just a couple of month loosing weight and moving so much better. With his current good results (he has beaten world #9 Laurens Jan Anjema twice in two weeks and got also the better off a slightly diminished Thierry Lincou) he will very probably break inside the top20 in the January rankings. Now it will be interesting to see if Hisham gets satisfied with this or if he considers it just as a first step to make it towards the top10. If it's the latter, there are fitness-wise still some brutal solitary training sessions ahead of him. Let's hope he'll make it, as it would be great for the global squash scene to see the percentage of the creative / exhibition-like players grow in the top10. Now that John White and Jonathon Power are not there anymore...

UNBELIEVABLE DIVE AND RETRIEVING by DAVID PALMER

2010-12-13T11:19:00.000Z

This rally is from 2007, David Palmer at the time was ranked still very high, at #3, whereas Daryl Selby only #36, just before starting to make his rise. Selby's touch is really nice, soft, like knife on butter and he didn't do anything wrong except of not finding perfectly the nick at his last drop which allowed Palmer, one of the greatest retrievers ever, to get passed him and win the point. And of course, what a dive! But let's turn back to Selby: if you watch him nowadays and compare it with this tape, the obvious difference between the "two Selbys" is in his posture: now he bends his bust more, even if still not as deep as Willstrop or Matthew, but enough to give his shots more power and also to allow him to hide the ball better giving him more deception, whereas in 2007 he stack to an almost upright bust position whilst hitting the ball which means less deception, less power and slightly more footwork as he had to substitute the extra stretch of a bended bust with slightly bigger steps.

DEADLY SLICED FOREHAND DROP IV.: by MOHAMED EL SHORBAGY

2010-12-10T08:56:00.000Z

These 'kids' (Mohamed El Shorbagy is 19, Aamir Atlas Khan 20) play some good squash even though Khan tends to be slightly over-relaxed which prevents him from executing his shots with 100 % efficiency. Shorbagy on the other hand plays with much more dedication and attention to detail and you can see the difference in their results. I do have a couple of reserves towards Shorbagy's attitude on court but for such a young age he is very mature and in a couple of years he will very probably have his say in the top3. Just look at the execution of that ultimate forehand drop shot; to play it with such high racket-head speed and still control it so perfectly... not even Karim Darwish plays this shot this delicately.

THE 'HIGH' DROP: DAVID PALMER vs. GREGORY GAULTIER

2010-12-08T14:41:00.002Z

Okay, this, of course, is a beautiful crazy rally that does not require much comment. However, I would like to point out a maybe even insignificant detail, David Palmer's drop shot at 0:33 (even if it didn't make him win the rally this time); many players would have gone for the inch-perfect drop just above the tin, but Palmer chooses to play it about 50 cm higher looking rather to make it fade into the side-wall. He does that often, as the drop-shot played as such a high-percentage-shot and not as a clear winner will make the opponent run desperately to retrieve the ball which then generally ends in a stroke or an easy loose ball to put away. (Click here to see another nice example this time on the volley and dropping it at 0:11 even at the heights of the service line (!) against Willstrop in an earlier post). I do agree that it's a bit of a conservative thinking with the likes of Ramy and Shabana on the tour, but it's still intelligent and efficient not only in the short term (in order of winning the point) but also in mid-terms (making your opponent spend a lots of energy and showing him that you don't necessarily have to go for winners to beat him).

FOUR CORNER BUTTERFLY by THIERRY LINCOU

2010-12-04T22:38:00.000Z

I know lots of people can do the four corner butterfly, not only professionals, but I am an admirer of Thierry Lincou's view, his eyes, his focus - it's deep and sharp, tense and calm at the same time. The only other guy who can compete with the intensity of his concentration is Ramy Ashour, but he looks slightly more agitated, more bohemian (for example talking to himself like an old mad poet whilst preparing to receive serve), whereas Lincou maintains always his composure, like a tiger on hunt, or a Buddhist monk at meditation...

HIGH AND LOW ELBOW: AAMIR ATLAS KHAN vs. ADRIAN GRANT

2010-12-02T17:01:00.000Z

We have discussed a couple of times 'racket-preparation' and we came to the point that the more compact the backswing the more control and the more deception there might be in your shot. Nevertheless, there are a couple of players who have higher and wider swings. One of them is surely Aamir Atlas Khan. In the below rally it makes a really nice contrast with Adrian Grant who has a rather compact backswing. Stop the footage for example at 0:29 and at 0:32, the only other guy that comes to my mind now to exagerate the forehand back-swing so much is German Simon Rosner. But Khan raises his elbow exceptionally high even on the backhand side where generally it's a natural choice to keep the elbow tight to the body (see for example at 0:08 and more significantly at 0;15). Of course these observations have to be taken with some reserve as they mainly concern basic strokes (and rather the forehand side); on the stretch or at a high volley everybody will raise his arm (elbow); and of course even 'compact swingers' will adjust and raise their elbow when they don't need deception just pure pace, or vice versa, 'exaggerated swingers' will also tighten their swing when it comes to a stuck ball in the back corner or when they play a drop shot off a loosish ball. Anyway, in Khan's case, the swing just looks natural the way it is, therefore I don't think that a more compact backswing would necessarily improve his shots' quality (except maybe his deception).