THE ALL TIME GREAT CROSS COURT VOLLEY NICK: by JONATHON POWER

This is a rare good resolution compilation from 2004 showcasing seven world number ones. If you have time, watch the whole video, every single rally is worth it. If you are in a hurry wind forward to 9:08, and you might see probably the shot of the century, but for sure a serious contender next to David Palmer's nonchalant magic shot from the 2011 TOC. 

Just like Palmer's drop, Jonathon Power's over-the-head-cross-court-backhand-volley-nick was played from behind the body, hence extremely difficult to control. I also thoroughly like Power's expression after receiving Peter Nicol's compliments (a 'conduct code' that I love in squash and another proof of  the mutual respect between these two greats). 

Not bad either the following rally, showcasing the famous Jonathon Power forehand top spin drop shot. The opponent, Nick Matthew was left almost in a shock there.

Another one to observe here should be Lee Beachill, a former world #1 we have not yet had the opportunity to present in the blog. What a shame though! Beachill has had a stellar rise  in his carrier; however, as quick as his ascension has been, as quick was his decline. Up and coming he finished 2003 as world #9, six months later in June 2004 he was already #2, another three months later #1. A year later he he dropped back to #5, and in 2006 to #10, and retired at the end of 2008. Compared to such squash mammoths as Palmer, Lincou and Nicol, it can be said that Beachill's carrier peak has had a modest span. 

Nevertheless it must be pointed out that he has reached the top in a period when a high number of established top world stars mingled with a bunch of up-and-coming future stars. As a matter of fact, in December 2004, when Beachill held for the last time the world #1 spot, all names in the top10 were either future or former world number ones, and none of them at a decline stage of their carriers. 

Technically Beachill has been one of the cleanest strikers ever in my eyes. Instead of simply hitting the ball he was kind of caressing it. As strange as it might sound, he didn't use his racket as a hammer, neither as a knife, but rather as a spoon. This is why all of his shots had a kind of double slice, making the ball always escape from his opponents and fade towards the side-wall. In addition he disposed of a stupendous deception (watch that fake head-turn at 2:32 against Amr Shabana) and he's never been shy to go for all kinds shot (attacking boasts, volley nicks).

Beachill was probably not the physical beast that some of his peer's have been, but you can tell that - beyond being naturally gifted - he must have been a diligent analyser, deconstructing and putting together the best of the different squash schools and styles. Exactly because he is not too physical,  basing his game more on skill and understanding - he is one to watch for us, club-players, who will never dispose of the power of a Palmer or a Lincou, or the speed of a Gaultier or a Nicol.

Unfortunately the video we were originally embedding has been withdrawn in the meantime by youtube due to a copyright claim. This is why we had to look for another version of Jonathon Powers's extraordinary shot, that can be seen from 0:55 onwards in the below video:

this is the original video that has been withdrawn unfortunately:

WEEKEND BAGATELLE XVI.: LET THE GOOD OLD TIMES ROLL - 2003 TOC HIGHLIGHTS

Probably many of you have already seen this video, as it has over 135.000 views on youtube. But TOC videos are always fun and there are a few things to observe. The first three rallies feature three great Australian players and it is interesting to observe the differences in their movement; John White has always been famous for hardly bending his bust, and not even much his knees when hitting the ball. In opposition, observe the extreme asymmetric bending that Anthony Ricketts is investing in almost all of his shots (and savor that beautifully ponded deep forehand dying volley that made him win the rally against Peter Nicol at 1:47). Bending-wise in between the previous two is David Palmer, who prefers keeping a relatively upright bust position countering it with well bended knees as he hits the ball. Jonathon Power is again someone who does not bend much the upper body if not necessary whilst Thierry Lincou engages his upper body almost as much as Ricketts. Lincou's seemingly rigid, square composure comes best to light in the last rally against Peter Nicol, who is more fluid and bouncy (and who generates hilarious racket-head speed due to an interesting extra-squeeze in his backswing). It's a great contrast to watch. And I also loved how Alan Thatcher, the commentator, expresses sincere amazement after the end of the last rally. Great rally also between the two ladies. To cut it short, great little compilation for the weekend.

THE FADED KILL II.: by MIGUEL ANGEL RODRIGUEZ

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.

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

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.

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

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.

WHEN EVERY SHOT MAKES SENSE: THIERRY LINCOU

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.

KEEPING THE COMPOSURE: THIERRY LINCOU vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

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.

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

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

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

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.

CREATIVE, ATTACKING SQUASH by HISHAM ASHOUR

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...

FOUR CORNER BUTTERFLY by THIERRY LINCOU

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...

THE IMORTANCE OF SOUND QUALITY IN LIVE COVERAGES OF SQUASH

In London the big squash events are really well organized. Canary Wharf is great every year and the 2009 Super Series Finals at the Queens club was second to none. What I would like to point out with the below video is the quality of the sound techniques! The sound of the ball touching the wall is electric and we can even clearly hear resonating the creak of the shoes whilst running and stopping. As far as I am informed, current psasquashtv coverage is produced (partly or entirely?) by Jean de Lierre's squashlive.com, but apparently a lots of concessions had to be made compared to former events that squashlive.com was covering directly for their own DVD series. Compared to these, last week's Super Series Kuwait Open was a total disaster sound wise: the only noise you could hear from the court was the front-wall, nothing else. Back-wall, side-walls, player's introductions, interviews, referees or players comments: hardly anything or rather nothing could be heard at all. Can you imagine a tennis coverage without hearing the referee saying "30:15"? Beyond the sound effects I will not tire to mention the role of the slightly moving main camera as it can be seen in the below video (in opposition to any current psasquashtv transmission). And to talk finally about squash as well: the 2009 Super Series Finals in London was maybe Ramy Ashour's worst event ever. If I am not wrong, he lost all three of his matches pretty badly and the one against Lincou was maybe the poorest of all. Must have been just a bad week for him, as he has won the next tournament he entered beating Lincou, Darwish and Matthew on the way. A year later he finally achieved the #1 spot of the rankings. And for the records: he has just won in Kuwait, beating Anjema, Lincou, Willstrop and Shabana on the way. Nick Matthew might be fresh enough to give him some very tough time in Qatar next week?

TRICKLE-BOAST SERIES II.: THIERRY LINCOU

We had a great demonstration of trickle-boasts by James Willstrop recently (apologies to call trickle-boast also the boast that is played from around mid-court and not only the ones played from the front corners, but since the principle is the same - deception, wrong-footing, and making it a quick and short two-wall boast - I decided to use the same term). Here we have another one, this time by Thierry Lincou. Interesting to note that the ball wasn't that far off the side-wall. If you watch again the trickle-boasts played by Willstrop against Gregory Gaultier last time, we can notice something similar: the one that James has played in front of the service line (at 0:18) was only slightly off the side-wall, whereas the other two that he has played from behind the service line (at 0:54 and 4:13) were much looser off the side-wall. It seams that to go for this shot, the farer you are from the front-wall the more you need to have some distance from the side-wall, with the limit of not exceeding the edge of the service-box more or less. Add to this that you shouldn't be late on the ball, on a full stretch, as you need some time to deceive the preparation of a hard straight drive.

THE FENCING STEPS: THIERRY LINCOU

Tough to see the ball on such an uneven and light surface, so let's concentrate one more time on movement; Nick Matthew and Thierry Lincou are two of the best movers around, even if there are a couple of other players who look more fluid and gentle, as referred  to in our previous post. Lincou has definitely something of a 'rugby player', but this is only valid to define the way his body looks like, in terms of culture of footwork I see him rather similar to a fencer (and not only because of his long knee-socks). I especially recommend to observe his lateral steps, or when he moves diagonally backwards, as in the below rally at 0:30, his path to the ball is composed first by a couple of tiny half-steps-half-leaps, and at the end by a lunge, just as in fencing you would approach your opponent: your feet don't cross, one remains in front of the other all along the path. Of course, Nick Matthew and the other pro players do this similarly, but I somehow feel that Lincou's movement has slightly more discipline, balance and control and he is also slightly more economical and composed than Matthew; or, compared to David Palmer - another example of a great steady mover -  he is slightly more gentle, smoother. I am talking about nuances, but I think they count a lot, as movement is the second most important basic value in squash after the 'reading' of the game. You might object: "And what about the shots themselves?" Of course, the quality of your shot and the shot selection are essential - but you won't have a chance to make an optimal choice of shot and hit a good ball if you firstly don't read the game well (don't notice in time where to go), and secondly don't get to the ball both quickly and economically.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION: GREGORY GAULTIER vs. THIERRY LINCOU

Here we have some great steady squash in a highly entertaining rally between the two top French players, Thierry Lincou and Gregory Gaultier, both former world number ones. Training together a couple of times a week for a decade means that when it comes to a real match, there's no way to be cheaply deceptive; these two have learned to know each other inside-out, you definitely have to keep it steady, try to make 'sleep' the other's awareness, and only then you can come out with an effective deception that can turn the momentum of the rally into your favour. In the below rally Gaultier was trying a couple of times to involve some deception, but at the end it was a simply good, wide and deep cross-court shot (and the fatigue in Lincou's legs) that won him the point. In general, I think the professional relation between the two is really exemplary. They happen to come from neighbour cities, Thierry from Marseille, Greg from Aix-en-Provence. Thierry was already a confirmed top pro (the first French to do so) when Greg was a highly promising up and coming player. There could have been some conflict, as a lot was on steak and the differences of their characters could have easily generated dissent, to say the least. Nevertheless - except a very contained number of insignificant cases - mutual respect was always the key note. I happened to witness a really nice example of it at the 2010 ISS Canary Wharf Squash Classic; it was quarter-finals day, Lincou lost to Nick Matthew 3:0, pretty clinically, there was not much he could have done. Gaultier's quarter-final was a total different story: he played David Palmer, won the first game in some demolishing fashion (11:3), then, as it happens to him so often, lost the wire and as a consequence the next two games. Gaultier still ended up winning in five. Half an hour later, I saw Gaultier stepping (running) towards Lincou - who was watching the following match in the first row of the side-wall  - and  exchanging an emotional hug. It looked warm, sincere and whole-souled, really.

REACTION DROP III.: THIERRY LINCOU

Thierry Lincou's backhand volley drop is famous in squash circuits. The below one at the end of the rally didn't have to be very special as Ramy Ashour's cross-court shot was not wide enough and previously at 0:31 he played a wrong chosen cross-drop that shifted the momentum in Lincou's favour - similarly as Wael El Hindi did it at 1:05 in that great rally against Darwish that we've already discussed a couple of times. The cross-drop is typically an 'Egyptian shot', and Egyptian players might also play it almost "l'art-pour-l'art", for the beauty of the risk, for the fun of the game, even if it can have negative consequences. Nevertheless, Lincou's volley drop, to be controlled as it was in this case, still required those rugby-player legs to keep the balance of the upper body - and balance, in general, is the key to racket-control.

BODY LANGUAGE I.: THIERRY LINCOU

 It's not right to run a squash blog and not to mention Thierry Lincou. So here we are now: Lincou is an amazing example how to acquire a global squash language (even touch and smoothness) through dedication, physical strength, concentration and discipline. Lincou has had to learn everything by himself as before him there were no real top squash players in France. I have seen playing in the flesh almost all of the top players, but none of them achieves the concentration level of Lincou. I can totally understand when Ramy Ashour says that by playing Lincou he feels like a rabbit next to a tiger. The first thing that is apparent are Lincou's eyes which are a mix of the predator's and the Zen Buddhist monk's. The second is his body language, it's smooth and steady at the same time. Look at the way he keeps his left arm and hand whilst hitting backhand with the right arm; the non-hitting arm is not just hanging there in vain, but like many other top players do (not all of them, for example Karim Darwish a lot less), he counter-balances with the non-hitting arm, and on the top of it, he bends his wrist and spreads his fingers extremely. The only other player to spread the fingers so noticeably is James Willstrop. I know this might only seem to be a detail, but it can be these kind of details that make the difference between the top20 and the top5 players. In Lincou's case, the spread fingers are part of a fully concentrated and disciplined body, which behaves always in the same way, so that even if he has to improvise on the court, he knows that the body is set-up in the right position to allow him to execute the right shot in all situations, because we all know that in squash you are not hitting with your arm, but with your whole body. You transfer the momentum of your legs and hip to your hitting arm, but at the same time the body has to act as balancing/braking tool too, and this is the point where the non-hitting arm plays an important role.