CHASING THE BALL AROUND THE HOUSE: ALISTER WALKER vs. CHRIS SIMPSON

A very entertaining rally. Fantastic gets, a few shots from behind the back, you can't ask for more. 

Crazy rallies like this, we generally get them from Ramy Ashour vs. Nick Matthew or vs. James Willstrop.

These rallies are always a combination of higher and lower quality shots - but the one who hits a low quality shot is capable to recover with the next shot and then turn the momentum, and so on. 

But the difference between the two players in the below rally - Alister Walker, current world #12 and Chris Simpson #37 - consists I think in the movement. The court seems just a fraction bigger for these two guys compared to the very top players.

It seems to me that the top guys move in a more ergonomic way; they come out of the lounge like a "wave", their movement is not sectioned into "lounge, brake, stop, back", it's rather a constant flux. Don't get me wrong, Walker and Simpson are two great athletes, both heavy trainers, both quick and strong, but they do not posses that fluidity that you can observe with Ramy, Greg, James or even Peter Barker. 

I don't know if this is purely a technical question? Probably it is also linked with the speed of perception (how quick one reads his opponents intentions). When you are less in a rush, you can allow more harmony to your movement. And probably more harmony even to the execution of your shots, or even to your shot-selection. We are talking about nuances, but these nuances make the difference between the top8 and the top20 and so on.

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

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.

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

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.

TELESCOPIC ARM: RAMY ASHOUR

Apparently, Alister Walker just suits to perfection Ramy Ashour's creativity. As in the first sample we had between them a couple of weeks ago, Ramy just reads Walker as a billboard. The most astonishing is his reach on the volleys. I remember Peter Nicol commenting on a John White game and talking about his 'telescopic arm'. That arm in today's field is clearly inherited by Ramy Ashour. And only then comes Nick Matthew in this respect. Third place might go to James Willstrop. So long for today's arbitrary ranking game.

CROSS DROP II. : RAMY ASHOUR

You must have a certain sense of superiority towards your opponent to play a cross-court drop into the nick. Ramy Ashour in general is a shot-maker, or better: almost a 'shot-painter', so beautiful (and sometimes surreal) are the lines that he is 'drawing' with the ball. And when he gets to play slightly lower ranked players like for instance Alister Walker, his level of relaxation and confidence gets to its natural peak, and then he creates those lines almost with insolence. NO LET!