CRAZY ANGLED TRICKLE BOAST: AMR SHABANA vs. JAMES WILLSTROP

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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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.

AMAZING DECEPTIVE TRICKLE-BOAST: JAMES WILLSTROP

In general we try to avoid to show too long videos here, but this time an exception had to be made. It's a summery of a recent entertaining match played between James Willstrop and Gregory Gaultier at the 2010 Rowe British Grand Prix at Manchester. The main reason we are featuring it is the quality of the trickle-boast that  Willstrop was playing at least three times in fantastic fashion, wrong-footing each time Gregory Gaultier completely (and that's already a big word in itself). So let's see how and in which circumstances Willstrop plays this shot: at all three occasions - first at 0:18, then at 0:54 and finally at 4:13 - Gaultier's ball is loose (landing short around the edge of the service box), Willstrop then shows the drive - by staying away from the ball, bending deeply and at the same time moving backwards with his body - as if he wanted to make space to clear in advance his own backhand drive. Great deception. As a clear opposition, let's have also a look on another trickle-boast, that for once has been read and counter-dropped successfully by Gaultier at 4:24. Compared to the three previous ones, this one was not accompanied by the backward movement of Willstrop's body (as there was less time and the ball needed a quicker stretch to be reached), and that allowed Gaultier to guess rightly that it wouldn't be a drive (as too risky for Willstrop to stay stuck there and be penalized with a stroke). So the lesson seems to be the following: don't play this shot in lack of time, on the stretch, play it after receiving a loose (but not too loose) ball, and don't forget to move backwards with the body whilst you swing and bend to deceive a hard-paced drive. And finally, don't tempt it as many times as Willstrop did it in this match; unless you are a top5 player too, or unless you play someone a lot weaker, it won't work that often. Even though, I do agree, it's fun any time to try...