HOW NOT TO SERVE TO THE BODY: DARYL SELBY vs. RAMY ASHOUR

The best possible serve is the one that finds the sidewall high with a mid pace so that your opponent has to scrape his return off the wall as otherwise the next bounce on the floor would die around the backwall nick. If you can do this with a high reliability percentage, your opponent will take a position more and more towards the sidewall whist waiting for your serve; this is when you can start to serve occasionally to his body as well. 

Serving to the body requires a slightly higher pace, first bounce should be just a few inches above the service line and you should aim to find your opponent's body around hip heights. It is very difficult to aim for a dying ball in the backwall nick as for that the ball would be slow enough to allow your opponent to get out of the way and play a reverse angle shot (forehand from the backhand side and vice-versa) - unless he is tired/lazy (for example after a long rally that you have won) to do so. 

Anyway, you have to make sure one thing with the 'to-the-body-serve': don't hit it above your opponent's head, as Daryl Selby is doing it in the below rally. Guys with quick hands will punish you straight away as Ramy Ashour demonstrates it here, whereas slower-handed guys will get an opportunity to step away and wait for the rebounce off the backwall. 

If you have a subscription with squashtv, then go for some Nick Matthew match replays and observe how and when he is employing this type of serve; he is by far the most efficient with it (James coming second in my opinion, whereas in former times John White was a frequent and efficient user of it).

CAROUSEL SQUASH: GREGORY GAULTIER vs. SIMON ROSNER

Squash TV is recently publishing a lots of hot shots and mega rallies on their youtube channel. I am picking the below one because I think it demonstrates two things I would like to mention: 

1) the great potential that Simon Rosner has got; notwithstanding his big size, it is very impressive how well he moves, and especially how quickly he can get back from big lounges (generally a tough thing for tall players). He is also an excellent reader of the game, he is by now really very close to the top8 in this regard. 

2) But to get there I really think he has to modify one thing: his huge backswing. 

Watch this rally and observe how many times he lacks precision and accuracy exactly because his backswing requires too much time to prepare which makes him hit the ball a fraction too late. As long as he's got time and space, there is no problem with this kind of racket preparation, but as soon as you lack one or the other factor, you will struggle to hit precisely. This is mostly evident in situations when the opponent hits a slightly loose but quick straight ball as we can see it in this rally at 0:16 and especially at 0:23; in both cases Rosner hits late and this is why the ball finds the sidewall.

Of course, in certain situations this big swing favours Rosner, like when he is going for his trademark low cross-court kills in the front, but in situations around the 'T' he will need to study the top guys' swing, to start with the most compact one probably: Karim Darwish.

Will Rosner be able to adjust in this technical regard, then I feel there will be very little to separate him from the top10, or even the top6.

Oh, and just to mention also the obvious before we finish: what a beautiful carousel rally this was! Unlucky for the records that it had to end with a 'Stroke'.

SHOTS THAT DON'T EXIST II.: RAMY ASHOUR vs. DARYL SELBY

We had a top spin backhand drop shot last week, the first of the 'Shots that don't exist' series. Here is now another one from the same match, Ramy Ashour vs. Daryl Selby, first round of the 2012 British Open.

In fact, it's not true that these shots don't exist, they are just not very common. Whilst the top spin drop shot from last week is rather just a flashy thing, I deeply believe that the cross-court kill-nick that Ramy is displaying in the below video is really efficient - notwithstanding being way too underrated, under-considered and under-trained.

To go for this cross-court kill-nick, you will have to wait for a semi-loose ball from your opponent around the back of the service box (similarly as for the attacking boast). If the ball is too tight, you can't swing freely to go for it, whereas if the ball is too loose towards the middle of the court the angle is reducing and it is tougher to find the nick (and there are also other better shot-options in this case). However, if you play it from the right angle, then it doesn't even have to find the nick perfectly; it might not become a winner, but it will make your opponent stretch and scrap it off the floor just before the second bounce. Another important factor is the heights of the ball: you can only go for this shot if it bounces at least around hip-heights. And you have to make sure to find the side-wall first and not the floor (in case you miss the perfect nick); if the ball bounces first on the floor and then on the sidewall, it will decelerate it and make it bounce high whereas if you find the sidewall first it will result in a quick and short double bounce on the floor (unless you fail it completely by hitting it way too high). Anyway, you will have to practise this shot before employing it reliably in matches, and I suggest you start on the forehand side (most of the non-professionals - the writer of these lines included - will never be capable to play it on the backhand side),

By the way, I think Ramy has learned this shot from Amr Shabana, the only other player to use it on a regular basis over the years. And this is a story for itself: the more you are a 'genius' the less you are shy to learn from the others. Both Ramy and Shabana are assiduous watchers/learners (as you can also hear it in this lovely video).

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.

SHOTS THAT DON'T EXIST I.: RAMY ASHOUR vs. DARYL SELBY

I feel Ramy Ashour's racket technique is sometimes slightly mystified. I think it's not as unorthodox as that, he just reads his opponents so much quicker than anybody else that he gets his racket back into position without any rush and that makes some commentators think that he's got no backswing. It is this extremely early racket preparation that allows him then to go for shots that others (even other professionals) can only dream about. 

The below video is, however, contradicting my thesis. This crazy back-foot top-spin drop is indeed a shot that doesn't exist (unfortunately the rally has been recorded a bit far from the court. You can push the 'fullscreen' button on the bottom right of the video player to see it better).
Playing a drop-shot on the back-foot is anyway forbidden according to conventional coaching textbooks. Sure enough, as in so many aspects, the Egyptians have slightly modified this thesis.
Wael El Hindi was the first one to go for drop shots on the back-foot on a constant basis (you probably remember the most outrageous one), and currently, besides Ramy Ashour, Tarek Momen is confident and talented enough to employ it with succes. And it might make sense on this (pro) level as it is a position where the ball is hidden from your opponent's eye-sight; add to this that he can also only see your back, so at the end of the day he can't really read/anticipate your intentions.
But it's not something for everybody as it requires extreme strength all around: leg, hip and wrist. Club-players just better lift the ball in similar situations, or assume an approx. one-to-ten success-ratio by going for it; the choice is yours.

GREGORY GAULTIER vs. AMR SHABANA NETSUIT OPEN 2012 SEMI-FINAL FULL MATCH REPLAY

As a follow-up to yesterday's full match replay of the final of the 2012 Netsuit Open in San Francisco, here is another great performance by Gregory Gaultier and mighty Amr Shabana at semi-final stage (you surely remember their PSA Masters final last January at the Queen's Club in London, one the greatest matches ever). It's atypical for our blog to stage full matches, but since Squash TV was unfortunately absent from the event, we thought this might be useful for the hard core squash fans.

first game: Gaultier 11:7 Shabana


second game: Gaultier 12:10 Shabana 

 
third game: Gaultier 11:8 Shabana 


So a 3:0 win to Gaultier against an in-form Shabana (just coming off a 3:0 win against world #1 James Willstrop in the quarters). Did you notice Gaultier's new, more relaxed attitude since the birth of his first child? He now won within two weeks against four fellow top8 players -  3:0 against world #1 Willstrop, world #2 Matthew and world #7 Shabana, and only dropping a game to world #4 Darwish. Ramy Ashour remains the only scalp missing.

GREGORY GAULTIER vs. NICK MATTHEW NETSUIT OPEN 2012 FINAL FULL MATCH REPLAY

Exceptionally we offer a bit longer stuff. As Squash TV was unfortunately absent from the $70k Netsuit Open 2012 squash tournament, I thought it makes sense to publish under one post the full replay of the final between Gregory Gaultier and Nick Matthew. It's about an hour, so you probably will want to swap your favorite DVD for this tonight? Quality stuff all around and good video quality.

first game Gaultier 11:7 Matthew


second game Gaultier 13:11 Matthew


third game Gaultier 11:9 Matthew


So at the end it's 3:0 to Gaultier. Great tournament both from the organizers and for the Frenchman. Let's hope next year Squash TV will cover it!

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME: RAMY ASHOUR vs. JAMES WILLSTROP - BRITISH OPEN 2012

Basically this blog was born out of two things: 1) watching and observing pros playing 2) trying to adapt those points that are possible to adapt on a club player level. Well, throughout the two-year existence of the blog, we have pointed out a few things that we club players can aim to copy and to stick to whilst we train or play. But there are also things that we shall not try to copy, because it would require the amount of training and the physical strength level that only a pro might have. So we always have to understand what we can and what we can't copy from the greats. But in certain cases, we don't have to think at all. Things are simply too surrealistic, and we understand with grace and gratitude that the players and the game that we witness are from another planet. Like this one here between Ramy Ashour and James Willstrop at the semi final of the 2012 British Open:

THE SHOT OF THE (PREVIOUS) CENTURY - BRETT MARTIN vs. PETER MARSHALL

So who said squash has been boring back in the days? Maybe back in the days with the tiny-headed wooden rackets on cement courts, but already 20 years ago players like Brett Martin (in white in the below rally) were capable to make the game look very much entertaining. The author of this blog does not know much about the squash world from before the year 2005, but Brett Martin definitely seems to have something of Jansher Khan's calm and economy of movement (bit more square though) coupled with this incredible eye (and hand) to go short from anywhere. The concluding shot of the second rally is pure magic: body language deception and flick of the wrist at its pure best; Jonathon Power and Ramy Ashour would any time subscribe for it.

By the way, if you ask Peter Marshall (in red in the below video) - and you can bump into him in the UK for example at Bath Cup events - he will always be happy to confirm that back in those days the two most talented guys out there - at least in his eyes - were not the two famous Khans (Jahangir and Jansher) but the Martin brothers: Brett and Rodney.

US OPEN 2011/2012: AMR SHABANA vs. NICK MATTHEW

Amr Shabana won the 2011 US Open vs. Nick Matthew in an unconventionally short final (19,8,8 and 6 minutes the four games). At this year's US Open they already meet at quarter final stage, tonight.
How come? Well, Shabana is only ranked 7 in the world and does not have other great results (the World Series title at Queens not counting into the PSA rankings) in the last 12 months, whereas Matthew is steadily world #2. However, everybody (Squash TV commenators as well as the players on twitter) is talking about how lean and fit Shabana looks after the summer break. Let's look forward to an absolute blockbuster. Games start at 19.00 local time Philadelphia, 24.00 London, 01.00 Paris/Milan/Berlin)

A CLASSIC FOR THE AGES: JAMES WILLSTROP vs. GREGORY GAULTIER - 2012 BRITISH GRAND PRIX

Due to other - less fun - commitments, the activity level of the No Let! blog might have been terribly low the ultimate few weeks, but luckily we still get to see the most important things that are going on on the tour. 

As you are surely aware, the season has started, Tarek Momen has won the $50k Malaysian Open and now - tonight - Nick Matthew and James Willstrop are going to battle it out in the final of the $70k Springfield Solutions British Open.

Nick has a terrifying head-to-head record against James (he has won their last 14 matches on the PSA) however James just won their last two meetings outside the PSA during the summer (Bundesliga and European Club Champions). As a consequence, one would think the mental hurdle has been overcome by James, but what might be left in the tank after his incredible semi-final against Gregory Gaultier yesterday? It's been one of the best matches of the year, a 120 minute brutal encounter of extremely high standard. Not by chance did Squash TV come out with a 7 minutes highlight of the match. Have a look at it and don't miss to join in live for the final at 19.00 UK time (20.00 Paris/Berlin/Rome, 14.00 New York) in a couple of hours.