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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.