By Richard Millman, Director of Squash, Kiawah Island Club
The vast majority of squash players, and I mean just about everybody in the world except maybe a few brilliant professionals, are much more likely to throw a point away, than their opponent is to win it. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? And yes, this is an opinion although, if you are willing to do the research, there’s a fair amount of evidence to back this up. For instance, go back a couple of issues in this very magazine and you will see that Rod Symington said as much in one of his Rules articles. To wit, there are more errors produced in squash than winners. So to my main, and at first blush, somewhat disconcerting point, namely except for those few brilliant geniuses that I mentioned earlier, the vast majority of us working stiff squash players are sadly far more in danger from ourselves than we ever are from our opponents. This is particularly true of players up to and including the 5.0 echelon. Speaking for myself, the number of occasions upon which the brilliant offensive strategic plan that I have implemented has turned out to be an utter disaster, far exceeds the times that I have overwhelmed my victims. So what to do? You’ve implemented the game plan which has fallen flat and now you are at a loss. Bring on the Golden Retriever.
Over the past thirty years that I have been lucky enough to be a competitor in this sport, I have had numerous opportunities to emulate the brilliant but simple behavior of said Golden Retriever. The game plan that I am referring to is what I have come to call “playing stick.” Following the behavior of the good, faithful and completely unimpaired genius Golden Retriever, when the ball has been thrown for me, I have gone and got it back. No strategy. No offense. Simple, faithful retriever. And you know those ancient wise words, “The player who gets the ball back one more time than their opponent, wins,” really rings true.
“Oh God!” I hear you cry, “not fitness based squash, I can’t play forever.” Two comments on this: 1) neither can your opponent play forever, so it’s about will power, and if you’ve already tried your top secret, CIA-rated, nasty tricks plan, and failed dismally, it’s no good looking for a shortcut. In these circumstances K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) is the best motto to get back on track; and 2) Just because you’re going to get the ball back one more time than the other guy, doesn’t mean that you have to smash the ball mindlessly down the wall and run around like a headless chicken. While Golden Retrievers are not universally known for shrewdness, there’s a good chance that some of the older and more experienced in the breed have sussed out that if they bring the stick back at a steady, rather than meteoric rate, they can continue with the game almost indefinitely, by insuring that their output equates with their recovery needs. Hence, within the context of getting one more ball back, you can vary the pace, height and timing of the release of your shots, to ensure that fatigue does not overtake your patient approach. This may well take quite some nerve. But, hey, this ain’t checkers.
So how to practice? One of the easiest ways is to play that great favorite training game, the “Above the Line” game. Rules of the game: Every ball must be struck above the service line throughout the rally. Play up to fifteen points American scoring, but for every unforced error that you make, deduct one point (agree beforehand what constitutes “unforced.” Obviously if your opponent plays a shot that is either in the nick or puts you in a position where you have no time to pick up the ball with any reasonable chance of making a good return before the ball bounces twice—then that’s a forced error. Only include those errors where either a foolish decision or poor execution on your part results in the loss of the rally). If you and your practice partner find that you are traveling into negative territory you may start asking yourself as to whether or not your opponent is winning the points or if you are losing them. Typically a good game of “above the line” should last somewhere in the range of 10-40 minutes depending on the skill level of the players. It’s not a bad idea to set a stopwatch and monitor your improvement in “time terms.” Of course if you never get into positive territory, there is little point in recording the duration of the game, unless you have court time booked for two or three days.
Another age old favorite is the “length game” where the ball must cross the short line, although it can be at any height on the front wall. Again, try timing the duration of this game. If you play international scoring to nine, and provided that your technical skills are adequate to retrieve the ball consistently out of the back corners, you should certainly be able to play this game competitively for at least 10 minutes. However, over the period of a year, see if you can get to the point where one game is lasting somewhere in the 25-40 minute range. This is a tall order, but I have faith in you and I know you can do it.
To review—A) play “stick” when the strategy you start off with goes awry. It will steady you down and may well bamboozle the opponent who now finds that the onus is on them to organize and create the play, where previously all they had to do was wait until you left yourself open to a counter attack (of course if you get good at stick there’s nothing wrong with starting the match with stick as your strategy thereby forcing the opponent to show his hand and perhaps giving them the opportunity to succumb to their own foolishness. This is called “Absorption Squash” and the master of this style of game was none other than the great Jansher Khan. Jansher used this style of play to great effect in his victories against the immortal Jahangir Khan. Oh, and while we’re on the subject, you might remember another guy who used the Absorption Technique in the Rumble in the Jungle, Mohammed Ali, and his famous Rope-a-Dope victory). B) Within the context of playing stick, while still keeping things very simple and doing no more than retrieving, make sure that the manner in which you retrieve furnishes you with ample time while frustrating your opponent. C) Dedicate regular practice time to the development of this key survival skill by playing the practice games described earlier.
So good luck, and if you still have doubts, ask yourself who usually gets fed up with the game of stick first—Fido or his master? See you next month for “Bating the Hook—using one shot to create the opportunity for another. Woof!
