At times squash seems a simple game. Get on court, run after the ball, hit it where your opponent can't get it

But there's a bit more to it than that.

This section gives you access to the full rules of the game, plus simplified versions, analyses and additional rules resources.

You don't have to learn it all by heart, but a basic knowledge of the rules is essential, so for newcomers start with the abbreviated rules and work your way down the list until you're an expert!

 How to Select a Coach, How to Use a Coach

A key to learning squash and improving your game is to make good use of a squash professional.Are you an adult beginner? A junior? A parent looking for a coach for your child? Or a long time player looking to improve? This article is for all of you!

The game of squash benefits from the strong cadre of squash coaches, or the "teaching professional." Relative to the size of the sport, there are a large group of well-trained, motivated, hard working teaching professionals. As a group, squash coaches know the game well, know the fundamentals, and are dedicated and motivated to teach you.

As a group, squash coaches are MISUSED by the typical squash player, who is getting far from the most that he or she can or should from a squash coach. This article provides a set of guidelines that will help you seek out a pro, work with a pro to design a program for improvement, and then work further on your own.

Deciding on a squash coach

1. Have a strong knowledge of the fundamentals: How can you tell? Look at the way his students play.
2. Be enthusiastic: she in interested in you as a player who can improve, and you observe that she is energetic and enthusiastic on court.
3. Be reliable and regular: he has a regular schedule of training and has the time available to give you a regular series of lessons.
4. Brings experience: she plays with an orthodox style and has reached a reasonably high level in her own playing.
5. Has a track record: you can speak to other players that he has coached on a regular basis, and get a recommendation from them.

Taking a lesson

Arrive Early The first mistake the vast majority of squash players taking lessons make, is to walk into his or her lesson unprepared. How should you prepare for your lesson or training session? (1) arrive with time to spare before your lesson -- ideally 1/2 hour or more. (2) stretch and loosen up your muscles before your lesson. While you are stretching is an ideal time to also mentally prepare for your lesson. Think about what you want to accomplish on court with your coach. Focus yourself. (3) have a game plan for your lesson -- don't depend on the coach to manage the entire lesson for you. Be prepared to discuss with your coach what area(s) of your game you want to work on. Be prepared to put out your best effort for the entire training period.

Have a game-plan. The second mistake is to use your training session as a simple exercise period or your daily game. Your goal should be to use the lesson to learn what you are doing wrong, and get instruction in how to improve your playing. For exercise or a competitive game, get an opponent to play with regularly. You will frustrate your coach if you expect him to come on court and be your sparring partner.

Listen!To get the most out of your session, be in a listening mode.

Relax! Expect to make mistakes. You are going to make them and your coach is going to correct them.

Trust your coach. Some of the things he/she is going to ask you to do may seem unnatural. But you are going to have to trust the coach in order to unlearn your bad habits and learn better ones.

Get homework

At the end of your lesson,get a homework assignment from your coach. Ask him to give you some things to work on during the next week to two weeks. This can be drills to do on your own on the court. Or they can be aspects of your game to concentrate on in your squash games over the next few weeks.

You need to get an organized set of actions to concentrate on that build on the lesson you have just completed. The lessons should be used as a springboard for you to work on your game independently. Don't expect to go from lesson to lesson and steadily improve, without working on your skills, your movement, and your tactics in the meantime.

Work on What You Have Learned On Your Own

Now that you have completed a lesson and learned something, and gotten homework from the coach, you need to work on your own to reinforce these learnings. Only you can do the work to improve your game! Your coach can't do it for you. The coach can instruct you -- but it is you who need to implement it. How can you best do that? There are three simple ways to best do that:

1. Spend 15 to 30 minutes alone on the court. The minute you get on the court with an opponent, you are preventing yourself from implementing the ideas the coach has given you. You need uninterrupted time along to practice the strokes, footwork, and patterns that the coach has taught you. Wean yourself from your bad habits without any distractions. Alone on court, you can work on grooving your shots, learning the footwork patterns. Read Hashim Khan's book! He learned to play by playing, "Hashim against Hashim."

2. When playing your daily practice game, discipline yourself to work on one or two patterns or tactics you want to improve at. Yes, your competitive juices are flowing and you just want to win the next game! All the more reason to get some mental discipline. Stop trying to simply win every practice game. Start trying to achieve tactical or shotmaking objectives in pratice - win or lose.

3. Get feedback from your sparring partner. You can't see yourself play. When you are finished for the day, ask your opponent about your game. Get him or her to give you some advice and analysis about your play that day --- give the same feedback back in return. You will learn a lot by asking!

Interval between training sessions

Don't take too many lessons (or too few). To get the best benefit from a coach, you should be scheduling lessons approximately once a week. In betweeen lessons, you should play four to five times, and spend an equal number of sessions on court alone, working on the things you learned in your last lesson.

Should you stick with one coach?

Should all your lessons come from one coach? There are two schools of thoughts on this. In general, you are best off sticking with one coach for most of your instruction and training. Each coach has a different style and approach. If you mix styles, both in terms of the fundamentals as well as with regard to tactics, you will simply confuse yourself.

If you are a junior, there is another consideration. A coach is investing a lot of his time and energy to help you improve your game. He may be investing extra time to give you good advice and coaching when you play in matches and tournaments. You need to invest the same trust in your coach that he is investing in you: Stick with him to provide you with a consistent coaching program and if you feel that you need supplemental coaching for some aspects of your squash game, discuss it with your main coach and agree on a program.

On the other hand, as I described earlier, different coaches offer different areas of strength. If you really need help with your touch game or your mental toughness, you may need to seek out the right coach to train you in those skills.

Remember, its really all up to you

It's great to get good coaching. Most squash coaches are highly qualified and motivated to help you improve. In the final analysis, its all up to you, though. Your coach can give you ideas and show you what you need to do. It is YOU, though, who needs to invest the time, effort, motivation, and determination, to improve your game.

It takes courage to improve your game! You have inevitably gotten yourself into patterns of bad habits. You must have the inner strength to decide to break down your game --- to remove your bad patterns --- and to then rebuild those parts of your game with better techniques and better habits.

The reward will be there for you though! You will start to play better, to feel more confident, and to win games that only a few months earlier you had been losing.

Do You Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses?

 
Coaching a club player is obviously very different from coaching a pro. One major difference is the club players’ knowledge of their own game (or lack of knowledge in comparison to the pro player). Prior to coaching a player I always ask them to list their strengths, weaknesses and goals they hope to achieve from coaching. A lot of people aren’t able to cite these easily, which is crazy. When you play an unknown opponent you should always begin the match concentrating on your own strengths, then adjust your match according to whether this is effective or not. If you don’t know your weaknesses you don’t know what to improve, and if your opponent knows your weaknesses and you don’t – you’re in big trouble. Having set goals for coaching helps your motivation and without those goals it is difficult to gauge your improvement.

I recently began a 10 week coaching session with a group of English guys at my club in Amsterdam. I asked all of them via email to list for me their goals, strengths and weaknesses. Below is one of the answers I received, which I found particularly funny. I just wish his squash skills rivalled his humour.

 

Goals: Squash is a hobby to me at the moment but I am confident that I have the necessary skills to become a pro. I would like you to fine tune my existing abilities so that I become a global top 5 player. (May only take 5 weeks for this though so I will think of another goal for the other 5 weeks).
 
 
Strengths: Number 1 strength would have to be my power. I sometimes have to reduce the amount of strength I put behind a shot as it is costing me a fortune in new balls. Despite the awesome power at my disposal I often surprise myself at the speed at which I can change in a rally to play an almost perfect drop shot that has any opponent scrambling to the front of the court, and leaves them ridiculously exposed for any shot that I will then select to kill the rally. My other main strength is my energy and my fitness. I sometimes "play" with an opponent. Instead of killing the rally I keep it going for as long as possible just to push myself. It has not been unknown for me to book 2 courts, one straight after the other as I find that 2 games in a row help me to maintain my peak level of fitness.

Weaknesses: As I am such a kind hearted and generous sportsman I often have difficulty calling the "let" shot. This comes more in to the fray when playing someone of a more portly nature (e.g. Geoff). When my opponent is, for want of a better word, "Fat", I often try to take the long way around to keep the rally going. Sometimes this is just not possible but I will give away the point rather than shout for the let. Opponents have taken advantage of this in the past and have sometimes made the score look more respectable than it maybe should have. I would like you to teach me to have more of a killer instinct and shout for these lets when it is blatantly obvious that the lard bucket I am playing against is clearly in my way.


I think that covers everything.

 
Cheers,
Lee.

Squash Tips to help improve your game

When it comes to improving your game of squash there are a number of squash tips that will help you improve instantly. Some of the squash tips only require a slight change in your playing habits while others require some practice. The squash tips mentioned below are for beginners and relate mostly to fitness.

Here are a few invaluable squash tips:

1.                   You need to start running by including up hill running and jogging in your schedule. This is a great exercise as it not only keeps your body in good shape but it also mimics and stop and start running required when you play squash. This increases the power in your legs and further develops thigh muscles.

2. A bike ride for 20 miles or more twice a week is one of those squash tips that pros often impart on juniors. If biking is not your thing then you should do the row machine. Its one of the best things for squash as it will make your legs stronger without wearing out your joints.

3. You have to eat correctly. Get as much information as you need in order to start eating correctly. Eating the right foods is the only way you can get the red line performance that you need.

4. I was going though a few squash tips and one I came across something that pros used to improve their game. It’s simple yet difficult. You need to be able to focus your mind and visualize your outcome. You can do this by meditating and yoga.