To make a cross court simply orient your body so that your belly button is directed near the front corner.
The ball must bounce in the back corner and stay there.
It is better to use it when in an advantaged position (when you are in front of your opponent)
To make a good cross court you can aim at the center of the front wall, this way the ball will go straight into the opposite side's corner and if your ball has good depth it will stay there.
Use the cross court a few times every rally but not too much, instead make drives all the time. This is because if your opponent get used to you doing cross court he will forestall them and make you pay.
Instead if used sparingnessly you will surprise your opponent and therefore score a point.
The drive is the shot that stays in the side of the court where it has been made and it is best executed when it is the closest to the side wall and bounces near the backwall.
Best practice
The best drive, after hitting the front wall, bounces on the floor in the 3/4 of the back of the court in a way that makes it bounces near the backwall which makes the shot hard to retrieve.
The purpose of the drive is not necessarily to score points, it has the objective of forcing your opponent away from the T giving you the chance to dominate the rally.
The player on the T that most probably is defining the rythm of the rally.
So in order to obtain and keep control of the T you can use the drive.
Your body positioning and the shots you make
The way you make your swing defines the way you make every shot.
The position of your body determines where you will direct your shot.
To make a drive simply turn your body so that your belly is directly watching the side wall.
What i mean is that instead of making rapid start/stop movements between the ball and the T and back again, i suggest to always keep your body in movement, so that your feet are never stale.
That's because to start and stop consumes more energy than it would if you move slower and keep your momentum going.
So the next time you make a slow shot don't rush to the T, take the time to slowly go there this way when you get there you will quickly move away from it with less effort.
Ghosting
Ghosting means exercising as if the ball was there without using a ball.
Basically I'm moving around the court while making shots in all the four corners while always coming back to the T.
This is a great exercise to improve your stamina on court and it is pretty heavy on the legs.
The basic principles that are implied in this practice are:
I tend to move in the center in respect to the side walls and then i make a step to the side,
I always come back to the T,
I open the racket before moving,
I face the front wall when going back to the T.
What are the basics of ghosting:
You must act as if there was a ball
You can focus on various things
You will enhance your stamina and movement patterns
It builds reflexes to come back to the T
It is a pillar of squash skill
The structure behind court movement
The idea is that you should be moving the less and getting the most, therefore you need to know:
All these theoretical concepts will be very useful after you take a grasp on the basics.
In this video i provide you with all the step by step explanation you need to learn the movement patterns NOW.
Here is an extract of the concepts contained in the video:
You must always move in a way that makes you do a drive and eventually choose not to.
The movement pattern are 2, one for the right side of the court and one for the left side.
These are just schemes to start working on this skill, when you'll be good at those you will be able to change them according to your preferences.
The basic scheme is that you walk in semi-circle way so that you are facing the side wall when you reach the ball, this forces you to make a drive and it is great for a novice player.
Movement patterns
The movement patterns requires you to make 3 steps and are as follow:
The first step is toward the front/back wall
The second is diagonal toward the corner in which the ball is located
The last is a side step toward the side wall
The order of the feet involved changes depending on the side of the court.
The volley is the most important shot in squash that is because provinding you move correctly and your accuracy is good, the timing of your shot is the most important factor to win a match.
As a general rule you should be using the volley as much as possible especially to obtain and mantain control of the center.
A great thing when using the volley is that if you are much faster than your opponent you won't even need too much accuracy to score a point, obviously you should focus on precision more than on strenght.
How to make a volley
To make a volley you simply must follow the principle of how to make a good swing and change the impact point up in front of your face.
The swing must be fluid so focus on using the shoulder while mantaining the arm extended.
Try to always hit the ball when it is at should height even if it is okay to hit it in a lower position.
When making the volly you should be extending as much as possible and remember to face the side wall (if you are making a drive)
When to do the volley
You should be using the volley as much as possible, that is becaue it requires less effort and most of the time provides better results.
Where on court
As a general rule it is useless to make a volley when you are near the backwall, that is because the ball will bounce out of it. Anyway you should use the volley everytime you feel comfortable to make it.
How to train the volley
Start by simply facing the front wall and start bouncing the ball, have your arm relaxly extend and hit the ball as much as you can by using the shoulder.
Don't worry about strenght it will come with time.