The Stroke: An in-depth look - Squash Rules -

The Stroke

Whenever there is an impediment to you making a winning shot, caused by the fact that your opponent is in front of you or inside of your racket swing space. A point will be assigned to you. This judgement is called stroke.

A winning shot is a shot that goes directly into the front wall.

Therefore everytime your opponent throws a shot near himself, and you are behind him, you will receive a point and a stroke will be assigned against your opponent.

When does a stroke gets assigned

A stroke can be assigned for many reasons such as:

1. If you hit your opponent.
2. if the conditions for a stroke are applicable after the ball bounces away from the back wall provided that you don't rotate yourself (I.e. you keep facing your opponent, this typically happens if your opponent makes a really terrible shot). 
3. If your opponent is inside of your swing when you are making the shot.
4. If you hit him with the racket after making the shot, the stroke will be assigned provided that you haven't done it on purpose (I.e. you made a regular, 180 degree maximum swing.)

Keeping the distance from the ball

Keeping your distance from the ball.

Video Tutorial

Staying away from the ball in squash is a crucial skill that you need to develop

The benefits are:

1. You will move less
2. You will hit the ball more powerfully
3. You will have more control of the ball

By having your arm extended you will have more power and control and you will move less.

By moving less you will reach the ball faster and this will provide you two benefits: 

• You will put more pressure on your opponent and you will be able to forestall more shots 
• You will be able to stay in the center more often and more easily, stacking a great advantage on your side.

How do you learn the proper distance from the ball?

It comes with conscious practice.
First of all you need to learn the proper impact point which is just a little under the highest point of the racket.

You can actually feel a good ball from a bad ball by feeling the bounce that it does on the racket plate.

In order for you to learn the distance from the ball in squash you first have to train by standing still near the front wall. When you do so, try to stay as far away as possible from the ball, don't move closer to it, instead try to extend yourself. 

After you get an idea of the distance from the ball, try to increase it.
One of the best exercise to help you keep the distance from the ball consists of making drives and systematically doing a bad shot near the center so that you have to move in order to keep the proper distance,  you can do this both by yourself or with a coach.

You can reach the second level of this skill by practicing drives in the back of the court, every time you make a shot, make sure to touch the T line so that you are sure that you are away from the corner, then try to move as less as possible and maintain the ball in the back corner.

The third level of knowing the distance from the ball requires that you learn court movement.
When you'll learn court movement you will not only move less and more effectively, you will also hit better shots and generally be more effective on court.

Let & Stroke - Simple definition and distinctions - Squash Rules - Video tutorial

Let & Stroke

Squash rules

Squash have few simple rules.
Let and stroke and the distinction between them is probably the most important.
I made three videos: A simple quickstart and two in depth on both Let and Stroke.

The Distinction between Let and Stroke

Here's a simple distinction that will help you better understand these two concepts:
Let is about restarting the rally because your opponent didn't Let you go for the ball or some interruption occurred.

Stroke has to do with impeding the shot, your opponent didn't allow you to make you shot by staying inside of your swing (which is a risky thing to do) or by placing himself inside of your ball's trajectory.

Watch the video to better understand these concepts

Video Tutorial

Extra: Bonus video. When Strokes look like Lets, when Lets look like No Let and when No Let looks like Let

As you've seen from this video is not always easy to decide, the purpose of the following articles will be to make it easy for you to understand the subtle differences

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