As everyone would be aware by now, in our SQUASH TIGERS program, each week we have a "Shot of the Week"... (SHoW). The goals is to cover all the basic strokes in the game and ensure that players have a clear understanding of the drop, lob, drive and boast. A reminder that when we say a "clear understanding", this should include a solid ability to CONCISELY explain what the stroke should look like, and a small number of key technical characteristics so they can apply this to their practice.
This week the shot of the week is THE BOAST - emphasizing the boast from mid-court.
Players should be able to explain to anyone, mom, dad and other players the characteristics of the stroke...in this case: 1. Unless otherwise specified, when we discuss "the boast", we refer to a two wall boast 2. The ball strikes a side wall first, then strikes the front wall - we encourage players to aim for a narrow angle, when in doubt, the more narrow the better
3. Boasts from mid third are most often hit with cut or slice and with medium to fast racket head speed - they are not a flat shot, nor are they a soft shot
4. We want our boast to end up outside our opponents hitting zone, potentially forcing a cross court drive which we would then volley!
Technically, we focus on simple feedback: 1. For an attacking boast, we predominantly use a full swing, partly to ensure racket head speed and partly to assist in deception
2. We swing "up the wall", rather than across the body and open the racket face to ensure the appropriate angle is achieved 3. We slice heavily to keep the ball "down" after it contacts the front wall 4. We make sure we recover strongly to the T position following execution to ensure we can cover a counter drop, or whatever else our opponent may wish to attempt
The boast is an important part of any players arsenal and Boast Week is an important week for all our players. Even if we do not intend to make boasting a significant part of our A Game, we will get good repetitions at managing situations to prevent being exploited by our opponent, who may be adept at that stroke!
Finally my standard reminder that the curriculum runs in 12 week phases, which means we go through each stroke three times, with one "revision week" at the end of each annual quarter. If you didn't know, now you know! #NOWuKNOW
