Squash Tips
A Few Squash Tips To Help You Get Started
While you need to learn the rules of the game, learning a few squash tips at the same time will help you progress faster, and can make playing the game more enjoyable. As you'll see, much of this involves strategy, but not all. And as a beginner, not ready to start incorporating strategy into your game quite yet, there are still some tips that you should be aware of.
The first of the squash tips, which should really be a rule, is extremely important. Wear goggles! Squash is a very fast paced game, and you are occasionally going to be hit with a fast moving ball and, hopefully seldom or never, with your opponent's racquet. If you get hit in the face, especially in the vicinity of your eyes, you'll be very thankful you had eye protection. Other squash tips may help you improve your game; this one may allow you to continue playing it!
Once you are into a game, another good tip is to remember to keep your eye on the ball. As in tennis, golf, baseball, or most sports involving a ball, if you take your eye off the ball you'll either miss a shot or make a poor one. You not only watch the ball as it approaches your racquet, but as it approaches your opponent's racquet as well. The quicker you can tell which direction the ball is going to go, the better your chances are of making the right hit yourself.
Ever watched a tennis match where one player is running back and forth along the baseline, and the other is staying close to one spot, probably near mid-court? Guess who usually wins the point. Whenever you can, hit the ball so your opponent is going to have to run, or move several strides, to return it. If you can get your opponent running, and you are not, you'll not only be wearing him out, but will be in greater control of being able to hit the ball where you want, while your opponent is simply trying to hit it.
Even in a fast game like squash, there is such a thing as controlling the tempo. This will be difficult as a beginner, but as you progress, you'll find that there are some valuable squash tips you can learn, that will help you control the pace of a game to your liking, and in effect take your opponent's game away from him. When you can control the tempo of a game, you not only enjoy a strategic advantage, but often a very powerful psychological one as well.
One situation you'll find yourself in occasionally is being tied 8-8 in a 9 point game. If you were the first one to reach 8 points, you get to decide whether to play the game to 9 points or 10 points. There are all sorts of arguments for deciding either way, and some even cite various statistics backing up their arguments. A good tip here is to choose a 10 point game. While this could put you at a slight disadvantage if your opponent is a much better player than you, the question is, if that is indeed the case, how have you been able to keep close up to now? It could very likely be that your opponent is playing badly, having a bad day, or is hurt or worn out. In any of these cases, playing to 10 points would work to your advantage.
Of course you could probably write a book containing tips like the preceding one. If you read such a book, you probably wouldn't remember 10 % of them, and even less during a game. Better yet, learn from your own experience, and get your tips from people who are watching you play. Those are probably the best squash tips you could receive.