Bespoke Training Plan
For ………………………………..
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Aims
Stated targets for improvement:
Racket face on forehand
Split-step/movement between shots
Type of training:
Solo exercises
Number of training session:
One
Length of training session:
One hour
Session 1
MOVEMENT AROUND THE OUTSIDE OF THE COURT
NUMBERS: 1-2
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THE RULES: To get warmed-up, start by moving around the outside of the court whilst facing the
front wall, so that you run forwards along the right hand side of the court,
sidestep along the front of the court, run backwards along the left side wall and
then sidestep again along the back wall.
COACHING POINTS: This is a good warm-up activity as it gets you moving in
different directions and also gets you used to having your body facing the front
wall, which is a good position for movement in squash.
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EXPANSION - NUMBER OF PLAYERS: You can easily do this exercise with a
partner or as part of a group. All you have to do is spread out and give each other a safe amount
of space as you move around the outside of the court.
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LUNGE EXERCISES
NUMBERS: 1
THE RULES: You need to do 15 lunges on your right leg from a standing position.
Straight after doing 15 lunges on the right leg, you then do 15 lunges on your left leg.
After lunging on both legs, rest for 15 seconds. This is one complete set and you need to
do 3 sets of this.
COACHING POINTS: We’re starting from the beginning here with the
most basic weight loading exercise; lunges*. Although it is basic, it is
very important that you do this right and put your all into this. If your
form isn’t good and your lunge isn’t efficient now, it certainly won’t hold
up under the pressure of a match.
*See the essentials of lunge technique in our appendix.
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SETS
REPS
EXPANSION - THE GAME: The first thing you can do is to add in more lunges or more sets or even
reduce the amount of rest time you have between sets.
Round the clock lunges: Once you have mastered the lunge, you can move onto doing ‘Round the clock
lunges’. In ‘Round the clock lunges’, you do a series of lunges in a circle at different angles, as if tracing the
outline of a clock face. So the first lunge would be a standard lunge and then your next one would be a
slightly to the right, as if you were lunging to one o’clock on a clock face and then the next one would be
two o’clock etc. As you get round to three and four o’clock, you are lunging sideways, and then when you
reach six o’clock, you are lunging backwards. Then as you work your way around the clock face on the
other side, you are lunging with the other leg. As you get more confident, you can do the lunges a little
faster and more squash like and even imagine you were lunging into lots of awkward little shots.
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RUNNING LUNGE EXERCISES
NUMBERS:1-3
THE RULES: In this exercise, start on the back wall and run forwards as towards the
front wall. As you are nearing the half waypoint between the short line and the front
wall, decelerate by lengthening your strides and then lunge just in front of the front
wall. After lunging, push back with your lunge and run backwards
towards the back wall. Next time when you go forwards and decelerate
again, lunge on the other leg. Repeat this process eight times, so that
you do eight lunges on each leg. After doing this, rest for thirty seconds
and then do two more sets of sixteen with a minutes rest between each.
COACHING POINTS: Keep any eye on your stride length. Try to start with
small, quick steps and then as close in on the wall and the lunge,
SETS
lengthen your stride length to slow you down so that you can lunge. As
you lunge, use the momentum of the lunge (for more detail see the appendix) to power backwards and
move out of the lunge.
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REPS
EXPANSION - THE GAME: Once you’ve done this, if you fancy more or if it is too easy or boring, use your
racket and swing at the end of that lunge. When you do this, visualise the shot you would play and swing
properly as if you were actually playing that shot.
-- DRINK & REST – 1 MINUTE --
SWING SHAPE EXERCISE
NUMBERS: 1
THE RULES: In this exercise, you need to watch yourself swing in real time, which means you
need to find somewhere where you can see your reflection. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a
mirror; it could be a window, a glass back wall or any other reflective material that allows you
to see yourself (it doesn’t have to be perfect clarity). Once you’ve found your reflective material,
swing slowly while watching your reflection. See if it looks like what you expect. Make sure you
do your full swing and just observe what the swing looks like. After a few goes at this, start to
swing as you normally would at a typical speed.
If your swing doesn’t look like expect or like those you see from the professionals, start to try
and copy their swings in the mirror. Then really watch your reflection and see that image of you
with a professional swing – this is very important, as this is the image you will try to copy in
your head on court. Do swings for about 90 seconds on the forehand side of the court and then
again for ninety seconds on the backhand side.
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MINUTES
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COACHING POINTS: Make sure you have plenty of space in which to swing for a start! Take the time just
to watch your swing and see if it looks like what you expect. Make sure you really watch though – a lot of
players start watching and then get distracted watching their arm – focus solely on the reflection. Quite
often players don’t realise they are doing things or think they are doing something they in fact aren’t
doing.
RUNNING LUNGE & GHOST
NUMBERS: 1-2
TIME: 2 minutes each side
THE RULES: Now that you’ve given yourself that image of the swing,
we’re going to bring it together with the lunge. Starting from the back wall, run
forwards to the front wall. As you get closer to the front wall, decelerate and start
bringing your racket back. As you finish slowing down, lunge and swing your racket
in an imaginary shot.
COACHING POINTS: The idea here is we are practicing the lunge and the swing
under a bit more pressure than before. By doing this, we are developing your ability
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to lunge during a match, as we are gradually increasing the pressure on your lunge
technique and building it up until we reach match play. Before, the lunge was
static. Now the lunge is at the end of a run.
Make sure when you swing your racket that you swing it with conviction. Imagine the shot you are
retrieving and visualise the shot you are playing and then track where the imaginary ball goes after you hit
it.
EXPANSION - THE GAME: Once you’ve done this, you need to start making the run and lunge more squash
specific. Rather than just running towards the front wall, you’re going to move to specific locations on the
court where shots are typically played too. Start by placing a marker or cone in the front corner of each
side about a racket length from both the front and sidewalls. Then move towards these targets, decelerate
and lunge towards the con and swing above the marker as if it was where the ball was. As when swinging
with the running lunges, be sure to imagine what you shot you are playing as you swing.
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RACKET FACE EXERCISE – SILLY GRIP HITTING
NUMBERS: 1-2
THE RULES: In this exercise, if you are working on your own, play straight long shots back to
yourself whilst standing around the service box area. Aim for all of your shots to go above
the serve line, as this will allow you more time between your shots.
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However, the catch is that you need to hold the racket at its throat or the base of the strings as you are
moving towards the ball. Then, just as you are about to start swinging, quickly shift the racket
into the normal grip with an open racket face and hit the ball. Between shots, you then have to
shift your hand back onto the base of the strings and then get it back into the a more typical
grip in time for your next shot.
If you have a partner, you can have them feed the ball for you to hit back to them.
After four minutes, swap sides and repeat this exercise on the other side of the court – forehand
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or backhand.
COACHING POINTS: This is a great exercise for changing the racket face or grip and also practicing grip
manipulation in general, as it forces you to be aware of your grip every shot you play. Be strict with
yourself and make sure you do actually do the grip change for every single shot. Also be strict about how
you change the grip; you should practice changing your grip without involving your non-racket hand,
which means learning to work your hand up and down the racket face with one hand.
Keep being aware of your racket-face as you move your grip down to normal, as you want to make sure
you are reinforcing an effective racket face and not an incorrect one!
EXPANSION - THE GAME: You can add or remove extra levels of difficulty to this game in a few ways. You
can vary the difficulty by increasing or decreasing the amount of time you have between shots. If you are
finding it easy, you can make the exercise harder by saying your shots have to go below the serve line or
you could test your all round ball control by saying all of your shots have to go past the mid-line or service
box.
If you’re really feeling confident, have a go at doing volleys whilst still shifting your grip rather than letting
the ball bounce.
REGRESSION - THE GAME: If you are struggling with this, you can make the movement a bit easier by
starting with your hand at the top of the grip (rather than the start of the strings) and then move it down
to the middle of the grip between shots.
EXPANSION - NUMBER OF PLAYERS: You can add to the difficulty of this exercise if you have a partner, as
you can rally together whilst changing your grip. The best way to do this initially is to do a co-operative
alley rally, where you work together to do as many shots as you can in a row on one side of the court only
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and then swap sides. You could then even play competitively or using the whole court.
RACKET FACE EXERCISE WITH LUNGE
NUMBERS: 1-2
TIME: 4-5 minutes each side
THE RULES: In this exercise, like the previous exercise, you are playing straight long shots back to
yourself starting with your hand on the base of the strings, whilst standing around the service box
area. This time though, make sure that you lunge into your shots, even if only slightly (if the ball
is bouncing high), and then use the momentum from your back leg to push back out of the lunge
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and out of the shot. Repeat this process for each shot.
Keep aiming for all of your shots to go above the serve line, as this will allow you more time between your
shots.
As you move in and lunge, move your hand from the base of the strings to the handle and correct grip just
as you are about to start swinging. As before, between shots, you then have to shift your hand back onto
the base of the strings and then get it back into the a more typical grip in time for your next shot.
COACHING POINTS: This is a great exercise for changing the racket face or grip and also practicing grip
and racket face manipulation in general, as it forces you to change and be aware of your grip every shot.
Be strict with yourself and make sure you do actually do the grip change for every single shot. Also, keep
being aware of your racket-face as you move your grip to normal, as you want to make sure you are
reinforcing an effective racket face.
EXPANSION - THE GAME: You can add or remove extra levels of difficulty to this game in a few ways. You
can vary the difficult by increasing or decreasing the amount of time you have between shots. If you are
finding it easy, you can make the exercise harder by saying your shots have to be hit below the serve line
or you could test your all round ball control by saying all of your shots have to go past the mid-line or
service box.
If you’re really feeling confident, have a go at doing volleys rather than letting the ball bounce.
REGRESSION - THE GAME: If you are struggling with this, you can make the movement a bit easier by
starting with your hand at the top of the grip (rather than the start of the strings) and then move it down
to the middle of the grip between shots.
EXPANSION - NUMBER OF PLAYERS: If you have a partner, you can have them feed the ball for you to hit
back to them. After four to five minutes, swap sides and repeat this exercise on the other side of the court
– forehand or backhand.
Additionally, you and your partner can add to the difficulty of this exercise if you have a partner, as you
can rally together whilst changing your grip. The best way to do this initially is to do a co-operative alley
rally, where you work together to do as many shots as you can in a row on one side of the court only and
then swap sides. You could then even play competitively or using the whole court.
-- DRINK & REST – 1 MINUTE --
SOLO LENGTH HITTING WITH LUNGE
NUMBERS: 1-2 players
THE RULES: In this exercise, you are playing straight long shots to yourself but
lunging properly (be it a deep or shallow lunge as required) as you move into the shot
and then recovering from the lunge properly back towards the middle of the court.
Place a target in the back corner and aim to hit this with the second bounce of your shot. Then
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swap sides and repeat the exercise on the other side of the court.
COACHING POINTS: Whenever you do solo work like this, always make sure you test yourself and always
ensure that you move into the shot and move out of your shot - don’t just hit it. In this case, you need to
make sure you are focusing on that final step or lunge and then getting the lunge back out of the ball.
Also, focus on hitting the target zone – keep looking at it before you begin and do your best to get all of
your shots as close to it as possible.
EXPANSION - THE GAME: You can take this a bit further on your own by playing a shorter shot and a
lob short to yourself. Be sure to be generous with yourself and play a loose short shot and a slow lob shot
to give yourself a chance of retrieving your own shots. Whilst it looks a bit silly, it really tests your
movement and lunging under quite intense pressuer.
EXPANSION - NUMBER OF PLAYERS: You could do this in pairs in a couple different ways; you could
have a player on either side of the court doing the solo exercise above and then swap after 4 minutes or
you could have the players play the length shots to each other. If you do the hitting together, try to focus
on the lunging and hitting the target rather than simply winning the rally!
Further exercises
SOLO KILLS
NUMBERS: 1
TIME: 2-3 minutes
SCORING: None
THE RULES: In this solo practice, a player stands on the short line and plays kill shots to themselves. These
kills should all bounce before the short line so that the player can play the ball before the line. The player
tries to hit as many consecutive kills as possible without the ball bouncing twice, hitting it out or losing
control of it.
COACHING POINTS: This is a solo drill which allows players to improve their control over kill shots but also
to develop and practice their racket head speed. Although players are trying to play as many shots in a
row as possible, they should seek to challenge themselves by playing the ball as low and fast as possible.
EXPANSION - THE GAME: This exercise isn't really something that can be expanded upon but if a player
finds it very easy, they could stand closer to the front wall to reduce the time they have between shots.
Hopefully they are already hitting the ball hard and low to challenge themselves though! EXPANSION - NUMBER OF PLAYERS: You can have a player working on the forehand side and also on
the backhand side, allowing you to have two players per court. If you have more than this, you could get a
player or two to wait at the back of the court and take it in turns to have a go with the players at the front.
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The hitter would have one go (or another agreed number of goes or amount of time) and then pass the
ball to their partner at the back to have their go. SOLO KILLS INTO FRONT CORNER
NUMBERS: 1
TIME: 2-3 minutes
SCORING: PAR 11
THE RULES: This a slight variation of our solo kills exercise. In this one, the player plays the ball into the
corner of the front wall so that it hits the front wall and then the side wall almost immediately after so
that it comes back to the middle of the court. Again, the player is standing on the short line - the T-Position
is best for this exercise - and trying to hit as many consecutive kills as possible without the ball bouncing
twice, hitting it out or losing control of it.
COACHING POINTS: This exercise can be a little tricky initially but once you get into the rhythm it becomes
easier. Aim to stand on the T-Position whilst facing one of the front corners. From here look for your kill
shots to hit the front wall very close to the corner so that it hits the side wall very early. If you get the right
angle, the ball should come back towards you and the middle of the court. Aim to keep it there and move
your feet as little as possible, as once you start moving, the angle of your shot needs to change and this
can be really hard to maintain or recover from.
EXPANSION - THE GAME: You can change the exercise a bit by playing alternate forehand and
backhand kills from the T-Position. You play the forehand kill into the backhand corner and as the ball is
coming back towards you, play a backhand kill into the forehand corner. Try and keep this going for as
long as possible, whilst still hitting testing shots to improve and pressurise your skills. In some ways this
expansion is easier than this solo kill exercise but it does offer an alternative form of control. EXPANSION - NUMBER OF PLAYERS: This exercise is tricky to do with two or more players on court
due to the need to be around the T-Position and the ball being hit quite hard. If you are working with
advanced players, you could have one person using a front corner and another using the opposite back
corner but having any more than this is dangerous. If you do have three or four players, you could have
players working in pairs, with one doing the hitting and the other resting. They could then swap roles after
a short amount of time or an agreed number of attempts.
Pairs Exercise
DROP, DRIVE & DRIVE, DROP
NUMBERS: 2-4
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SCORING: None
TIME: 3-4 minutes in each of the four quarters
THE RULES: This is a non-competitive game designed purely for shot practice, although both
players should be aiming to play their best and test each other. The player at the front starts the
exercise by dropping and their driving their own drop to the player at the back. The player at the
back then responds with a drive of their own before dropping their own drive.
COACHING POINTS: This is a great exercise for practicing all three of the main objectives. Playing
two shots in quick succession is a great way to get quick technical improvement and so it is a
great way to practice the open racket face, which will also be tested by the two shots used in the
exercise. If you don’t have an open racket face, you will find it difficult to play short and then long
especially.
It’s really important to get the best out of this drill that you put your all into every shot. Don’t
settle for playing a weak drop just so you can drive it back easily. Equally, don’t let the ball
bounce twice easily; always try to return your shot, even if it’s really tight. Secondly, make sure
you’re not lazy with your feet. To play two shots in quick succession, you need to be good on your
feet and create a new position for each shot. Make sure you don’t slack just because you know
where the ball is going next - step out of each shot and get back towards the middle before
moving back in for the second shot.
EXPANSION: THE GAME: You can make this exercise more difficult by looking for players to
volley. The person at the back would look to volley both of their shots, first intercepting their
partners drive with a volley drive or volley lob and then volley dropping their own volley drive.
EXPANSION: NUMBER OF PLAYERS: This drill can be easily done with four players, as you can
have a pair of players working on the forehand side and a pair of players on the backhand side.
You can then have these players rotate around in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction so that
players get to work with different pairs, or you can just have them swap ends before they swap
sides and keep the same pairs.
You can make it work with a three too but I would suggest changing the exercise. If you’re in a
three, have two players at the back who drive to themselves and then boast to a person at the
front. The person at the front drops the boast and then drives back to the other player at the back
to do their drive and then boast.
Appendix
Lunge technique
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The ‘lunge’ in squash is slightly different to a classic lunge, hence why I have put it inside inverted
commas.
Classic Lunge
The ‘lunge’ in squash is slightly different to a classic lunge, hence why I have put it inside inverted
commas.
The Squash ‘Lunge’
In squash, the ‘lunge’ is there to help you to get down to lower shots (and have full control over
them) and also to help you stretch in from more central areas of the court so that you don’t get
dragged away from the middle and into the corners easily. What really separates the squash
‘lunge’ from an ordinary lunge though is its role in recovering the T-Position. You also want to
lunge where possible so that you can move back to the middle of the court quickly and efficiently
after hitting your shot.
When a player lunges, it is important that they are balanced and then that they are able to
recover rapidly to the T-Position.
A balanced lunge should see a player putting their weight onto their front leg whilst keeping
both legs at around 90°, as you can see in the image below. The player’s front knee should not go
beyond their toes and their back leg should be stable with the knee off the floor. If a player is not
able to control the lunge, they most likely need to work on their strength.
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Secondly, the lunge needs to help you to push off explosively back to the T-Position. Allowing the
back leg to dip forwards slightly and the non-racket shoulder to remain back as a player lunges
allows them to generate this explosiveness. This back leg dipping forwards and the shoulder
provide momentum as you exit the lunge, which can be used to push off and back out of the shot
at speed. If a player doesn’t use the back leg or the shoulder, they may get stuck in the lunge and
find it hard to push off.
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The back leg dipping through towards the front leg. This momentum will help the player to move
off effortlessly, as it is much more efficient than stopping and then starting again.
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