As everyone would be aware by now, in our SQUASH TIGERS program, each week we have a "Shot of the Week"... (SHoW). The goal 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 it's the drop - specifically from the mid third of the court! Players should be able to explain to anyone, mom, dad and other players the characteristics of the stroke...in this case:
1. Must be above the little red line (always phrasing instructions in the affirmative, rather than "DON'T HIT THE TIN..." :) )
2. The ball strikes the front wall, then the floor, before touching the side wall (or running parallel to it...)
3. Sliced, for control and to "bring the ball down" off the front wall
4. Soft, the running joke is that it should be soft enough to hit yourself with, without leaving a mark.
Technically, we focused on four small pieces of feedback:
1. Shortening the swing
2. Directing the follow through at the target
3. Opening the racket face to enable slice/cut/effect
4. Bending at the knees, with good posture, to make sure we get down to the ball... racket head ideally level with or above the wrist
This formula is a big part of the "Shot of the Week" discussion in any week. Essentially there are four shots in the sport - drive, boast, drop, lob - and we rotate through the offensive and defensive versions of each, discussing them in terms of where on the court they are played from and when they should be employed. 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!
