Tactical Awareness

By Mike Way

Mike Way is the squash professional at the Toronto Racquet Club, home of the National Squash Training Center. Players training with Mike include world No. 1 Jonathon Power, Graham Ryding, and a host of up and coming young Canadian players.

Simon Parke (L) recognizes that Jonathon Power has moved up behind him and plays the smart shot down the wall

After looking at a number of counter strategies we're now going to look at how to recognize what is going on tactically. Most of this article will come under the heading “the bleedin' obvious”—but as simplistic as it is, very few players change a game when they're in trouble or recognize when to exploit obvious attacking positions. They all try harder, but let's activate a few synapses to play smarter.

Most players' tactical awareness is very low—especially when losing. If you're pissed off and frustrated, your energy level will rise to the point that any awareness drops off dramatically. It is essential to keep calm to be able to see what is unfolding in a match.

First of all, remember this from an earlier article:
Play to your strengths
Exploit your opponent's weaknesses
Use counter strategies when in trouble — i.e., cancel your opponent's strengths

Recognizing what is going on comes under the heading “awareness.” In a nutshell:
How can you increase the number of winners?
How can you force more errors?
Your opponent's winners are hit from.
Your errors are caused by . . .

In the articles about counter strategy we looked at very specific actions you could take against certain types of players, i.e., canceling their strengths when you're losing. But sometimes you don't have to change an entire style of play to be effective, whether defending or attacking. Examples:

Your opponent is winning rallies with his backhand volley drop. You can try hitting low and hard or high and soft, but the most obvious play would be to play more on his forehand side.

Your opponent is weak overhead on the backhand side and prefers to let it drop before hitting it. You may not want to lob all the time, but clearly a good soft shot in the back left will force him to play a defensive boast and set you up in the front right.

These examples, of course, both have the “duh” factor—it's a no-brainer as far as what you should be doing. But the reality is that very few players actually recognize simple tactical situations.

There is no magic word or phrase, it's just learning to recognize what is going on at a very simple level. Watching matches with a critical eye will help raise your awareness. From the comfort of the gallery, play the mental game of what would you do in place of either player. Bringing tactical awareness to your game, learning how to use counter-strategies, and learning how to play your strengths is the most interesting part of this game. Give it a go—you might surprise your opponent (let alone yourself!).