Squash Book Reviews

Yarrow, Philip. Squash: Steps to Success. Human Kinetics, 1997.

Reviewed by Brent Johner.

Written for beginners and for self-taught intermediates who have never read a book about squash, this book is organized around twelve steps. It begins with the basics of racquet grip, swing styles and footwork. It ends with intermediate skills development including kills shots, fakes and match play preparations.

This is a big book. It looks like a kid's colouring book. But it includes many useful line drawings -- 150 in all.

Each step (chapter) includes figures and bullets labeled as "Keys to Success". The advice is sound and worth keeping around as reference material if you are a beginner playing regularly who is looking to improve. There are also a number of sidebars that are useful for diagnosing persistent errors. And finally, every chapter ends with a number of simple drills (82 in all) useful to self-learners or beginner coaches. All of these are supported by line drawings.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who has never (EVER) played the game before. Line drawings, by their very nature, are crude communications tools and the line drawings in this book are no exception. If you have never played the game before and want some beginners tips before you ever step onto a squash court, then start with a video.

If you have played the game enough to understand where the lines are in relation to the walls on a squash court, then you should have enough information to begin interpreting the line drawings. It is at this point that the book will begin to become useful.

There is enough information here to allow beginners to begin to play basic squash against other beginners. There is also enough to allow an intermediate player to begin coaching beginners. Intermediate players looking for tips on how to beat other intermediates will not be satisfied.

Khan, Jahangir. Go and Play Squash: Techniques and Tactics. London, 1985.

Reviewed by Brent Johner.

Jahangir Khan was the greatest squash player in a family dynasty that ruled the game from 1951 to 1997. The only person ever to win ten consecutive British Open squash titles, Jahangir Khan is also the only athlete in the history of professional sports to string together an amazing and unbroken five-year undefeated streak during which he won more than 500 consecutive matches.

His approach to the game was dead simple -- fitness wins. During the fifteen years of his professional career, Jahangir Khan was the fittest man in the game. Every workout started with a seven mile run. It was followed by as many as eight 400 metre sprints spaced a mere one minute apart. Then it was off to the hills to jog, to the pool to swim, to the gym to workout or to the squash court for solitary drills. Or perhaps several back-to-back games against top level competitors.

This legendary fitness regime was the foundation of his game but it was not all of his game. Built on this foundation was a superbly simple strategy that matched Jahangir's fitness against his opponent's relative lack of fitness. Play safe. Keep the ball in play. Wait for your opponent to make a mistake. Don't go for winners. Going for winners leads to mistakes. Let your opponent go for winners. Let your opponent make the mistakes.

As strategies go, this is one of the simplest. It is certainly the most intuitive. In fact, it is often the first strategy adopted (without coaching) by beginners who quickly learn that, in a game between friends, the player who makes the fewest unforced errors usually wins.

But as simple as this strategy is, it has one fatal flaw. It is built on a foundation of superior fitness. And as nearly every player who adopts this strategy learns eventually, they are not Jahangir Khan. Sooner or later, as they progress in squash, they run into someone who is in better shape. They run into a superior athlete who can keep running and keep playing it safe just as long as they can.

So sooner or later, every player must learn how to hit winners. At the very least, every squash player must learn how to hit shots that cause their opponents to make mistakes. In other words, every squash player must eventually grapple with the issue of tactics.

Jahangir Khan's Go and Play Squash: Techniques and Tactics (London: 1985) is one of many possible places to begin the process of learning about tactics. It is not the only place. It is, perhaps, not even the best place. But it is one place. And because it is available in the Calgary Public Library, it is an accessible place.

The evolution of every squash player's game goes something like this.

Stage One - Staying Alive - This is central tenet of the Khan strategy described above. Learn to hit the ball safely, stay alive and extend the rally.

Stage Two - Winning Points - During this stage, players learn to hit single shots that win rallies and/or single points.

Stage Three - Managing Momentum - At this stage players learn how to hit defensive shots against attacking opponents that reverse momentum and put them in a position to counterattack.

Stage Four - Controlling the Match - The final stage in every player's evolution comes when they learn how to string together a sequence of events that enables them to win three games in a match before their opponent can win three games.

Go and Play Squash was written to help players with the first two stages of their game. There is some mention in this book about stages three and four, but the treatment of these is superficial. The purpose of this book is to introduce players to the game of squash and to help them understand the basics of tactical squash.

The core of the book consists of five chapters titled "Starting", "Hitting", "Improving", "Practising" and "Excelling". Bookending these central chapters are two additional chapters called "How I Became World Champion" and "How You Too Can Become World Champion". Every basic is covered in the five central chapters. A useful series of diagrams and black-and-whites images introduces the reader to every significant concept in the world of squash tactics.

The only thing missing here -- and this is because the book is now more than 20 years old -- is a discussion of racquet technology. In Khan's day, all racquets were pretty much the same. There were good racquets and bad racquets, of course, but one good racquet was the pretty much the same as the next good racquet. Twenty-some years later, however, racquet technology has changed signficantly and squash players looking for an edge must take care to choose equipment that suits their style of play. They must choose a racquet that fits with their tactical preferences.

But dated or not, Go and Play Squash is still a useful tool for new and intermediate players still working on the first two stages of their game. It is best read in conjuction with Jahangir's Khan's instructional squash videos which were released the same year. The book and all three video tapes are available at the Calgary Public Library.

Robinson, Ian. Skilful Squash. London, 1990.

Reviewed by Brent Johner.

As a squash player, Great Britain's Ian Robinson was never ranked number one. In fact, he was never able to climb past the sixteenth position on the world ladder. But in spite of this, nobody today would deny the significance of Robinson's contribution to the development of our game.

In British circles, Robinson will be remembered more for his career as a coach and a builder than he will be for his career as a player. But outside of Britain Robinson he will be remembered primarily as the author of one of the best instructional books ever written on the game of squash.

"The following chapters assume that the majority of readers are already hitting the ball quite competently and are most likely playing to a reasonable standard," said Robinson in the introduction to Skillful Squash (London: 1990). "However, I make no apology for examining some basic aspects of technique, because even at higher levels of play, when things go wrong it is important to go back to the sound fundamentals of stroking the ball, footwork and concentration."

"Less is more" seems to be Robinson's core philosophy in Skillful Squash. Take away the 68 black-and-white photographs and the 31 diagrams from this 96 page book and you are left with nothing more than a longish essay subdivided in a series of subsections ranging in length from one to four short paragraphs.

Few words are wasted here. The language is economical, clinical. Complex explanations are supported with simple line figures. The result is clear communication from coach to player. In fact, only his three paragraph description (p. 40) of the corkscrew service -- inexplicably offered without a diagram -- confused me on the first read through this amazing little book.

More than half of the pages in Skilful Squash are dedicated to three core chapters. The chapter called "Technique", the longest in book, offers new players an introduction to all of the basic shots in squash. "Tactics" devotes eleven important pages to intermediate players working on the third and fourth stages of their game. And the central chapter "Practices" sets out a series of one and two person sqash drills that are useful at every level from beginner through to professional.

Although it is now more than 15-years-old, Skilful Squash must emain on every squash player's top ten list. It is the closest thing squash players have to a Bible of their sport. In fact, if the subject of this little book was tennis instead of squash, it would doubtlessly have been update and reprinted several times already. It really is that good.

Norman, Ross, et al. Improve Your Squash. London, 1988.

Reviewed by Brent Johner.

It looks like a coffee table book but it's laid out like an instruction manual interspersed, here and there, with a few pages from the storied history of soft ball squash. Unfortunately, it doesn't accomplish any of these things very well.

As its title suggests, Improve Your Squash is aimed primarily at a reading audience already playing the game and seeking to improve. Indeed, one-third of the pages in this 150 page book are dedicated to preparation, practice, tacitics and strategy. An additional third is focused on common squash injury management, diet advice and the rules of the game.

Only one-third of this book is set aside to introduce new players to the basics. And without question, this is the worst third of the book.

I'm not really sure why this part of the book is so bad, but it does seem to have been tacked on after the fact. For example, every basic shot is covered; drives, cross-courts, volleys, lobs, angles, serves and returns are all described, but only two -- cross-courts and lobs -- are diagramed. The rest of the descriptions are weakly supported by sequential photographs that are barely adequate to the task.

Much better is the middle third of the book where some excellent diagrams and useful photographs suitably illustrate the text descriptions. Nearly twenty years after this book's first publication, the practice drills diagramed in "Preparation and Practice" still have value and the tactics described in "The Mind Game" are still fundamentally sound.

Also still relevant in this rapidly aging look at the game of squash is a short, nine-page chapter called "Improving Your Game". In it Ian Robinson (author of Skillful Squash, reviewed above) introduces readers to the timeless concept of the squash hierarchy that exists on every court in every country in the world. He calls it "the laddder of success".

At the bottom of this ladder are players who are new to the game. At this level, notes Robinson "mere physical survival can be interpreted as success." Next up are the club players who play a lot, but who lack technique and any of the discipline imposed by practice. Above this are the tournament players who may play less but who practice more and achieve a much higher degree of fitness and skill than club players. And finally there are the professionals who are able to earn something of a living playing squash.

Most of the squash players that I have met in my life are club players who seek to hit the nick or bash winners into the back corners on every stroke. Taught by other club players (not squash coaches) to keep their drive lines down, club players aim for the twelve inches of wall immediately over the tin on nearly every shot. They play a hard, aggressive, nasty version of squash that ends in total exhaustion and -- more frequently as they get older -- painful injuries to joints and muscles.

Club players rarely practice outside of the pre-game warm up. They don't practice their lobs, so they don't have effective lobs. They don't practice hitting for length, so they rarely hit for good length. And few club players have any spin on their drops shots; a push-drop is about the best most club players can hope to accomplish in this department.

Stand behind the glass at your local squash facility and watch two club players bashing away. Pay attention to every shot and note where the ball first makes contact with the floor and side walls. It won't take long for you to spot the club player's fatal vulnerability. Club players hit the floor and the side walls within three feet of the short line most of the time.

It's called the short zone. In order to beat most club players, one only needs to guard the short zone. In fact, most of the time there is no need even to return to the Tee. The few balls that don't bounce in the short zone will often float weekly through it and can be easily put away with a volley.

Now stand behind the glass of another court and watch two tournament players go at it. Note how often balls hit the front wall within a few inches of the service line. Note how infrequently balls hit the floor within three feet of the short line. In fact, take away the cross court shots and the number of balls landing in the short zone dwindles toward nothingness. The few that do bounce in the short zone are quickly turned into winners by the player receiving them.

By avoiding the short zone, touranment level players force their opponents to move more. While on defense, guarding the short zone is not enough against tournament players. They use the whole court. Therefore tournament players are much harder to beat that club players. To beat a tournament player, you need to be fit, smart and accurate.

Unfortunately, the same is not true when it comes to beating club players. In fact, an aging tournament player of only moderate fitness can swiftly put away a much younger club player in excellent shape simply by guarding the short zone and forcing his opponent into the corners at every opportunity.

Improve Your Squash was written specifically for club players seeking to move up one level on Ian Robinson's ladder of success. It was written for club players who have reached the ceiling that separates them from tournament players. It was written for every club player who has come to the realization that they can only go so far by playing more.

Improve Your Squash is about playing smarter squash. It is about practicing. It is about making it possible for a 40-year-old work horse to beat a 20-year-old stallion every time. It gives every player an opporunity to step up to the next level. And from that perspective, this old and tattered book still has something of value to offer -- in spite of its many flaws.