Effective footwork is vital to efficient movement on the court. It helps players position themselves for shots and react promptly when faced with opponents.
Drills that focus on strengthening feet and legs in different ways are a great way to develop better footwork and balance in squash players of any level. In this article we’ll look at a selection of basic squash footwork drills designed to assist those at all stages of their game.
1. Star Drill
Establishing quick feet is a fundamental element of squash player. Developing quick feet allows them to navigate more efficiently around the court and position themselves for shots more precisely; additionally, this also saves energy as less steps need to be taken between movements.
An effective starting point for ladder drills in field sports is ladder drills, used to develop foot patterns and agility. Ladder drills can be integrated into warmups or movement skills training circuits to develop foot patterns quickly while remaining under control and maintaining balance on their rungs. They’re an excellent way to train quick feet.
At another step towards developing quick feet is including ghosting drills in your training sessions. Ghosting refers to imagining hitting the ball without actually doing so and it’s an effective way to enhance footwork and body movements patterns.
One effective ghosting drill is the Star Drill, which involves setting up five cones in an arrangement resembling a star shape. Your players should line up behind one point of the star and move their feet sequentially across it to complete it.
Players should aim to move through a star as quickly and with as much control of their stick as possible while maintaining speed and control of their stick. This fun yet challenging drill can become more competitive by keeping score, setting an individual or team target of how quickly through they can travel through. You could also adapt this drill for use with Ground Balls or Over-the-Shoulder passes.
2. Lunge Drill
Squash players need to be adept at moving quickly in all directions without losing balance or control, while remaining light on their feet so as to be able to make last minute adjustments in positioning to achieve optimal shots at the ball. Good footwork helps them do this whilst conserving energy and ultimately improving match performances.
Implementing dynamic warm up and movement skills training circuits are crucial to the development of any serious squash player. Many drills can be executed using basic equipment like the speed/ agility ladder to help players improve linear and lateral agility as well as rotational speed and deceleration.
When performing ladder drills, it’s imperative that all legs lift and land together – staggered landings indicate poor footwork. A great way to enhance this is by adding in plyometric elements to ladder drills; this will strengthen many key leg muscles used in squash (including quads, glutes and calves).
An example is box jumps, wherein players stand with feet shoulder width apart and then jump forward, sideways, and diagonally. By including plyometric components within this drill it will help improve power, speed, explosiveness, core stability, as well as increase performance levels of participants.
An overhead slam drill is another plyometric exercise to add to ladder drills; players stand in an athletic stance with the ball at waist level before raising and slamming it overhead and back down towards the ground. This drill works great for building shoulder and core strength in squash players and should be included twice weekly in training circuits.
3. Ghosting Drill
Squash players expend significant energy moving around the court and duplicating these movements without the ball can help build fitness levels. But doing this without purposeful movements may become boring or fail to improve specific movement patterns for squash. That is where ghosting drills come into play as they allow players to practice specific movements without the ball in an engaging and challenging manner.
Ghosting can be performed at varying intensities to improve overall conditioning or more slowly to isolate specific aspects of movement. Furthermore, ghosting can be expanded into shot and ghost drills to incorporate hitting as an integral element of squash play that should not be overlooked.
An effective ghosting drill involves having your partner feed you a shot into one corner of the court and ghost in another direction on the opposite side. Usually this will involve either backhand drop or forehand drive shots; however they can be tailored specifically to suit both partners and desired shots. Repeated for a specified amount of time (typically 1-minute blocks with 1-minute rest between), this exercise may even be expanded up to 20 or 10 repetitions for more focused work on specific aspects of movement.
To add an additional level of difficulty to this drill, progress can be made by increasing both duration of each balance and range of movements employed. Varying up and down movements, forward/backward movements and which foot is used for pushing off can all help increase difficulty of the drill and make it more similar to real playing conditions.
4. Ladder Drill
Ladder drills are one of the most flexible training exercises available to players, offering numerous benefits for balance, agility, speed and coordination development in all sports. Furthermore, ladder drills can be modified to work on specific footwork and mobility skills that allow athletes to advance beyond basic movements such as running and hopping to more complex lateral, rotational and explosive progressions.
Lader drills provide an effective alternative to traditional jumping exercises like jump roping and running laps that may become monotonous and ineffective for some athletes. By providing an engaging warm up while simultaneously developing key physical attributes required for squash such as deceleration, eccentric control, multiplanar stability and more; ladder drills offer an efficient yet enjoyable warm-up routine for players of any level.
Add variety to ladder drills by including some plyometric exercises like jump squats and box jumps into your routine, with jump squats focusing on improving lower body power while box jumps are an excellent upper body and core strength exercise. Both exercises can be completed either on the floor or an agility ladder; box jumps are particularly recommended if your aim is building explosive power.
Carioca Hop: Another simple yet effective ladder drill! To perform it effectively, stand perpendicular to your ladder with your left foot as lead, and hop over each square by placing the right foot behind then in front of it before repeating this sequence all along your ladder.
For an advanced carioca hop, step lateral out and in of the ladder with each repetition. Step into each square using left leg first then right leg then alternate in and out from there using both legs, then take several backward steps down each ladder length.
5. Shuttle Run
Excellent footwork skills can help squash players improve their court positioning. By efficiently and quickly moving around corners, players can score more points. Furthermore, good footwork enables players to conserve energy during matches or tournaments and save energy for later.
Shuttle run tests and drills provide athletes with an excellent way to assess and increase agility and speed, whether for competitive purposes or general fitness improvement. There are a number of short, fast drills, while others take longer. No matter which one you use, it is always advisable to warm up first by jumping, jogging, or swinging arms to get blood circulating around your body before performing a shuttle run.
Shuttle Run is a running drill in which runners sprint back and forth between two markers located 10 meters apart from their starting line. Once at each marker, runners must sprint toward it, touch it briefly, sprint back towards starting line, repeat this sequence four or six times and time their results before timing results.
A typical shuttle run time should take around 4-6 seconds; however, its exact duration depends on factors like the test or drill protocol, distance of markers and fitness level of an individual.
