Squash movies and video clips of solo squash drills

The most important concept in squash it to keep it straight and keep it tight! If you watch the pros play, 90% of their game is just exchanging these tight straight drives, volleys and straight drops. Why? Because the tight straight shot is the safest shot to play in squash. It's the only shot that can not be attacked.

Your hope is for the opponent to return it loosely so that the court will open up, allowing you to play a variety of shots that put your opponent under pressure. Either you will force a mistake from them or they will finally put up an extreamly loose ball that you can kill or put away.

So keeping this in mind, the most beneficial drills are simply the straight drive, straight volley and straight drop. Here they are explained below.

80% of your game should be hitting tight straight drives. Simply practice hitting the ball up and down the wall to yourself. Spend 15-20 minutes on each side. Aim for the service line and try and get the ball to bounce withing a few feet of the sidewall. As you get better your target area will narrow to just a few pieces of wood from the sidewall. Knock it up and down and try and get into a rhtyhm. Keep the ball in play and don't kill it or let it bounce twice. Ideally the first bounce will be near behind the service box. (If the ball was left unhit, its second bounce would be on the floor near to the back wall ) Repeat for the backhand side

Once you have confidence hitting the ball tightly up and down the wall, you will find your opponent giving you many weak returns from the back corners. The first thing you need to be able to do is to volley these returns. Simply stand at the short line and practice hitting straight volleys to oneself. Make sure your foot is pointing to the wall and you are balanced while hitting. Ideally the foot pointing to the wall should be the one opposite your backswing (i.e left-foot on forehand side for right-handed player / right-foot on backhand side for right-handed player, etc.). Again keep it tight and try and develop a rhythym. Emphasize quality over quantity. Practice for 5-10 minutes. Repeat for the backhand side

Now that you can hit straight drives and straight volleys, the last thing left is the straight drop. Play this shot when your opponent is forced to boast from the back corners. You can also play the straight drop off a weak cross-court or short straight drive. Practice for 5 minutes with a warmed up ball. Repeat for the backhand side. Make sure to keep the racquet back, slice the ball and to follow-through.

A typical 35 minute routine would be: