Squash Forehand Tips

Series Summary

Squash is a racquet sport that was formerly called squash racquets, a reference to the "squashable" soft ball used in the game. The game is played by two players (or four players for doubles) with standard rackets in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball. Squash is characterized as a high-impact exercise that can place strain on the joints. In the traditional scoring system, a point is scored only by the server when the receiver is unable to return the ball to the front wall before it has bounced twice. When the receiver wins the rally, they are awarded only the right to serve.

In order to be a successful squash player, the key is practicing many different shots with both the backhand and forehand, and repeating the motion to gain muscle memory. In this free video series, a squash instructor will teach you how to do a number of basic squash drills to practice the game's different strokes. You'll learn how to hit forehands, backhands, drop shots, lobs, overhead shots, and kill shots. You'll also learn how to dig balls out and hit balls off of the back wall. With these squash techniques and tips, you'll be well prepared to approach a game situation with an arsenal of strokes.

Video Transcript

"Ok. The forehand, if you've gone through our grip session you already know all that. The key to a good forehand is keeping the racquet up. If you have the racquet down, now Squash when you hit the ball you're always aiming to hit under spin of your shot. So, you want to think about that you're somewhat coming underneath the ball to a degree. So, if you think about it that way if you hit the ball too flat it drives the ball down. But, if you open the face this is the most important thing is keeping the racquet head up and opening the face. So, that way when you turn you get the whole hip shoulder turn coming through the ball. If you have the racquet below the ball, all you're going to be using is your arm and shoulder. So, they key is to hit it like that. In a lot of ways it's similar to golf, because you're hip shoulder turning. You're opening up the face. So, that's what I want you to think about when you practice is get this face of the racquet open. And, when you produce under spin the ball comes at you faster. Because, now it's going to have some topspin on it. Because, when it hits the ball it reverses the spin. So, open the face and hit the ball just like that. So, it's very basic. Just hit the ball like that. So, you don't want to be swatting it with the hand. You want to have the racquet head up. You want to have gravity working for you as you slice at the ball. So, it's almost like chopping with a little ax. And, so we're going to get more into this in various segments. But, that's the basis of the forehand is the racquet up chop down at it."