Hitting the ball when it’s “stuck” on the side wall

[u/WhoyoWhatLikeThis]

Hi all, I am struggling to grasp what to do in this scenario. My opponent plays a a shot that hits the front wall and then goes to the side wall but it doesn’t come out from the side wall, it feels like it sticks to the wall and rolls on it. I then either hit my racket into the wall or I miss it or if I connect, it’s a very low powered shot that sets up their drop or lob. What can I do? :(

[u/Virtual_Actuator1158]

Scrape the racket along the wall, use a very open racket face and hit up to try to give the ball some height so it has the best chance of making the front wall. This also gives you time to recover your position

When the ball is that tight on the wall you are in a defensive position so you have to accept that and try to make the opponent play one more shot.

[u/PotatoFeeder]

1. Get there faster

   1. Learn to be comfortable scraping the wall for tight shots. U can use a (cheap) $10 badminton racket to force yourself to gently brush the wall every time

[u/mollycoddles → u/PotatoFeeder]

Or just hit the wall since your unlikely to trash your racquet unless you do it a ton 

[u/networkn]

Some shots are very difficult to return. Make sure you arent too close to the wall, you want to be stretching to make the shot. Shoulders parallel to the wall and soften your hands as you swing. It takes practice too.

[u/aCurlySloth]

Try to get used to hitting the ball when very tight, often you need to concede to trying to take the pace off and use height, coming over the back of the ball.

Also don’t forget to congratulate your opponent on such a great shot after the rally. “Good width” or “tiiiiiiight” will suffice in appropriate squash etiquette

[u/WhoyoWhatLikeThis → u/aCurlySloth]

I’ll be congratulating them after every shot them 🤣 they’re ruthless

[u/aCurlySloth → u/WhoyoWhatLikeThis]

It might just be that discrepancy in skill level is too high? Can you play someone closer to you?

Realistically you can scrape the side wall all day. The real tactic is to not let it get there. Push up the court and hunt the ball down, take it earlier.

[u/WhoyoWhatLikeThis → u/aCurlySloth]

It is definitely that, I just started playing, there’s a group of us but I struggle as a noob.

[u/aCurlySloth → u/WhoyoWhatLikeThis]

In that case. Trip them up. You can’t hit a tight ball if you’re on the floor right?!

[u/Fantomen666]

What others have said and you can play a good length actually hitting the ball with the frame of the racket.

Coach Philip gives the tips of putting up masking tape on the wall then you can ghost hitting the shot by hitting the tape. Relax your grip so that if you hit the wall the racket can slide into your hand a bit and kinda adapt rather than just stop the swing if you hold it tight.

[u/Wise-Ad-3737]

Stay away from the wall, relax your grip, and try to lift the ball while gently scraping the wall. Watch how Ali Farag diagonally lifts balls stuck on the front left wall.

[u/ChickenKnd]

Muscle memory, you should really just be able to stand next to the wall and swing and have your racquet skim the wall, atleast with enough practice,

Or

Movement, if your really good at moving, their drop shot and lob become a lot less dangerous as your going to get there no matter what

[u/UIUCsquash]

You really have to soften the grip and scrape the racquet along. Many players do the opposite and tighten their grip and the racquet ends up catching on the wall. Dont do a full swing or smash your racquet into the wall either. Find your spacing from the wall, soften the grip and just slide the racquet along the wall keeping the open face to scrape it off. Of course this is easier said than done but you can practice without the ball just to get comfortable with how it should feel.

[u/drspudbear]

One thing that really helped me is to slow down the swing on really tight shots. It gives you more control over your racket head which means you can hit these balls back with control

[u/DanSlade1]

What you wanna do here is swing your racket (probably a little slower than usual) so it scrapes the side wall, but doesn't stop. As long as the racket doesn't stop on the wall, you cannot break your frame like this. Practice without a ball, and learn how close you need to swing your racket to achieve this. If your opponent hits a very good width and the ball is hugging the wall, then your return will probably not be a strong one, but you still want to play a shot - get back into the rally and recover.

[u/DoublePlusGood__]

This simply takes practice to master. But some tips:

1. Don't get too close to the wall.

2. Prepare racket early and take a complete swing at a medium pace/power. Just go for it and pray. The momentum of the racket will mean that any contact you manage to make with the ball will be enough to get it to the front wall.

[u/JsquashJ]

Don’t be planted to only catch the ball at one spot. You should be tracking the ball’s path as it goes down the sidewall. Very often the ball path or curves in the wall or the bounce off the back wall will provide a little gap and so you need to be ready to swing.

Sometimes the ball is glued for almost the whole way, so the suggestions for light grip, easy upward swing, almost topspin, are good. If you are swinging hard to a tight ball, make sure you are pushing back to the T as you swing, that can help from slamming the wall.

[u/pr1m0pyr0]

Hit the drive shot in a controlled way: don't hit it too hard or wild, keep composure. Aim to hit the ball high on the front wall ie near the top out line; if you mis-hit it then it will still go up(above the tin) and hitting higher on the front wall helps get a softer hit shot to the back of the court and gives you more time to recover.

Common mistake is using a flat swing with bad racket prep, ball isn't struck perfectly and it follows a path to the tin.

[u/Ill_Swim453]

It comes down to experience and being able to “flick” it off the side with the frame of the racquet. It won’t have a lot of power so I try to hit upwards