I was doing drills at the weekend with a club mate and noticed my forehand drop was off. I want to go through my plan to fix it as an example that you can follow if you want.
The first step in fixing a problem is to notice it. It was painfully obvious to me as I hit too many tins but it is important to fix the right problem. A useful technique is to have someone with a notepad or smartphone taking notes outside. It’s hard to argue with the actual data.
With the data it’s time to analyse the conditions of the problem to find the root cause. For me I found that I wasn’t hitting a consistent volley drop but that the drop off the floor was fine. I was getting consistent tightness and cut on the backhand but not on the forehand. Indeed, there were far too many tins.
I also noted it was worse when I had lots of time. Now there are a few options at this point. Number one is to contact a coach and work on the shot but, since I’m far too arrogant for that, I went with solo practice.
Self feeding up a few balls I noticed I was having trouble extending the follow through properly and was closing the racket face at the point of contact.
Repeating the feed I noticed the problem was in my hips. I was too square to the front wall and was losing balance. It was worse when i had too much time as I did not get into the correct position. Trying again I made more effort with the footwork and there was a marked improvement.
That was only the first step. I need now to get back into pairs practice and work on growing that movement back into my game.
That is how I normally correct a fault, going back to basics and simplifying the conditions as much as possible. But you do then need to bring that required change back up to game conditions. Otherwise you’ll only have that improved volley drop shot in practice and not when you really need it.
Squash Coaching 