Shed your image of squash as the poncy pursuit of private schoolboys.

Warmed-up, psyched- up, then it’s game on. Warmed-up, psyched-up, then it’s game on. Image: Getty Images

David Palmer – winner of four British Opens, two World Opens, a Super Series Final, a Commonwealth Games silver – likens the sport to boxing: “There’s two of you in a little box, very close, very fast, very explosive.” The former world number one (he last held that post back in ’06) has founded his gleaming career on powerful attacking strokes and monumental fitness. Neither comes as a surprise. Read on and you’ll find a program so rugged it would make Floyd Mayweather wince.

On-Court 

“Squash is a game where you have to control the ball. You have to be able to hit the ball straight; from the front and from the back. To do that you need very good technique. You don’t have time to think, it’s just bang-bang-bang. It’s a muscle memory sport. That’s why we spend hours practising shots, hitting thousands of balls, so that in pressure situations – nine-all in the fifth game – we can pull off the shots perfectly.“I’ll have two hours on court most mornings doing a very technical session; practising different routines, different shots, working on different movements. You have two parts of the game – the front court game and back court. If we’re practising drop shots, we’ll start with some static training. I know where my coach will put the ball, and I can keep coming in and practising backhand drop, backhand drop, a hundred times over. Other times my coach will have a choice at the front. So I know the ball will be going in one of the two front corners, but the uncertainty makes it more of a game situation. Normally I’ll start with the static drill and then build up, adding new elements to make it more difficult.“The most basic routine on the squash court is the boast (a shot where the ball hits the side wall before the front) and drive. In this drill the person at the front’s hitting straight lengths while the backperson’s working two-wall boasts and three-wall boasts. It’s a routine where you know where the ball’s going, but if you do it properly, it’s hard.”

Talking Tactics

“Squash is all about hitting length, getting the ball deep in the court. A typical tactic is to hit good length and stay in front of your opponent. The deeper you get the ball into the corners, the more likely you are to get a loose return and it’s off that shot that you’re going to try and come in and finish the point off with a volley or a drop to the front. But, of course, often your opponent will get the ball back, even if it’s a good ball to the front, so you have to start again, working the length.“Sometimes you might have to rally up and down the wall. I’ve had 200-300 shot rallies where you’re waiting for an opening but because the guys are hitting it so tight, there are just no opportunities. So that’s when the tactical and the mental side comes in – having the fitness to last those rallies, but also having the mental ability to last; not get impatient, not force a shot that’s not on.”