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By Peter Langmaid
Squash players constantly remind themselves and advise each other to take control of the T—control the T and you control the match. Good advice, to be sure. An equally important, but less obvious, control element in a match is pace of play. If you dictate pace of play—that is, how quickly one point follows another—your chances of success increase.
 A dramatic example of the importance of pace of play happened last season in a match between the UW (University of Washington) and Stanford #1 players. In the first game, Stanford’s #1 played like he had somewhere else to be. After winning a rally, he retrieved the ball quickly, waited impatiently in the service box, and served the moment the UW player turned around. Obviously flustered, the UW player lost the first game decisively. Between games, we coached our UW player to take more (but not excessive) time between rallies—to collect his thoughts and to prepare himself for the next rally. Following our advice, UW’s #1 lost the next game narrowly and won the final three games for a thrilling 3-2 comeback win. By the middle of the third game, it was obvious the Stanford player was frustrated and distracted by his inability to force the action.
The time to work on pace of play strategy—so that it becomes a normal part of your game—is not in the middle of a match, but during practice. Generally speaking, the situations to speed up play and press the action are when you’re on a roll, your opponent is angry or upset, or your opponent is winded or tired. Most players do this instinctively. The situations to slow play are the reverse: when your opponent is on a roll; when you’re angry or upset, or when you’re winded or tired. This is not instinctive and needs practice.
A foolproof way stay within yourself and regulate pace of play (regardless of whether you’re pressing the action or retarding it) is by developing a between-points routine in preparation for the next rally. If you’re serving, think about the last two or three times you’ve served to the same side—the type of serve you hit and the type of return your opponent attempted. Then decide if it’s time to change speed, direction, or trajectory. Don’t serve until you’re committed to what you’re doing and aware of how your opponent might respond. If you’re returning serve, review the last few exchanges on that side for tendencies (his/hers and yours), then decide how you’ll respond to whatever’s delivered (rail, crosscourt, drop, nick, lob, etc.) The serve itself may dictate what you can do, but you should always be aware of what you want to do. Good golfers are like good servers: they prepare for each shot the same way and don’t execute until they’re fully committed. Good baseball players are like good service return players: before the ball’s put in play, they decide what they’ll do in every possible situation. Develop a between points routine and you’ll never feel pressured.
One further note: Get used to taking the full 90 seconds between games to rest, think about strategy, and relax. Too often, when we’ve just lost a game, we’re anxious to resume play quickly. This can result in our continuing to play the game we just lost, not focusing on the game ahead.
About the Author (In his own words): Peter Langmaid is a sixty year old squash player who came to the game in his mid-thirties. He loves the intensity and competiveness of the game. Like most squash players, he has more opinions than skills.
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