Contents
The nine themes of squash
The drills of this knowledge base are sorted by age band and by theme. The nine themes follow the sport's own grouping, and solo is a theme in its own right, not a fallback: in squash you genuinely improve alone against a wall.
| Theme | What it trains |
|---|---|
| Movement & ghosting | The T, the split-step, the lunge, ghosting: movement, squash's first skill. |
| Length | Straight and cross length to the back corners: the founding shot. See Length & the back corners. |
| Short game | The drop, the counter-drop and the lob: the front of the court. |
| Volley | Taking the ball early, stealing time, holding the T. |
| Serve & return | The lob serve, the hard serve, the straight-length return: the disciplined opening. |
| Boast & diagonal | The boast family and the attacking diagonal. |
| Condition games | Match play under a constraint, always PAR-11: the native opposition form. |
| Solo | Lengths, the drop-drive cycle, volley figure-eights: the sport's signature. See Solo practice & routines. |
| Physical | Interval ghosting, court shuttles, lunge mechanics: squash's own conditioning. |
The outline: warm-up, two mains, a condition game
The shape Paak's generator reproduces: a warm-up with no high intensity (movement, ball familiarisation, leg preparation), two mains on the chosen theme, a condition game that applies the day's behaviour under real pressure, a cool-down. The minutes are a coach's choice; each block uses published training forms.
| Block | ~ min | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | 10 | Gentle ghosting to the corners, ball familiarisation for the youngest, controlled lunges, never high intensity |
| Main 1 | 15 | The day's theme, off a cooperative feed: form before pressure |
| Main 2 | 15 | The same theme, in decision form or as a routine, closer to the game |
| Condition game | 15 | The constraint that rewards the day's behaviour (length-only, must-volley…), PAR-11 |
| Cool-down | 5 | Easy mobility, stretching |
The court format: squash's specificity
A squash club plans with a constraint field sports never meet: N players for one or two courts. That is why every drill card in this knowledge base shows its format, and the drill list can be filtered by format:
| Format | What it is | When it saves the session |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | One player, one court: lengths, cycles, figure-eights | Half the group works alone while the other half is coached |
| Pairs | Two players: feeds, routines (boast-drive, drop-lob) | The heart of the technical block |
| Group | 3+ players rotating on one court: king of the court, three-player rotations | Six juniors, two courts: rotation keeps everyone active |
| Match | A condition game or open match, PAR-11 | The game block, and the test of the learned behaviour |
The session reflex: for every block, ask who is on the court and what everyone else is doing meanwhile. A good squash session is a good rotation: solo work is not a stopgap, it is half the programme.
Dosage by age band
At u9, everything is play and graded form: lively ball, catches allowed, targets; the rally first, fine technique after. At u13, the foundations: length, serve, split-step, the ball climbing the ladder. At u17, the full game with the competition ball, tactical condition games and refereed matches. At sen, the whole curriculum; for players over 40 coming back to the game, what the studies say about the cardiac question is in Physical preparation and safety.
Frequently asked questions
How many players per court?
Why a condition game rather than free match play?
From what age does solo work make sense?
Sources
The named training forms (solo, routines, condition games, ghosting): World Squash (coaching framework), England Squash Junior 101 and Squash Canada Beyond the Nick (foreign curricula, cited as such), FFsquash (Mini-Squash, École de Jeunes). Numeric parameters (rep counts, zone sizes, minutes per block) are coaching practice, not a federation publication. Scoring: World Squash Singles Rules 2025, V1.2, in force since 1 September 2025. Content verified in September 2026; rules re-verified in October 2026.