Contents
The solo canon
The front wall gives the ball back: squash is playable alone, and the training canon has turned that into a named repertoire, handed down through every curriculum.
| Routine | What you do | What it builds |
|---|---|---|
| Solo lengths | Chain tight drives on one side, behind the short line | The founding shot — action, height, consistency. The best-value solo in the sport |
| Drop-drive cycle | Drive to the back, follow it, drop at the front, follow it, drive again — a continuous loop | Both shots + front-to-back movement, in rhythm |
| Figure-eights (butterflies) | Alternating forehand/backhand volleys crossing on the front wall | Both volley wings, racket-face control, fine touch |
| Solo boast-drive loop | Boast from the back, sprint forward, drive to length, back to boast | The side-wall game + a real movement load — the advanced version |
| Ball familiarisation (u9) | Bounces on the strings, soft wall taps, rolled balls — catches allowed | Friendship with the ball, before any technique |
Solo work is also the group session's solution: with six players and two courts, half the group rotates through solo routines while the other half is coached — nobody waits on a bench.
The pairs routines — the backbone
A routine is a fixed cooperative pattern: each player knows their shot, the pattern cycles, and technique repeats under real movement. The two absolute classics: the boast-drive (one player boasts from the back, the other returns a straight length from the front — squash's most famous, extending to a three-player rotation for groups) and the drop-lob (one drops, the other lobs — the complete front-court exchange, fixed roles then swapped). In any routine, clearing discipline is part of the exercise: the players cross constantly, so Rule 8 (fair view, room to swing) is lived on every cycle.
From the pattern to the condition game
Squash's pedagogical staircase has three steps: the routine (cooperative — the form gets built), the condition game (competitive under a constraint, at PAR-11 — the behaviour settles under pressure: length-only, must-volley, the boast-drop diagonal), then the open match (the test). The condition game is squash's native form of opposition — it, not free match play, is what teaches.
Frequently asked questions
How much solo time in a club week?
Should a routine be won or lost?
Does solo work suit children?
Sources
Squash's training canon — the WSF coaching framework, England Squash Junior 101 and Squash Canada Beyond the Nick (foreign curricula, cited as such), FFsquash (graded forms) — for the named forms: solo lengths, drop-drive, figure-eights/butterflies, boast-drive, drop-lob, condition games. Fine numeric parameters (reps, block durations) are coaching practice. · Paak's squash corpus, file 03 (technique, drills and pedagogy — solo as a first-class stream) — verified September 2026.