Abstract
PurposeThe pressure exerted on a squash player is a consequence of the quality of a shot coupled with the ability of the player to return the ball, namely, the coupling of the two players’ situation awareness (SA) abilities. SA refers to an awareness of all relevant sources of information, the ability to synthesize this information using domain knowledge and the ability to physically respond to a situation.MethodsMatches involving the two best players in the world (n = 9) at the 2011 Rowe British Grand Prix, held in Manchester, United Kingdom were recorded and processed using Tracker software. Shot type, ball location, players’ positions on court and movement parameters between the time an opponent played a shot prior to the player’s shot to the time of the opponent’s following shot were captured 25 times per second. All shots (excluding serves and rally ending shots) produced five main SA clusters, similar to those presented by Murray et al. (2018), except a greater proportion of shots were categorized in the greater pressure clusters and less in the lower pressure ones.ResultsIndividual matches were presented using cluster performance profile infographics which demonstrated how individual player’s performance profiles differed between matches.ConclusionIt is suggested that it is the coupling, of the two player’s behaviors, that makes the examination of tactics so challenging. This inherently means that performance profiles vary in subtle ways, making consistent profiles that are independent of the opponent very unlikely for elite players. This approach should be further modified to determine within match changes in performance.
Highlights
In squash, like all racket sports, the main objective of any shot is to minimize the amount of time available to the opponent to hit their shot
Triolet et al (2013) estimated that elite tennis players demonstrated anticipation behaviors only between 6.14 and 13.42% of the situations analyzed, suggesting that, in most situations, tennis players do not need to exceed in anticipation actions, since sufficient ball flight information will enable them to return the ball without any risk
James and Bradley (2004) found limited use of anticipation in expert squash players as they initiated their first movement toward the ball on average 270 ms (± 0.09 s) after ball contact, assuming a reaction time of approximately 200 ms, this suggested they often utilized ball flight information before moving
Summary
Like all racket sports, the main objective of any shot is to minimize the amount of time available to the opponent to hit their shot. This is optimally achieved by hitting the shot accurately and early, e.g., a volley, forcing the opponent to move quickly over a maximal distance To counter this pressure, expert players can anticipate where the ball will go (Abernethy, 1990; Triolet et al, 2013) using a split step to initiate movement (James and Bradley, 2004) move efficiently on a well-defined path before lunging to hit the ball. Expert players can anticipate where the ball will go (Abernethy, 1990; Triolet et al, 2013) using a split step to initiate movement (James and Bradley, 2004) move efficiently on a well-defined path before lunging to hit the ball This action allows a very efficient return to the T area of the court, where winning players have been shown to spend a greater proportion of total playing duration than losers (Vuckovicet al., 2009). This could be because overuse of anticipation could be detected by their opponent and over anticipating could end up counterproductive, or anticipatory behavior enables the response to be planned and executed more effectively, often without the need for either an early movement or unnecessary speed
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