Studying Women Squash Players to Learn Technique

By J Ferrier

Something one of my doubles squash partners said to me once was this: if you want to learn technique watch a woman play.

Well, obviously he didn’t mean me. But one only has to watch Nouran Gohar strike a ball to know that women can be powerful hitters.

But basically what he was saying is that men can “cheat” by relying on their natural strength to get power without necessarily having good technique. Whereas women who have developed a powerful squash swing probably have learned good techniques.

But it’s not always easy to study those mechanics of squashing hitting by watching a game particularly because they are from one or two angles and from a distance. So if you want to study a woman’s play, you might find the following video interesting.

This short documentary shows a day in the life of Raneem El Welily former world number one. She is among my favorite players and is known for her classic technique. But about 10:40 into the video they show a sequence of a squash practice and it allows you to get a good look at what she is doing and how she does it.

If you want to study how she hits the ball check it out.