We’re delighted to welcome one of the in-form players on the PSA tour to SquashSkills this week, with the ‘Golden Tiger’ Joel Makin joining us for a great new playlist taking a look at developing attacking options.
Joel has firmly established himself in the world’s top 10, with his combination of outstanding athleticism and excellent technical fundamentals making him an extremely tough opponent for anyone on the tour. Fresh from reaching the semi-finals of the US Open with a fantastic 3/0 win over world no.1 Ali Farag in the quarter-finals, we’re super excited to be able to share this great new video series that Joel has put together for us.
In the playlist, Joel gives some insights into his own tactical mindset, discussing how he creates and converts attacking opportunities with some simple building blocks. In contrast to many of his peers, Joel doesn’t hunt down spectacular cross-court nicks or rely too heavily on massive amounts of deception – instead, he builds rallies with patient length hitting, waiting for openings to apply his attacking options rather than forcing balls short at the wrong time. This is most definitely an area in which many amateurs can make significant improvements in their own games, and there are few better to learn this from than the current world no.9.
In addition to his tactical insights, Joel also discusses some key technical aspects which he emphasises as the most important to be better able to play simple yet effective attacking shots. Racket preparation and racket angle are amongst the other elements that are highlighted, with Joel outlining his thoughts on these aspects and how he feels they should be best approached.
The aim of this blog is to give you some ideas of the best drills and practices you can use to start working on these primary foundations of developing attacking opportunities and help you become more confident and capable in this area of your game. Once you start implementing some of the technical and tactical aspects that Joel discusses, you should start to see immediate results in the effectiveness of your play in this area.
We’ve put together a selection of brand new solo and pairs sessions for you to try, built around these main coaching tips that Joel introduces. Watch through the videos from the playlist and then click through the links to the integrated sessions below to check them out, and discover the benefits of resolving to allocate some of your training time into really getting these key attacking elements polished up.
Put it into practice
Try this sample solo session, constructed around some of the themes discussed by Joel in the playlist.
Use this pairs session to practice some of the main elements introduced by Joel, within a more realistic rally specific environment.
Joel’s incredible physicality is a key part of his on-court success. Check out this challenging repeat-sprint endurance workout to help push your conditioning to the next level.
Related content
Angles of attack with Jesse Engelbrecht
In this series, Jesse shows how to use angles in attacking shots and hit winners more often.
Attacking patterns of play with LJ Anjema
LJ takes us through three attacking patterns of play to set up a winning shot in the rally.
Counter-attacking with Jethro Binns
In this series, Jethro explores counter-attacking options in the front corners, focusing on the trickle boast and counter drop.
Let us know how you get on with the sessions, we’d love to hear your feedback!
Haven't seen the full series yet?
In this brand new series, Joel reveals the most important things he thinks about when he is taking the ball in short. It’s a fascinating insight into the approach of one of the game’s biggest names.
Watch now