SquashSkills founder Jethro Binns has put together an excellent playlist taking an in-depth look at the technique and variations of attacking with the ‘kill’ shot.
Jethro was a Welsh international and PSA top 100 player before his career was cut short by a serious hamstring injury. Moving on from his playing career but still keen to stay within the sport, he created the SquashSkills brand alongside legend of the game Peter Nicol. Thanks to his days as an elite player and now as CEO of SquashSkills, he has a unique and fascinating insight into the game within the videos he features in.
The kill is an excellent attacking shot, that is often underutilised by amateur players. It’s a great way to create pressure on your opponent by sending the ball in hard, low, and tight, but with much less risk than would be the case with using a drop from the same area of the court.
In the playlist, Jethro looks at the execution of the shot on both sides and discusses the differences between the forehand and backhand technique. There’s also analysis of the different variations of the kill, including the best areas of the court to play it from, and the scenarios within which it is most effective.
Another interesting topic discussed, is how a number of top pro players utilise the kill – in particular ex-world number 1 Nick Matthew. He worked closely with his coach David Pearson during his career, to take a look at how he could add it to his game to really pressurise highly skilled players such as Ramy Ashour by hitting the ‘6th corner’, without exposing himself by leaving the ball too short and open.
The aim of this blog is to introduce you to the kill shot and allow you to practice it ready to implement it successfully into your own game. By learning the technique and understanding the subtleties of its use, you can add a great attacking shot into your arsenal that’s fairly easy to disguise and relatively low risk, yet devastatingly effective when hit properly.
To help you with this, we’ve put together a selection of brand new solo and pairs sessions for you to try, built around the main technical points related to the kill that are introduced by Jethro in his playlist. Watch through the videos first and then click through the links below to check out the sessions, and see how you can start putting this fantastic weapon into practice.
Put it into practice
This session is structured around individuals drills and practices you can work on to develop the execution of the kill.
This pairs session consists of a series of routines and games to try out with a partner, to allow you to practice using the kill within a rally context.
Being strong and stable in your shot will aid your ability to control of the ball, and help you be better able to put your kill shots into areas of the court that will trouble your opponent. Check out this challenging physical session to help build those physical foundations.
Related content
Backhand Kill Technique with Peter Nicol
Peter talks through why he struggled to generate power on the backhand kill and explains why John White’s kill was so effective.
The Straight Kill with Jesse Engelbrecht
Jesse explains how to stun the ball in short with the straight kill.
Gregory Gaultier’s Backhand Kill
Lee Drew breaks down Gregory Gaultier’s backhand kill technique and explains why he’s so strong across the middle of the court.
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 series, Jethro Binns introduces us to the kill, he guides us through the process of when to play it and how to execute the shot.
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