Squash Tips: A Basic Pattern of Play That Ali Farag Uses

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Learn about a simple and powerful pattern of play using a boast. Ahad teaches (with an example) Ali Farag’s favourite pattern of play, and how you can practice it.
🎬 Video by ‪@ARProformance‬
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[@fem20]

One of your best videos, it is really important to think in term of targets

[@ARProformance]

Thank you for the kind words, and for your support! - Ahad

[@HashBar]

Thanks Ahad i really like it, as a beginner i like the idea to practice patterns or tactics that i can try to implement. Thx

[@ARProformance]

My pleasure! I'm glad that you found value in the video. Please share how things unfolded on court when you practiced it! - Ahad

[@MrDarkboorin]

Watching you from France. Thanks for your quality video. I'll yry to use these boasts tonight for training session.

[@ARProformance]

My pleasure. How did it go when you practiced it? - Ahad

[@jamesshong966]

Thks..in these squash tips videos, is it possible to ' draw' the direction of the ball where u want it to bounce/ land? Like in golf, as the golfer hits, the direction of the ball is ' drawn'.

[@Ian-dj2nj]

Excellent 👌

[@ARProformance]

Thank you!

[@misosoric3368]

Excellent video but I've noticed that Farag's boast is nowhere near of Hesham's quality. I've always wondered how he can play such a high boasts without getting punished with counter-drops. Probably because he's so fast and lanky

[@nefarious8278]

The boost is good enough that an opponent moving onto the ball wait be stable enough or enough time to hit a good enough drop to work farag. In that position if you play a loose counter drop, you can easily have a stroke called against you because you’ve moved onto the ball really quickly and are sort of stuck in that front corner and even you are able to clear your counts drop, you are extremely isolated. so unless you have tremendous movement and counter ability in the front court(Asal) your best option is to lob to relieve pressure from yourself

[@ARProformance]

His movement definitely allows him to throw that boast in more often. His anticipation is also unreal! When a player has multiple options from a particular position, reading the boast becomes difficult, which also causes the opponent some discomfort. Farag also plays the boast using slight variations in timing. Lots of subtleties at play when he uses it :) - Ahad

[@kashifjaved4545]

It's all about following up after the attack. Everyone can attack but only good players follow up.

[@ARProformance]

Following up is critical. Assessing your opponent's options and hedging your bets (in addition to looking for cues) goes a long way! - Ahad

[@squashduos1258]

what if he drops the boast...

[@bproshek]

if you hit a quality two-wall boast, it's difficult to counter with a good drop shot. You can still look for the lob and gamble on being able to react to a drop, as if your opponent is stretched by a quality boast it's unlikely to be a very tight counter drop

[@drspudbear3828]

That's not the point of the drill. It is that you're setting up a condition: your boast is good enough that your opponent cannot drop the ball and is forced to hit a crosscourt. It helps you practice the attacking volley when the opportunity arises during match play.

[@squashduos1258]

@@drspudbear3828 I understand that but the condition seemed to be like that is the most likely outcome which I disagree with…fwiw…I would not for example creep out to the right waiting for a volley…I would guard against the drop as well…just saying…listen to what he says…

[@ARProformance]

You definitely need to be ready to cover the drop, and smart players will look to counter his boast to reverse the pressure. There are other ways of trying to reverse pressure and thus make Farag think twice before boasting. That being said, Farag is also looking for cues from his opponent that act as "tells" to thus anticipate their response. I hope this helps, - Ahad