Michael Khan is Director of the ESF’s Coaching Committee and Programme Manager for World Squash Coaching (WSC). He shares his insights on our Coaching Hub, and here suggests some routines to improve your reading of opponents, otherwise known as anticipation…
Why does a better opponent always seem to know where my shot is going?
The skill is called anticipation and is the ability of a player to predict upcoming situations, even when only partial information is available (i.e. the opponent’s actions are just starting) and response time is short. We could also call it an ‘educated guess’.
There are three elements of anticipation:
• WHERE a player thinks an action will occur
• WHEN the action will occur, and
• WHAT action will occur
In order to predict an upcoming situation a player not only needs to read the opponent’s actions (perception) but also evaluate the quality of their own shot.
There is a difference between anticipation (what is likely to happen) and perception (proof of what has happened).
In practical terms, a loose shot gives the opponent many options, whereas a tight shot limits an opponent’s options.
The more options I need to calculate, the longer my reaction time will be and this increases logarithmically (according to Hick’s Law).
Learning the skill of anticipation comes with experience, but there are ways of specifically training towards increasing the awareness of the quality of your own shot, which then helps you assess the likely options of your opponent.
Routines to improve anticipation
To keep things simple and reaction times short, let’s start with an exercise which reduces the number of options to two.
1. Player A (‘the anticipator’) only plays straight drives, whereas Player B can attack any loose ball with a straight drop shot.
Player A should ideally start anticipating the danger of a short, attacking shot every time his or her own ball is not long and tight enough.
But after a tight, straight drive, A can relax slightly as there is no imminent danger of being attacked.
2. Another option is left or right: again, Player A only plays straight drives, but this time Player B can crosscourt a loose shot to the other side, where the rally continues.
3. Combine both, increasing the attacker’s options to three.
Once Player A’s anticipation skills increase, Player B might try to mislead A by feigning to play one shot but playing another.
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