Ask any coach where squash matches are won and lost, and you will hear the same answer: the back corners. Get the ball deep and tight and your opponent is stuck behind the service box, digging the ball out with no time to attack. Leave it short and loose, and you are the one under pressure. Length Battle is our routine built around exactly that skill — six drills that groove deep, accurate hitting on both walls and then test it under movement.
Before you take this routine onto a real court, play the drills online first to learn the rhythm. Each drill runs as a live, playable session in SquashRT — feel the timing and the shot shapes on screen, then take that rhythm to the court.
What's in the routine
The six drills climb from controlled feeding to live, moving rallies:
- Alternating Rails (L/R) — a feed to each side in turn; drive every ball straight and deep, recovering through the T between shots. The warm-up that wakes up both wings.
- Straight & Cross Mix — same feed, two answers: drive one straight, the next cross-court. It trains the decision, not just the swing.
- Rail Rally (R) and Rail Rally (L) — a straight-drive rally locked to one wall. Every ball has to die in the back corner; tightness is the score, not pace.
- Cross & Straight Weave — the coach hits cross-court, you answer straight, moving through the T on every ball.
- Deep Cross Rally — cross-court against cross-court, corner to corner, every ball wide enough to catch the side wall behind the box.
Straight first, then width
The routine has a deliberate shape. The rail drills come first because a tight straight length is the foundation — it is the shot you fall back on when you are stretched, and the one that keeps your opponent honest. Only once the rail is grooved do the cross-court patterns arrive, adding width: a good cross has to travel far enough that it strikes the side wall behind the service box, so it dies in the back rather than sitting up in the middle for a volley.
Put together, straight and cross length are the whole back-court game. Own both and you control where the rally happens.
A few things to feel while you train it
- Keep the swing compact. Deep length comes from a clean contact and a full follow-through toward the target — not from muscling the ball. Watch the backhand especially; it is the wing that tends to get long and loose.
- Recover to the T every ball. The drills reward it, and so does a match: length that you can't back up with good court position only buys your opponent time.
- Decide before the bounce. On the mixed drills, choose straight or cross early and let your contact point — beside you for straight, a touch further in front for cross — do the work.
Open the routine, watch each drill in 3D Court View or from above on the Tactics Board, then hit Train all drills to play the whole session in order. When you are ready for more, browse the rest of the community's shared work on the Routines and Drills pages.