The first wall a beginner hits in squash is not fitness and it is not the swing. It is this: you cannot read where the ball is going. The moment your opponent's ball comes off the front wall, you have to decide whether to step in or drop back — and that decision is not made by where the ball will land. It is made by how high it is travelling.
Two balls can land in exactly the same back corner and still be completely different shots. A drive that clips the front wall low and skids in flat forces you to retreat quickly and get the racket up early. A lob that hits high on the front wall and floats over asks you to wait, judge the drop, and take it late. The same is true at the front: a drop that just kisses the top of the tin dies so quickly that the second bounce is finished almost at your feet. Half a beat late and it is gone.
Until now, the SquashRT training screen looked down on the court from above. It told you exactly where the ball landed. It never told you how high it flew. The single most important piece of information in squash was missing from the picture.
So we moved training into a 3D court — and we gave both the training screen and the Court View drill editor the same four camera modes. You now design a drill and play that drill from the same eye level, which makes the whole thing feel far more like the real game.
The height of the ball is calculated, not drawn
The ball in the 3D view does not follow a curve we drew because it looked nice. It follows the result of a physics calculation that uses the real court dimensions — a singles court of 6.4 m by 9.75 m, a front-wall out line at 4.57 m, a tin at 0.48 m — and the rebound behaviour of a double-yellow-dot ball. That is why you can finally see why a lob survives all the way to the back wall, why a drop dies in the front court, and why a boast loses its angle when it is hit too flat.
Out and tin are now called
On a flat top-down screen, calling a ball "out" is not convincing, because you cannot see height at all. In the 3D court, a ball that crosses the front-wall out line or sails over the back wall is genuinely out, and a ball that hits the tin is down. For newer players, these are exactly the rules that cause the most confusion in a real match — and now they are something you watch happen rather than something you are told.
Four views, four training purposes
One button cycles through all four. They are available both while you play and inside Court View, so you can compare the same rally from any angle.
Broadcast — the whole court in one frame. Best for reviewing the shape of a rally.
Top-Down — positions and patterns at a glance. Best for learning a new drill.
Third Person — your position and the ball together. Best for T-position recovery.
First Person — close to what you actually see on court. Best for reading and timing.
- Top-Down — the relationship between both players and the ball is obvious. Use it when you are memorising a drill pattern for the first time.
- First Person — the closest thing to standing on the court. Use it to train the decision you make the instant the ball goes up.
- Third Person — you see yourself and the ball at once. Use it to build a feel for recovering to the T.
- Broadcast — the full rally in one frame. Use it to review.
In play, First Person and Third Person move your player automatically, so you can stop thinking about footwork input and concentrate on the part that actually matters: reading the ball and deciding.
For coaches, it is an explanation tool
"When the ball goes up, get back" and "a drop's second bounce is short" are sentences you can repeat ten times on court without landing. Let a member watch the same situation a few times on screen and the conversation gets much shorter. Drills built in Court View and the Tactics Board replay directly in 3D, so you can also walk through next week's pattern before anyone steps on court.
Before you go on court
Court time is expensive. If the pattern and the rhythm are already familiar from the screen, the same hour on court is worth a great deal more. Everything runs in the browser — there is nothing to install. If this is your first time, learn one drill in Top-Down, then run the same drill again in First Person. The same ball will look like a completely different shot.