absorption practice: no turning off, no deflecting

absorption practice, no turning, no deflecting...

absorption practice, no turning off, no deflecting...

loosening exercise

In these videos, the focus is not upon power hitting but correctly lining up behind the centre of the moving ball and spiralling the contact point (the fist, the fingers, the forearm, the feet, knees, elbows etc) toward the centre of the ball. Hit it indirectly, and the ball goes off to the side, up high, too low. Hit it incorrectly using force and the impact sounds superficial as compared to a low resounding THUD and the impact resonates up through the appendage (arm) to ricochet back and forth in the joint proximal to the hitting surface. OUCH! Rotation of the relaxed body (sung in chinese)  transmits the power, rather than muscular force. The skill is to allow the integrity of the completely relaxed structure of the body to power the ball forward. The impact never, never, never hurts then and both feet stay flat to the floor (unless of course it's a kick.)

The other skill that the ball practice develops is timing. The ball returns from the wall at a height and at a distance that is never quite right if you are setting the body up in advance to hit the ball. So when it would be advantageous to hit the ball with the fist, sometimes the knee or a kick is the only method to return the ball with power because the ball is the wrong height. 

What really tests the skills of this exercise is another person returning the ball. A squash court is the perfect place to play. And we can practically use the same rules, except when one person is in front, it's quite all right to send the ball careening into the other person. It never hurts because the ball is so huge, and it tests the 'rootedness' of the player being hit.