Squash footwork: how to change direction and protect your knees

If your legs burn more than your lungs after an hour of squash, and the knee only complains the next morning, the problem is usually movement rather than fitness. Squash happens inside four to six metres: a short acceleration, a hard stop, a lunge, and a recovery to the T. Everything below is about making that pattern faster and cheaper on the joints.

What squash actually asks of your legs

A singles court is 9.75 metres long and 6.4 metres wide. From the T to the furthest corner is three or four steps, so you almost never run in squash — you accelerate, brake and turn.

A long rally lasts fifteen to thirty seconds, and the gap between rallies is often short. Across a match you accumulate several hundred direction changes, each one asking a single leg to catch your whole body, stop it and send it back.

That leads to something useful: braking matters more than top speed here. The player who stops well arrives earlier because they set off back earlier, not because they cover two metres faster.

The first step: split step and the launch

The split step is the small hop you make while your opponent strikes the ball. The aim is for your feet to touch the floor roughly at the moment racket meets ball. Land too early and the tension drains away; land too late and the first step is already behind the play.

Train it away from rallying. A partner stands in front of you and points the racket left, right, forward or back; you split step and take two sharp steps that way. Ten repetitions, 30 seconds rest, four to six sets.

Keep that first step short and pointed at the ball. The usual mistake is a huge opening stride that throws the body at the corner, leaving the second step nowhere to go. The same movement logic shows up in other racket sports, and it is worth seeing how footwork and direction changes are trained in badminton.

Braking, turning and the lunge

The last step before you strike is the braking step, and that is where the knee either works or suffers. The foot lands slightly wider than your body line, the hip sits back, the chest stays tall, and the knee tracks over the middle of the foot rather than falling inward.

The front-corner lunge is the deepest position you reach and the one that causes most trouble. Four things worth controlling:

• Land through the whole foot, not just the toes — the heel is your brake.
• Keep the knee in line with the second toe, no collapse inward.
• Hip back, trunk upright, so the load is shared between hip and knee.
• Push out through the front heel instead of yanking yourself up with the trunk.

On court, a short shuttle trains this well: three metres forward, stop, hold the low position for two seconds, then return. Six repetitions per set, three or four sets, with a full 60 to 90 seconds rest. This is quality work — the moment the steps get sloppy, the set is over.

Ghosting: footwork without a ball

Ghosting means playing the movement without a ball: T to corner, swing, back to the T. With no ball to chase you can put all your attention on the feet, and that carries into matches on its own.

A simple format is 45 seconds of work, 90 seconds rest, six sets, twice a week. Count your corner arrivals and try to keep the last set close to the first — a drop of more than 15 per cent means you started too fast.

Coming back after time off, start with 30 seconds of work and four sets, adding a set each week. The same gradual loading applies to any return to training after a long break.

Strength work off court

Two sessions a week of 35 to 45 minutes cover most of the need. The emphasis is single-leg work, hamstrings and groin, because a deep squash lunge loads the adductors hard.

• Bulgarian split squat: 3 sets of 6–8 reps per leg.
• Romanian deadlift: 3 sets of 8.
• Copenhagen plank for the groin: 3 sets of 15–20 seconds per side.
• Calf raises, knee straight and knee bent: 3 sets of 12–15.
• Nordic curls or heel slides: 3 sets of 5.

Underneath all of that sits plain basic strength. If squats and deadlifts are not part of your week, that is your biggest gap — building a squat from scratch and adding weight patiently over a few months does more than any squash-specific drill.

For jumping, 60 to 100 ground contacts per session is enough (box jumps, landings from 30 centimetres, lateral hops), twice a week, always before the strength work and never the day after a hard match.

Keeping the knee healthy

The two complaints squash players report most are pain in the tendon below the kneecap and a dull ache around it. Both are usually a loading story: a sudden jump in court time, a hard floor, weak calves, or a lunge that runs away from you.

Volume comes first. Go from two sessions to five inside a fortnight and the knee will let you know, however clean your technique is. Roughly 20 to 30 per cent more load per week is a sensible ceiling.

Second, tendons respond well to isometrics: a Spanish squat or a held half-squat, 5 sets of 45 seconds, every other day. If the pain also shows up under a loaded barbell, it helps to understand why knees hurt during squats before you start cutting court time.

When to see a doctor

Get it looked at if the knee swells within a few hours, if you cannot put weight on the leg, if it locks or feels like it gives way, if the injury came with a sharp twist and a pop, or if pain lasts beyond four to six weeks despite reduced load. The same applies if it wakes you at night.

The short version

• Squash is a braking sport, not a running one: the T to a corner is three or four steps.
• Land the split step as your opponent strikes, and keep the first step short and aimed.
• In the lunge: heel down, hip back, chest tall, knee over the middle of the foot.
• Ghost 6 x 45 seconds with 90 seconds rest, twice a week, alongside two strength sessions.
• Knee pain is usually a volume question — add no more than 20 to 30 per cent load per week.