Stroke to Lincou (R)? No!
Just because Lincou has shaped for the ball an Power is in the way does not
mean it's a stroke - Lincou must demonstrate that he could actually have hit
the ball at the moment the let (stroke) is requested. Unless he has 10' arms
here no stroke...or let!
In my last column
(The Gresham’s Law of Squash, June/July 2005) I discussed the unfortunate
habit that some players have of not calling a let at the appropriate time:
they expect the referee to insert the call of let for them. This is a practice
that needs to be corrected.
Related to
that is an equally bad habit of players who do not fully understand the
requirements for a stroke. Far too many players (especially at the lower
skill-levels) think that if their opponent is in the way of a shot to the
front wall, it is an automatic stroke. Not so!
Here is a
typical scenario that I have seen hundreds of times on the squash court. The
opponent hits a shot down the rail, but the ball comes back from the front
wall three feet out from the side-wall. The player, sensing a stroke, takes a
half-hearted step towards the ball, and while still several feet away from the
ball waves the racquet vaguely in the direction of the ball, and calls
“let”—expecting a stroke.
But, as
described, this scenario does not result in a stroke. In order for you to get
a stroke out of such a situation, you must demonstrate that you could actually
have hit the ball: when you are still several feet away from it, you are not
in a position to hit it—and thus you can’t expect the stroke.
This is no
different from playing a shot anywhere else on court. For example, your
opponent hits a rail shot into the back corner. You wouldn’t dream of taking
one step from the T and waving your racquet at the ball, saying, “I could have
hit that ball if I had chosen to move fully towards it.” If you behaved that
way, your opponent would justifiably ask you on what planet you had learned to
play squash.
The same
principle applies to any stroke situation where you feel you could have hit
your opponent with the ball going directly to the front wall. You must move
all the way to the ball and demonstrate that at the precise moment that your
opponent was in the line of your shot, you could have hit the ball into him or
her. If you are not fully to the ball and ready to hit it, you cannot expect
the stroke.
This is yet
another situation where a lazy habit has replaced the appropriate (and
necessary) action: the player who does not move to the ball and still wants
the stroke is saying, in effect: “If I had made the effort to move fully to
the ball, you would have been in the way of my shot to the front wall and it
would have been my stroke—so I want the stroke anyway.” Sure, and if Lee
hadn’t crossed the Potomac, the course of American history would have been
different…
Correction:
In an earlier column (Overruling the Referee, May 2005) I stated erroneously
that a player had up to three minutes to replace faulty equipment: the maximum
time allowed is, of course, ninety seconds. My sincere thanks to all the
hundreds of readers who wrote and told me I was in error. |
