The fact that Ali Farag is an amazing athlete, incredibly fast, agile and fit is immediately obvious to anyone who has ever watched him play for even a brief moment. However, all players at the pinnacle of squash share those attributes, and there are other players who might be faster, stronger, fitter, if tested purely on those attributes. So what makes Farag’s court coverage and movement superior to any other current player, and in my opinion, makes him perhaps the greatest mover in squash history? Let’s take a look.
In watching Ali play, and really the reason I wanted to take a closer look at his movement in the first place, was that I kept being struck that his movement patterns looked different than what I was used to seeing, different to how other players moved. Not simply faster, but seemingly different lines, different rhythms, different movement patterns. For example, his T position is often a ways off what I would expect it to be at the moment his opponent is hitting the ball from the back, and also the positioning that he takes when an opponent is playing from the front corners is often so aggressive.
The difference I believe is mainly his ability to read the game, and to pick and choose his moments to take aggressive court positions based on his read of his opponents shot options. This is Ali Farag’s “super power”, and what sets him apart from other top pros. It’s reminiscent of when a professional player plays against a top club level player, the pro’s movements look so easy because they are reading the club players shots so early and with such confidence. Ali Farag is the only player I’ve seen have that good of a read against top 5 players in the world.
Below you can see a good example of how early he commits to cutting off these straight drives by Paul Coll, it’s so natural and smooth that you don’t easily notice how early he’s making his initial move across. If you watch his feet though, you can see he commits his weight prior to the ball being struck so he’s already flowing that direction. Every pro does this, but he does it more often, more efficiently, and simply better than anyone else.
By being the most efficient mover, and being able to take the ball consistently earlier than anyone else (other top players can for stretches push further up the court and volley as much or more, think Shorbagy, Asal, but in general they are far less efficient in doing so), he’s built his game around the idea that if he can draw out rallies, games, matches, eventually the advantage shifts his way. He’s obviously a talented and natural mover around the court. With a tall, lanky, slender frame, he’s able to maintain amazingly balanced, upright, and strong positions in extended lunges without collapsing or showing much duress – which takes incredible strength and mobility to achieve. Compare him to the Coll, Makin, Rodriguez, Momen, Gaultier generally stockier build, those guys all have much more muscle mass than Farag.
I am curious to get more info on what and how Ali has focused on in his physical training, both in his developmental years in juniors/college, and subsequently moving through to the top of the professional game, and also just more generally how he views his movement and what he tries to achieve tactically with it.