Ironically (or not depending on your level of sexism – still highly evident in squash) women’s fitness magazines made the move to the new wave of core and functional training well before mainstream sports and health book publishers (e.g. Human Kinetics, the largest sport book publisher in the world) who were continuing to operate on the bodybuilding and football/basketball strength paradigms. It turns out that all the little “girly” exercises like side leg raises are actually a key part of getting our squash bodies to function correctly.
In magazines like Women’s Health (pictured above) the programs usually feature lots of squash applicable exercises like lunges, and squats, abdominal twists – why? Because the legs and stomach are the prime area of cosmetic concern for most woman (here is the link to the workout pictured above). For those of us who coach woman, these magazine’s are also a great source of information about the training and lives of famous sportswomen – tennis’ Williams sisters are featured regularly (sorry squash pros – you are unlikely to be featured in the world’s top magazines).
Venus in Shape Magazine
Application for Squash Coaches:
One of the most important factors in avoiding staleness or a plateau in squash training and performance is to vary both the volume, intensity, and variety of exercises in order continue to put a sufficient training load on the body for adaptation to occur (this is the “training effect”). A good, practical rule of thumb is to change a squash strength training program (the change can be slight – it does not have to be dramatic) every two weeks. It would not be a bad idea to bring a women’s fitness magazine to practice occasionally to see how your squash athletes (male and female) react to the workouts!
Images of fit athletes can motivate your squash players to train harder. Here is a image of Serena Williams from the now defunct Jane Magazine (although the replacement Glamour Magazine features lots of fitness articles).
If you have been around the squash world for a while, you will have observed that we squash coaches and players treat Ibuprofen products such as Advil and Motrin (in North America) almost like candy. We take ibuprofen after matches for soreness, before matches for aches and tightness, and sometime when we wake up, just to loosen up and be able to move around freely. We also have somehow managed to transmit this “candy” attitude to our junior players, as I frequently see them pulling their little pill bottle out of their squash bag.
Although we have always quietly been cautioned about liver potential liver damage with unwise usage (alcohol and Advil being a particularly unwise combination applicable to squash players), recent scientific resarch is even more damning of casual usage of these products. The New york Times has published a wonderfully concise and readable article about the effects of Advil that is highly applicable to the squash player and coach. To make a long story short, ibuprofen can impede the body’s natural healing and recovery processes. Read the rest of this entry »
In parts one and two of our three part series on Teaching Racquet Sports (such as squash) to Large Groups we covered the rationale for using adapted or modified (“mini”) racquets, balls and court size to enhance the learning of the very young or non-athletic adults or youths. We also covered the importance of using a “Rallying” versus “instructor feed” program so that the learning is relatively “open” and realistic so that players can fruitfully practice with each other outside of clinics and lessons (not possible if their only experience is a perfect coach-fed ball).
We suggested that early learning could be split into three units based on the distance from the wall or partner: 6′, 12′ and 18′ – the objective being for the student to be able to consistently rally 10 in a row with a partner at each distance before moving on to the next. In our last post we covered Unit 1 from 6′ – and here are Unit 2 (12′) and Unit 3 (18′ ) explained in video.
Unit 2 – Rallying From 12 feet
Unit 3 – Rallying from 18 Feet
Summary for Coaches
The learning of a correct grip is a fundamental that cannot be overlooked – a progressive program starting with minimal rallying distance is the only approach that quickly stabilizes a correct grip with large groups of unathletic learners. If the grip is not correct then it is impossible for the learner to develop other fundamentals (such as balance, correct swing paths, etc.).
Optimal learning occurs when tasks are challenging (success ratio between 50-90% – made more difficult once 10 in a row is attained) and students learn by progression not correction (starting full court with a regular ball and racquet having to make frequent corrections to an “ideal’ swing).
All of the most advanced tennis countries have now made the progressive approach their official pedagogy – it is time for squash (and other racquet sport) coaches to do the same.
A standard part of my Sports Nutrition spiel whether I am teaching a Coaching Certification Course or speaking to junior squash campers is the tongue-in-cheek promotion of coffee consumption. I enjoy the part of my talk because the common perception appears to be that coffee is “bad for you”.
Coffee = Energy!
As a current owner of five different espresso machines I should come clean with my bias before I go any further. I usually cite five benefits of coffee consumption – several of them potential benefits for squash players:
Enhanced endurance performance (a small percentage) through the glycogen-sparing effect of caffeine – caffeine enhances fat utilization during endurance-type events and postpones the need for the body to increase reliance on using muscle glycogen (sugar stored around the muscle).
Coffee is a great source of anti-oxidants – better than a kiwi!
Part one of this three part series covered the rationale behind using a Progressive Approach when introducing players, young or old, to squash and the other racquet sports. In this second video, we make a recommendation to use a racquetball racquet as the starting “implement” no matter what racquet sport you coach. It has the largest hitting surface, closest to the hand, making it the easiest weapon of choice. The only easier implement would be Ken Watson’s Big Hand – a sport “glove” to really make contact with a ball easier – a great product.
Most physical educators and squash coaches are not lucky enough to be able to solely coach talented, young athletes in a private lesson setting. Most of are usually involved in teaching larger groups of untalented (and often unmotivated) youth or adults. Traditional racquet sport pedagogy methods usually involved teaching using lines of students trying to hit full swings off an unrealistically perfect feed from a coach – with little time for individual correction in group teaching. My first tennis teaching assignment (1975) was to teach 75 kids on three courts with two assistant instructors.
With almost 30,000 hits in little over a year, our Science of Coaching Squash blog does get the occasional question. Since in general, we squash coaches are an isolated bunch, I will post any questions with my short initial response. Others are more than welcome to chime in as obviously there is no one correct answer!
Question #1 received from Dr. Shawkat Gaber (shawkat435@hotmail.com) yesterday, August 13, 2009:
“What is the correct order to teach the skills of squash?”
Thank goodness the first question was such a simple one!
The bad news is that squash did not make it into the 2016 Olympics. Making it in would have meant a massive injection of funds into elite player development – and therefore into the sport science interventions and research behind such development. Specifically, it would have meant more funding for squash-specific research of all kinds: physiology, biomechanics, notational analysis, sports medicine, and sport psychology. Currently, in terms of the number of scientific publications, squash lags well behind its sister sports of tennis, table tennis and badminton.
The at least not catastrophic news, is that there will still be a continuing significant need for squash sport scientists to interpret and apply general and racquet-sport specific research to assist the squash coach to develop their players. I regularly monitor the major sport science journals for those findings that can be applied to squash. This requires not only a pretty good knowledge of the different sport science disciplines, but also a good knowledge of the sport in which the research was conducted.
I have been lucky enough to have been a sport science consultant with three different Canadian National Team Programs (Squash, Tennis, Racquetball), each of which has won (or had) at least one world championship or Olympic Gold Medal during the period I worked with the program. It would have been very exciting to have made it into the Olympics, but at the end of the day, it really is not going to affect the search for excellence by squash coaches and their players.
Many of the sport science resources that squash coaches use continue to evolve. Here are three updates from trusted sources:
I Thera-Band Academy Adds Web 2.0 Tools for Coaches
August 11, 2009
Dear Thera-Band Academy Subscriber
I trust you’ve found the Thera-Band Academy to be a useful tool for you. This is the 10th Anniversary of the Academy… and much has changed since then. I wanted to let you know about some new tools and websites that will help us improve our communication with you. Using the latest social media and networking sites, we hope to enhance your experience within the Academy. Please take a brief moment to check out these new tools…
I was lucky enough to work alongside Mike Johnson during Princeton Squash Camp’s Junior Elite weeks earlier this summer at the start of June. Mike has a very simple approach to the game of squash, including the mental side. As part of the camp’s Sunday evening program, I work with the lead coach of the camp to give a 45-minute workshop/lecture on the Psychological Aspects of Squash. I have been doing this since 1987 (so about 5,500 junior camper-units – although there are some repeats in there:), and usually we help the campers analyze and compare their best and worst squash performances.
Posted by Tim Bacon 
Posted by Tim Bacon 
Posted by Tim Bacon 
Psychology, Dartfish Video, Strength Coach, Planning, Coach Ed., Skype, Training Camps.
$50-100/hour. tbacon@smith.edu
Skype ID: tbacon2001