Squash Detraining: A College Example

It is holiday time in most of the world, and for most squash players, so getting out of squash shape (or staying in good squash shape) is a concern for most committed players – no matter what level they play at.  To help squash coaches understand detraining (click this link for a concise summary) I am going to go over a real example from my Smith College Squash Team.

Our last team practice was on Thursday, December 15 – and we start up again practicing twice a day on Monday, January 9th – so a break of 24 days!  I don’t in fact use the term “break” – I use the periodization term “transition”, which is actually more descriptive of what should occur during this period – activities that bridge the gap from one part of our season to another (here is the link to our team’s periodized annual plan).  The short transition period that occurs between two halves of a season does differ from the end-of-season transition period of 4-6 weeks where primarily cross-training activities should occur.

The transition period for a college squash team involves more than simply “staying in shape physically” and presents a number of challenges to be met – here is a summary of the objectives for my college team:

• De-stress to prevent burnout and staleness.  For a college athlete it is difficult to completely separate athletic and academic stress.  Although squash can be a source of relaxation during a busy semester (remember squash in the U.S. is played a highly challenging academic schools – Smith College being right up there with the Ivy’s), training and playing 12-16 hours a week must be taken into account when calculating the overall stress load.  My team started practicing before any other college team in the U.S. (Sept.12) and the five tennis players on my team were practicing tennis two weeks prior to that (they joined us in the last week of October) – and this year, exams went right up until December 22.
• Maintain squash skills and tactical memory with no access to squash courts. Most of the players on my team learned their squash at Smith, and so are not usually from “squash communities” – only one actually has access to courts through a family membership – and two are international students staying on campus (gym is closed??).
• Maintain physical shape to prevent performance loss and injury upon resuming practice.  January is actually our training period (Competition Period in periodization lingo) with our highest training volume – 20-30 hours a week during the no-classes interterm period.
• NCAA Rules state that all “out-of-season” training must be voluntary, with no coach supervision (e.g., training logs, etc.) allowed – another example of how NCAA rules negatively effect athlete well-being (read more about that here).

From: http://pfitzinger.com/labreports/detraining.shtml

Since squash physical performance involves both “endurance” qualities (aerobic and anaerobic endurance) and “strength” related qualities (power, agility, strength-endurance), the minimization of detraining for both must be taken into account. The Pfitzinger chart summarizes the endurance detraining process and here is a great link that discusses losses in strength – along with a graph of squat training/detraining – somewhat relevant to squash.

Recommendations for College Squash Athletes

Despite the fact that loss in both endurance and strength performance can range from 10-20% , the good news is that physical losses can be minimized and physical shape substantially maintained with two, high intensity workouts a week.  This means two very tough squash matches against an opponent of equal ability – or, two 20-minute high intensity aerobic workouts (at least 80-85% of HR max – preferably a variety of  short intervals with a 1:1 or 1:1/2 work:rest ratio to mimic the requirements of squash – for example “ghost” 15s :rest 15s or ghost 30s : rest 30s) and preferably on separate days (or prior to the aerobic workouts) to minimize “physiological interference” (I just coined this term:) two strength workouts (of the same type and level of intensity that was being performed prior to the “break”).

Without access to squash courts, squash technique and tactics can be maintained through 2-3 visualization sessions of 15-20 minutes a week.  A similar amount of watching squash videos on YouTube should help as well without overloading the college athlete on their Winter Break.

Please feel free to download and use a summary of my Using Imagery to Support Advanced Squash Tactics presentation at the 2005 Squash Canada Coaching Conference:  Squash Tactics Visualization (Bacon, 2005).  It contains some imagery worksheets.

Finally, all of this information has to be communicated to your athletes in a non-stressful way – here is the text of my email to my athletes on the last day of practice:

“1.  Safe travels to all and hope you have a fun, relaxing time.  I am off to Toronto to see family when my grading is done (Friday?) – then back to NOHO for a few days, then Jan. 1-8 back to Jamaica for another personal training gig – so easy to workout there, and hopefully more hitting with tennis pro after my a.m. PT session (did 20-25 min. cuz of shoulder last time – hopefully up to 45 min. this time (effing hot – even at 9:30 in morning).

2.  We will have TWO freshly painted blue courts (and three white, and five newly sanded floors) upon our return. ASB only had paint for 2 courts – so I think we will do #1 and #5 (our video court).  Implications:  we need to do some “ankle sprain” prevention exercises as: a) newly sanded floors are slippery; b) once the micro-dust is gone – the floors are “super-grabby” so easy to turn an ankle.

3.  WISPA has rebranded to WSA!

4.  I have changed the CorePerformance program to “no weights”, “get powerful week 1″ phase, three times a week for 45 min., to accomodate those with no access to a gym. Remember you can access this through your iPhone or laptop (just open it up and follow instructions – or print the workout as a PDF).

It includes 15 min. of aerobic – you could jog outside (this will help prevent shin splints when you return), but even better would be to find an open space or tennis court and do “ghosting” or “spiders” or “line drills” with combinations of foot movement (run forwards backwards, sideways, carioca, etc.) in a 30 sec. hard/15-30 sec. easy or rest pattern to duplicate “squash effort” – same benfit as a 30-40 min. run – BUT much shorter

Where it says medicine ball – just use a heavy household object (pet dog?) doing the movements without actually “releasing” the ball.  Anything with a cable – just use your mom’s ankle weights which you will find in the back of her cupboard or in the basement – or nothing and double the reps.

Alert: the program has nothing for hamstrings (an important lack) so do the “partner leg curl” I demonstrated with Clair, where you lie on your front and mom/dad/bro’/sis provide resistance as you bring your heel to your butt).

To avoid “squash butt” upon your return you should add 3-5 sets of lunges (about 12 per set – front, side, cross-over closed stance, open stance, etc.) to the CP workout.

ALSO:  to avoid wrist, elbow and shoulder issues, if you have no access to a squash court, take a British Racketball and racquetball racquet (or buy a cheapie at Walmart for $20) and hit against a local school or factory wall for 15-20 min. 2-3 times a week – even if it is wet it will make no difference to the racketball (being British, they are used to rain) – obviously an old tennis ball and tennis racquet (use squash grip and put slice on each ball) would work too – just be careful as a “wet” tennis ball will actually give you tennis elbow since it is very heavy.

Take your mini-bands and roller if you can (old tennis ball if you cannot) – buy a stability ball ($12-20) and some tubing ($9.95 – $12.95) for your family at Wal-Mart or Marshall’s/TJMAXX – contact me if you want to borrow a TRX.

5.  If you have acces to a gym (most will give students a reduced guest fee”) just continue what we have been doing, or do one of the workouts on the “tennis-squash team summer off-season” program.

6. If you have access to a squash club with gym you are all set!!!  Although often closed on offical holidays, contact the squash pro direct and ask if anyone is around for a hit – most clubs suffer from a severe shortage of females and so welcome any women squash playing visitors.

Jacq/Clair are “B” (4.0) players and the rest of you “C/D” (2.5-3.5)- for reference I am currently a “high B”/low A” (4.5-5.0) since I do not actually play (except length with a blue dot in which I am at a “world class level” as Jacq can attest.

To motivate yourself, simply remind yourself the tiny differences between winning and losing a match (add up the number of games where that you lost 11-9, or 12-10 – or matches where you lost in the 5th – or matches where you were good enough to win 1 game – but not fit or fast enough (having proved you are as good as your opponent) to win a second or third.

As task oriented as I am (so almost totally evaluating my performance on absolute “process” criteria), if I execute well and lose, I feel about 80% “satisfied” whereas if I win, I probably feel “85% satisfied” (10-15% dissatisfaction being the key to motivation to improve).

Plus of course it really feels good to work out, move around, sweat, and burn off some of the heavy holiday calories

So have fun if I don’t see you – and looking forward to 10:00 a.m. Dodgeball warm-up on Monday the 9th!

Tim”

Advertisement