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).
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…
We have blogged about appropriate physical training for squash before – both for juniors and adults. Just to punctuate the point, here is a video demonstrating three not so good strength training exercises, along with a brief review of the three Core Performance books and other product offerings. In my travels I am still observing a bit too much old-style training for racquets sports. I think part of the problem is that most of the NSCA’s Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialists (I am one myself) prescribing strength programs for the racquet sports have a football or basketball background. Despite being up to date on the latest functional training and the demands of sports like squash, they cannot get their heads around leaving out exercises that have been a key part of all strength programs.
Obviously, for squash campers whether young or old, the squash coach’s priority is to ensure they 1) have fun; and 2) learn something – and we all know “there is more than one way to skin a cat” (apologies to cat lovers).
Having said that, due to the usual compressed time frame of a one-week squash camp it is easy to throw established sport science principles out the window – in a desire to teach the campers “everything possible”. In this post we will discuss a few guidelines based on the latest sport science research to ensure that your camper benefit optimally from your coaching program.
Volume, Intensity and Organization of the Week’s Training. Since one of the primary purposes of a summer camp (versus national camp prior to World’s for example) is to teach new squash skills, care must be taken to not overfatigue the campers as this will hurt learning. A L-M-H-L-H (L=low, M=medium, H=high) distribution of the daily training load over the week will help accomplish this. This will produce more and better quality work that a L-H-L-H-L periodization for example. Obviously, most of us will be violating the rule of thumb not to increase training volume more than 10% from week to week – as most summer campers will not be playing much sqaush or training very hard.
Planning the Daily Training Sessions. There is actually a theoretically optimal order in which to train the different components needed to play better squash (which I have adapted for squash from Tudor Bompa – the North America Father of Periodization):
Train new technical skills first while the athlete is fresh.
Train speed and agility second, as improving these qualities require a fresh and unfatigued CNS. If you save your sprinting to the end of the day you will be training your athlete to move at sub-maximal speeds in a fatigued state (actually not that unimportant in squash – but not speed work).
Practice well-learned technical drills or do match play or conditioned games third as they can be accomplished well with some fatigue (may even be desirable).
Train strength-endurance fourth, after most of the on-court work has been done as this does not require a fresh CNS to benefit the athlete. A camp is a great time to focus on functional or core training (e.g., CorePerformance.com to avoid making the prime squash movers (e.g. quads) overly sore. Another focus would be to avoid heavy loads and focus on the athlete executing good technique – i.e., the actual training is symbolic, and secondary to learning about training. There probably is no place for plyometrics or maximum strength training at a summer camp – although demonstrations are fine.
Lactic work (intense court sprints with efforts of 15+ seconds) should be training second last, since quality work is very difficult to do after a workout of this type, due to the long recovery period required to eliminate lactic acid from the muscles (at least an hour for partial clearance of LA).
Aerobic endurance training should be performed last, since little coordination is required, and if the intensity is around 60-70% it will in fact aid regeneration for the next day.
Mental and flexibility training and video analysis/tactical discussions can be interspersed with other training factors to help aid recovery and help provide adequate rest.
If you really want to help your squash campers learn how to train properly you can model your physical training sessions after an actual periodized training year: Day 1 do General Prep training, Day 2 to Specific Prep training, etc.). With handouts, this will provide them with a template to help them plan their own year.
Princeton Squash Camp Coaches - June 2009
Pedagogical Approach to Coaching Technical-Tactical Skills. Doing our basic length and boast and drive drills, followed by match play will definitely improve our players, although to a much lesser extent that than a Tactics First Approach using Games Approach and Decision Training methodology and tools. This involves choosing a tactical model (e.g., Zone or Egg) to organize the week’s sessions, and then starting each session with a conditioned game related to the sessions theme (e.g., 2 pts. for a winning volley if the session topic is volleying) game (not lecture and drills) in order to evaluate the players and motivate them to change in a fun way – everyone loves to play games! Players trained with the traditional methods will definitely perform better in practice – but those training with a Tactics First approach will perform better later (weeks or months) in match situations – basically because their training has been more game-like – which is just common sense.
A Practical Example of a Sport Science Designed Squash Camp. I usually perform a support role at squash camps (strength & mental training, nutrition lectures, video analysis, etc.) in addition to squash coaching. Along with the Anwar brothers at Squash Design, we have designed a squash camp based on the above sport science principles, and will give it a try at the Premier Performance Squash Training Camps in a about a week (July 10 – 18, 2009). We will also be designing the camp around the presence of Karim Darwish to take advantage of the current dominance of Egyptian squash at the world level (a good amount of emphasis on attacking squash and deception). There are still a couple of places for those who have left booking their summer training camp a bit late (mention “Squash Science” to get a 20% discount of the usual rate).
Application for Squash Coaches:
Take advantage of recent advances in sport science to enhance the learning at your squash camps.
Where possible use a Tactics First Approach (versus traditional drilling) to introduce and coach new squash skills.
Be careful not to overfatigue your squash campers if you really want to improve learning.
There is no doubt that the aerobic system contributes greatly to squash performance at all levels. Our players have to be aerobically fit at all levels of play – and playing squash is a great way to get aerobically fit.
What exactly should a squash coach do to increase their players aerobic fitness? There are very few highly publicized guides to aerobic fitness programs for squash – and because of individual differences in a a players age, training background, current fitness, body type, susceptibility to injury, and psychological characteristics (motivation, tolerance for pain, etc.) there is no guarantee that “canned” aerobic programs of the type found in Runner’s World will work for our particular athlete.
I thought it would be useful for squash coaches to read a case study which involves prescribing an “off-season” aerobic training program for a squash player. Rather than go into a detailed lecture and description, I will simply present the two e-mail communications that I had with the athlete (yesterday). By following the rationale that I present to her, squash coaches can gain insight into the art of sport science program design. Read the rest of this entry »
The importance of recovery and regeneration for hard training squash players has been known for years. My 1987 Squash Canada Level 4 Course featured a Task with that very name: Recovery and Regeneration. A sport scientist held a discussion session on the use of stretching, hot and cold therapies, massage, sleep and relaxation techniques to facilitate recovery.
One of the recovery techniques that was not mentioned in those days, but that has become a very hot item, is the use of foam rollers for self massage and myofascial release. I have integrated their use into my own and my team’s workout routine over the last 3-4 months, and if I was playing tournaments I am sure the roller would be immensely beneficial – and a lot cheaper and more convenient to implement than massage.
Here are four excellent short videos that feature foam rolling techniques that are perfectly suited to the demands of squash. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the challenges for WISPA and PSA squash tour professionals is to balance the need to make a living with scheduling sufficient time off to avoid burnout and chronic injury. Pro racquet sport athletes do not have the luxury of following properly designed 12- month periodized training plans with built in transition periods: 4-6 weeks of cross-training following the most important competition of the year to allow complete mental and physical restoration.
Most pros will be obliged to use cycles of 3-5 weeks built around their tournament schedule, where hard training is done for 1-2 weeks, followed by maintenance and tapering in order to “peak” at an important tournament, followed by an easier restoration week, before starting the pattern again.
Problems related to the over-development of one side of the body (upper arm/shoulder) are less frequent in squash than in tennis due to the lighter weight racquet. Rarely do we see a squash athlete reminiscent of Rod Laver’s gargantuan left side – due to the relatively light weight of the squash racquet (compared to the tennis racquet). We do see a lot of early onset right hip arthritis due to overuse of the right leg on both the backhand and forehand (open stance) sides.
Laver's Large Left Arm
One solution to avoiding possible problems (in addition to doing a few extra “left-side” sets when strength training) would be to incorporate a bi-lateral cross-training activity that could be done during transition and regeneration weeks. U.S. Handball is a great option, since the one-wall, outside variety can be played almost anywhere (schools, parks, etc.), since all you need is a wall and a ball. I ordered the easier-on-your-hands “family” ball (and gloves:) today in order to give it a try in the coming weeks. The U.S. handball site also has some free excellent instructional downloads here. Apparently, the ubiquitous U.S. racquetball is also a good choice for beginning players.
Here are some pretty good players playing doubles at a local park:
After 25 years of relative quiet on the stretching-flexibility front – thanks in large part to the popularity of Bob Anderson’s book of static stretching – squash coaches are now confronted with conflicting sport science research on both the type, and timing of doing stretching exercises. To make a long story short, the recommendation to perform relatively long (10 – 30 seconds) static stretches as part of a warm-up prior to squash training or matchplay has been replaced with a recommendation to do a series of dynamic stretches (stretches with movement), supplemented with short 2-3 second “mini” stretches of tight areas.
A definitive answer to the stretching question from sport science research is unlikely, due to the difficulty of implementing an applied (versus in the laboratory under contrived conditions) study in a real world squash situation. What we can recommend is one particular stretch from Core Performance – what they term the “World’s Greatest Stretch”. If you only were able to do one stretch for squash – this one would be perfect. It takes the place of about five to six of the good stretches described on this page.
I have been adapting many of the Core Performance dynamic stretches with my own college squash team’s program for several months now, and implementing them into my own workouts for about five months – they really work.
Here is tennis’ Anna Kournikova doing the World’s Greatest Squash Stretch (starts at 1:33 and ends at 3:08 on the video).
“Don’t worry, you won’t start receiving spam if you sign up for this subscription”
The National Strength & Conditioning Association puts out three publications that target three different audiences:
The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, primarily for those exercise physiologists conducting research related to strength and associated abilities such as speed and power. There is a lot of talk of enzymes and substrates.
The Strength and Conditioning Journal, mostly for Strength and Fitness Coaches working in sports (versus health club settings). A little technical, put practical and understandable.
The NSCA Performance Training Journal, very easy to read and a resource which would be perfectly tailored for squash coaches without sport science degrees – if they ever published articles on squash.
Having said that, squash coaches can lift some good ideas from programs from other sports. Here is the most recent issue’s partial Table of Contents: Read the rest of this entry »
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