Is Squash The Best Or Worst Sport For Your Health?

All squash players and coaches know that squash burns the most calories per hour compared to any other sport. We also know that there is nothing more gruelling and also rewarding than a tough squash match. The media and squash players alike are aways trying to promote squash as the best sport because it involves strategy, is good for your health and can be played in almost any city in the world in a short window of time. Some players squeeze in a match at lunchtime and generally squash players have to be relatively fit to play points of 10+ shots and matches lasting over 30 minutes. But is it possible that too much squash can actually be bad for your health?

I'm just 36 years old, but I've had to deal with a lot of overuse injuries the past few years. I had my first knee surgery which was due to wear and tare. The surgeon also seemed assured that I'd be a repeat customer. Most of my injuries the past few years have revolved around my back and ribs. I'm not a tall person, just 5 foot 7 and maybe 150lbs and perhaps my stature and the amount of torque I put on my body has a lot to do for the decades of overuse injuries.

Squash involves a lot of sprinting, starting-stopping, twisting, lunging and on top of that rotational swings while in these difficult positions and heavily fatigued. Too much of anything is not good for the body, but how do you get really good at something without putting in a lot of practice? I played a lot from the age of 10-14 and then didn't tough a racquet for about 5 years (or I'm sure I'd be in worse shape now). I played a lot of sports when I was young, but when I was 12-14 and from 19-36 most of my active life and sport has revolved around squash. Back in university I would get knee pain jogging just a few kms, but playing squash didn't bother my body. Somehow my body had slightly adjusted to squash, but the imbalance caused by the years of repletion would not allow me to do a repetitive non-squash exercise like biking or running.

Chiropractors and physiotherapists have always noticed right away that my body is off balanced and overdeveloped on one side of my body. But even for those who don't pay sport we use one half of our body more than others. We have a dominant arm, leg and even eye, yes that's right eye. If you want to know which eye is dominant you simply place yours index fingers and thumbs together to make a diamond shape and raise it to the ceiling. Place some dot or making within this area and then close one eye at a time. The marking will only show up in this area in your dominant eye. I recall a chiropractor once using a machine he was using with Olympic athletes to help reset my eyes. I had to wear this fancy pair of glasses and some lights blinked in a specified order which would help reset your eyes so you would use both again. This is just an example of something that overtime with overuse we naturally develop. You can imagine how much more things can become imbalanced when it involves hitting a shot with our same arm and playing 80-90%+ of our shots on our dominant leg.

The past two years I've been working with a personal trainer once or twice per week and I've been doing some spin classes and doing lots of physio and massages. I'm basically trying to work on my imbalances so I can not only be healthy enough to compete again, but also so I can coach and not continue this trend of over developing one side of my body. I've done a lot of floating and recently starting doing some acupuncture plus I stretch and roll almost daily. Basically I'm at the point where if I'm not proactively working on rebalancing and strengthening my body I will get injured pretty quickly and the longer I continue trying to coach and play competitively while I'm a bit injured the more likely it is that this will become a chronic and more serious injury which again could lead to another surgery.

While I was back in Toronto for the junior nationals I was talking with an old trainer of mine form when I was a junior. After telling him some of the issues I've been having the past few years he recommended I begin taking eldoa classes. I've just started taking classes this week so time will tell how this will help my body longterm. I would try to explain what it is, but it's probably simpler if you just google it. I've heard many Olympians are starting to do it and it can be helpful for people like me who have imbalances and some spine/hip imbalances. I just got back from a physio session this morning and basically my body is still pretty twisted and this is why my back has been bugging me the past month. I started playing more the past month to prepare for nationals, but this in turn hurts my body more. So the more I play, the more I have to do off court to prevent injuries and balance my body from the strain and overuse and pounding it takes from competing. Now I know why many coaches don't compete anymore; it takes a LOT of off court maintenance and training to be able to play at all, let alone play regularly and be able to prepare properly for a tournament.

So I ask you once again? After reading all of this is squash good for me or slowly crippling me? I never wanted a desk job because I wanted to stay active and healthy, but little did I know that too much of squash can be just as bad on my body. From my experience I definitely feel like squash players, even young juniors need to do more cross training and off court maintenance. What exactly you do off court is not so simple though. Certainly some mobility work (both strength, motor control and flexibility) can really help, but you will also likely need to find some other exercises which can help you become a more well rounded better athlete. Exercises like yoga, cycling, running (unless you're already too imbalanced), rowing machines, skipping or just playing other sports can all help.

As juniors are continually trying to beat one another and are pushed to become the best they can possibly be, you have to be careful not to jeopardize someone long term health and well being just for some short term success. Practice hitting shots of both legs, stretch/roll, do strength work and play other sports. Sometimes an assessment from a good trainer or physio can help you be proactive. It's much better to plan ahead and prevent injuries from happening as opposed to waiting for problems to build up.

All this being said, I'll keep playing squash as much as my body all allow. I need to make sure I eat healthy, get a good nights sleep, rest when my body needs it and spread out my tough on court sessions. I also need to stay on top of my stretches, physio and hopefully doing eldoa regularly will improve my general mobility and back health. I also regularly use a swiss ball to sit on.

If I had to go back in time and talk to myself as a junior I would tell myself to make sure I did off court training year round and if they had physios and personal trainers back then I would have told myself to invest in them, because it's one thing to be active off court and another to do it properly and to best offset the imbalance caused by so much squash. I still haven't completely figured out the right method for me, but it's improving and I certainly believe this is information that should be made available to all keen squash players, especially the kids. I'll leave you with a quote from my club as a junior, 'get fit to play squash, don't play squash to get fit.' I finally get it! Squash is great for your healthy enough if you are healthy enough to play it, but the more you play the more prone you are to the accumulation of overuse injuries.

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Mandating Annual Training Plans In Junior Squash

Today I should warn you I am going to go on a bit of a rant and it's a long post. I'm a true believer that squash should be fun and also that you get out what you put into it. If you love squash and want to get better you simply need to put in the time and effort and you will get to where you want to be eventually. If you don't have that drive you won't get to where others should think you should be. It's kind of like Matt Damon in the movie Good Will Hunting. I get the sense in squash that many of us are pressing our kids for results and unfortunately some of these kids end up dropping out of our great sport for this reason. I see this all of the time after kids finish grinding away their four years at college.

I feel that junior squash has become so competitive that it has zapped out a lot of fun from the game. Many countries have these robot type children all playing the same style of squash. Coaches feel pressure to produce top kids and often disregard the reasons the kids they have play squash. A big problem is that a major objective for governing bodies is to have elite high performance programs with elite and high standard kids they can stand from afar and admire and be proud of. Many kids themselves on doubt feel pressure to make certain teams or get accepted to a good university with a squash team. I have to admit that I'm guilty of this at times too. I have talented athletes that could achieve so much more, but in the end I have to remember that what they do with squash isn't my decision it is theirs. Squash can certainly open up a lot of doors for you and the higher the level you become, generally the more opportunities it will present to you. This is where I believe that motivation is the most important trait a coach can have. It doesn't matter how well you understand the game or teach the squash swing if a kid isn't intrinsically motivated to practice and get better.

When I was a kid I wanted to be a world champion. Yes I'm aware that didn't happen, but this can make it challenging to work with kids that have lower goals for their own squash games; especially when they have the skills and resources available to them. This is where I have to take a step back and listen to what the kids want out of squash and to how good they want to be. It's been an interesting challenge working at a school and starting up many of the kids from scratch. Most just come to practice and play for fun and enjoy competing while along the way have become pretty decent players. But these kids started playing just because we offered it at their school and they happened to be good at it or have fun playing. After 5 years running this program we do have some pretty strong players now and a few are keen to do independent training to become one of the best in Canada. 

At a school sometimes kids are just registered in a specific program and have the skills to be in a specific group. So even though there are different levels of kids within our system, there are many various motivating factors and aspirations for their squash careers. I feel this variety has given me a better perspective on junior squash as a whole. Not every kid is going to be a provincial or national champion, but that doesn't mean the kids can't all enjoy squash and play it for the rest of their lives. And for a select few of these kids that do have the potential and drive to become a top caliber player that we then have the ability to provide the guidance and program to facilitate this. Let's get back to our topic! 

I know this is a roundabout way to get to this point, but I wanted to give a clear personal perspective before I got into this topic. I hear that Squash BC and Squash Canada will soon be mandating that their recognized targeted athletes (as in being on a provincial squad) must have an annual training plan. At first I thought, well okay that seems reasonable for our top juniors. Then I started to think about this a little further. As soon as we have a policy that states a kid 'must' do anything the motivation moves from intrinsic to extrinsic. You can see how I immediately started worrying about this new policy and started to think it over further. 

I also began to think about if an actual yearly training plan is always appropriate for all kids just because their good at squash? Are the being kids identified in British Columbia and Canada talented and dedicated enough to all benefit from being on an annual training plan? Are we going to be pushing them at too young of an age because of the pressure WE feel for them to play at a higher national or international standard? When I was a kid I would have loved this, but only if it was optional and I had this option available to me because I was a top player. If I was told I had to do this or that I don't think it would have gone over too well. 

From my coaching perspective at the school the program has grown every season, but even for some of our top kids we're still working on getting them to want to train without saying they must do it. One of our biggest steps was helping the tops kids develop their own off season training program for this summer. But even this summer training program was made optional. I gave them suggestions and said it would greatly benefit for their games, but I realize not all of them are super keen to focus on training for squash year round. They are kids after all so who can blame them.

Without a doubt if these kids were on an annual training plan and stuck to them they would become better squash players in the short term. If the kids continued on this plan for a long period of time they would definitely benefit from it, but is this reason enough to implement a mandatory annual training program?

I feel most of these kids are not ready for this level of commitment. I will likely have 2-4 kids that must have an annual training plan for next season. I feel this is a sign of the sport becoming more professional at the junior level. If we want our kids to get a variety scholarship or make a national team a training plan would be great, but how many of these athletes have these goals? Would it not be worth finding out their goals and motivation first?

From a sporting government body I get it completely. We want to do better at the world stage at both the junior and senior level. As adults we know what's best for our kids, right? So mandating annual training plans is clearly a necessary requirement to producing stronger high performance pathway? Maybe they should listen to some of the coaches and athletes before they go ahead and implement this policy. 

I always like to think about things from different perspectives and creative angles. I've already discussed a few of the issues I have with this protocol, but here are a few of my pros and cons of mandating our top kids to annual training plans. 

Pros To Forcing Kids To Have Annual Training Plans

- the kids will be fitter, faster, stronger

- the governing bodies will meet their funding requirements

- scheduled rest time in the year 

- emphasis is placed on peaking for larger tournaments 

- you have a plan and goals and feel in control of your development

- it keeps you on track by helping you get into a routine
- this helps you stay on track over the season
- our kids will get a glimpse of what a professional squash player's life is like
- this is an effective way to guide a highly motivated athlete 

Cons Of Forcing Kids To Have Annual Training Plans

- makes playing competitively more serious and less fun
- increased dropout of sport
- you can become overwhelmed and immersed by the quantity of data and your training load and lose focus on what is most important, which is the quality of your training on that particular day

- motivation for playing and training can becomes extrinsic

- putting a focus on fitness means kids will develop their shots and tactics slower and could be prone to playing less attacking squash (which I feel is the current and future of the game)

- I feel like the biggest improvement most kids can make in squash is by improving their tactics and skill set. I bet there are some top world class players that never had an annual training plan when they were kids and instead of spending time in the gym lifting weights they were on court hitting the ball! 

- not every kids is mentally or physically ready for an annual training plan

- some kids are fine physically and need to focus more on learning the squash part of the game (technical and tactical) and annual training plans in my opinion should be more geared toward physical training

- I believe that increasing importance of specific competitions puts extra pressure on the kids. I believe in continually improving your own game regardless on the time of the season

- training plans generally call for less technical focus prior to competitions, but there are so many competitions for kids that unless it's a few days before a tournament I will always take an opportunity to improve someone's knowledge or swing. My first couple of years coaching I would avoid changing things before competing, but the kids are constantly competing so that didn't work

- isn't the best way for someone to get better to either play a match or solo hit? I know other things are key, but for me I'm always wanting a kid to do these things first before any other additional off court training is scheduled 

- If a kid does want to start an annual training plan shouldn't certified personal trainers set up these routines? Seriously, aren't they more qualified than the squash coaches?

- I've seen some pretty detailed and outrageous annual training plans that I know were not adhered to whatsoever. So really, what's the point of designing some amazing plan if it isn't going to be followed?
- how do you follow a kids plan when they train as part of a larger group who may've different training objectives? 

- promotes early specialization. I believe a lot of these kids that would be on this program would be better off just playing a 2nd or 3rd sport of cross training and for fun. This isn't just geared towards the junior national team players and trickles much further down the rankings and age groups

Okay, you get the point. You can see I can think of many more cons than pros for this argument. But clearly we are following the lead of other counties or even other sports. Why don't we come up with our own intelligent and creative way to assist our kids? Of course if you're a rower or in a purely endurance based sport a training plan and pure athleticism is key to success, but in squash there is so much to learn and know and just by playing we get fitter, stronger and faster and I think it should be treated differently. 

I'm sure I will get some criticism for my points here. I have to say that I am not against training programs at all, just against forcing teenagers to have them simply because of their provincial or national ranking. When I've worked with some professional players we would work month by month and adjust as necessary. If someone need more work in a certain area we keeping working on it. How often are people with annual training plans adjusting them based on how they're developing? At least for most of the kids I work with, I've been concentrating on getting them to understand different types of training, how it benefits them and most importantly to motivate them to want to do it and see the benefits of training. 

It will be interesting to see how things develop. It reminds me of my interview with Wee Wern Low and how she said she felt forced to go work with a 'better' coach, but she trusted her instinct and did what she felt was best for her and she kept the coach she had since she was 12. There are also similar rules stating that someone has to have a certain qualification to coach an athlete that they already work with at a provincial or national event and of course the Olympics. These rules are meant to help the athletes and get the coaches to spend time working on their certifications, but this system doesn't always work. 

I really enjoy people that think like Wee Wern Low as they kind of beat the system and show us that we shouldn't be so focused on say, how hard a pitcher throws a baseball or a squash player hits a ball or the certification or experience a coach has. Because really a squash player isn't going to get very far without the tactical, mental and technical skills. All of these other 3 skills are things that I am always talking about and working on with kids, regardless of the time of season. 

This topic also reminds me of a book I recently read titled 'How Bad Do You Want It' by Matt Fitzgerald. He made an interesting point about the best endurance runners. Fitzgerald discussed evidence that the top runners were comprised of a mixture of slightly lower V02max and more efficient running styles while others had a higher V02max, but because of this they always had less efficient running styles. This hits home for me in squash about how retrievers fail to develop shots or attacking tactics while those that have to because they are not as fast or fit do so. So I do think there is something to be said for learning how to play squash and developing your shots and tactics before becoming too fast, strong and fit and just winning because your run everything down. If a kid wins simply because he or she overhits or outruns their peers they are most likely to have a setback in their development of the tactics and shot making skills that their peers must have. Do you agree? 

For elite and experienced players, squash is an art form. Do you think famous artists were ever on a training plan? And did that ever stop them from being their best? Of course not! If an artist is getting ready for a show they may implicitly know they have to do a bit more to prepare and get ready for this. If a squash player is playing a big international event the more they will practice without us telling them they have too. We already know all of this implicitly and do what it takes to prepare properly. If we get to the event not as prepared as we would like we learn from it and try and do better the next time. Isn't this how preparation for squash competitions should be like, more like artists that put in the hours preparing because they are working at perfecting their craft, not because they are told too? 

What do you guys think? Can you think of anymore pros and cons I missed out on? Are annual training plans necessary for kids? If we were a stronger squash country at the junior level I may agree with these terms for a select few of the top kids, but in my opinion we're just not there and I actually think we have some very athletic kids already. We don't have enough kids competing and doing well at the international events in any age group. I think we should concentrate on being more competitive with our younger kids and hopefully they will be physically and mentally prepared to have a training plan when and if they are ready to do so. Some kids may be mature enough to go on a plan at 14 or 15 well others maybe not until they are in their 20's. And really if a kid never wants to go on a training plan, but loves squash and plays it all his life what is wrong with that? 

Currently I don't see many (if any) Canadian juniors that are going to make a living playing squash. I still feel my biggest beef is that wouldn't an annual training plan be better suited to a kid that wanted to do it, but didn't necessarily have too? Shouldn't we simply have access to the best trainer in the country that can set up an annual plan for those targeted that ask for it?  Wouldn't this be more progressive and keep the motivation for those on a plan more intrinsic? Maybe we should try and simply monitor how much of what our athletes are doing? I bet many are being pushed into doing too much for how little of years they have been training. Clearly if I was given a vote on this I would vote 'no.' I've played a high junior level and coached all different levels of kids so I feel I have a good set of experience to make my decision. I know that if I had a son or daughter playing and they were on one of these squads I would never force them to train and be on an annual program if they didn't want to do it. Sorry for the lengthy post, hope it was interesting to you! I'm guessing if you made it all the way to here it was :)

Why The PSA Should Consider Consolation Draws For 5k Tournaments

Today I'm going to talk about a proposed change that I feel would assist with the development of the up and coming professional squash players. As juniors we are normally promised 3 matches and in some international events the tournament is played out to the final positions. I mean, who would want to travel all the way across the country or the world to get 1 match?

Professional squash players matches lose and go home, or onto the next tournament to try again a week or two later. When I graduated school I couldn't dream of playing any pro tournaments because I had student loans to start paying back and I knew I wasn't going to make a living by playing professionally. But like myself, it's a lot of kids dreams to play professionally, travel the world and meet new people and attempt to achieve our potential in this sport we love.

In PSA events if you lose first round in qualifying you don't even get a paycheque, so it's no wonder very few ever stick with their professional squash careers. I wonder what the annual turnaround is for memberships? There is a lot of pressure involved here, no points, no money and just 1 match! With my proposed change the up and coming pros will have less pressure on their result and can focus on becoming more comfortable in their environment and gain experience playing a variety of opponents at various facilities.

I don't know anyone ready to start making a living by the time they finish juniors. But still they go and sign up for a PSA tour card and register for some small events. It takes years to be competitive against older and more experienced players. Over the past decade I have seen an extremely low number of Canadians stick through this process for more than a year or two. It's a losing battle and after they put in so much work and go home with nothing or very little they think twice about what they're doing with their life and usually decide to settle down and take a coaching job!

Unless someone has a lot of sponsors or wealthy parents or is so skilled that they begin winning right away (which is incredibly rare) this is a real dilemma with squash players looking to transition from junior or college squash and become a professional squash player. It makes the idea of becoming a professional squash player pretty unrealistic for most people. So what can we do to improve this process? Hosting more smaller PSA events is a great start but I have another idea.

I feel that at 5k events the players should be guaranteed 2 matches. Yes, that's right. This means that if you lose first round you go into a consolation. This means for a draw of 16 you will get an extra 7 matches for the tournament organizer and it also offers the young pro players some much needed experience competing on the world tour. Or if you include the first round qualifying losers you have a draw of 12. I don't know how that would work, but I guess they could randomly assign byes to a few of the players.

I feel that the PSA could offer a small number of points to people who win matches in the consolation  rounds and this also keeps these players around the main competition longer to watch their peers, to bond and to see how they perform. The main goal of this concept would be that all of the players leave the tournament gaining more experience; even for a young player in this situation 2 loses is better than 1. With the price of flights and the lack of small professional tournaments in Canada I believe this would be a welcomed change and it could go a long way in keeping some of our young talented players in the sport. This could only trickle up and make the PSA stronger and deeper and it may be just enough to keep a future champion or top 10 player in the game.

I realize that this proposition means that the 5k events may become 6 or 7k if they are to pay out the consolation winner and runner up. But I believe many young people playing these events will be happy getting the experience as they aren't going into these events expecting to make money, only to get their moneys worth. Also the tournament promoters would have an extra 7 matches to sell tickets for so could probably come up with the extra bit of money from ticket and beverage sales.

What do you think? Can you see the PSA going this route? Should it extend to 10k events?  Would they have to penalize players that pull out of the consolation? I believe our young talented players would get twice as much out of this type of experience and it wouldn't be much extra work to arrange. I'm all for the idea. Come on PSA, the ball's in your court!

Extreme Squash Parenting

Today I'm going to talk about the ethical issues with a kid training to play at an elite level. At the Canadian Junior Open there was a young girl that was very good, but was pushed extremely hard by her father. I had many parents and kids talk about this and say how bad they felt for this girl. I can only imagine how many more of these cases there are in more lucrative sports. Anyways it got me thinking; what is the line? How much is too much? There is a reason they created the LTAD, but anyone that has been a top professional squash player training hard from a young age and normally began winning at a very young age.

As for this individual case, it's not up to anyone else to tell this person how to be a parent. I'm sure he's heard some remarks before. He's an intense person and eventually his daughter will grow up and either be equally as driven to succeed or driven away from her father and squash. He was right in her face, strict and to the point with his coaching. We all criticize his aggressive coaching techniques and parenting skills at this moment, but if she goes on to become a world champion he will only hear praises for his dedication and work ethic. Clearly I could never coach kids this way. It isn't my personality and I think kids would quit the sport. Yes, you may have some impressive results, but for those few that stick through it, how many would really love squash and training?

When one parent complained to me about this father's behaviour I felt impartial. Yes, I disagreed with his coaching method. But for other sports like gymnastics, kids are being coaching and trained like this because it's an early peak sport. The best gymnasts in the world are mid-teenagers. Clearly they didn't get to this standard by following the LTAD. They didn't get eased into rigorous training over a number of years. But when it comes to squash this feel different. I think some parents feel it isn't fair because their daughter wasn't nearly as strong of a player and may never be. So what can you do?

I'm sure if you went to Egypt you would see many kids playing at an incredible standard at a very young age. For me the difference here is where the motivation is coming from. Is it the young kid or the parent or coach? If a young child is intrinsically driven to play more and train hard that it great. If the parent is dictating all of this and the child is just following instructions there is an issue.

Everyone wants to believe that their child is the best and can be the best. But there are lots of kids that play squash and not everyone can become a world champion. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't allow them to follow their dreams of becoming an elite squash player. It's a parents job to aid this process. Looking back at my junior squash career. I wanted to be the best in the world. Even though I never player professionally I know that I was able to become the best in Canada just from working hard and being dedicated. It taught me I could do whatever I wanted if I put my mind to it. That hard work really does pay off and if you believe in yourself you can do anything you want. And when I was a young kid my motivation to pay and train and be the best was all internally motivated.

I haven't come to any grand conclusions about this topic. I found it quite fascinating. I'm sure as a parent you feel you know what's best for your kid. At what point is the line crossed and are you over the top and doing more damage than good? I don't know if this girl has another coach back home, or if it's just her dad that coaches her. There's always going to be a coach that enjoy working with a top athlete that will overlook the dominating father to work with the girl. Only time will tell how this will play out. I know some people hope this girl will not become a squash star because they don't approve of the method. Others feel bad for this girl as her entire life is squash. There is more to life than squash...hmm or is there??

Have you ever read Andre Agassi's biography? His dad was super strict and made him hit endless tennis balls that were fed by a homemade ball machine. Even though Agassi became the best player in the world he hated tennis and says he won't let his kids play tennis or any other individual sport. Even though he's married to Steffi Graf and their kids would likely be pretty athletic he said it's such a long and lonesome journey becoming a professional in an individual sport. As coaches how do we ensure that our athletes keep balance in their life? If we want to produce the top athletes they need to make a major dedication to their sport, which means they may lack some balance. It's an interesting debate.

Are you a squash parent? What's your take on this situation? Do you play the role of parent and coach? Or do you leave the coaching to the coach? Are your kids chasing your dreams or theirs?

Time Management and Maximizing Training

Today I'm going to talk about time management and in particular how you can maximize your training sessions each week. Think outside the box. Do more, but do it smarter. Manage your time and know what type of training to do and how much to do it. You can train twice per day and not burn yourself out. Keep it fresh and change it up constantly. If you want to be the best solo hit every day, even for just 20 minutes. I know top students at university that are able to train 3 times per day. I heard that Jansher Khan use to train at 6am everyday because he could get in a practice before most people even woke up. I know most people are busy these days, including students, so managing your time and getting into a routine is essential if you wan to be the best you can be.

Everyone has heard about deliberate practice. That it takes about 10,000 to become an expert in a field, including squash. Well some people play that long or longer and never become close to an expert. 10,000 over 10 years is much different than over 20 or 30 years. It's also not just about the quantity of practice time. Quality is always more important. Practicing every day for your entire life with the poor technique will only get you so far. So today's post is not about playing a match and doing drills every day and overtraining with only 10,000 hours as a goal. Today the discussion is how to keep the quality up by being smart and managing your time using a weekly training log.

When I was in university my body could only handle so many tough training sessions per week. Especially when the team went away for the weekend and I'd play 3 or more hard matches. I couldn't just get back and begin my training routine right away. Often I was stuck in a vehicle for half a day coning hime and if I wasn't already sore from my matches I was from the trip back. I learned early on that solo hitting was the way I could protect my body and it was also the fastest way I could improve when my body needed some rest. So I would find time to solo hit at least 3 or 4 times per week. I know some of the top players solo hit every day.

I know you're thinking, I have school or a job, I can't solo hit everyday! Well you may be right. But if you're a top player and really want to improve you can find time. Before work, maybe at lunch or after dinner. If we get into a routine and make time for things we can accomplish more than we may think. This is why I promote the idea of setting up a weekly training log that you can repeat. It's this routine that you will adjust to and as the weeks pile up you will be training more than your competitors and improving faster.

There's a few important points about a weekly training cycle. The first is that you need to incorporate some easier non-physically demanding routines. This can include yoga, solo hitting or swimming. You'll also need to pay more attention to cooling down, stretching and doing some light aerobic activity so you recover faster. Another critical part is that you adjust and spread out your hard training sessions. For example, if you like to spin 1 day per week. Change that spin routine up every week or two. The body adjusts to training very quickly. I believe it's important to change the work to rest ratio, the intensity, duration and even the type of exercise you do. Of course if you're training every day, or even twice per day you need to spread out the really physically demanding sessions. If you do a tough plyometric routine and you really burn your legs, make sure the next session or the next day you aren't overdoing it. Plan a solo hit and maybe some active recovery like swimming or an easy bike ride. Also you could go and focus on your core and upper body if they weren't heavily involved in the plyometrics. When you train like this you are working hard, but not overloading any one part of your body.

So you have your week lined up and you're getting into a good routine. Now you have a tournament coming up this weekend. How do you plan before and after the tournament? You should begin tapering before the start of the event. If the tournament begins on Friday, I wouldn't do any really hard training any later than Tuesday. A match may be fine on Wednesday, this depends on the level, length and intensity. And after the tournament is over it can be difficult getting back into your routine. Your result in the tournament will dictate if you need Monday off or perhaps you didn't make it to Sunday. If you had 5 or 6 matches you may need two rest days after. Rest if often overlooked by the top athletes. If you are in need of some rest, make it active rest not just lying around on the couch. Get up and move around, maybe a solo hit and an easy bike to loosen up the legs.

The really tricky thing around these weekly training logs is when you get back to back tournaments. Obviously this completely disrupts your training cycle, but you should plan for this ahead of time. You won't be able to do much training in-between events. It's mort important here to make sure you're recovered from the previous event and that you're fresh as possible going into the next one. You'll probably have some areas you want to work on, but you won't have much time to do so. This is again when solo hitting or some feeding sessions can be the best. Just because you're a good player it doesn't mean that practice always has to be 100% physically demanding, if your 100% concentrated at the task at hand it will be a beneficial session.

Basically the main point I wanted to make today is that to be the best at anything you need to make sacrifices. You may need to get up earlier and spend time before work or school training or hitting balls. Think about what an average week looks like. How many hours do you spend training on court vs. off court? Where can you sneak in even just 1 more practice? Again this doesn't mean it has to be another physically tough session. I haven't even mentioned psychological skills training. This isn't physically demanding whatsoever, just mental. There are plenty of ways to improve your game by reorganizing your week and managing your time effectively. If you can't handle anymore physically, try some less demanding practices. Solo hitting, imagery, swimming, easy cycling, stretching and yoga can not only allow your body some time to heal but can speed up the recovery process. Even making time to watch pro squash matches or your own games, or reading an insightful squash blog;) can be extremely beneficial and is something you can do to improve your squash game when your body needs some rest.

How many training sessions do you do per week? Would you be better if you added one more? Do you regularly adjust the type of training or intensity you do? Do you have a weekly training log/routine? How many hours do you spend on court vs. off court? How many hours do you solo hit per week? Regardless of your goals or level we have more time than we think if we're motivated to improve our game, lose some weight, get healthier and fitter. Write out your weekly schedule and find where you can improve it. Even just a slight adjustment can make a big difference over the long run.

2014 Ivy Scrimmages

Today I'm on my way back from Yale where I brought 4 kids to watch the Ivy League Scrimmages. I'm not going to talk about the results, you can go to the CSA website for that. Instead I'm going to discuss a few other aspects of the college squash game.

College squash at times reminds me of other American collegiate sports. Some players get pretty intense, heated, fiery and are short tempered. There is a lot of pressure playing for a team and a school that has recruited you. At least that's how it appears to some of the players. There are a few, and very few that looked like they were having fun and enjoying their squash.

No doubt that squash is a good release from all the hard studying and exams the players do during the school year. I know that squash greatly helped me get through university. I trained pretty hard and too my squash pretty serious. Even though I was a pretty calm character once in a while you would play someone that got under your skin and it was tough not to let it get to you. I don't know if that was what they wanted or if that was just how they were. Anyways, I saw some of that this weekend and it brought back some memories.

Of course refereeing a teammate is always an issue and there were some iffy calls. It's difficult to ref 2 fiery players that are not clearing well and making a scene, let alone if one of them is your teammate. Besides this problem I saw a few others. More than a few times I saw kids fist pump and yell directly at their opponent. This is something I wouldn't tolerate if I was a college coach. Sometimes it was completely over the top. A few players did this after almost every rally. While their teammates are cheering after every single point. Even after someone makes a poor mistake early in the rally it doesn't affect the cheering.

It's great to have some emotion in the sport and to have a crowd involved, but there is a fine line in squash. If they are doing it it seems easier to justify doing this right back to the opposition. Thankfully we don't see anything like this on Squash TV. This is only the College Squash preseason and I can only imagine what may happen at the team finals.

Some parents can be just as intense and I couldn't help but notice a few that were living and dying with each point. I think it becomes more than a game and there is too much pressure. Especially for the men there is a lot of testosterone out there. If I was coaching a college team I would do some yoga and relaxation and meditation practices. I think to play your best squash you have to have control of your emotions. Also for the longevity of your playing career I think people will play more squash and for later into their life if they truly enjoy the experience.

I've always said that squash can open a lot of doors and this is true at the college squash level. But if that is making someone not enjoy squash and putting pressure on them you have to ask if it's really worth it?

My last point from the weekend is about the style of squash. Besides a handful of players the game was still up and down the wall, hit it hard, avoid mistakes and grind it out. You can tell which players are American. They have some great players, but you can tell their styles are all similar. Low risk and they are normally quite physically strong and fit. They will dive, run into their opponent and do anything it takes for the win. Even with all of this athleticism they are too predictable and get toured against the international players.

I noticed that many people overhit the ball and hit the ball relatively tight on the backhand side but either don't volley (or do much with it), or they can't find the depth to put any pressure on their opponent in the backhand back corner. I should say there were a couple of Americans who did impress me though, this is just a general statement. It will be interesting to see how the college game change over the years as the recruiting continues to become more international.

Do you have fun playing squash? Do you play better when you are intense? Do you try and hide your emotions when you play? Do you like your crowd being loud and boisterous or quiet or somewhere in beteween?

That's it for today. Tomorrow is another travel day so it may be a couple of more days before my next post. For my next post I want to talk about 'focusing on the positive.' I find that most of us (yes, me included!) are too quick to point out our errors and what we need to improve. We don't give ourselves any slack and and success or strengths we have are overshadowed by our losses and deficiencies.