Monitoring Off Court Training For Groups

When you work with a wide range or age groups it's difficult to have them all on the same training plan and to evenly track all of their progress and offer motivation for both on and off the court. So what I've created was a document where I can track each of their off court training improvements through a variety of exercises which I feel are most appropriate towards their development as an athlete and in particular a squash player. Ideally this chart will also provide motivation and goal setting for the kids too.

How the chart works is they simply get a checkmark when they've completed a certain physical skill task. The idea is to have levels that are challenging for each player so they can continually aim for incremental improvements, which over a long time can lead to a big change in an individual. It's just begun, so only time will be the judge to see how well it works. This is also the first season where the kids are expected to complete 2 off court gym sessions on their own outside of our on court training which is 4x per week.

Beep Test	8.1	9.1	10.1	10.6	11.1	11.6	12.1	12.6	13.1	13.6	14.1	14.6	15.1

Consecutive Pushups	10	20	25	30	35	40	45	50	55	60	70	80	90	100

Consecutive Skipping	50 FW	100 FW	150 FW	200 FW	250 FW	50 BW	100 BW	150 BW	200 BW

Bear Crawl with golf T on back	Width of court	Length of court	Length X2	Around entire court	Total distance with ball on top of T

Plank	1 min.	2 min.	3 min.	4 min.	5 min.	1 min. side	2 min. side	3 min side

Lunges (per leg)	30 sec. hold	60 sec. hold	90 sec. hold	2 min. hold	50 lunge forwards and back	20 lunge jumps (40 total)	30 lunge jumps (60 total)	40 lunge jumps (80 total)

Squats	10 proper squats	30 squats	50 squats	20 squat jumps	30 squats jumps	40 squat jumps	50 squat jumps	20 burpees with PU	30 burpees with PU	40 burpees with PU

Flexibility/Stretching	Hamstring	Quads	Hips/Glutes	Calves	Shoulders	Trouble Areas?
Sufficient ROM

Nutrition?	Proper Sleep?	Hydration?	Warm up routine?	Cool down routine?

Anything you feel I'm missing? For the record these kids are between 12 and 18 years old. The coaches have demonstrated and shown that the exercises are all done with proper techniques before adding reps and/or weight. 

Legend: PU = pushups FW = forwards BW = backwards. The golf tee is a plastic driving range one that has a round bottom. You can also use a plastic cup or empty yogurt container.

When I was a kid we had some equipment in our basement, but I didn't know what I was doing or how much to do of something. I had no program or guidance on technique for exercises. It's impossible to play squash at a top level without strong glutes, calves, quads, hamstrings and of course core. The past 3 years since a minor knee surgery I've been steadily going to the gym and working with some great trainers and I feel more stable on court than I did when I was competing.  Here are a few of the pics from some of the various exercises we've done. It's always tailored to squash. You can find a lot more of them on the Serious Squash Instagram page.

Follow Serious Squash on Youtube, Instagram and Facebook for the most regular posts. Also check out the online shop, SeriousSquashShop.com for all the instructional videos and merch. I'm hoping to be adding a signature racquet to the shop in the next few months! 

Staying Active Over The Holidays

I'm back on track! Two days in a row. Today I'm going to talk about a few tips for staying fit and active over the holidays. I haven't always done this well, but I also know the importance of taking some time off. The problem with the holidays is that most people eat and drink a lot of crap and don't get any exercise. I've been guilty of this in the past and am going to try and do a better job this time around.

Yesterday I went over to the gym and did some strength training. When I was at the gym I found out they have a deal for the rest of the month for $26. I was about to pay $13 for a single visit, so I signed up for the month and plan to get my money's worth! I'm sure many gyms and squash clubs have something similar to this for the month of December. The gym isn't as busy this time of year as people have Christmas parties, are busy shopping and going out for dinners. The tricky part is that unless you're a member at a key club, many gyms and squash clubs are closed around the holidays. I don't like taking 2 or 3 days off from exercising in a row. Back in Victoria I have a gym in my building, but I'm in Ontario and will have to find other ways to get some exercise. If you have a home gym or it's warm outside you can at least do something. This is about maintaining some balance in your life. Especially if you are going to be eating a lot of junk food, make time to get some exercise in.

I find many people do absolutely nothing for a week and really enjoy it. They don't feel guilty because that's what they are supposed to be doing during the holidays as you catch up with friends and family. My brother plays squash and is pretty active so I have someone to go and work out with. Having a workout partner and someone to get you going is always nice, but even more so this time of year.

The last thing most people want to do when they have been up late at a party is to go to the gym the next day. Maybe for one of your Christmas presents you should ask or buy some home gym equipment. When I was a kid I had a treadmill, a stationary bike, a chin-up bar and a multi-faceted exercise weight machine. You can also do a lot with just a mat.

I know New Years is a time when many people are motivated to get back in shape because they've had a lapse over the holidays. This is where gyms make big money. If being healthy and active is a part of your regular daily life you won't need to make a resolution that will eventually fail anyways. Nobody is going to keep doing something they don't enjoy. If you are active and eat well you will feel so much better that you won't want to be sedentary and eat a lot of junk food. Plus if you are an active and healthy person indulging a bit over the holidays won't be too bad for you. If you stay active and still have healthy meals a few snacks in between won't do much harm. If however you eat and drink a lot and you are normally healthy and active you may not have the energy (the fuel) to go out and be active during the break.

There are always a number of squash tournaments early in January so if you eat well and stay active over the holidays you will be ahead of most of the field. If you do nothing for a couple of weeks you will have a pretty big lapse in your fitness. This goes back to the New Years resolution talk. I know when I was younger I always worried about how to maintain my fitness routines and levels year round. To play squash at a high level you need to be very fit all year round. Some people like to stagger their training so they always have say 1 strength training routine every week. Others like to focus on specific fitness attributes for a certain number of weeks or months. For example, you may want to work on your aerobic fitness by doing spinning or running 2 or 3 times per week. You wouldn't need to keep up this frequency all year round. So certain fitness levels will slightly drop throughout the year as you concentrate on others as they increase. This is why you pick and choose what you want to peak for and what your physical strength and weaknesses are. Right, so how does this have anything to do with this post? Well staying somewhat active over the holidays will help keep up your overall fitness, regardless of the intensity; something is better than nothing and even if your goal is to maintain your current level you're doing great. It's okay to have a slight dip, if you stay relatively active you can pick things up again pretty quickly. If you are inactive and unhealthy it will take much longer.

That's it for today. I'm going to go to the gym now and ride the bike for half an hour. I hope all of you stay active and have a few healthy meals between your holiday snacking. Don't get me wrong, the holidays are a nice time for a break, but try and make some time for exercising. Do you have any strategies for staying active and healthy over the holidays? Do you make New Years resolutions? If you want to share any that have to do with squash, heathy or fitness let me know.