Western University Head Coach Appointment

This week there's a few exciting things to announce. Let's start off with the biggest one! It was officially announced today that I am the new head coach of the Western Ontario's mens varsity  squash team. I played on the team from 2006-2009 and it was one of the best times of my squash career. I played and trained with some great friends and I really enjoyed collegiate squash.

Jack Fairs was my coach and he's such a great man and a legend in squash, so I'm excited about the opportunity to follow in his footsteps. Western is the only Canadian team that competes in the US in the College Squash Association (CSA). Last year the team had a strong season and finished 11th overall and I'm looking forward to helping the team get back up into the top 8.

 Pic and old school UWO shirt credit to my brother

When I was at Western we finished 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th over my 4 years. We only had 1 home match in those 4 seasons and I was also a driver for most of our away matches. There were and still are a lot of challenges being the only Canadian team, but now having a full time coach we are 1 step closer to the top teams in the CSA.

Since the alumni have raised enough money to bring me onboard we can support that the team needs to compete with the US schools who have much larger budgets and more resources available to them. Recently I've been working on the teams training schedule and some fitness and technical testing measures for next season.

Western has been the top Canadian squash team for years

If you'd like to find out more out Western you can do so here: https://westernmustangs.ca/sports/mens-squash Also if you have any questions about the men's variety team you are welcome to contact me at chanebu@uwo.ca There's a large UWO Squash email database where I will be sending out team updates and if you're an alumni or simply a squash supporter and you'd like to be included on the distribution list please send your email address.

After winning another OUA title at White Oaks

Believe it or not this isn't the only exciting news this week. Two days ago I was interviewed for the In Squash Podcast by Gerry Gibson. We had a good chat and talked about a lot things which I hope the squash world will find interesting. It should be published soon and I'll add the link to a later post or you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts. I will also be doing another interview for an Australian sports company called Sportageous who are looking to highlight a variety of sports, including squash. Stay tuned for that piece as well.

Another cool thing happened this week. I celebrated my 1 year anniversary of Squash Shots! I've now published 52 episodes and the topics are wide ranging. Recently I've focused more on the off court training side of squash, but I do have a neat post set for next week looking at what breaks down in your posture and swing under pressure. I used some old footage of me to demonstrate and explain this. If you're interested in subscribing you can do so at Patreon.com/SeriousSquash for as little as $3/month

I've also had some excellent feedback on the limited edition Serious Squash Canadian tees. In the first week I sold over 25% of the incoming stock. Thanks to everyone who preordered a tee or has supported Serious Squash in anyway over the years! The shirts will be arriving shortly and I will mail them out asap. If you'd like to preorder one you can still do so here: https://serioussquashshop.com/collections/serious-squash-limited-edition-canadian-themed-shirt

The New Serious Squash Canadian Tee

Don't forget I'm still doing a weekly live workout on the @LondonSquash Instagram account. So far they've all been on Friday at 1pm eastern standard time, but with how wild the weather is recently that could change week by week. These workouts are focused on mostly improving your core and lower body strength. This week I'm going to introduce the split squat and side lunge and I also have another challenging circuit mapped out. After recording I will post them to a home workout playlist on the Serious Squash Youtube channel. You can find the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzYXhBuUol3Tx4MV2l0nfoJ-5mRN853iB

I'd also like to bring up Squash Canada's 'Return To Play Recommendations.' This is a pretty comprehensive guide for coaches, players, club managers and owners about how we can safely get back into the squash clubs prior to a vaccine being produced. I can already imagine how squash is going to change for the next while and therefore so will my job. No matter the precautions we have to implement I'm excited about this announcement and the fact that squash is getting closer to returning. If you'd like to read the recommendations you can do so here: http://squash.ca/en/news/squashcanadapublishesreturnplayrecommendationsclubscoachesandplayers

I should also mention I just finished a 3 day fast on Wednesday. I've heard there are lots of health benefits from doing so and my brother was already planning on doing it so I decided to join him. He normally does it once per month and I'm still on the fence about if I'll be joining him next month or not. All I had was coffee and water for almost 72 hours. I don't think I would be able to do this while I'm coaching, but it was nice to be able to try something different during this time off. Any of you have any experience with fasting? Or fasting and sport?

With no squash I thought I would do a week of posting some of my old skill challenges. I'm going to post 1 each of the next 7 days. Here are days 1, 2 and 3:

Throwback Skill Challenge #1: Half Butterfly And Switch

Throwback Skill Challenge #2: Butterfly Twist - Forehand To Front Corners, Backhand To Back Corners 

Throwback Skill Challenge #3: Sitting Down Backward Figure 8 Volleys

Follow Serious Squash on Youtube, Instagram or Facebook for the next 4 skill challenge releases! I hope all of you are staying safe and healthy. If your squash club is back open I'd be interested to hear how it's going so far and what you're allowed to do and not do.

If you're looking to purchase some kettlebells for home check out Kettlebell Kings. They have a great Instagram account where they demonstrate lots of new exercises. I'm registered as an ambassador for their products iso f you're thinking of picking up a kb check them out: https://kettlebellkings.com?afmc=9j

Hitting Straighter On A More Consistent Basis

One area that almost all squash players have in common is that we are always trying to hit the ball closer to the sidewall on a more consistent basis. Most people when they start playing just get the ball back ands a lot of their shots tend to end up in the middle of the court. With a lot of practice and patience we eventually start to get shots within the width of the service boxes and after a few more year ideally right along the sidewall.

There tighter we hit a shot the less likely it is that your opponent will be able to attack. The closer the ball is to the sidewall the further your opponent has to to go from the T to play their shot and it will also limit their ball control. When the ball is right on the sidewall only the top inch or two of the racquet will be making contact with the ball and this makes it quite challenging to get back let alone control. Even at the pro level there are countless points won every match because a ball was glued to the sidewall.

Even with this early understanding and relentless pursuit of hitting the ball tight, it's still something we can all improve upon. As we are under pressure the way we have to adapt our body and swing to play a shot makes it even less likely that our accuracy will hold up and we often pop out shots towards that dangerous middle area. This is where many swing break down because people don't have the correct swing mechanics or the they lack strength and mobility to get their body into the ideal hitting posture at top speed.

In the most recent episode of Squash Shots (episode 37) I demonstrate 3 solo drills which are geared towards intermediate players which focus on hitting the ball straighter and tighter. Below is the video of the episode and then I will follow it up with a brief description of each exercise.

In drill #1 I am trying to hit the ball into the service box without letting the ball hit the sidewall. For many years of playing squash I didn't pay attention to where my length was hitting the sidewall. Even at a pretty high level I was using the sidewall to help straighten my shots up, but as I now know this slows the ball down and it often won't get to the back wall against a top level player. You'll easily notice this if you play on a court with sticky sidewalls where the ball doesn't tend to slide down the wall like it does on some courts. A glass court is a good example of this where the ball just pops out towards the middle of the court.

In drill #2 I have a target (cone) around the short line. By doing this I don't have to worry about the back corner (which many people struggle with up to a certain point). So this is a drill that allows you to really concentrate on the direction you are hitting the ball and also focusing on the weight of shot. If your short drive clips the sidewall it will likely pop out and not hit the target so this simple drill can be very effective for keeping your swing going straight through during the contact part of the swing. When I do this drill with very new players I have them start up by the front wall and every time they hit a target I get them to move back their target by 1 racquet length.

In the third drill I am doing sidewall drives, but aiming to hit the short line with each of my drives. This another good way to work on technique and the angle of your shots without worrying about the back corners. This can be modified to hit into the widths of the services boxes too. It also doesn't allow the use of the sidewalls to subtlety straighten up your drives.

At the end of the video I demonstrate a couple of ways to practice hitting the ball to focus on your posture. Our alignment as we hit the shot will play a large factor in the accuracy of our shot. If we line up parallel to the sidewall as we hit and can maintain this posture throughout our swing we have the beast chance of hitting the ball straight. Many players crowd the ball and open their hips and shoulders when they swing, like a baseball player who pulls the ball when they want to hit for power. When you do this you tend to pull the ball out towards the middle of the court and this is a big reason many amateurs play more crosscourt shots than straight ones. If you practice hitting a shot balancing on 1 leg or on your knees you won't be able to spin with your swing making them ideal teaching tools for understanding and improving ones hitting posture.

There are a pile of drills and condition games which can also allow you to learn how to play straighter, and even begin to win by playing straight shots. The most common drills would have to be boast, drive or rotating drives. A lot of players do these drills regularly which bring the focus to hitting the ball tight on a more consistent basis. As for condition games I'd have to say the my favourite 2 are: alley games, where every shot of each rally has to be played on the same half of the court for both players. When I was in university I had a lot of difficulty playing straight and deep on the forehand side and this exercise really helped me. The second condition game is where 1 player has to hit only straight and the other player can hit anything. Sometimes when I do this in training the player who has to only hit straight can only hit to length and they 2 players don't switch until the player with the condition has won a rally. If you do this against a strong opponent this can take upwards of 1-2 minutes so it's also an excellent way to improve your physical conditioning.

Often times at the beginning of my matches I start off just playing straight drives knowing that if I can get a lead and create pressure with just this 1 shot everything else is going to fall into place once I decide to open up the court. It's also something I resort back to when I'm in a tough patch in the match and I need to get back on track. Even though I am an attacking style player, I still play best when I am hitting the ball tight and applying a lot of pressure with my straight drives, drops and kill shots.

Here are some links to where else you can find Serious Squash:
SeriousSquashShop.com
Youtube.com/SeriousSquash
Patreon.com/SeriousSquash
Facebook.com/SeriousSquash
IG @SeriousSquash