Category: Performance

It’s a familiar feeling, and pretty much every squash player has been there at some point or another – turning up at the club for a scheduled match or training session with a brain tired and fatigued from a long day at work, legs feeling like they’re made out of lead, and a general desire to be anywhere else in the world rather than about to step on court for a game of squash!

Squash movement is unlike any other sporting movement and it’s important that you devote time to practising these unique footwork patterns prior to your matchplay.

As 2019 winds down and thoughts turn to Christmas and New Year celebrations for most, it’s a good opportunity to take a step back and turn a critical eye to your squash performance over the past year. In this two-part article we’re going to take a look at how you can go through and evaluate all the key areas of your game, and then consider how you can start building a plan to tackle your weaknesses head-on in 2020!

As 2019 winds down and thoughts turn to Christmas and New Year celebrations for most, it’s a good opportunity to take a step back and turn a critical eye to your squash performance over the past year. In this two-part article we’re going to take a look at how you can go through and evaluate all the key areas of your game, and then consider how you can start building a plan to tackle your weaknesses head-on in 2020!

New year, new you! This is the time of year when mood is good and motivation high, with many players setting themselves commitments and targets for the coming 12 months.

While elite-level squash sees players carry a variety of frames and sizes, according to the PSA’s bio info most male professional players are typically around 5’11/6’0 tall, and between around 70kg and 80kg (and shorter and lighter for females). At an amateur level however, there tends to be a far greater breadth of shapes and body types.

So if you identify as a larger player, or if you’re currently carrying excess weight beyond your usual norms, what should you be aware of as regards adjustments to your training?

There are many things you can do to improve your squash, from training hard in the gym to getting on court with a good coach, to playing matches against players of a range of different styles and standards (plus logging in regularly to SquashSkills of course!).

We’re privileged to have top English coach David ‘DP’ Pearson back with us talking about playing different styles on SquashSkills this week, one of the very best in the business.

We have a brand new edition of our popular ’11 Points on Fitness’ Q&A, this time featuring English international and world number 24, Tom Richards.

Tom had a very good start to the 2019/20 season in the China Open, overcoming Egyptian world junior champion Mostafa Asal with an excellent 3/0 victory, before falling to a very narrow 3/2 loss against world no. 1 Ali Farag in the quarter-finals.

We’re thrilled to welcome back Dutch star LJ Anjema to SquashSkills this week, taking a look at the topic of ‘attacking patterns of play’.

SquashSkills favourite Jesse Engelbrecht is back in the spotlight for our featured content this week, with an exciting new series looking at ‘angles of attack’.

We’ve got an extra special feature on the site this week, with Peter Nicol taking an in-depth look at the magic and artistry of one of the all-time great players – the sensational Egyptian shotmaker, Ramy Ashour.

Whatever level you play at, your training time is valuable. Whether you’re a purely recreational player juggling a busy work and family calendar trying to fit in a few extra sessions a week to improve, or you’re an elite level professional looking to cover the entire spectrum of solo practice, drill sessions, matchplay, and physical training, time is rarely something that we have in abundance.
To help you maximise your precious training time and get the very most out of your available session slots, check out our SquashSkills top 5 tips.

We have a brand new edition of our popular ’11 Points on Fitness’ Q&A, this time featuring Egyptian star Mazen Hesham.

Mazen has been on a long road back from injury after first bursting onto the scene several years ago, but a big win over Diego Elias at this week’s British Open is a sign that he’s almost back to his best.

We asked Malcolm Willstrop what the single most important attribute was in order to become a successful squash player. His answer… Accuracy.    

We’ve had some fascinating new content on the site from world number 7 Paul ‘Superman’ Coll, looking at how he prepares himself for an important match and some of the things he does as part of his daily routine to build up to it. The aim of this article is to give you some practical tools you can take away from Paul’s advice, and help make your preparation as conducive to optimal performance as possible.

The entire purpose of practice is to get better and there are different ways to achieve that, depending on how much better you want to get. Not everybody wants to be a professional and take their sport incredibly seriously and their practice will be a reflection of that. Some will have a desire to improve and be willing to push themselves in order to achieve the improvement that they seek. A very small percentage of people will want to be professionals, so their practice needs to prepare them for the demands of professional squash.