When it comes to training in Squash it is essential to do exercises that can get you match-ready or ‘in the zone’ and somewhat advanced than unconventional training to perform in the lead-up to a new season.
Needless to say, these training techniques are great and don’t involve you being in the gym, just your squash racquet, ball and even a training partner.
Like any other sport, pre-season training is important as it helps you work on your skills and find ways of improving them, along with working on them before your most important tournament.
You can adapt these as you progress to an advanced level and guaranteed to get you in the mindset of winning.
Practice key techniques to perfection
Whether you are a junior squash player or a young high-calibre elite Squash player, or just perfecting your Squash playing agility, these training techniques could be a decider on how you will do for the rest of the season.
You may be thinking, why is it important to adopt a winning mindset approach to playing the sport? Well, Barbara Cooper, an experienced Level 5 Squash coach, who has been a National Coach to both the British and Canadian National Women’s Squash Teams, sums it up it vital as you progress as a squash player:
“If you only remember this one strategy when you play you will always be playing your opponent and the situation, not the “correct” shot, this will lead you to play effective, winning squash”.
Our brand ambassadors share the methods of training you could do early weeks of the off-season, weeks before the new season, or as a part of daily routine training with your Squash coach or your team-mates in a training session:
Shot Drills
If you have perfected your shots, now to take it to the next level, with one of your teammates or one of your coach’s associates throwing a squash ball in the direction of where the ball goes; this allows you to get into a mindset of playing against an opponent of visualising the direction of shots in a match.
Note, if practising this ensure there is sufficient distance between your colleague and you to prevent accidents.
Forehand & Foot Movement
When it comes to your footwork in Squash, there is great importance to make sure your forehand shot can move in motion with your footwork when a squash ball is coming toward you or playing in a rally.
Touch each corner of the court
As part of training for a match, placing a number of Squash balls at points on the court will help you work on your movement and endurance.
This functional training exercise helps improve your agility on the court and is a great functional training exercise to do in order to improve your movement around a squash court.
From the outsider’s perspective, this may look very odd; but it helps when you improve your movements and help you know each corner of a squash court in terms of where the ball is and what you need to do to prevent it from landing on the floor, thus giving your opponent an edge over you.
Forearm and Backhand
Whether you are high performing recreational player or an elite squash player, you need to have the ability to switch from forehand to backhand or backhand or forehand.
It is important with a backhand serve from the forehand side allows the squash server to quickly move towards the T on the court thereby giving the player extra time to control that area as compared to while serving with the forehand.
So the more you practice alternating between the two, the better you become and give you the confidence to outplay your opponent in a game.
Pre-Game Warm Up
When you have perfected your drills, on the days of a tournament it is important to do a range of training drills alongside some functional training exercises that can improve your agility in order to get you match ready for your first game in a new season:
The most notable exercises to do are agility ladder, lateral jump, one jump back, Squat out / hop in, Single-leg forward hop and Lateral lunge.
Note, every sports athlete has a pre-game warm-up ritual in order to loosen up before playing, – including Squash’s racquets cousins Tennis, Badminton and Padel.
Practice makes perfect
Like any sport, the more you practice any technique the better you become and gain a strong mindset when in a match, hence a better performance on the court.
Many elite squash players have their own ways of enhancing their playing agility; thus, it is always essential to practice your drills in order to perform well on the court.
Most importantly, every squash player wants to win, thus it is essential to take your training to that next level in perfecting your skills and even master one that can you famed for like a finishing move in a final set.
To sum up, even if you play for a local squash team at a competitive level, it is always to play a practice game with your teammates in order to identify any weaknesses and work on them to perfect them.
