ISM March 2017

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WHAT SQUASH CAN LEARN FROM THE WORLD OF FORMULA 1 WHATSQUASHCANLEARN FROMFORMULA1 Squash has always been a popular recreational and professional sport both in the UK and across the globe. The sport has been increasingly receptive to adopting and embracing new technology to improve player and audience experience. Video replay is one example and an important tool for match officials during matches. The difficulty that the video referee system presents is that it is focused on what just happened, rather than what is going to happen. By Samir Abid, MBA, CEng Data on player movement, stroke-play and any type of bounce and spin of the ball are all useful insights and can contribute significantly to player performance. Data can provide useful insights but how much value is this knowledge contributing to player performance?” Squash matches can last anything from 30 minutes to over two hours, meaning a player has to be prepared to be playing for both a short and long time. As a result, there is a significant opportunity to optimise performance before and during the game in addition to post match analysis. 10 | March 2017 INTERNATIONALSQUASHMAGAZINE www.isportgroup.com/InternationalSquashMagazine
WHAT SQUASH CAN LEARN FROM THE WORLD OF FORMULA 1 The Formula One Opportunity The engineering pedigree of high performance motorsport has meant the sport has traditionally taken a different approach to that of others. The thing Formula One teams are really good at is putting information in context. You see, or rather hear it, when racing coverage tunes into team radios and you hear engineers informing drivers that their speed was faster than the previous lap, or that they will catch the driver in front of them by taking a particular action. What squash can learn from Formula One is not how to deliver advice and support, but how and when coaches can deliver this during a match. Efficiency and processes is what engineers and by association Formula One is really good at. Implementing technology in the right places means people can do their jobs better, making well informed, intelligent data driven decisions. Where I see the real opportunity in squash is in this behind the scenes area. Using experience from Formula One coaches can deliver advice and support with much more confidence and objectivity. For example, the biggest challenge for competition players is how to adapt to each individual opponent. Facing a six-foot powerful player is always going to require a different gameplan to tackling a smaller, faster and more mobile opponent. At present, a lot of actions are taken into consideration, but I’d question how many adjustments to equipment and strategy are made during a game and match. For example, if rules allow, could changing racket tension throughout a game make a difference? Could players see benefits from a dynamic string tension manager with optimised settings? In general, thinner strings are more powerful but thicker strings are more durable - so a combination of both may be better for some player’s performance but not for others. In Formula One, drivers adjust their brake bias, the amount of braking force applied between front and rear brakes, constantly throughout a lap. This enables them to maximise the entry phase for each corner, for any given condition such as changes in tarmac, wind direction, gradient etc. Taking a more objective, engineered approach to coaching should involve questioning everything. To replicate the success of players such as Ramy Ashour, squash would be advised to adopt principles from Formula One INTERNATIONALSQUASHMAGAZINE March 2017 | 11 www.isportgroup.com/InternationalSquashMagazine
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ISM March 2017

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