International Squash Magazine – April 2020

More documents

Recommendations

Info

COACHING & INSTRUCTION:DEVELOPING JUNIORSDEVELOPINGJUNIORSBy David CampionEngland Squash National Coach& Dunlop AmbassadorCoaching is an art form and you could argue that it is even morechallenging in an open skill sport such as squash, where playingrequires not only physical motor skills but cognitive skills such asproblem-solving and decision-making.England National Coach David Campionexplains why the tactical elementsand development of a player is everybit as important as their technicaldevelopment.The research will tell you that youdon’t really need to specialise earlyto be Word Class, perhaps that isthe case in closed-skill sports suchas rowing or cycling, but in a highlyskilled racket sport such as squash, it`snot impossible, just less likely. In anycase, those that did start later and do`make it`, I suspect were learning theirphysical motor and cognitive skills inother sports from an early age.So, where does it all start?The great players of today all came fromsomewhere and for the most part itstarts in their local club, simply becauseone of their parents played or a schoolfriend introduced them to the game.Developing successful juniors starts inthe clubs and counties where your coachor volunteers can provide the type ofenvironment that offers 3 simple things:FrequencyA lot of clubs focus solely on theirSaturday morning junior club and don’tprovide much of a structure for weekdayafter school sessions. Yes, they mayhave great numbers on a Saturdaymorning where the kids get to playfor one hour, but who gets any betteron one hour per week? Add weekdaysessions for those that want to progressfrom the Saturday morning session.FunAll future champions initially go througha ‘romance’ phase early in their careers,meaning that they seem to fall inlove with their sport and thereforebecome very passionate about theirperformance. The first coach is criticalto the climate to hook the player intothe sport.EnvironmentCreate an environment that is fun, hasstructure, has frequency of sessionswith high numbers of players and stillmanages to be affordable for parentsregardless of their situation.To get frequency it needs to beaffordable. For the cost of one individuallesson of an hour per week you couldperhaps have four group sessions thatgives you four or five hours of hittingwhilst learning decision making i.e. shotselection, height, pace, direction alongwith the physical motor skills. You arefiring up your neural pathways at afar faster rate simply because you areplaying more! Add in a coach who knowshow to set up the practises and gamesthat will enhance this and the rate ofdevelopment is even faster. A lot likedialup vs. fibre broadband.I`m not dismissing the case forindividual coaching, it plays a vitalrole of course, but in the early yearsif you want to develop young players,they need to hit lots of balls whilstdeveloping their cognitive skills. Noneed to isolate too much at this stage.Build their skills within the practises.Just make sure their grip is `within arange` that allows them to execute thevariety of shots that the practices andconditions demand. Once the grip is inplace the rest should follow, overlookthat and it will be detrimental to theirdevelopment.The current top 10 men and women insquash all have very good technique, allvery different as well, so who is to saywhat correct technique is? One thingthey do better than everyone else, isthey play the right shot at the righttime; they are matching their cognitiveskills with their physical motor skills(technique). Quite simply its `gameintelligence`.How can we learn ‘Gameintelligence’?There is no absolute fact about anythingas all top sportspeople achieve greatthings in their own personal way,however if you can mimic the range ofvariations that you will experience in amatch, you shouldn’t go too far wrong.You can simply set up a practise orcondition game which forces a playerto land the ball in a particular area ofthe court i.e. within the confines ofthe width of the service box, or abovethe cut line to force them to hit highfor example. This will force technicaladaptations that the learner must solvewithout you telling them what to do.This self-guided discovery provides themwith intrinsic feedback, meaning theycan repeat it if they did it well - theyknow how it felt. If you give them a fewoptions within the game or the practiseand they are up against an opponent,as opposed to you feeding, you arebringing in decision making based ontheir opponents position or type of shotthey have just hit. It brings in a wholenew dimension without isolating just thetechnical execution of the shot.Make sure you build the foundationsfirst with simple practices that will20 | April 2020 IINTERNATIONALSQUASHMAGAZINEwww.isportgroup.com/InternationalSquashMagazine
COACHING & INSTRUCTION:DEVELOPING JUNIORSdevelop their ball control and footwork/positioning, so that when you starton the condition games, they havethe control to play them. Set them upin channels where they learn to playstraight, 5 players per court is easilymanageable with limitations on courts.As the coach you simply set up thesecondition games and guide themthrough, allowing them to fail and probethem to work it out, giving guidance andpraise so they know when they havedone something well.Games are fun so you will get theirengagement, they are hitting plenty ofballs and will get better which providesa sensation of `I want to come back anddo this again`. The added bonus is aninteractive social environment as theymix in with other children of varyingages and abilities.Finally, all children like to get betterat something, if they are improving,they will be inspired by that and theywill keep coming back. Lots of childrenplaying the game often is what we allwant isn’t it?David Campion is a Dunlop brandambassador and sponsored coachINTERNATIONALSQUASHMAGAZINE April 2020 | 21www.isportgroup.com/InternationalSquashMagazine
Page 1: INTERNATIONALAPRIL | 2020ISSN 2042-
Page 4 and 5: PSAWORLDTOUR.COM/TVEUROSPORTPLAYER.
Page 6 and 7: CANARY WHARF CLASSICMOHAMEDELSHORBA
Page 8 and 9: WINDY CITY OPENALIFARAG&NOURELSHERB
Page 10 and 11: INVEST INTHE LIFEYOU WANTTO LIVEAt
Page 12 and 13: AJ BELL BRITISH NATIONALCHAMPIONSHI
Page 14 and 15: UNSQUASHABLEJAMES WILLSTROPVENUE: T
Page 16 and 17: THE BIG PICTURE:LAURA MASSARO AWARD
Page 18 and 19: MORE THAN BUILDING FOUR WALLSEXPERI
Page 23 and 24: TAREK MOMEN WINSTROILUS CANADA CUPT
Page 25: ASB SQUASH COURTS:UNIVERSITY OF PEN
Page 29 and 30: MEN’S PSA WORLD RANKINGS1 MOHAMED
Page 32: ALI FARAGPLAYS THE HYPERFIBRE XT RE

International Squash Magazine – April 2020

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?