Hello Helloworld... Here's to agree with Rita's "FIND ANOTHER COACH"!

- if you do treat the things seriously and so does your coach, you both should concentate on your plan, perspectives, expectations... And kick off from there.

- tactics? what tactics? Tactic in squahs is to win a game. It is to play the ball where your opponent is not present at the moment. Here you have my lesson. You owe me 30 bucks.

- Jonah Barrington is a good example, but you can rely on Alister Walker example as well. He touched the racket for the first time while studing if I am not mistaken.

Back to top

Talking about Jonah Barrington - he was, and probably still is, a fitness fanatic and probably started the squash fitness grind to the point where he did "situps" till he had blisters on his bum...ouch! Now that is a bit over the top I reckon and a bit of technique help could save you a lot of running in the long term especially when you do get "long in the tooth" say 55 yrs old or so.

Just a word of encouragement, our old squashies have aged well as the fitness has stuck to them over the years.

Back to top

Thanks guys - especially for the improvement tips rippa. Its good to know that there's hope yet!

Judging from what you've all said I think my best plan is to learn what I can about tactics from this coach, and look around for someone else to help me work on my technique!

Back to top

Two Words.......   JONAH BARRINGTON!!

Here's a guy who didn't play his first match until he was 23 years old and went on to be one of the greatest players in the sport's history. Do you think his coaches told him he was too old to learn new techniques? The guy started from nothing!!

I agree with Rita, get another coach!!!

Back to top

Just appraising key elements of the game can help improve too, eg

• get the returns (drives and lobs) to land past the service box
• swing your racket parallel to the side wall to help get the ball straighter and tighter
• be aware of the front wall targets when driving and cross-courting (drives and lobs)
• hit the ball away from the opponent
• develop a well placed lob serve that puts the opponent on the defence.

There is plenty of valuable info in the Library (see the tab above) to help with your Strokes.

Back to top

Short answer - find another coach.  Yeah, not everyone will make a champion, but that does not mean they do not want to improve or cannot get any better at the game.  Maybe if a player has been playing for years and does not practice three timess a week it would be difficult to change the strokes.  However, everyone can learn more about the game and the use of the strokes...just little things make a heap of difference at a lower level of play.

Back to top

I don't believe that for a second. Of course it can take persistence to replace an existing habbit with a new one, but the idea that your technique becomes permanently hardwired at a certain age doesn't make sense.

I often read about (well adult) professionals changing their techniques in various sports. And there's a huge industry built on getting adults to change their golf technique

Back to top