hi lukas
it is great to see you so keen.

for you, i believe you should be sticking to a few principles, especially as you are near the beginning of the learning process:

1. skill/tactics
   
2. fitness
   
3. recovery

before i expand please permit me to relate a short story...

I first played top grade Squash 28 years ago. I was incredibly fit as a result of a training regime by well known australian coach, Aub Amos(who recently passed away).I am now 28 years older, slower, heavier etc etc and no where near as fit (say 20%?) I am now playing at the same level.

the reason? - greater skill and better tactics...

spend as much time as you can developing your skills, whilst you train. you will get greater value from improving your skills at this stage. there are plently of drills which you can do which will enhance endurance but still improve skills.

try to play as wide a variety of opponents as you can - if you are not playing some sort of competition at present, endeavour to do so. this will help you develop your tactics more than anything. everyone has their on playing style and playing against different people helps develop your tactical sense.

a run or a swim each week is fine, but you MUST leave time for your body to recover. each time you have a hard training session you suffer quite a deal of micro damage to muscles, blood vessels etc. a day of recovery assists in repairing that damage so that you get the benefit of the training effect.

look at the following links and read them carefully. the may small points we make in the text is extremely important.

Skill library
Drills library
Tactics library
Physical conditioning(improved content available soon)
Planning article
Speed training
The value of gym

there is heaps of other stuff in our articles and library - really attempt to apply that info, but concentrate on the skill aspects. spend the 30 minutes on a solo drill (before, not after) - you will end up running a lot less which will mean that you will not be as tired in the 5th game!! you can add greater training specificity as you improve your skills

also there will be heaps of new content being posted in the coming months so keep visiting.

i hope this helps and best of luck

let us know how you go!

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Hi everybody,

Through running before practising on court I wanted to raise my endurance because in the fifth game I feel my legs glued to the floor. Running does everything it strenghtens muscles, gives you more power and endurance of your legs. If you run after playing squash your body is prepared for more work after match/practice and you can play another match or more games.

I try to practise two times by myself and play a match as often I can, or have a partner.

I am 25 years old, I am just begining.

I am swimming once a week.

I do not have any injuries.

Thank you for your advice.

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hi lukas

thanks for your post. slavic has made many good points. however i think we could provide far more specific advice if you answer a few questions.

1. What are you trying to achieve with your training?
   
2. how often do you train/play?
   
3. What other training do you do?
   
4. what is your approximate age/skill/fitness level?
   
5. do you have injuries which have to be taken into account?

we have quite a few resources on the site which should prove helpful - we can point you in the right direction once we have this info. also, we will have an expanded fitness section with our upgrade which is only a couple of weeks away.

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Hiya,
First of all, please find the Library in the top bar and sneak into The Basics of Physical Conditioning "To get the most out of Squash training, it is important to understand the basics of physical conditioning. In this way, weaknesses and strengths can be indentified and specific training programs developed."

That's a nice start.

Then
• advice from me would be to swim once-twice per week as many lenghts of the pool you can get in 60 minutes. It is a good training for your strains and joints as well as you do practice breath control which you find usefull on court. To not mention fitness improvement.

• Jogging, there's a lot of different opinions, though one assumptions can be made: simple jogging does not improve your squash game. It is simply totally different fitness type than you need in suash court. So, what may be helpful here – interval speed running on the jogging pad (try to angle the pad to simulate uphill running), or if it is possible, find some hills and run uphill and jogg downhill. This would work great for your legs endurance and power.

• Speed ghosting on court may work much better on your speed and reflex on court more than one hour of jogging.

• Cycling/ biking is a bit better than jogging because you save your knees and ankles joints from unacceptable overuse :)


As I see from your post, you use jogging/ cycling as your warm-up routine. Well, good for start but really not adventageus for your game. Do you stretch before opening the court doors? If not ... you better do it as your body is warmed up but your joints are not prepared for rapid stretches, changes of direction and your body wight being put on them.

So, if you want to become better on court, prepare your trainings routine a bit more seriously than 30 minutes on the jogging/spinning pad and than solo practice.

Doing it after squash ... well, for me makes no sense at all. What your body needs after hard squash practice is warm-down and stretching and a lot of water.

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Hiya,
First of all, please find the Library in the top bar and sneak into The Basics of Physical Conditioning "To get the most out of Squash training, it is important to understand the basics of physical conditioning. In this way, weaknesses and strengths can be indentified and specific training programs developed."

That's a nice start.

Then
• advice from me would be to swim once-twice per week as many lenghts of the pool you can get in 60 minutes. It is a good training for your strains and joints as well as you do practice breath control which you find usefull on court. To not mention fitness improvement.

• Jogging, there's a lot of different opinions, though one assumptions can be made: simple jogging does not improve your squash game. It is simply totally different fitness type than you need in suash court. So, what may be helpful here – interval speed running on the jogging pad (try to angle the pad to simulate uphill running), or if it is possible, find some hills and run uphill and jogg downhill. This would work great for your legs endurance and power.

• Speed ghosting on court may work much better on your speed and reflex on court more than one hour of jogging.

• Cycling/ biking is a bit better than jogging because you save your knees and ankles joints from unacceptable overuse :)


As I see from your post, you use jogging/ cycling as your warm-up routine. Well, good for start but really not adventageus for your game. Do you stretch before opening the court doors? If not ... you better do it as your body is warmed up but your joints are not prepared for rapid stretches, changes of direction and your body wight being put on them.

So, if you want to become better on court, prepare your trainings routine a bit more seriously than 30 minutes on the jogging/spinning pad and than solo practice.

Doing it after squash ... well, for me makes no sense at all. What your body needs after hard squash practice is warm-down and stretching and a lot of water.

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Welcome Lukas - good to see you keen. What you are doing is fine if you are trying to increase strength and fitness. Slavi has made some good points. Personally I would alternate that with short sharp bursts to increase court speed (say, after about six weeks). I would also alternate the training schedule, eg train on the court, then do the jog/cycle/sprint/ghosting and stretch to finish off the session.
To keep the motivation going keep a log of your Resting Pulse, time the jog/cycle/sprints - distance v time factor.
How you schedule your training depends on what you are trying to achieve, eg get aerobic fitness, build up strength, increase court speed, and so on.
It is good to maximise the benefits v the effort and time factor too. Work smart idea!

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