Category: Juniors

In conversation with BP – Juniors’ post-match analysis

12th June 2020

Following the Digital Premiere of A Bronx Tale, check out this free video where BP shares his process for analysing a match with the juniors right after a competition.

The questions BP asks to get the juniors to analyse their own games eventually make them more independent and aware of what they need to do.

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The making of A Bronx Tale

1st June 2020
bronx

A Bronx Tale is a film we didn’t plan to make. Like all good things, it just ended up happening: the timings lined up, an opportunity presented itself and a great story about people and squash emerged. All we had to do was tell it.

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Coaching juniors in competition with Bryan Patterson – Communication

24th January 2020
communication

Coaching children at events can be a challenging process at times. Both coaches and players experience a full range of emotions depending on performance and results.

Bryan Patterson is one of the most experienced coaches within the sport today.

Check out this video where Bryan Patterson offers up some fantastic advice for coaches and parents about speaking to players after a match.

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My SquashSkills experience – Manuel Martin

20th October 2017
squashskills experience

My 8-year-old son is a beginner that loves squash. We started playing regularly a year ago. I played many years ago but I have no coaching experience whatsoever. We watched a lot of videos on YouTube but for the most part the content and production quality varies a lot and it is very time-consuming to find help in specific areas of the game (i.e. specific shots, drills or speed/conditioning).

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Working with junior athletes – Managing expectations

16th October 2017
junior

We’ve looked at some of the aspects relating to the development of junior players here on SquashSkills previously with our blogs on the growth of young players and more general early-stage development, and it’s a topic that we frequently receive questions on from the many coaches and parents amongst our members.

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How you can get the best out of your team

5th July 2017
team

There is a certain level of complexity involved with team dynamics in any sport as there are many factors such as personalities, cultures, ages and abilities amongst the set of players. In squash, the team aspect is rather unique. Usually, your team consists of 5,7 or 9 players and you set your lineup after try-outs, challenge matches or rankings.

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Danny Massaro – An interview with David Pearson – Part 1

18th September 2016
The winning parent

David Pearson has been a coach for 35 years. He is a father of four, 2 daughters, 2 sons. David was the longest-serving Head National Coach across all sports in the United Kingdom from 1995 until 2010.

David has coached 4 World Champion Squash players; 2 women, 2 men– coincidence!? Widely acknowledged as one of the best Squash Coaches in the world, ‘DP’ as he is fondly known, continues to coach all players across the playing standard spectrum and from all corners of the globe.

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Getting the best out of juniors

9th July 2014
juniors

Juniors crave instant gratification for success.

In reality, we know it’s not always that easy. Unfortunately, for all athletes who work hard to achieve their goals, there are obstacles that must be overcome.

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Take it slow…

28th August 2013

This week’s blog is prompted by a session I ran recently, introducing a couple of good standard u17 junior players to a new speed/agility drill they hadn’t done before. It was quite a technical drill, where we were really looking to emphasise focus on the split step, elasticity, and efficiency of movement.

What really struck me, was how difficult it was for the players to actually go through it slowly. Every repetition was being done at high pace; even after they’d been told to slow it right down to get a proper feel of the movement before increasing the pace up to the full working sets.

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Coaching: Developing young athletes

young

We’re fortunate to have a tremendously diverse membership here on SquashSkills, and included in that are a large number of coaches from all across the globe. We’re often asked to feature more content specific to coaches looking for help with their skills development programmes and in particular, those that do a lot of work with junior squash players – from fun and ‘mini squash’ level, right up to regional/national level and above. It’s always great to hear of the obvious time and dedication so many of you out there are putting into the young athletes you work with, and it’s an area we hope to feature more of here on the site moving forwards.

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Early stage specialisation for junior athletes

23rd August 2013
junior

For those that coach juniors, or have children of their own that are keen squash players, the question often comes up of ‘How soon should my child specialise in just the one sport’? It’s a difficult one to answer with lots of factors to consider, and it can often be tough to give a categorical response.

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