After all the events of the past few months, It’s great to finally see squash courts begin to open up in certain parts of the world. It does look likely however, that there will be some restrictions placed upon their use in the short-term, although these may differ from place to place – this may mean that for many though, they’ll only be allowed on-court to train alone for now.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing however, as it presents a chance to really get stuck into your solo practice drills – and with this in mind, we’re delighted to have Joey Barrington back with us this month, presenting his comprehensive guide to solo training.
Joey should need no introduction to fans of the sport, with his being the ‘voice of squash’ to many thanks to his ever-entertaining yet deeply knowledgeable commentary, in his role as lead presenter on PSA Squash TV. He also had a very successful professional playing career of his own, that saw him represent his country on a number of occasions and follow in the footsteps of his legendary father Jonah – one of the greatest players to ever pick up a racket.
What a lot of people don’t know about Joey however, is that for a big part of his career he trained much of the time on his own. Whereas most professional players tend to work together in group settings, Joey’s approach was much more of a solo one – making him one of the very best people to listen to, when it comes to the themes and subtleties of training by one’s self.
In this excellent new playlist then, Joey covers a huge range of topics related to solo training, looking at all of the relevant shots from drives, to serves, to drops. There is also discussion of the various levels of structure you can include in your solo sessions, as well as more general input on how to set up practices to emphasise improvement to your ball skill and racket control.
Solo practice is about a lot more than just going on court and hitting the ball back to yourself for half an hour, and used correctly it can lead to huge tangible gains in your squash performance. It’s perhaps one of the most significant areas where time allocation between amateur and professional players splits – while solo hitting is practised by relatively few amateur players, you’d be hard pushed to find any high-level pro who doesn’t include it as a big part of their training schedule.
The aim of this blog is to give you some ideas of some of the many drills and routines that you can use on-court on your own, to start exploring the advantages that solo work can give you in respect to your overall game. Whenever it is that your local courts start to open and you’re able to get back on court to practice, the time put in with your solo work now will help you immensely when things eventually return to normal play.
Take time to watch through all of the videos from the playlist, and then click through the link to the session below to check it out, ready to get back on court and really start getting to grips with some effective solo practice.
Put it into practice
A full summary for effective and impactful solo practice (67 minutes)
This session is designed to bring together the information presented in the latest two playlists from Joey Barrington and Peter Creed.
Related content
In this brand new Origins series, Joey delves into the history of solo practice with the man who some say was the pioneer of the training technique – Jonah Barrington. Sit down and enjoy part two of the Origins series!
Origins – Ghosting with Jonah Barrington
We’re delighted to showcase the ‘Origins’ series featuring both Jonah and Joey where Jonah takes us through the history of ghosting.
Origins – Ghosting in practice with Joey Barrington
In this playlist, Joey explains the more technical practice side of ghosting including the different types and why to do them.
Origins – Ghosting in practice – Structuring a session
Joey shows how to structure common ghosting sessions with the help of Peter Creed demonstrating.
Let us know how you get on with the sessions, we’d love to hear your feedback!
Haven't seen the full series yet?
Make sure to check out the full series where Joey takes us through various sessions for when we get back on court. These solo practices will help sharpen your skills for your first full game.
Watch now