The programming principles for squash came about following a former article I published titled “Contingency Planning for Squash”. This article shared a brief snippet of a contingency program that was given to a client as they did not have access to a training facility. The article in itself was quite a hit, though after review, I felt many would miss the bigger picture. The bigger picture being the principles behind the programming.
As the classic phrase goes “give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime”. In writing this article, I hope to provide principles that coaches, athletes and enthusiasts can use to analyze, critique and create their own programs best suited for their environment.
Disclaimer: the principles outlined are not new, they are well established within sport performance literature/research/texts. The principles may only come across as novel as they are not readily discussed within the squash community and squash coaching courses.
When looking to program for the sport of squash, the first question that should be asked is: “what does the sport of squash demand?”. This is the most important question to ask, as the answer to this question is what separates squash from other sports and allows you the coach/athlete/enthusiast to build the foundation of the program by reverse engineering the sport. The concept of reverse engineering the sporting actions was brought to my attention by James Smith, the author of “The Governing Dynamics of Coaching: A Unified Field Theory on Sport Preparation''. Side note: If you are looking to go into detail on this topic or even get involved in coaching then I would highly recommend you get a copy of the book.
In order to reverse engineer the sport, we must identify its constituents; this is done via a needs analysis.
A needs analysis should identify the following:
The Rules
The rules are important though often overlooked. The reason as to why they are important is quite simple; they dictate the possibilities that can occur in a game.
Changes to the rules have a dramatic effect on how the game is played. One simply has to look at the lowering of the tin in the ladies game to identify this.
Other factors such as negotiating medical time outs play a part in this. Recent history would point us back to whereby a player had to forfeit due to not being able to continue due to a hamstring cramp (let's refer to this player as “Player A”). If “Player A” had understood the rules better and known the appropriate terminology to use, then they would have been able to give a better explanation regarding their hamstring injury to the referee. In doing so, they may have not been penalized and would be given the appropriate injury break to seek medical attention as they stayed within the rules. A reason why language is important and therefore mentioned, is that “Player A” expressed to the referee that the injury was involuntary “tightness due to overload”, which is synonymous with cramp (“an involuntary muscle contraction or over shortening that causes significant pain and a paralysis-like immobility of the affected muscle or a painful involuntary contraction of a muscle or muscles, typically caused by fatigue or strain”). Please note, I only state that it was involuntary as “Player A” was not actively contracting their hamstring deliberately causing pain, thus making it an involuntary contraction. If “Player A” used better terminology to define the injury i.e. expressing that they strained or pulled the muscle in question, then the referee would have no choice but to give them the required medical time out.
Time Motion Considerations
A time motion analysis can be defined as a “systematic observation, analysis, and measurement of the separate steps in the performance of a specific job for the purpose of establishing a standard time for each performance”.
A time motion analysis of squash will detail the specific demands of match play. This will allow coaches to engineer specific dosages of training representative of the demands of match play. This will see that athletes are sufficiently prepared for competition. This will also allow coaches to assess where their athlete is at in their current playing ability and where they need to get to.
An example of the difference in a practical sense would be analyzing the demands of college squash. When analyzing the time motion demands of college squash, a large discrepancy can be seen in the match demands of the position one players to the position ten players. This should mean that the overall preparation should be different as the positions require different qualities and thus specific preparation needs to occur.
Another example is in the discrepancy in rankings. A large discrepancy in rankings result in decreased rally and match times. Shorter rallies result in higher velocities of movement and hitting during matchplay and thus a higher degree of relative intensity (of movement/hitting velocities to maximum) being performed repeatedly during matchplay. Knowing such details would allow the lower ranked player to adjust their tactics and their training outputs to better prepare for the demands, which in turn would allow for greater accuracy and reduced fatigue during the match and thus giving them a greater chance to beat a higher ranked opponent.
Biodynamic Qualities
Biodynamics is the study of movement as it relates to living organisms and falls under the umbrella of biomechanics. Biomechanics is the branch of science that applies classical mechanics to living organisms. Analyzing the dynamics of motion is split into two branches:
Kinetics - Kinetics describe the relationship between the motion and forces that cause motion i.e. Kinetics explains the cause of motion.
Kinematics - Kinematics describes how the velocity and acceleration of a body changes with time and changes with the position of the body with no bearing to the forces acting upon it i.e. Kinematics describe motion occurring (changes in acceleration, velocity or position/joint angles) with no regard as to what's causing the motion.
Understanding and defining the biodynamic qualities that relate to skill execution in squash will allow coaches to develop models of skill execution, optimize their athletes movement quality and program effective movements that transfer to sporting actions by way of dynamic correspondence.
Bioenergetic Qualities
Bioenergetics relates to the branch of science that encompass all the energetic factors that contribute to the execution of movement; specifically in this case the execution of squash movements. To understand the definition of bioenergetics, we can simply deconstruct the word in two: Bio:relates to human/organic life and Energetic’s: the branch of science which deals with energy. There are three bioenergetic systems that are responsible for providing the body with its primary fuel source, Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). The systems are:
Phosphocreatine System (Anaerobic A-Lactic)
Glycolysis (Anaerobic Lactic)
Oxidative Phosphorylation (Aerobic)
The bioenergetic demands of squash is largely determined by the biodynamic nature of the skill/movement being performed and the work to rest ratios. As a result, the bioenergetic system in which the body derives ATP will vary in proportionality from a more dominant singular energy system to a combination of the three. Note: at no time will a singular energy system be responsible for muscular contraction, it is a question of predominance which again will be determined by the specific nature in which the skill/movement is being performed.
As far as this blog is concerned, simply familiarising oneself with the three energy systems and their subsequent development will allow coaches/athletes/enthusiasts to adequately prepare for the demands of the squash.
Upon completing a thorough needs analysis, one can begin to reverse engineer the sport; in doing so, this will allow for a squash program to be built that supports an individual's tactical philosophy and addresses the demands of squash.
Final thoughts: if there is one thing that I would like readers to take away from this article let it be this: the one who builds a training model closest to realities of the sport wins.
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Yours Truly,
Dominic Benacquista - Global Squash Coach