“Sometimes you might have to rally up and down the wall. I’ve had 200-300 shot rallies where you’re waiting for an opening but because the guys are hitting it so tight, there are just no opportunities. So that’s when the tactical and the mental side comes in – having the fitness to last those rallies, but also having the mental ability to last; not get impatient, not force a shot that’s not on.”

MIND MUSCLE

“I’ve done a lot of work over the years trying to build my mental strength. A lot of this strength, of course, comes from my training. But there’s also a lot of offcourt work you can do to keep you relaxed, because in those long rallies you have to stay relaxed and calm, let your game flow, hit the shots you want to hit.

“I listen to relaxation tapes given to me by a psychologist. I normally listen to them at night or in the morning. I’m always writing affirmation cards – positive little messages which I read at night or in the morning. Stuff like: ‘I am the best player’, ‘I am the fittest player’, ‘I am going to be number one.’ It’s the sort of stuff you don’t tell people because they’ll laugh at you, but it’s all about getting the message into the subconscious. You know, the conscious is black and white, but the subconscious can be fooled into believing things if it’s told over and over, and that’s a big part of squash. Because it’s so fast you

don’t have time to think, so you have to do this work off-court. It’s a mental version of muscle memory.”

GO FAST

“In recent times the game’s become faster. We used to play to 15 points, now it’s 11 (if it gets to ten-all you’ve got to win by two). The other factor is, when we play the big tournaments on the four-wall glass courts, the tin is lowered from 48cm to 43cm. It doesn’t sound much, but being able to hit the ball lower at the front effectively makes the court longer because you have to lunge further forward. So these things have made the game a lot faster, a lot more explosive. In the past, back in the Geoff Hunt [Aussie world number one 1975-80] days, there was a lot of up-and-down-the-wall, up-and-down-the-wall, but that doesn’t happen anymore. We’re playing more aggressively, more of a shootout.

“I do a lot of lunging on the stability ball (half Swiss ball with a solid, flat base), holding my balance, keeping my core tight. For me it’s one of the best things in my program, because squash is not just about speed, being fast at the front of the court, it’s also about control, and if you can’t control your body you’re in strife. I see it when I coach juniors: they’re incredibly fast to the front of the court, but when they get there their body is out of control. So you need a lot of core strength, a lot of leg strength, glut strength, back strength. If those muscle groups aren’t controlled when you hit the ball, then you can’t control the ball. “I have about 15 different exercises I do on the stability ball that incorporate lunging and plyometric work. I’ll do straight one-step lunging, then I’ll do sideways lunging. I’ll do a three-step running lunge where I land on the ball, pause, and then push back. I’ll do static lunges where I hold the position for a minute and try to fight the balance. I do 20 seconds of quick-foot step-on, step-off movements. “Basically, all the movements I do on the ball are replicating what I do on the court – going to the front two corners, going sideways, going halfway back, going all the way to the back corners.

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