Physical Preparation

It is very important to play squash as your only physical exercise. You will encounter physical problems due to the uneven physical nature of playing a racquet sport. To counter this and to ensure peak performance, you must supplement you squash training with a mixed regime of weights, anaerobic and aerobic exercises, plyometrics and core stability work. On match day, other than a 15 minute hit in the morning which is used as a warm up for subsequent stretching, I do nothing physical.

The physical effort needed to play a top quality squash match is brutal. There is no need to make it harder by not relaxing on the match day. I prefer to stretch very gently throughout the whole day, with 10-15 minutes focused stretching prior to play. After a match I take as long as needed to stretch. This is a very important period to reduce lactic acid build up (stiffness) for the following day’s performance. This can vary from 40 minutes to 3 hours.