Squash is an intense sport and to reduce injury risks and ensure peak performance levels, it is important that muscles are prepared prior to training sessions and matches. Doing this will lower injury risks while simultaneously improving performance levels.
An effective pregame preparation routine begins with aerobic exercises such as jogging around the court or skipping rope to increase heart rate and warm muscles for around 10 minutes, before moving onto dynamic stretching.
Aerobic Exercises
Squash is an intense, fast-paced game requiring regular lunging and sprinting from players. To stay injury free and avoid potential strain, players should warm up by engaging in low intensity exercises such as jogging around the court or skipping. This will increase heart rate and blood circulation while prepping muscles for dynamic or static stretching sessions.
At a squash match, victory often depends on who can outlast their opponent physically. Therefore, it is imperative that players build up their physical endurance through various exercises and drills such as court sprint workouts and ghosting drills (see below).
Are You Looking to Advance Your Squash Game? To reach the next level in squash, players need a combination of aerobic and anaerobic endurance. In addition, it is highly advised that they work on developing power, speed and overall fitness to boost their game – this can be accomplished through regular running or gym sessions featuring sprinting, rowing machines, stair climbing or circuit training workouts.
As players seek to develop their physical endurance, overstretching themselves may result in overuse injuries to wrist and elbow joints. Therefore it is advisable that they warm up with exercises like wrist curls as a preventive measure against tennis elbow (caused by repetitive overuse of wrist and elbow joints when swinging a racket).
Start the drill by sitting in a chair with resistance band looped around one leg, holding both handles with palms facing up in an underhand grip with palms up, curling it to shoulder height before slowly lowering again – repeat this movement 10 times and rest for 2-3 minutes afterwards. This simple yet effective drill improves wrist and elbow flexion/extension movements which are essential when playing squash racket.
Exercise that builds core muscles into their routine. This will strengthen their core, increase balance and coordination and ultimately help improve performance on the field. Planks, wall sits and v-sits are among the many exercises available for this purpose.
Dynamic Stretching
Squash’s explosive movements place immense stress on muscles and joints, especially those located around the knees, hips, and groin. If left unaddressed, this strain may lead to muscle imbalances, injuries, and reduced exercise tolerance; hence it is imperative that players perform a warm-up routine before on court practices, training sessions, or matches start; this should involve both static and dynamic stretching exercises for maximum muscle preparation – dynamic stretches involve fluid motion that are more effective at increasing flexibility than static ones which involve holding until an uncomfortable stretch is felt (usually between 15-60 seconds).
Static stretches can help lengthen muscles, but overdoing them may result in decreased flexibility. Dynamic stretches should be repeated at least three times prior to moving onto other exercises for optimal results and to prepare your body for activity. Doing this will increase blood flow to muscles which in turn helps prevent injuries while simultaneously increasing performance and performance levels.
Warm-up exercises should consist of dynamic stretches and agility exercises designed to simulate the movements used during play. Ghosting or practicing quick changes of direction is a good way to prepare the body for fast tempo and lateral movements of squash. Stretches and drills designed specifically to strengthen shoulder complexes may also prove helpful as many injuries in this sport happen due to mishandled throws.
Shuffle drills should also be part of your warm-up for squash to prepare your legs for quick changes in direction and increase power and agility required for high level play. A combination of front-court to back court shuffles and side to side shuffles will give players endurance needed to maintain speed throughout a match.
As with all sports, when an injury does arise, it is crucial to stop playing immediately and seek medical treatment as soon as possible. This will prevent small injuries from becoming serious ones and allow athletes to return more rapidly after recovering from them. Injuries should be treated using RICE protocol which includes rest (stopping playing), ice application, compression and elevation of injured limb above heart level.
Static Stretching
No one involved with physically demanding sports will fail to acknowledge the necessity of warming up properly before every match, practice session, or training session – warming up properly will reduce injuries while helping players get more from their session/match.
This will involve both dynamic movements and static stretching to warm up all of the major muscle groups used for squash, such as quads, hamstrings, calves and glutes. Exercise should reach a point of mild discomfort before being held for 20-30 seconds before continuing.
One such exercise is the Lunge toe Touch exercise, in which both feet are reasonably apart before slowly reaching towards your toes, reaching as far as comfortable. This helps warm up lateral movement required in squash as well as working out essential muscle groups before engaging in game play.
Static stretching has long been used as part of pre-exercise preparation. Unfortunately, recent research has demonstrated that such static stretches have no tangible benefit to either performance or injury prevention, in fact leading to reduced flexibility and increasing injury risks over time.
Current advice suggests focusing on dynamic flexibility and functional range of motion drills specific to each sport or exercise. For squash, multi-planar actions like lunges, knee lifts and controlled leg swings/thrusts more accurately mimicking what occurs during play than simply holding static positions would do.
Dynamic movements and flexibility drills offer much safer and more effective forms of warming up than simply “bouncing” around a court in futile attempts to stretch muscle through its normal range of motion – known as ballistic stretching – which could introduce excess stress on joints/connective tissues/muscles, as well as trigger similar reflexes to PNF stretching that counter its purpose!
Endurance
Squash requires physical endurance in order to play successfully, with each match often coming down to who can outlast their opponent physically – this makes endurance training crucially important and can take the form of anything from running and rowing to swimming and climbing huge sets of stairs.
Squash requires both physical and mental endurance in order to play successfully; though much emphasis has been put on mental toughness as part of its game play. Squash can be an intense sport; therefore it is crucial that players remain calm throughout a match in order to make quick and accurate decisions quickly and accurately.
Engaging in endurance exercises like squats, dead lifts and push ups will strengthen key muscles used for squash play, helping prevent injuries while improving performance.
Squats are an effective warm-up exercise as they stretch out quads and glute muscles that may become tight during squash. This allows for better movement across the court as you attempt to reach those out-of-reach balls.
Shadowing movements with a ball is another essential part of warm up, helping players master tracking the ball as it travels across the court and can be done either alone or with friends or coaches. Lunge toe touches are another useful drill for working on lateral movement and tracking speedily with the ball.
As a coach, it can be exasperating to witness young kids arrive to play squash without warming up properly first. Without proper warmup they risk developing limited swings that will increase their likelihood of injuries as they age – something I blame cell phones, video games and sedentary lifestyles for contributing. I think lunging squatting and touching toes has become harder due to cell phones video games and lifestyle factors preventing children from learning these movements properly.
General guidelines suggest spending 10 minutes warming up before beginning any dynamic or static stretching exercises, either dynamic or static stretching, such as dynamic yoga or static stretching exercises. Stretching should also take place after games or tournament matches have concluded as well as between matches to prevent injury.
