By Shona Kerr
Head Squash Coach, Wesleyan University

This article is aimed to give the novice through to the accomplished player the tools to plan out their squash season effectively with regard to on court training.  Addressed here are guidelines to improving and peaking technically and tactically. Whilst acknowledging that the physical and mental components are also essential these are not going to be addressed.

You are on court practicing a drill. WHY? What part of your game are you improving?

When you walk on court to practice do you really know why you are performing the drills you usually put yourself through and indeed what benefit they might be to your actual performance in a match?

We are all very familiar with certain drills such as the boast-drive drill and have our favorite condition games such as a length game. But how often do we really question the hows, when’s and whys of these activities in relation to our ultimate goal which is to play better squash?

Step 1
Decide what you hope to have a achieved a year from now. Goals might include winning the 3.0 skill division of the US nationals or playing at a hight position on your team for example.

Step 2
Decide on which tournaments throughout the year you wish to play to achieve this or give yourself time frames in which you are going to challenge your team-mates for a higher position on your team.

The best way to do this is to sit down with a full year calendar and slot in the important tournament dates, team matches, and/or challenge matches.

Step 3
You now have to analyze exactly what elements of your game both technically and tactically you need to improve and/or change in order for you to achieve these goals.

This can be done in a number of ways. The first and most obvious is self -assessment . This is great and it is indeed good to be constantly self assessing your game. It is unfortunately probably the least reliable method as we can’t see ourselves play.

Even better is video analysis . Try to video a couple of your own matches so that you can see any weaknesses for yourself. Even better again is to get second and third opinions . An experienced coach has seen a gamut of squash styles and will be able to give you a break down of your technique and key weak areas of your game to work on. If you are unable to get a coach to do this then try and find a friend who knows the game to be your second pair of eyes.

When looking at your game technically an easy way to be quite thorough is to draw yourself a chart with the shot that you are looking at in one column, an assessment of that shot in the next column and how you intend to improve that shot in the following column. See below for an example:

The analysis can be as simple or as detailed as you would like to make it. You can even start splitting up the shots into categories e.g. hard cut drop shot and soft touch drop shot depending on your standard and expectations. Movement patterns can also be split up in the same fashion and key pointers allocated to improvement.

Now you have your season planned and goals set how do you set about achieving them through your training?  There should be two phases to your on court drilling, the “Training Phase” and the “Competitive Phase”.

These two phases will be covered in Planning Your Squash Season - Part Two

Shona Kerr is the head coach of both men's and women's squash and holds the rank of adjunct assistant professor of physical education at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Shona previously coached a t Wellesley College, University of Wales Institutes Cardiff (UWIC) and at Cardiff University Squash Club.

As a player, Shona was a four-year member of the Welsh Universities team from 1996-99. More recently, she was a member of the UWIC team which won the Women's Welsh Premiere League. She also represented Wales at the 2000 European Club Championships, held in Amsterdam. In the United States, Shona was a national squash age-group champion for under-35 and at the 5.0 skill level in both 2004 and 2005 and also played for the Boston Ladies "A" Team which won the Howe Cup.

In addition to her playing and coaching experience, Shona holds Level III advanced coaching certification from the England Squash Association. In the summer 2003, Shona traveled to Cairo, Egypt as a presenter at the World Squash Federation Development and Coaching Conference. She also has been active in several camps as a coach including SquashBusters summer camp for which she served as director. Shona began a two-year term as vice-president of the College Squash Association in 2005, of which she has been a member since 2001. In Ocotober, 2006, Shona acted as local coordinator for the College Squash Association's Coaches Conference held at Wesleyan. Shona also organizes activities around Wesleyan's Rosenbaum Squash Center to foster greater interest in the sport in the area.  Shona earned a bachelors degree in music from Cardiff University in 1998 and recently achieved her Masters from Wesleyan University. 

For more information, contact Shona via e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it    or visit  http://www.wesleyan.edu/

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