Get Ready to Run
Interval Training Mimics Your Squash Game
By Anthony Ricketts
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At all levels in squash, whether it be beginner, club player or professional, you need to have a high level of fitness. This fitness level occurs through many ways—but for the club player it will predominately come through playing plenty of games of squash and hitting with your club pro. Interestingly enough, squash was recently voted the healthiest sport to play (which I certainly believe should be made known world wide and in all house holds – not only for health reasons, but also for the growth of our sport).
Below are a few different ways in which you can increase your overall fitness in order to last longer in your squash games. The great thing about this is there are many different ways in which you can achieve a better fitness, in case you do not like doing certain exercises for reasons such as ongoing injuries.
Fun with court sprints--excellent
stamina builder: photo by squashpics.com
If your aim is to improve your squash stamina, what you need to concentrate on is decreasing your recovery time, especially after an energy-taxing rally on the court. To cut down your recovery time you ideally want to work on interval-type training, which is working at a sprint for a period, then taking a short rest, and then back into working flat out. As your training period moves on you want to cut down your rest period between sets in order to get your body (especially lungs) recovering quicker.
There are many different ways in which you can do your interval training. A popular way, especially at the Australian Institute of Sport where I have a scholarship, is on the track. This may include 300-meter intervals, in which you sprint for 300 meters, take a rest, and then do another set. The amount of these you do will vary from person to person. I think it is wise for the person doing the exercise to be the judge for how many they should do. The legendary Geoff Hunt would do sets of 20 over a distance of 400 meters.
In terms of the distance covered, I recommend that you start at a longer distance at a comfortable pace. This will enable you to build up your fitness and speed, which will allow you to push yourself harder over a shorter distance and longer session.
Once you have done this for 4-6 weeks, it’s time to transfer this fitness onto the squash court. This is done by the good old-fashioned court sprints, in which you do sets of 20-100 court-length sprints with half the recovery time in which it took to do the sprints. For example, if it took you 30 seconds to do 20 court sprints, then you should have 15 seconds of recovery. And then start again! Try starting with five sets and working your way up to 20.
As with many squash players who battle injuries, it may be impossible to perform this type of pounding training. You can apply the same principles to other mediums. A solution is to do this interval training on the bike or a Versaclimber (if your local gym is lucky enough to have one). This will allow you to stick with the concept of interval training but save your bad back, ankle or whatever injury is holding you back while still improving your aerobic fitness and stamina; you can still sprint for 20 seconds to 10 minutes, and then take half the recovery time following the exertion. For example, try this workout on a stationary bike. To go flat out on the bike, bump up the resistance and keep the RPMs as high as they would be if the resistance were lower. This way you are really getting a good lactic build up in the legs, which is similar to squash fatigue.
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