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OVERTRAINED, UNDER-RESTED,
OR BAD
PREPARATION ... |
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  For a few weeks now, injuries have been riddling our top players. The
list is endless, Peter Nicol, Jonathon Power, Lee Beachill,
David Palmer, Nick Matthew, Joe Kneipp, Paul
Price ...
In the French section, I asked Paul Sciberras, one of Thierry's
coaches, to talk about the roots of the problem. He made a
very good
analysis, which states that there are three main angles to look at:
Technique (adapt the technique to suit the human body, and not the
reverse), tournament frequency, and preparation (for Thierry for
example, he advised him to do three weeks of training at various pace,
and one week of tournament; and that's what the French man has been
doing for 10 years now).
Paul also insists on the necessity of planning rest and recovery
periods as part of the preparation. And he concludes by stressing the
necessity of repeating again and again in training what the player
needs to include or amend in his competition game.
We would love to have your views on the "injury plague" we are
living at the moment, whether you are a coach or a player.
Here is what Charles de Sainte Marie had to say on the subject.... |
Cardio (and a ticket)
gets you on the bus ...Let’s face it, squash is one of the most demanding
cardio-vascular sports on the planet, so you can’t expect to go very
far if your lungs aren’t the size of beach balls. All the guys on
tour are equipped in this fashion, so ‘running out of steam’ can’t
be the reason for somebody losing a match/tournament.
While in Toronto for the Pace Credit Canadian Classic, I was happy
to land in great weather, smiling faces, and a bustling BCE Place.
This is it, I thought, great squash is about to take place. There
were some epic matches, from the fast-paced Power / Nicol match (Peter
couldn’t get up the oomph(?) to get by Jonathon’s hunger) to the
Paul Price / Karim Darwish duel, a perfect visual of how often the
pendulum can swing in a heated contest.
The thing that struck me on the Wednesday night were the injuries.
Squash at this level is devastating to the body, even for
professional athletes like these guys. Three injuries cut three of
the four matches short… Not to take anything away from his talent,
but Thierry Lincou won this event probably because of the fact that
he is the most solidly built guy in the top ten. Not too tall, not
too short, and very muscular, he managed to survive to the end. When
is the last time Thierry pulled out of an event with an injury? He
continues to place well in most events…
Players like Joe Kneipp or Peter Nicol and countless others are in
tremendous cardio shape and have mind-boggling racket skills, but
their bodies don’t seem able to put up with the physical stress of
squash, week in and week out. If it’s not a flagrant/spontaneous
injury that takes them out of a tournament, it’s the knowledge that
“There’s the Worlds coming up, I can’t risk an injury,” and the key
gets pulled from the ignition.
The game is changing, and the players will have to evolve as well,
as it looks like muscle mass is becoming more and more important.
You can have (actually must have) talent, and beach balls, but if
your body is lacking the muscle mass to give you the stability
needed to avoid twisting / ripping / fatiguing / pulling something, you’re
done!
And being ‘done’ at this level is very costly…
Charles de Sainte Marie |
Charles de Sainte Marie
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