When did you meet Thierry ?
I met Thierry Lincou in 1990, during a junior tournament, he was 13. It may have been in Toulouse or Marseille, to tell you the truth I can’t really remember. I asked him, and he believes it was in Marseille. But it’s not essential, is it? What is essential, what is important, is that we’ve been travelling side by side for 14 years now.

What were the qualities that you detected in him?
Immediately, I noticed his speed of reaction, that is the explosiveness of his muscular qualities. You are aware that squash is not a gift from heaven, squash is not given at birth.
It requires work (qualitative) based on a genetic basis, a basis which need to be extremely strong for that kind of practice. When you choose a sporting activity, you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got the appropriate qualities: detection becomes a crucial part…

Thierry has natural physical qualities that predisposed him to squash practice (speed, flexibility, coordination, severity,  determination, attentiveness, concentration), and planning his training sessions allowed the optimisation necessary to reach the top level.

What is his main fault at the technical level?
Thierry has enough technical tools to confront his adversaries. But what he could still improve is the mental expression of his technical tools, and especially at the front of the court. For me, technique is somehow “easy” to acquire. What is more difficult, is the mental management of the technical expression.

In your opinion, what predisposed him to become a great squash player?
Rather quickly, Thierry dominated his opponents by optimising his physical qualities. His Vo2max is superior to most people's, his prime strategy was to bring his opponents to the red using a fighting regularity. It could look from the outside like a lack of technique. But we know very well it isn’t so.

Driving in a straight line is less dangerous than driving quickly  around a bend...

The difference between an expert and an average player is that the expert simplifies his movement to make it as  efficient as possible as far as precision is concerned. Thierry distinguished himself from the other players by the simplicity of his movement technique. But this differentiation may have appeared to certain people as a technical weakness.

Three words to describe him:

Mental vivacity
Role Model for the new generation
Always shares with others, communicates with all, kids and beginners included…

A personal message…

Contrary to what certain people say or write, I truly believed that a squash player can reach the top level and still succeed in his academics.

Thierry is the only top 20 player (well, at the moment anyway) who has succeeded conjointly his top university degree and his squash, and who also shares an accomplished family life.

I think he is a role model (for the juniors as well as for the coaches): courage, tenacity, severity, perseverance. He opened wide more than one door, and followed a path that was not a traditional one. I’m really happy to realise that at more than one level, he is truly an ambassador for Squash.

Well done, Thierry, keep up the good work!

           Paul Sciberras

What should he do to improve further?
Absolute perfection doesn’t exist. Players are far from a perfect 100% when they hit the ball, otherwise, every shot would be in the nick! To improve, Thierry must still work at the quality of his hitting reaction during extremely high pace rallies.

Pace is not only based on hitting the ball hard, drop and counterdrops increase the pace even more. Thierry must increase his pace by optimising his use of his technique. Hit the ball at a slow pace, anybody can do it, but hitting the ball under extreme pressure demands speed of analysis, of decoding, of choice and of execution. It needs speed in the treatment of the information, but most of all, and that’s essential, an extremely performing perceptive and movement anticipation.

I think that Thierry can still elevate his level of fighting regularity by working in that department (mental expression of technique). Squash is a confrontation sport, a dual activity, where mental gestures are of considerable importance. In my opinion, Thierry can elevate the debate still.

What is your work based on?
I’m trying to address the whole individual, and not to treat him in “layers”, that would reduce him to an obsolete and reductive vision, as in technique, physical and mental layers. We all know that the whole in interaction is superior to the sum of the parts.

I see two main objectives. One, building up the player’s personality (how to be), by an active appropriation of knowledge, by theory added with scientific data, combined with practical knowledge (know-how). Two, succeed in top sport and academic studies. A careful planning of a sports training can actually collaborate positively to a successful scholar and university career. In other words, a player should think his actions and action his thoughts.

On a practical side, it’s important to combine the two activities for them to become complementary, and not antagonistic, and for them not to go over 35 hours of weekly training (studies + squash). Therefore, quality must be sought for, not so much quantity. Programming quality speeds up acquisitions, reducing work time in both departments.

Not everything is transferable from squash to studies, and vice versa, but mental management (detection of the problem to solve, identification of possibilities, selection of the solution to apply, planning of the problem solving, emergencies anticipation and prevention is based on mental gestures residing in the same brain zones for the two disciplines.

What could you repeat again and again to Thierry while training?
Increase your fighting regularity level (by an amelioration of the mental management of speed and precision).

Develop a strategy that inhibits all other strategies (the strategy of strategies). Simplification of the complexity is hard to obtain, but is essential to the player’s development. The player’s goal is to increase complexity for his opponent, and reduce it for himself. Create uncertainty for his opponent, certainty for himself. That's the management between certitudes/incertitude.

On a more personal level, what are his main qualities?
Thierry is a deeply honest boy, respectful of himself but even more respectful of the others. During coaching sessions, he is very generous in his efforts, works without restraint. He is demanding on the quality of his work. He also takes on board the gains of the session. In his everyday life, that great generosity makes him appreciated by all. Cheating and treachery are not part of his life. His human qualities make him noticed all around, and his adaptation is one of his main attributes.
Paul Sciberras