Kingswood College invited the South African National squash coach, Richard Castle, to run a High Performance Training Camp for their squash players last week at the Kingswood Courts.
Kingswood College invited the South African National squash coach, Richard Castle, to run a High Performance Training Camp for their squash players last week at the Kingswood Courts.
Kingswood ended 2013 on a high, being ranked number 6 school in the country, as well as their top player, Daine Kruger (ranked six in South Africa) representing South Africa U16’s in USA and Canada in December last year.
Castle has been the SA National coach for a number of years and comes with a reputation of extended players.
He is currently based in the Western Cape and is the head coach at the University of Stellenbosch.
Master in charge of squash at Kingswood and school coach, Ian Knott-Craig said the aim of the course “was to start preparing the squash players for another hectic season this year”.
The course accommodated both senior and junior players who followed a well-designed programme that exposed them to a range of technical and psychological focuses.
Since squash is a tactical battle the players worked hard at their attacking and defensive strokes, learning how to apply positional pressure on their counterparts.
Due to the importance of the mental development of the players, Gregg Wilmot from Health and Sport Incorporate discussed the importance of improving one’s mental preparation (temperament) for the game.
Players were informed of how to deal with anxiety, concentration and decision making on and off the court.
Knott-Craig said that “since squash is also a physically demanding game, biokineticist Andy Parker instructed the players on the importance of developing core strength and how to use a gymnasium more effectively to enhance their physical strength”.
In order to improve their ability to move around the court effectively the players were also taken through their paces with agility, movement and plyometric exercises.
This included endurance, which was effectively covered by Castle who introduced the players to ‘pressure feeding’.
“The players have benefited, in the past, through the input of a number of outstanding South African squash coaches helping the Kingswood players develop their game of squash and producing excellent results,” said Knott-Craig.
Kingswood 1sts finished first in Eastern Province last year, and placed sixth in South Africa. The side has also won the Makana and Districts Squash League for the past two years (unbeaten in both those years).
Three players were the EP 2013 Champions – Luhko Mbenyana – U11, Hannah Knott-Craig – U16 and Daine Kruger U16. Aimee-Leigh Pote made South African Top 10, while Vaughan Meyer and Hannah Knott-Craig were both ranked 14th and 12th in SA respectively. Both Aimee-Leigh and Hannah were members of the successful EP Girls U16 A squash team which won the South African Inter-Provincial Tournament to claim gold. Kingswood produced 21 Eastern Province squash players last year.
