From Friday evening 17th November until lunch time on Sunday 19th November 52 coaches from around South Africa were hosted by TUKSSquash at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria. The project was funded by the Lottery.
Graham Prior, convenor of the Squash South Africa Coaching sub-committee and Liz Mackenzie, Head Coach at Tukkies headed up the programme with members of the TUKS Team: Alan Colburn, Wesley Daniels, Alex Verhage, Nothando Ntimane, Callan Hall, Siobhan Hall, Cuan and Blain Verhage all making contributions.
Paul Gouge (Zululand): Greg Akkers, Charmaine Baker, Matthew Boote, Yeshkin Maharaj, Quinton Kippen, Renier Cronje (KZN): Sally White, Maxine Gouweloos, Bongani Khumalo, Werner Strydom (Midlands): Timothy Leeuw (Border), Ed Razzano, Jason Bigara, Jason Le Roux (E Province): Monre Swanepoel (Eden): Rodney Durbach, Gary Wheadon, Nomfundo Mnukwa, Gillian van Vlaanderen, Ian Harvey, Milnay Louw (W Province): Darren Bruce-Brand, Lizane Vlok, Monique Schmidt (Boland): Cara Willoughby, Christo Potgieter (N West): Michael Deutschmann, Calvin Deutschmann (Free State): John Lingashi, David Smythe (Mpumulanga): Jennifer Fox, Lesley Cowan, Cindy Purchase, Shelley Manning, Ray Dlamini, Lawrence Dlamini, Jonathan Letlake, Jeffrey Shulman, Garrick Deutschmann (Central Gauteng): Sakkie de Beer (SANDF); Anton Oberholzer, Deon Velthuysen (SAPS).
Attracting beginners (junior and senior): improving skills and fitness: improving the standard of coaching and generally upping the standard of squash are some of the goals going forward.
Each attendee received a comprehensive manual – the World of mini-Squash: World of mini-Squash Skillz Program structured around TOTBALL, an Australian based squash specific junior coaching program for which Liz Mackenzie has a license. A comprehensive description of various games was included.
Skillz testing: T volleys, forehand and backhand drives down the wall in certain time limits provided some intense competition with Milnay Louw, Rodney Durbach, Gary Wheadon, Christo Potgieter and Gary Naidoo performing the best.
Warren McAnn presented on conditioning and training in his inimitable way – many practical and easy (although extremely tiring) to do without lots of expensive equipment.
As always a thought provoking weekend.
