Three of the best squash players in the world are backing an exciting new free training concept designed to challenge and boost the skills of junior players around the globe.
Commonwealth Games medallists Daryl Selby and Peter Barker from England and Australia’s Cameron Pilley believe the Junior Progress Awards, launched this week by UK squash and racketball academy Off The Wall Squash, will be a massive hit with young squash players.
The Progress Awards, available free to every club, coach and school, are designed to help young players master different shots, improve their all-round technique and boost their knowledge of the sport. The programme comes in an easy-to-follow format for coaches and teachers to use as part of their junior programme activity.
“I used to do these type of awards as a youngster, I just loved the challenge of practicing each skill and the nervous excitement of being tested, and then the elation when I passed,” recalled world number 17 star Daryl Selby.
“The awards helped me develop a sound foundation to work from and my coach made sure I practiced until I perfected the skill. I can only applaud what Off The Wall Squash are doing to provide coaches and teachers with the tools to help develop junior squash.”
Off The Wall squash is a community interest company and make the awards available as part of their commitment to the sport.
The awards are in six levels, with five skills per level and provide challenging but achievable practical tasks for young players to work on and master.
Levels 1 and 2 can be completed in a school hall and all six levels can be undertaken on a squash court.
The awards are available to download from the Off The Wall Squash Website http://www.offthewallsquash.co.uk/progress-awards
Cameron Pilley, the Australian Number 1 and world Ranked 18, added: “Young squash players often aspire to be the best in the world and Progress Awards like will these help kids to develop these skills to get there.
“I’d love to see these awards being used in clubs and schools as they can only help squash grow and players improve.”
Matt McFahn, Off The Wall Squash Director of Coaching and Operations, explained the thinking behind the idea.
“Our team felt there was a significant gap in the opportunities available in the area of junior squash activity. When we were novice coaches there used to be something similar that helped us to both develop our junior players and also help us as coaches to increase our knowledge of how to develop and structure activity.
“There’s very little out there in the way of support and mentoring for coaches and the Progress Awards are our first development tool to help coaches increase activity and provide support and guidance at the same time.”
There are certificates available for coaches and teachers to provide to successful players for a nominal charge. These are also available from the Off The Wall Squash Website.
For further details please contact:
Off The Wall Squash Paul Selby – 07775 523161 paul@offthewallsquash.co.uk
Lauren Selby – 07971 694970 lauren@offthewallsquash.co.uk
Matt McFahn – 07728 554555 matt@offthewallsquash.co.uk