Rehearsal Tournament #1 : 9/30

Rehearsal Tournaments are one of the big planks of our whole Squash Tigers program. Rehearsal Tournaments are in-house events conducted at SQUASHTIGERS! You may check some reports from the previous season here and here.

For the coming season the Rehearsal Tournament Series comprises 9 tournament events. The Circuit attracts entries from top juniors. They also provide a great home for beginners to gain rehearsal before they step out into the US Squash ranking world.

Players play a minimum of three and a maximum of four matches on a Saturday, commencing first thing and concluding early afternoon. The event does not count towards rating or ranking, so players may be relaxed enough to develop their games in a friendly environment, yet serious enough so that they will be ready for the wider world when they get out there! ​

As you're all aware, full season Squash Tigers members receive free entry into our Rehearsal Tournaments, guaranteeing a strong draw up and down the experience levels. Full season members have been entered into the event and should confirm they wish to participate by Wednesday in order for Coach Claire to properly prepare draws.

Last seasons Rehearsal Tournaments were a tremendous success, with everyone from beginners through to National Champs participating and this season promises to be even better. For those of you needing to enter, the link is here.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on the 30th!

Coach Claire

Tiger News

Happy Wednesday! This is a busy time of year, and as is our habit, this is a brief post to keep you up to date on the "must knows". Please email me anything you'd like clarification on and I'll be back to you the same day with solutions. No such thing as a silly question and I'm always more than pleased to talk about the who, what, where, when, why and how of the program!

TIGER TOP 5

1. Monthly members have one more week to upgrade to the 9 month discount membership, which essentially gives two months of free tuition and covers all your training needs between now and next June - confirm your upgrade via email

2. Our lesson prices have remained unchanged since opening, but will be slightly increasing this month. For those wishing to purchase 10 lesson packs at our existing prices this is your very last opportunity

3. We are offering Zoom Coaching for this coming weekends Baltimore Gold. Our next in person event will be JCT #2 in Philly - please book early to enable me to plan accordingly

4. Our first Rehearsal Tournament of the season is scheduled for September 30 - note that entry to our Rehearsal Tournament series is free and complimentary with 9 month memberships and is open to everyone, members and non-members alike

5. If you have friends or neighbors who may like to try out Squash Tigers we have a Free Trial Offer to enable them to come on a one off basis to see the community first hand and enjoy a training session. Anyone can sign up online and I'll then make contact to guide them through their visit.

Finally, as is my convention at the beginning of a new season, I have left time available to meet face to face with families. I have found the past couple of weeks valuable to get to know parents better and hopefully I've added some value to the planning overall process. This offer to sit down applies to both members and non-members and I'm always happy to offer advice, talk about squash and the kids in general. Email me if I can be of help and we'll get a date in the diary, the squash world can be complex for everyone, not just novices!

See you at training.

Paul and the Team

Goldilocks

Remember Goldilocks… the search for a bed not too hard, not too soft, but juuuuuust right!  This is a principle we need to take to our training…

Overtraining is pronouncedly worse for a developing athlete, or anyone for that matter, than under training.  Sadly, lazy people still win sometimes, whereas over trained and over motivated people frequently don’t even make it to the event…. so, how do I know if I’m doing too much.

Well unfortunately it’s not that simple to diagnose over training, however there are some general symptoms, that when put together, let us know that we’re over reaching.  Please keep in mind that you need four, probably five of these symptoms before you should be concerned.

You may be over trained if you:

Are performing poorly, losing to players you normally beat or badly missing targets with your strokes If your off court training feels harder than usual, or you fail to make standard lifts and cardio training Excessive soreness is a marker you should be aware of… Loss of appetite Fatigue during the day, or moodiness generally Poor sleep Frequent infections, colds or coughs Elevated waking heart rates

Now, if you are experiencing four or more of the above, it is possible that you’re doing too much.  The next obvious question is, what do we do about it…

Long story short, you need a training diary.  Record essentially all of those factors in succinct fashion over time and you’ll begin to get a picture.  Similarly devices such as Whoop (which I use) can be invaluable and at the very least get athletes more interested in recovery and less fixated by “beating up on themselves”.  Get interested in prevention, rather than cure and internalize the idea that quality minutes training are always better than bulk logging of hours!

Finally, remember, lazy players might not always win, but at least they get to play.  Train yourself too hard for too long and you don’t even make it on court… so be careful out there and listen to your body!