Fitness training for racketball without the racket
In January many of us are feeling a bit lethargic and overweight. Here at UK Racketball we are no different, plenty of mince pies and turkey over Christmas has left us feeling like were playing racketball in a swimming pool. I’ve decided to include some training advice and routines to the websites “coaching tips” section so we can all feel faster and fitter than ever before! The aim of this article will be to give you an idea of changes you could make to your training (without a racket) to help boost your fitness on court, I have tried to structure these ideas so the tips should be relevant regardless of your age or ability.
To keep you going I have included some motivational quotes throughout the article, I hope they help!
Many professional squash players structure there training periodically. They will focus on strength for a couple of months, then fitness and finally speed in an attempt to push the boundaries of their body. For most of us we don’t have the time but that doesn’t mean we can’t make massive improvements to our games through even small and subtle changes.
The best advice I received was when I was told to begin to structure my training more periodically. I have always had the ability to keep going on court and off, even when I haven’t been at my fittest I tend to just get very tired (and slow) but there is rarely a ball I don’t run for. When I first started taking squash seriously and started to get very fit I went for loads of long runs and gruelling gym sessions that involved the treadmill, cross trainer and bike, but Mark Hornby pointed out to me that this was not going to give me the fitness base I would need to call on for a squash match. On a squash court whether you are playing squash or racketball there are times you need to work very hard but in most instances this is only for a short period before you are then able to rest and recover before your next really hard rally. Marks advice was to change my training to mimic the type of fitness I would require.
I took on his advice and began to structure the training so it was less focused on long slow sessions and instead started to focus on intervals. The idea behind this would be that you would work hard, then rest and then work hard again. This would be realistic to what would be happening to your body on a squash court. Experts have now speculated that this may be the best way to raise your overall fitness regardless of what sport you play. Below I have included some examples of how you could structure interval training, you will see that a lot of the sessions are quite short around 20 minutes in total. A good training rule is it’s not how far you run, but how hard you run that counts.
Court Sprints
Basic Court Sprints
Very simple (to explain anyway) just run for 1 minute and then have 1 minute rest. To begin with you might be running 14 or 16 in a minute (there and back counts as 2!) but you can gradually increase this number as you get fitter and stronger. If you are starting to get to a point where you don’t feel you can get any quicker try reducing the rest from 1 minute to 50 seconds and then 40 and try to keep the same pace, trust me it will all get a lot harder.
Court Sprint Pyramid Runs
Another option with court sprints when you have a group is pyramid running. Find a partner and run alternately in a pyramid as shown below.
A : 2 then B : 2
A : 4 then B : 4
A : 6 then B : 6
A : 8 then B : 8
And then go back down the pyramid (it’s always easier going downhill)
A : 6 then B : 6
A : 4 then B : 4
A : 2 then B : 2
Obviously you can make the pyramid as high as you and your partner like. The big advantage to this training is that when you have only 2 or 4 sprints you can do these quite fast which can help you increase your speed but you might end up going as high as 20 which can really test your stamina. It’s also much nicer to do the running with someone than on your own.
In the gym on the bike
This training session was actually given to me by Nick Matthew at The Hallamshire, we had just had a hit and went in the gym to finish off the training session.
2 minute warm up at moderate intensity.
5 seconds peddling as hard as you can.
55 seconds recovery at an average rate, I use the same rate that I used for the warm up. This still wants to be quite tough, you’re not stopping but nowhere near as hard as when you go flat out.
10 seconds as hard as you can.
50 seconds at recover pace.
15 seconds as hard as you can.
45 seconds at recovery pace.
20 seconds as hard as you can.
40 seconds at recovery pace.
15 seconds as hard as you can.
45 seconds at recovery pace.
10 seconds as hard as you can.
50 seconds at recovery pace.
5 seconds as hard as you can.
This is a great session and really tough, by the time you reach the 20 seconds your legs will be really burning. Try changing the length and intensity of the intervals till you find what works for you.
Great for racketball (and squash) how many rallies last more than 20 seconds. If Nick Matthew is using it regularly it must be doing something good.
Ghosting
Another great way to train your body for racketball is to do interval ghosting. Because ghosting is so sport specific it’s probably the best way to train for the sport. The general idea is to mimic the movements that you make in a match but because the exercise doesn’t end when you make a mistake (as would happen in a normal rally) you are able to work much harder and push your fitness boundaries. Most players do this with their racket to make it as realistic as possible but you can use cones instead. The major problem with ghosting is the same as its great advantage, you are using the same muscles and doing the same movements that you would in a match. This means if you are carrying an injury or were looking for routines that might protect your body by limiting the exposure of certain muscles or movements that your body already overuses in your racketball play, ghosting will not be able to help.
Just to practice
Just try moving to each corner in turn, practice your movement, look at where your feet are going and try to stay balanced when you come into and out of a shot. Focus on trying to keep your technique as good as you can, for example keeping your racket up as you move into the ball. Below are two videos on how to move effectively around a squash court, one of which is from Karim Darwish ex World No 1 and currently World No 3. The videos are aimed
Karim Darwish demonstrates footwork movement techniques for squash and racketball
Razik's Footwork Movement Techniques for squash and racketball
Ghosting with a partner
The worker starts on the T with the pointer facing him on the front wall. The pointer will start the clock and point to any of the 6 corners; I include the edges of the cut line as corners when ghosting so they make up the last 2. The worker will go to the corner indicated, swing his racket as he would in a game and then return to the T. Once he arrives back at the T the pointer will then send him to another corner. This then continues for 30 seconds before the pointer and the worker swap round and it’s the pointers time to do some running.
The advantage with this ghosting is that you can still go at our own pace but because the pointer now controls your direction the drill is much more realistic.
Varied Speed Ghosting
This is not for the faint hearted. Do the same as in the routine of “ghosting with a partner” but this time the pointer also controls your speed as well as direction. The pointer at the same time as showing you direction will now also tell you your speed by saying either 1, 2 or 3. If the pointer says 1 you will need to go flat out to the corner indicated, a 2 is fast but not flat out so 85% pace and a 3 is a medium paced movement that would mean you have plenty of time in a match, maybe 70% of the speed of a 1. This is a great drill and the most realistic of all the training methods that I have mentioned above but as I said at the start, it’s tough, so good luck.
You will quickly find that one of the reasons it becomes so hard is that you end up having to point and talk when all you really want to do is breath!
There are even iphone ghosting apps now available where dots appear on the screen to show you which corner you should move to.
Swimming for the injury conscious
If you’re feeling a bit injured and need to give your body a chance to recover from the brutality of being on court you can do the same type of training session in the swimming pool. Maybe try the pyramid style training, do 2 lengths hard then 2 lengths easy then 4 hard and 4 easy ect. Because swimming is low impact you will find it great for your bodies recovery but for your fitness this might still keep you ticking over.
A random court sprint email
I received an email from Steve Townsend (Head Squash Coach at Kenilworth in Warwickshire) last week which was titled “Half marathon on a squash court”. It works out at 2164 lengths and he plans for it to take him 2 hrs 30 min. Check out the site over the next week for more information.
And to finish a great quote from Sebastian Coe........
has left us feeling like were playing racketball in a swimming pool. I’ve decided to include some training advice and routines to the websites “coaching tips” section so we can all feel faster and fitter than ever before! The aim of this article will be to give you an idea of changes you could make to your training (without a racket) to help boost your fitness on court, I have tried to structure these ideas so the tips should be relevant regardless of your age or ability.
