Jake's Squash Experiences

Recently one of our East Coast Squash Academy team, Jake Cohen, was lucky enough to be able to visit some of the world's best squash facilities, scattered around England. The venues that Jake was lucky enough to visit were:-

• Vivo Gym and Sports Club, run by Elite Squash, Hadrian Stiff (current coach of the ElShorbagy brothers and Joelle King, amongst others)
• Hallamshire Squash Club, Neil Guirey (coach of Nick Matthew)
• Edgbaston Priory Club, Mike Harris (former Head of Education and Coaching in Finland and former England High Performance Coach)

Jake was lucky enough to be able to go over to England to see the squash environments, which was organised by Academy director, Aaron Frankcomb. Through Aaron's vast and detailed contacts through his playing experience, this allowed Jake inside KNOWLEDGE of what occurs in some of the top clubs in world squash. This is a rare occurrence, especially in the lead up to the World Championships. The Academy thanks all the venues for opening their doors for Jake. 

The experiences of each Club differed greatly from each other. The Elite Squash environment has a dual focus of the pro players and the club level player. When Jake visited, 6th December, the World Championship preparations were well underway for many of the pro's who use the club's services. Players who Jake was lucky enough to see at the club were:-

• Mohamed ElShorbagy (World number 1 for 28 months, 21 PSA titles, 2 time British Open winner and current world number 2, World Champion 2017)
• Cesar and Arturo Salazar (current world rankings of 20 and 45 respectively)
• Youssef Soliman (Current world ranking of 58, 2016 U19 British Open Champion, 5 PSA titles)
• Nada Abbas (Current world ranking of 38, 2 titles in 2016, 4th place in 2017 U19 British Open)
• Joshua Masters (Current world ranking of 55 and 2 PSA titles in 2016)

Left to Right: Jake and current World Champion Mohamed El Shorbagy.

The focus for Elite Squash's professional players is to focus on players MOVEMENT as the key to improvement in the individual players game. Hadrian, a leading coach in world squash, believes "You can be the best shot player but if you can't move, you won't win. We focus on movement being the key asset and sprinkle things on top of that." The environment is one which is largely unmatched across the globe as his approach is very UNIQUE compared to many other top level coaches. This unique approach is appreciated by many of the up and coming juniors from around the globe, who frequent his training facilities to get any of his time to improve their game. The club also has many different options for club players, such as group lessons, individual coaching and junior programs.

Left to Right: Jake and Hadrian Stiff.

The next facility which Jake was able to visit was Hallamshire Squash Club in Sheffield. This complex, a 9 court facility, is an up and coming squash club which is focusing largely on their junior contingent in the hope of creating some of England and world squash's best juniors in the coming years. Helping this approach is the Nick Matthew Academy now being located in the Hallamshire complex, as Nick was born and bred in Sheffield. This sees junior sessions being run on a weekday DAILY basis to be able to cater for all the various levels of players, from their mini squash program (6 year olds down) to the top level junior players. They also have adult programs in group sessions and individual coaching, delivered by their top level four person coaching team. 

Jake was lucky enough to see Nick Matthew train for the final time before he departed for his final World Champs push in Manchester. Nick had a great session with his coach, Neil Guirey, where they worked on fine tuning Nick's game to give him the BEST OPPORTUNITY TO WIN his fourth World Championships men's title, to go with his 3 British Open titles, 3 Commonwealth Games gold medals and 33 PSA tour titles. 

Left to Right: Jake and Nick Matthew

Lastly, Jake was able to visit the fantastic facility at Edgbaston Priory Club, a 32 tennis court and 10 squash court facility, in Birmingham. This was where squash legend Jonah Barrington won two of his six British Open titles, which saw court 6 at the facility named The Jonah Barrington Court. The current U17's boys British nationals champion is one of the players currently being coached at the Priory Club, which shows the high level of coaching being delivered by Mike Harris and his team, including Deon Saffery (former world ranking of 42). With an incredible 17 junior sessions being run a week at the Birmingham location, great coaching and facilities, their FUTURE can be nothing but very BRIGHT and see more top juniors coming out of Birmingham onto the world scene. 

Left to Right: Deon Saffery, Jake and Mike Harris.

Overall, Jake had a fantastic time. He said, "It was great to be able to go into all three clubs. They all were so open and willing to help me but all differed so much. To see squash doing so well is fantastic to see. The resemblance that East Coast Squash Academy has to all three clubs with their structure and programs shows that Aaron is definitely on the right path and doing great things for squash in Sydney and Australia."