Solo Drills for Beginners

I have had the pleasure of teaching a lot of beginners, and the very first session usually goes something like this – after a few minutes talking to them about safety (which I always think is the MOST important point to cover first), I usually ask them to hit the ball a few times against the side wall just to see how co-ordinated they are. Often they progress quite quickly to the stage of being able to hit it back to themselves a few times, so it’s time to move them on a little.

Hence I am always on the lookout for some good introductory videos showing practice drills that beginners can try and use to improve. Thank goodness for youtube! There are countless numbers of videos fitting the bill, and in fact one of the problems is that there are so many to choose from.

Today I was looking around on the web searching for a particular type of drill, and I came across a great beginners’ video that is perfect, I think, for beginners –  once they can hit the ball systematically and control it reasonably well.

You can find it here:

The video demonstrates how to take a very basic solo drill and extend it with a few ‘variations on a theme’ – to turn it into a routine that will take a beginner a few sessions to master, but at the same time is not so complicated or difficult that they will get discouraged. I intend taking my next batch of beginners through the same routine – I’ll keep you posted how well it goes! 🙂

Whilst watching the video, “Coach Phillip” also introduces another video “Preparing for Success” which tackles another important aspect of squash, which some would argue was just as important as the ability to hit the ball properly – if not more so, and that’s about “getting your head in the right place”. I don’t mean physically (it can stay right there at the end of your neck!) – I mean being in the right frame of mind to play your best.

This second video (although it actually comes earlier in Coach Phillips series of videos) can be found here:

(He looks like Mr Angry doesn’t he – but he’s not really!).

I hope you enjoy checking these 2 videos out – they are both less than 9 minutes long, and are worth a watch – and thanks to Coach Phillip for taking the time and effort to put them up on youtube.

Enjoy, and don’t forget – get to that “T” !!