Notwithstanding the fact that I have a lot of respect for my peer coaches, only a few coaches have advanced degrees in sport science. My assistant coach Erin Robson at Smith College is one of them – former Head Squash and Tennis Coach at Williams College, she competed her M.Sc. in Coaching here at Smith College in our Graduate program – designed to prepare coaches of college teams. Pam Saunders, Associate Head coach at Yale University is another graduate of our program.
An equally small number of coaches have completed the other path that combines squash and sport science – a Level 4 Squash Coaching Certification. Aside from myself, Harvard’s Mike Way is the only other active coach in the U.S.A. (we did out Squash Canada Level 3 together back in Toronto in 1980).
Once a squash coach completes these “squash science” education opportunities, the next step is to stay current with recent developments. In my current position at Smith College (.5 Athletics/.5 faculty) I am lucky enough to be able to stay up to date though my lecturing activities in sport science and coaching-related courses:
- ESS 110 Introduction to Sport Coaching
- ESS 220 Psychology of Sport
- ESS 130 Stress Management
- ESS 520 Leadership for Sport Coaches (graduate program).
One of my favorite coaching websites is actually a tennis coaching website – Wayne Elderton’s AceCoach. I subscribe to his site (and you should to) and today received his February newsletter in my email which contained the article ” Modern Tennis Coaching”. The short article nicely summarizes my approach to squash coaching – the similarity is not surprising as we have both been trained in the Canadian Sport System’s Theory and Tennis Certification Program. If you are interested in learning more about how these four pillars apply to squash – just use the “search” function on this site!
