One of the best squash players ever in Finland (PSA 25 in 1990), Pentti “Pena” Pekkanen, is sharing his wisdom by coaching at GoGo in Tampere. All five training sessions are fully booked, but if you want to meet Pena then you need to find your way to GoGo on Thursday evenings between 18:00 and 19:30. Pekkanen was persuaded to keep the trainings by Raoul Öhman and Angel Iglesias whereas Krister Koivula took care of all practical arrangements. Thanks to everyone.

In the first training session Pena emphasized ball control in several exercises. For example, in the normal drive-boast drill he asked players to variate the length of the drive by controlling the power and height of the shots whereas with boast Pena asked to make a clear difference with defense (3-wall “straight to nick” boast) and attack (2-wall “bounce to nick” boast).

In cross court volley exercise Pena reminded that in all racket games shots start from the legs meaning that it is important not only to move to the ball but also to use the legs when hitting the ball for better ball control and power. Third point related to ball control was an advise to “hit through” for perfect control of direction and power. See Pena in action here.

Tags: Coaching, Technique, PSA

Casio EX-FH20 is a camera benefits squash players and coaches maybe more than any other camera on the market today. Picture quality and number of pixels do not reach the same level as DSLR cameras from Canon and Nikon. But Casio has introduced features that no other camera has.

With EX-FH20 you can shoot photos in high speed i.e. 40 frames in a second with 7 megapixel resolution. Even more useful feature is high speed video which enables you to capture video 7 times faster (210 fps) than normal video using resolution (480 x 360) that is suitable for detailed analysis of your squash technique and movement. See Movies section for examples of slow motion videos e.g. Lahti Open’s matchball and Harri Valasma’s drop shots.

Tags: Technique, Video, Gadgets