ABDUL JABBAR FAISAL
ISLAMABAD (July 26, 2020):-Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) organized online squash coaching and training sessions, aiming to maintain level of physical of the players during the Covid-19 restrictions, as the pandemic halted all sports activities in the country.
According to PSF Media Department, federation has remained committed in engaging the players, coaches and trainers to stay connected with squash activities. PSF has already been conducting online physical training of players since March this year 2020 through Zoom application because of which the participants have been able to maintain a certain level of physical fitness.
As part of faculty development, it was the vision of President and Senior Vice President, PSF that apart from players’ development, PSF may introduce opportunities for development of coaches in Pakistan. Therefore, PSF has arranged PSF Level-1 Squash Coaching Course from 20 July, 2020 which would last till 28 July, 2020. Owing to the restrictions of COVID-19 this course is being conducted on-Line through Zoom Application where all participants can interact and understand each other easily.
PSF respects all the senior coaches of Pakistan who have a vast coaching experience and have trained many great players. However, it’s time to pass on the talent to amateurs to create more good coaches. Therefore, this course is planned for amateurs who want to start their career as a squash coach to train players starting from grass-root level. After Level-1, PSF will also conduct further advance level courses on the same pattern in near future. Such coaching courses are also conducted by other countries all over the world and PSF would continue to conduct more courses of Level-II and Level-III in future as well.
It is expected that this activity would help PSF to increase the pool of coaches in Pakistan and raise their qualification level in the coaching profession. Moreover, these courses will equally provide an opportunity to the amateurs to gain professional experience and utilize it in a better way to promote and expand the game of squash at grass roots level. These are Pakistan level courses and it is expected that such courses would provide a platform to Pakistani players, trainers, coaches and amateurs to attend coaching courses of various levels organized by Asian Squash Federation and World Squash Federation and increase their professional knowledge / qualification in the field of coaching. In future, PSF also intends to hold ASF & WSF coaching courses in Pakistan.
On recommendation of provincial squash associations & affiliated departments, a group of 49 players, trainers, coaches & amateurs are participating in subject course. They include 14 from Punjab, 9 from KP, 9 from Sindh, 5 from Balochistan, 7 from PAF, 3 from SNGPL and one each from Army & ZTBL. Besides local participants, few overseas Pakistanis are also attending the course. The main purpose of this arrangement is to keep the players, local coaches & amateurs actively involved in squash activities during the prevailing Covid-19 Pandemic. Moreover, the aim of this activity is to train the trainers for providing standardized training starting from grass-root level, educate them on the changing rules & latest techniques of game development to get better performance & results from amateur players. PSF Coaches Mr Rehman Gul, Fazal Shah & Asif Khan who have a vast professional experience and have sound knowledge of modern squash, are conducting the module of squash and conducting regular sessions for on-court practice / game development. Whereas, Physical Training module which is already being run since March this year, is being looked after by PSF Strength & Conditioning Coaches Mohammad Boota, Mohammad Anees and Mohammad Kashif. They are providing their expert services to maintain & improve players’ physical strength, fitness & stamina which is essentially required for a player to sustain throughout the tournament. There has been a very healthy participation in this Level-I coaching course and all the participants have been appreciating the trainers and such efforts. Most importantly, all the participants are very respectable and they have also been sharing their experiences with the coaches which has created a very healthy & interactive learning environment. We hope that this would help Pakistan to create best performing players in future.
