In squash - The Podcast

After leading the English junior boys to the World Team Championship in 2022, Josh Taylor's stock had risen significantly. At the time he saw his future growth still in England, but no doubt there were opportunities aplenty, and low and behold, Josh is stateside running and growing a tremendous squash academy which is turning into quite a hub for players of all levels, including the likes of Joel...

Delaying play, player dissent, foot faults, and interference have all been part of the WSO's mission to clarify these rules through their 2023/24 directives. Lee Drew joins the pod to discuss these issues generally and what we've seen so far in the first two events of the season. Quick heads up—recorded this in my office, and the acoustics weren’t the best from the host side. Apologies in advance!...

One of the most intriguing, exciting and as it turns out successful player/coach dynamics on tour today is undeniably James Willstrop and Mostafa Asal. James took over has Mostafa's main coach just over a year ago, and the tremendous impact that it's had on Mostafa's squash is indeed palpable. The Marksman joins the pod to talk about the progress that they've made together and his thoughts on Most...

Current World #11, recent winner of the European Closed championships, Victor Crouin is ready for some home cooking whilst playing in the Paris Squash 2024 PSA platinum event which kicks off tomorrow. Victor takes several thoughtful deep dives today including on his current form, winning the European closed, the door-slam incident with Mohammed El Shorbagy, the officiating "Directive, and much mor...

Paris Squash 2024 kicks off in a few days time, and former world #2 Camille Serme is a big part of the team that got that ball rolling with a PSA event in Paris this time last year, and now we have a platinum event the very best in the game taking their talents to this one. Camile talks about Paris Squash 2024, last year's learning experience, being on the comeback trail as a new mother, and Frenc...

15 years at the helm of Harvard Squash where his teams have won at least 15 Potter and Howe Cups combined, an absolute legend of the college squash coaching ranks, it's hard to believe that there was once a day when Mike Way was in Jonathan Power's corner leading him to World #1 and to becoming North America's first and only World softball champion. Mike takes a look back at his 15 years at Harvar...

Nick Taylor's playing career was impressive, but his coaching accomplishments dating back to what he accomplished in Jersey as the Director of Squash could be even more noteworthy. This past August, US Squash announced Nick Taylor as their new national team head coach to succeed Ong Beng Hee. Nick and I talk about this next chapter, his coaching journey and the growth of his academy, and the visio...

2024 World Junior Championship runner up Ju Young Na shocked the squash world when he upset defending champion Hamza Khan in the quarter final, and then continued to play absolutely amazing squash straight to the final where he lost to world junior #1 Mohamed Zakaria. Ju Young's performance bled into the team event where he led Korea to trip to the final against Egypt. An unbelievable performance...

Numbers don't lie, especially when you've got a team of number crunching experts like the one assembled at Cross Court Analytics. The insight generated from the numbers clearly runs levels deeper than what is revealed to the naked eye whilst watching Squash TV or even watching back a match of your own. Jamie Harlington joins the pod again and breaks down a few of the many incredible analytics that...

Hadrian goes in depth on his technical philosophy in part two of our chat. Once again, Hadrian's thoughtful approach speaks volumes when it comes to explaining technique and training routines that work. Many thanks to www.opensquash.org for sponsoring this episode of the In Squash Podcast.

2023 US National Champion and 4x PSA tour title winner Andrew Douglas announced his retirement from PSA professional squash two weeks ago to pursue a law degree at NYU. Andrew's squash resume is impressive, from numerous junior accolades, to going to back to back Potter Cup finals while playing for Penn, and winning 4 PSA titles along with a US National championship. Andrew talks about his career,...

Hadrian Stiff makes a triumphant return to the pod and in case you didn't know, he's taken over the high performance junior squash program at Heights Casino in Brooklyn New York from Jonathan Power. This first of two episodes highlights Hadrian's thought provoking and practical approach to the mental side of the game. He takes deep dives on everything from how crucial it is at the junior level to...

British Nationals kick off today and the Malik clan is once again represented like no other. Curtis leads the Malik boys, with a world #40 PSA ranking and seeded 5/8 this week. Curtis had his best PSA season to date, finding his way into the main draw of several big time PSA events. We talk about the British Nationals for himself, his 3 brothers and sister Torrie, his progress on the PSA tour, the...

At 2-1 down and 10-10 in the fourth, the fate of the Korean junior men's team was hanging in the balance. Jeong Uk Ryu then went ahead and produced the point of the tournament and completed the comeback to put South Korea in the junior men's final where they lost to the heavily favored Egyptians. Jeong Uk and I take a look back at the world juniors and we talk about his squash story, the past, the...

Ep. 317 is the first of two successive quick fire podcasts on Korean squash which created a tremendous buzz following Ju Young Na's 2nd place finish in the world junior boys' individual event and the Korean boys' incredible 2nd place finish in the world juniors team event. Sean comes on to talk Korean squash, what the scene is like there, both at the elite and squash enthusiast level. We also take...

From winning national championships at Princeton to promoting and growing the pro game through Squash Engine and so much more, John Nimick is one of the game's prolific trailblazers. John has dedicated his life to this great game of ours, and it was an honor to talk with him. We cover it all including his early days winning championships at Princeton and his time on the high profile pro hardball t...

2023/24 was sneaky good! She reached a career high of 5 and winning both the Manchester and German Open titles, reached the World Tour final and had some confidence boosting wins over top 5 players. She'd also love to cap all of that off with her maiden British National title, and that event kicks off next week. Gina and I look back at last season, the ups and downs, her tribute to the recently re...

Chris Gordon has been among the very best American pros since turning pro over 20 years ago. Clearly, he's been there, done that, including reaching as high as 44 in the world in 2013. Chris is well respected for his squash insight as is evident through regular squash tv commentating appearances for stateside PSA events, and he took the mic again for the recent World Junior Championships in Housto...

Former world #3 Simon Rosner's PSA career may be over, but he's definitely not retired from the game. Simon is the head coach of the German junior men's and women's teams who competed for the past two weeks in the World Junior Championship in Houston. Simon talks about their performance and what needs to be done to make progress going forward. We also talk about the talk of the town, the Korean Ju...

During this year's British Open the Squash Summit brought together people looking to grow the game from around the world. Damian Burgess took part in the event and provides a great recap on each of the key sessions including squash in the Olympics, challenges with regards to growing the sport, and Rob Owen's session on Independent squash minds and his thoughts on such topics as coaching standardiz...

Amanda Sobhy had been in the form of her career in December 2023, reaching the final of the Hong Kong Open after taking out world #1 Nour El Sherbini in straight games. Game 1 of the final saw her go down with a ruptured right achilles; she ruptured her left achilles in 2017. Well, she's on her way back and with any luck we will see her on court again soon. Amanda talks about the misfortune in HK...

Board member and Founder of Open Squash James Green caught my attention with a blog post on the PSA's Mostafa Asal Raging Bull documentary which he posted recently. The Asal Doc is relatively dated, but it's still well worth watching and or revisiting. James talks about his squash backstory, Open Squash, and we deep dive into the Asal documentary. Great chat. Check out open squash at www.opensquas...

2023/24 saw Joel Makin finish in impressive fashion, playing in my opinion the best squash of his career. He's back to world #9 after finishing 2024 with a flurry; a win in Manchester and of course an extremely impressive British Open with wins over Tarek Momen, Yousef Ibrahim and the 2024 World champion Diego Elias. Joel and I talk about having to overcome injury woes earlier this season to findi...

Ong Beng Hee is moving on from his role as US National Team Head Coach to start another chapter in his post playing career in Beijing China where he'll be heading up the Dream Squash Academy. Beng Hee is pleased with what the US National Team accomplished under his watch, namely the women's incredible runner up finish in the 2022 World Women's Team Championship and seeing the team gel as a unit at...

Fresh off British Open commentating duties, former world #4 and Squash and SquashTV legend Paul Johnson returns to the pod to talk about the incredible end to the 2023/24 season which saw dramatic results in both the World Championships and the British Open. PJ breaks it all down and we also talk a bit about the JB PJ Squash camps which are fast approaching. Check out the great sponsors of this po...