TRAIN EA-Z
A journey of a thousand steps begins with the first step !
TRAIN EA-Z (& play easy) is a training system specially designed & developed for children of ages 7 – 12 years old. It is designed for children to acquire the necessary strong foundation so that they can go on to develop steadily to higher levels of squash.
TRAIN EA-Z is systematically organised and consists of the following:
- Development Junior Stage 1 (8 Systems) – 12 weeks, 24 sessions programme.
- Development Junior Stage 2 – Continuous improvement programme up to 12 years old.
Development Junior Stage 1
Consisting of 8 training systems, this 12-weeks, 2 sessions per week module focuses on:
- Basic ball skills, sense & control.
- Basic racket movement skills including racket swing, effective power transfer & recovery.
- Basic court movement including posture, ball approach, hand-to-eye coordination & weight transfer.
- Coordination of the above basic skills in preparation for standard squash training routines.
- At the completion of this module, the expectation is that the trainees would have developed a reasonably strong foundation in the usage of the basic techniques & movement and the target is for trainees to achieve very basic ability to strike the ball at the desired target zones.
All trainees shall go through Development Junior Stage 1 as this is the basic foundation for future development and the most crucial phase for any beginner. It is recommended that even if the trainee has gone through some basic coaching before, it is critical to rectify any incorrect techniques at this stage.
Incorrect and bad playing techniques will always limit the development of the trainee and will be especially so at higher levels where efficiency is of immense importance. It must be understood that any incorrect techniques picked up during early development may take many months or even years to rectify. Trainees therefore must start the first step in the right way through a systematic & good quality training system and a competent coach.
For this stage, it is important that each trainee completes the programme in the right sequence and should achieve a minimum ability target for each system before progressing to the following system. It is recognised that there will be cases that some trainees would progress faster than others, so there will be some reorganizing and regrouping of trainees at the appropriate time and at the coach’s discretion.
Also, in this stage, it may be necessary to use junior rackets for the younger trainees. The weight and size of the junior rackets for such trainees will facilitate their ability to practice the skills more effectively.
Development Junior Stage 2
Consisting of 13 systems, this stage focuses on:
- Improving ball skills and control.
- Efficient racket & court movement skills.
- Basic ball striking & routine drills.
- Consistency in application of racket skills and fluidity of court movement.
Basic routines shall be introduced progressively in this stage with the intention to achieve the above objectives. There will also be close and continuous observation of the foundation skills which were developed from Stage 1. If there are any incorrect techniques displayed by any trainee, they will be promptly rectified by the coach.
Administrative & Monitoring Program
As part of the TRAIN EA-Z system, there are essential component of activities that support the complete operational and administrative system. They are as follows:
- Athlete Development Record (ADR)
- This document is designed to monitor and track the progress of the trainee during the respective development stages.
- It will also contain essential information such as training attendance and participation history of competitions as well as the trainee’s achievements.
- This document includes coaches' reviews, recommendations and development plans for the trainees.
- Coach Evaluation Form
- This document is designed to evaluate the competency of the coach on the quality of programme delivery.
- It is also used for the assessment of coaches through other feedback channels.
- There will be plans and recommendations for upgrading of coaching knowledge and skills of the coach.
- Targets & Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
- This document is designed to measure targets and KPIs.
- The targets and KPIs will be realistically set and shall be quantifiable.
- Preliminary indicators under consideration for TRAIN EA-Z are trainee attendance, success rate on completion of training system within the specified time frame, achievements in age group competitions and success rate of trainees progressing to represent their respective secondary schools.
- TRAIN EA-Z Checklist
- This checklist is designed to facilitate and guide the coach through the training system so that the conduct of the respective tasks and activities are well organised and will not be overlooked.
- It will also consist of a training plan by the coach, systems to be conducted for the training session and the expected attendance of trainees.
- System Audit Process
- There shall be an audit process to ensure that the process of TRAIN EA-Z and its administrative support system have been adequately complied with by the administrators and coaches.
- The training system will be assessed on meeting the planned targets and key performance indicators (KPI).
- It shall also contain recommendations for continuous improvements and refinements of the whole training and administrative system.
