Our search for innovative ideas to solve squash’s participation crisis leads our reporter Mike Dale to a school sports hall in Luxembourg.
Marc Thrill’s mission is to get more young people playing squash. Like so many other volunteers and coaches around the world, he faces the problems of the game’s lack of visibility and access.
In our ‘Thinking Outside the Box’ article in Issue 2, we saw two simplified and easily accessible versions of squash (wallball and ‘squish’) used to stimulate children’s interest in hitting a ball against a wall, with opportunities made available to develop that interest at their local squash clubs.
In Schenghen, Luxembourg, volunteer coach Marc has also stripped squash back to its roots as a one-wall game in order to kindle a passion which later progresses to the four walls of a squash court.
Marc initially arranged to bus pupils from local primary schools to a nearby club for coaching but transportation became time- consuming and then Covid-19 intervened. Marc’s attention was instead drawn to a climbing wall in a school hall that had lost its safety certificate and wasn’t being used. He unscrewed the grips from it, painted it white and stretched red tape across its middle.
That first wall was only 3.5m x 3m and proved so popular that another one, full squash court-size, was added alongside it. Marc taped a coloured T on the floor and
lines to signify the side and back walls, for coaching purposes. He uses a red dot squash ball with juniors and a yellow dot with more experienced players.
While local squash courts remained closed due to Covid-19 regulations, the more open space of the sports hall was allowed to stay open and it flourished. Over 130 children have played squash on the walls since June, with 20 so far (mainly girls) progressing to coaching sessions at Schenghen squash club.
“The kids now come once during the school week and on Sunday mornings,” says Marc. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect it to work, but the situation is serious and needed an idea such as this. We can’t just keep waiting for
people to come to the squash club, the wall has to come to the people.”
He explains: “The rallies are not much shorter than on a squash court. Obviously, you can’t boast without a side wall but it doesn’t change the fun. The kids love the ‘bang’ sound the ball makes against the wood. Of course, it’s not squash as we love it, but it doesn’t make any difference to them. They all want to play squash now because of the wall.
“When I took them to the club, they said,
‘I don’t believe it!’ It was astonishing. They didn’t ask themselves questions, they soon learned the value of the other three walls. It’s quite unbelievable what they achieve after just a few weeks.
“It’s important to note this project didn’t require any investment from the commune [local authority]. Every sports hall has walls. If every venue dedicated just one wall to squash, imagine the number of people we could impact.”
Marc is an air traffic controller at Luxem- bourg Airport, an “intense and stressful” job which permit
s only short five-hour shifts with lengthy breaks in between. That gives him time to develop the region’s junior squash players and programmes.
The wall project is now officially endorsed by the Luxembourg Ministry of Education and they suppo
rted Marc in running training camps for PE teachers so they can deliver squash lessons on the wall and spread the word.
The wall isn’t just proving useful for begin- ners. Marc often coaches world No.52 Ineta Mackevica, the Latvian who is based in Paderborn in neighbouring Germany. The wall has added a new dimension to her training.
“As a professional player she was sceptical, but it worked,” says Marc. “She thrived in all the open space. We worked very hard on her volleys. I gave her a target on the wall and added a little basket to the side, so every time she struck her target, the ball went in the basket.
“It’s challenging for her and gives her a change. As a coach, I’m always looking for something new. When Ineta first trained with me, she was surprised at all the crazy things I invented to keep her mind fresh. The difference between top professionals is so small that doing something a bit different can help them find crucial solutions.”
He summarises: “We can’t wait any more for people to come to their local squash club. Most of them never go because they have never seen it. We have to give them the possibility to play a basic version of the game. The single wall idea is simply to get them to play. Once they play, we will get players on our courts. I’m 100% sure of that.”
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