NEWS LETTER OF THE INDIAN
SQUASH PROFESSIONALS
(For Private Circulation only)
Vol 6 No 3 Issue No 23 July 2002
WEBSITE: www.ispsquash.com,
E-MAIL : squashindia@hotmail.com
| DIRECTORS: Mahendra Agarwal / NARENDRA GOUR (I.R.S.) / Chandrakant Pawar OUR HONORARY Members: Navneet soni (I.R.S.) / BHARAT BHUSHAN (I.R.S.) / SAIFEE JANI (M.D JANI SALES LTD.) RAJESH LIHALA (M.D SHIVA marketING LTD.) / RAKESH LAKHANPAL (M.D S.S KNITTING IND.) / MUKESH BABU (CHAIRMAN MUKESHBABU SECURITIES LTD.) HONOURED PATRONS: VIVEK NAIR (VC & MD THE LEELA) / SAJJAN JINDAL (vc & m.d JINDAL GROUP OF COMPANIES) • ADVISOR: P. K. VIJAYAKAR __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
| May 12th, Indian women team who had reached the historic finals lost tamely to mighty Malaysian team in the 11th Asian Squash Championship. The Indian women's team comprising Joshna, Vaidehi Reddy (who was adjudged the most promising player), Mekhala Subedar and Priyanka Yadav (reserve) shocked last year's silver medallists, Hong Kong, beat Korea, and finally strong Japan, to enter the finals.
It was the very first time that any Indian squash team reached a final of the Senior Asian Championship. This, in itself, is an achievement, as the two girls, Joshna and Vaidehi, are only 15 and 16 years old, respectively and were playing women over 24 years old In the men's event the Indian team settled for 4th position. |
 Silver Medallist Indian Women team (from left to right) Joshnachinappa, Vaidehi Reddy, Priyanka Yadav & Mekhala Subedar. |
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That great hope of Indian squash, 15-year-old Joshna Chinappa has come back fitter and wiser from a month-long training under super coach Satinder Bajwa. Baj, as he is popularly known, coached Jansher Khan to his world titles in the 90s. He is now the coach at Harvard. Bajwa belives Joshna has great talent. ''In my opinion she can be world class. However her overall approach needs to be refined in that she has to accept that her decision of wanting to be a professional athlete, does not come easy.'' Bajwa's work was centered around her PSYCHOLOGICAL development. ''Working with her was by no means easy and I am sure it goes both ways, but I was encouraged that she rose to the challenge the best way she could. I sincerely believe that if I was given the opportunity to groom her for 2-3 years, she would be one hell of player! Bajwa's formula for Joshna is simple. She needs to departmentalize her approach in three areas as follows: |
Technical:- natural and basic racket skills need refinement in terms of technique. Shot choices and selection needs to be understood better and last but not least she needs to execute with more purpose. ''Mind you she is by far the strongest in this department.'’
Physical: She really needs to work on her physical conditioning in terms of movement, recovery, stamina and speed around the court. In order to get better at this she needs to assess her nutrition and attitude toward fitness training. She is lucky, she doesn't have to worry too much about strength as she is very strong, so yoga and some circuit training along with plymetrics would be enough. ``I constantly reminded her about different types of talent and that she should acknowledge that it is indeed a talent to have the strength to go out and train without being pushed. IT CAN BE DONE!'’
Psychological: ''At present she has a strong mind -being young - that is still telling her what is cool and what isn't. She was told that making a statement about wanting to be a professional athlete, came with a lot of responsibility and risk, because being a professional means a lot hard work and sacrifice. It was made clear that she should mentally prepare herself by having a goal to achieve certain things within a certain time frame. This meant addressing her likes and dislikes and doing things that she may not enjoy, both on and off the court. This means being focused and driven, which means being mentally strong.'’
Her physical and psychological areas are both weak at present and I would rate them the same in that one is related to the other. Basically her mental attitude and/or approach can have a serious impact on her physical Development, which can in turn motivate her psychologically if she sees results.
I am a strong believer that if one has the natural technical skills, it is not hard to bring up the physical side. Joshna certainly fits that bill. However, it can only be done through by being strong psychologically.