‘Overtraining hurting squash players’ fitness’

KARACHI: A former national squash coach has termed the unavailability of qualified coaches the main reason behind former number one player Nasir Iqbal’s injury.

“Nasir got his ankle ruptured (acute lateral ankle ligament) recently. This is why he has to skip key international events,” said the coach.

He added that Nasir got injured because of overtraining and fitness was not his issue. “He needed competitions,” said the coach.

According to research, over the years it was consistently shown that injury risk is slightly higher in squash (3.6, 3.1 and 2.0 injuries per 1,000 hours of play in 86–87, 92–93, and 97–98 respectively).

Similarly, Chard & Lachman have found out that squash players face more injuries (59%) in comparison with the tennis (21%) and badminton (21%) players.

The coach said that only qualified coaches can prevent players from such injuries but the current management of the national squash federation does not know anything in this regard.

“Our coaches do nothing but make players burn out their energies which is the key reason why our junior players have to discontinue,” said the coach.