Congratulations to Willie Hosey who retains his World Masters Title today in Hong Kong. Willie fought a hard and prevailed to beat top seed and former World No.2 Bret Martin in three games 11-9 11-6 13-11

WILLIE HOSEY

	Time	Draw				Score			Duration	Court
	Sun 7/6/2014 4:40 PM	Men 50+	Simon HO	–	William HOSEY [2]	5-11 2-11 5-11			0:14	Hong Kong Football Club – HKFC Court 5
	Mon 7/7/2014 5:20 PM	Men 50+	Giorgio SORIO	–	William HOSEY [2]	2-11 5-11 10-12			0:30	Hong Kong Football Club – HKFC Court 2
	Tue 7/8/2014 4:00 PM	Men 50+	Peter GILBEE [13/16]	–	William HOSEY [2]	3-11 6-11 9-11			0:21	Hong Kong Squash Center – SC Court 11
	Wed 7/9/2014 11:20 AM	Men 50+	Dale ROBBINS [5/8]	–	William HOSEY [2]	7-11 12-14 3-11			0:26	Hong Kong Squash Center – SC Court 9
	Thu 7/10/2014 1:40 PM	Men 50+	Jonathan CLARK [5/8]	–	William HOSEY [2]	13-11 7-11 9-11 5-11			0:35	Hong Kong Squash Center – SC Court 1
	Fri 7/11/2014 11:00 AM	Men 50+	Brett MARTIN [1]	–	William HOSEY [2]	9-11 6-11 11-13			0:24	Hong Kong Squash Center – SC Court 1

WSA WORLD TOUR NEWS

Nicol David Heads Unchanged World Top 20

1 July 2014

Malaysia’s Squash Queen Nicol David is within touching distance of her 100th month at the top of the Women’s World Squash Rankings after establishing her 96th month in a row – and her 99th of all-time – in the July list published today by the Women’s Squash Association (WSA).

The 30-year-old from Penang, who first reached No1 in January 2006, maintains a healthy lead of more than 1,000 points ahead of England’s Laura Massaro, the reigning World Champion who is celebrating her 16th successive month as the world No2.

Egypt’s Raneem El Welily is in third place while New Zealander Joelle King is at No4.

The highest ranking to change in the new list is No40 – the new incumbent being Egypt’s Habiba Mohamed Ahmed Alymohmed, the 15-year-old from Alexandria who in November became the youngest ever WSA World Tour title winner (at 14 years and 5 months) and last month won her third successive Tour final at the inaugural Paderborn Open in Germany.

July top 20 (inc. points average):

To all member entries are now being taken for the Welsh Junior Open 2014.

Please click on the following link for the invitation / entry form:

http://www.europeansquash.com/calendarevent/21538/Welsh-Junior-Open-2014-GP

Ever wondered why elite squash players seem to move so effortlessly and still have so much more time on the ball than the rest of us?

One of the defining characteristics of expert performance is perceptual skill and probably the most essential perceptual skill in open skilled sports, particularly squash, is anticipation. It is the anticipatory skill of the elite squash player that gives him or her all that the extra time and it is arguably the lack of this anticipatory ability that prevents many club players from progressing to the next level.

Photograph shows the experimental set-up from the study on anticipation in squash, undertaken as part of an MSc in Psychology of Sport and Exercise, by Henry Gillanders

A recent study by Henry Gillanders as part of an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology, provided some clues to the visual anticipation strategy of an elite squash player. The objective of the research was to identify the various visual cues used by an elite and a non-elite squash player, to assist him/her to extract information from performance environment and make predictions regarding the shot his opponent is going to play.

The research was a pilot study and limited in its sample size, however the findings were very clear. To summarize, the elite player used no ball tracking to predict the final outcome of an opponent’s shot, (questioning the advice given by most coaches to ‘keep your eye on the ball’!), he had a successful anticipation rate of 92.5%, and used most of the available time to extract visual information from the opponent’s racquet-head, head, shoulder, hips and leading leg, typically in that order.

All successful predictions were made before the opponent actually hit the ball, with an average response time of 178mm before ball contact. On one trial the prediction was made 360ms before the ball was struck by the opponent (that was when the opponent’s racquet was at the top of his back swing!).

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Photograph sequence above, showing stills taken from an ASL mobile eye-tracking registration system, demonstrating the elite players gaze pattern. The gaze moves through some of the key visual cues of the, racquet-head, head, shoulder and leading leg.

Anticipation is not a taught skill, but acquired by elite players through extensive and deliberate interaction with their sport “10,000 hours”!. It is hoped that by studying anticipation, that it will be possible to design training programmes to assist with the teaching and accelerate the acquisition of this vital skill in squash so that not only the elite players can benefit.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Kieran Doherty, Michael Craig, Lewis Kirk, Jacob Guldbäck, Jeff Hearst, Lisburn Racquets Club and Ulster Squash for their assistance with this research.

Galway Lawn Tennis Club in association with Racketlon Ireland are delighted to announce the country’s first ever International Racketlon tournament which will be held in the Salthill club over the weekend 20th-22nd June.

The West of Ireland Racketlon Open 2014 is an exciting addition to the club’s calendar and we are privileged to host the event. Racketlon is a sport for the racket enthusiast where you challenge your opponent in each of the four racket sports; table tennis, badminton, squash, and tennis consecutively one after the other in that order. For rules and regulations see www.racketlon.net

Racketlon Tournaments are open to all standards of player from novice to elite. Our elite Men’s and Women’s section which will feature some of the sport’s top players from Ireland, the UK, mainland Europe, and further afield. We fully expect that many of you will be a club player in one sport and may have little or no experience in the others, while some of you may have played all four sports at varying levels. The event will form part of the

International Racketlon World Tour with challenger status.

We are hoping for a bumper entry and are encouraging anyone who is interested in this new and novel sport to take the plunge and enter!

Venue

Galway Lawn Tennis Club, Threadneedle Road, Salthill,
Galway, Ireland.

Tel: +353-91-522353

web: www.gltc.ie

E-Mail:  [email protected]

The Board of Irish Squash would like to pass on its sympathy to Michael Hynes and his family on the recent loss of their son, Matthias.

A memorial mass for Matthias will be held this Saturday 14th of June at 12pm in Salthill Church. 

Michael is a past President of Irish Squash and Connacht Squash.

May Matthias rest in peace.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

Sean Conroy – Ireland’s latest professional entrant onto the PSA tour played in the Semi-finals of the Madrid Open against Christopher Andre (the no.2 seed) today but lost out to him –  Christophe Andre (FRA) bt  Sean Conroy (IRL) 11-4, 11-3, 11-3 (27m). This was agreat placing for Sean as he was a lucky loser from the qualifiers and came through the last 16 & 8 to make the semis. Very encouraging for Ireland’s newest professional.

The Madrid Open is part of the PSA World Tour and it takes place in Conbendai Castellana in Madrid. Spain’s capital is hosting the game’s up-and-coming players as they go head-to-head in an event that is set to delight Spain’s growing squash scene.

NOTICE

9^th  Annual General Meeting of Irish Squash Federation Ltd

This year’s AGM will commence at 2.00pm on Sunday, 8^th June 2014

in Irish Sport HQ, National Sports Campus, Blanchardstown Dublin 15.

AGENDA

1. Notice of Meeting
2. Attendance and Apologies
3. Minutes of 8^th Annual General Meeting of Irish Squash Federation Ltd.
4. Matters arising from Minutes
5. To consider for adoption the Report of the Board for 2013/2014
6. To consider for adoption the Audited Accounts for year ended 31st December 2013
7. To elect officers to the Board:

President

Chairperson

Hon Secretary

Hon Treasurer

Coaching Secretary

Junior Administrator

Masters’ Secretary

Refereeing Secretary

Senior Convenor

National Children’s Officer

1. To record the names of the one representatives on the Board designated by each Provincial Association.
2. To appoint a registered Auditor
3. To receive reports from the Provincial Associations
4. To transact any other business of which 21 days notice has been given to the Secretary.
5. Short statement by newly elected President

Note:

As is customary, it is intended that there will be a meeting of the new Board shortly after the AGM.

N.B. The Nominations of Club Representative and Alternative Representative; the Nomination of Representatives designated by a Provincial Association and the Nomination for Election to Position on the Board of Irish Squash should be submitted to the Irish Squash Office not later than 5.00pm on Friday 30th May 2014. 

Congratulations to Shelley and Derek Ryan on the birth of their new daughter this week. Born on Sunday 18th May both baby and mother are doing well. This is Shelley’s & Derek’s first child and all in Irish Squash look forward to a future women’s champion in about 20 years or less!!

Great news – Congratulations once again!