Racquets Junior Open 2018 helps Racquets Juniors enter the National Rankings
Over the weekend of 12/13th May 2018 72 children from across the country travelled to Racquets Fitness Centre in Thame to compete in a National Ranking squash tournament.
The tournament was for juniors aged U11 through to U19 for both girls and boys. We had Local junior players supported the event and featured heavily in the draws, but the club also saw players travelling in from as far as Yorkshire to try and win ranking points to increase their National rankings.
Full tournament results can be found on Sporty HQ
www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Bronze-Racquets-Fitness-Centre-Junior-Open
As well as making an impact on national rankings, the tournament proved a fantastic opportunity for local and developing players to compete against a wide range of juniors from across the country, an opportunity many of them hadn’t experienced before. Tournament director and coach Simon Martin highlighted “It is great to see so much young talent emerging from players as young as 8 years old – some whose rackets are bigger than them!, using tactics and fitness to win matches. It was great to watch!”.
In particular, a number of Racquets own youngsters were involved in the younger age categories, looking to gain experience from the weekend as well as have fun! Racquets Junior Head Coach Chloe Marshall runs the junior programme at Racquets which is made up of over 40 juniors, across beginner, improver and elite level. The junior squash academy runs 6 days a week to make squash accessible to all, and to cater for our keenest players!
As well as encouraging the kids to participate in tournaments, Chloe and her team of coaches promote play through a junior awards scheme as well as regular use of an internal squash ladder. Juniors as young as 6 are involved with the match play system which enhances independence as well as match rules and tactics. A group of the academy will be visiting Tring Squash Club next week to watch professional squash players play in a professional tournament. Hopefully they will pick up plenty of tips!
A special well done to Academy members Anthony West and Dylan Gonzalez who finished plate winner and plate runner up in their first ever England Squash tournament! Chloe commented “both juniors have shown fantastic commitment to their squash, turning up to training as much as 5 times a week! It’s great for them to have each other as training partners, it will help their game immensely to have strong training partners!”. Allegra Michopoulou, William Seddon and volunteer coaches Ollie Cartwright, Molly Woods and Amelia Leslie also competed in the event, and helped out tournament organiser Simon with tournament organisation over the weekend.
Racquets Fitness Centre runs squash sessions for toddlers, juniors and adults of all standards, both group and individual. Equipment can be hired or purchased at the club.
For your free squash trial call a member of the Racquets team on 01844 261754 or email info@racquets-fitness-centre.com
