From March 18-22, Squash BC was thrilled host former PSA World #1 and current Cornell University Head Squash Coach David Palmer for an exciting week of development events for our high-performance juniors and coaches. David led 36 of BC’s top junior players through a four-day training camp and gave 14 coaches the opportunity to learn from his experience in a coaching development day.
This camp not only provided a platform for our junior athletes to refine their games but also served as an opportunity for them to draw inspiration from Palmer’s fantastic career and invaluable coaching experience. David and Squash BC Provincial High Performance Coach Richard Yendell had the juniors hard at work all week with both on and off court activities. David also led lunchtime learning sessions for the older groups, giving them further opportunities to learn from his experience. The juniors also got to work with Squash Canada Manager of Player Development and former top-ranked Canadian Sam Cornett, who assisted with the first day of the camp.
Prior to the camp commencing, David led a full-day coach development workshop for 14 of our coaches from across the province. The coaches had opportunity to learn from one of the world’s greats and bring a new perspective back to their local communities. The session covered mental, physical, tactical, and technical development, drills David uses regularly with his athletes, and an engaging Q&A session.
Finally, on Wednesday evening, Squash BC and host facility Jericho Tennis Club put on a series of Exhibition Games featuring local pros against the former World #1. While David came out on top in all four, the lively crowd was thrilled to see the local favourites put up a good fight! The event raised money for the Squash BC Gudewill Fund for Junior High Performance Development. You can help Squash BC support our high-performance juniors with programming like this camp and training and travel bursaries by donating to the Gudewill Fund today.
Squash BC thanks David Palmer for making the trip to Vancouver for this camp, and for leading incredible sessions throughout. He provided valuable training and development for our juniors and coaches that we can’t wait to see the impact of going forward. We would like to also thank Richard Yendell for organizing and coaching the camp and the Jericho Tennis Club for hosting all events.
We look forward to bringing our High Performance juniors together again for more training opportunities this summer and beyond!