Squash

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South Bank Club 124-130 Wandsworth Road, Vauxhall SW8 2LD
Tel - 020 7622 6866
8 squash courts.

Finchley Manor Squash Club Lyndhurst Gardens, Finchley N3 1TD
Tel - 020 8346 1327
4 squash courts.
Nearest Tube: Finchley Central (Northern Line)

Virgin Active Moorgate Club Bunhill Row EC1Y 8LP
2 squash courts.
Tel - 020 7448 5454
Nearest Tube: Moorgate

New Grampians Squash Club Shepherds Bush Road, W6 7LN
Tel - 020 7603 4255
Run by 4 times world squash champion Azam Khan and family.
3 squash courts.
Nearest Tube: Shepherds Bush (central line)

Southgate Squash and Racketball Club Walker Ground, Waterfall Road, Southgate, London N14 7JZ
Tel - 07904 300288
6 Squash courts.

Looking for a personal trainer in NW3 ? Click on the link and accellerate your fitness goals.

If you want a squash partner in your area, check out Fitness Buddy.

Fitness Training for Squash

Because squash is such a dynamic and high-intensity sport, you need to have a basic level of fitness before you play squash competitively. Otherwise you're likely to get injured. Hence the old saying - 'get fit to play squash, don't play squash to get fit.' Although you can certainly play squash to stay fit, and boost your fitness levels.

As in other racquet sports, squash requires several elements of fitness: aerobic fitness (ie cardiovascular fitness which means strong heart and lungs, as well as muscular endurance over a longer period), anaerobic fitness (ie explosive muscle strength and speed), core strength (vital to protect your lower back), and very importantly flexibility (particularly calves and hamstrings). So make sure your fitness training incorporates all these elements, so you have no weak links.

There's another aspect of fitness that is crucial in raquet sports, and that is proprioception. This means agility, good co-ordination, good balance, fast recovery from an unstable position, ability to change direction quickly and safely, and heightened mind-body connection. Like all aspects of fitness, you can train to improve your proprioception. The better proprioception you have, the more you're able to conserve your energy, and make every movement as efficient and effective as possible. And you'll reduce your chances of getting injured too.

One of the easiest proprioception exercises is balancing on one leg and timing yourself. Then do the other leg. And when this is too easy, do it on a wobble-board, or bosu-ball.

If you watch a cat leaping around and correcting itself when it's about to fall, that's a prime example of good proprioception.