A Look Back At The U. S. Junior Team's Performance
by Rob Dinerman
August 9, 2006-The
2006 U. S. Junior Boys team performance in the biennial World Junior
competition, held this year in New Zealand, came to a chastening
conclusion late last month, from which the overmatched Americans
emerged winless in the team Pools competition (prior to which not one
of the eight Americans who entered the Individual tourney survived the
second round of the 128-player draw), 13th in the overall team
standings and with all four members of the team roster hobbling with
injuries by the end.
Although team members Mark Froot (who reached the final of the Plate)
and Reed Endresen played exceptionally well and the official finish
represented a statistical one-spot improvement over the 2004 14th-place
result, it needs to be remembered that three countries---namely Wales,
Mexico and Kuwait---that placed ahead of the '04 squad didn't enter
this '06 event, and that Hong Kong, which narrowly nosed out the U. S.
in the 13th-place match two years ago, rose to ninth place this week in
what was considered a smaller and slightly weaker draw than its '04
counterpart.
Notwithstanding a series of upbeat in-tournament reports, some forceful
though unsuccessful lobbying for higher team seeding during the
late-July tournament fortnight from some of the U. S. coaches and,
confoundingly, a post-tournament USSRA August E-Newsletter praising the
U. S. Individuals results as "stellar"----a marked contrast to the
forthright manner in which the Malaysian "New Strait Times" and the
Indian "Hindustan Times" sharply criticized the under-achievements of
their respective squads, both of which wound up way ahead of the U.S.,
in fourth and seventh place respectively----the inescapable conclusion
is that the substantial amount of time, money and focus that the USSRA
has been devoting to Junior squash, whether through happenstance or
misdirection, has simply not to this point been able to generate
anything better than mediocre results whenever this kind of world
competition rolls around.
This is true despite significant increases in numbers of junior
competitors in the USA, many appearances in international events by
various USA junior players, and an ongoing "talent infusion" of high
quality, world class coaches into the private club scene of the
northeastern USA, where most of the US junior players and team members
are based.
Given the host of additional problems currently plaguing the USSRA
(which recently lost its USOC funding, approximately $100,000 worth;
has been at best stagnant in terms of membership growth for more than a
year, both in terms of clubs and individuals; owes some substantial
bills; and has just made the controversial decision to raise its
membership dues in what could be a double-edged attempt to repair its
worsening financial position), the psychological boost of a standout
Junior-teams display would have been considerable, had it occurred.
Instead, it is now very much back to the drawing board for a USSRA
Junior program whose sore and long-apparent need for a better-organized
and more comprehensive system was proven out yet again in New Zealand
this month.
Why this very visible lack of progress?
Reigning and two-time S. L. Green champion Julian Illingworth, who led
American teammates Christopher Gordon, Michael Gordon and Nick Chirls
to a 7th-place finish a student generation ago in 2002, recently
addressed this issue in an article revealingly sub-titled "Why Are All
The American Kids In The Consolation Of European Tournaments?" in which
Illingworth persuasively contends that the current crop of U. S.
teenagers are, if anything, OVER-coached, relying too much on
private-club lessons from high-profile coaches without doing enough
conditioning or training, or getting enough competitive tournament
experience. American juniors and their coaches and parents also appear
to be too ranking-conscious (often with college admissions in mind) and
not focused enough on what will improve their games in the long run.
In addition, almost everyone associated with Junior squash seems to
agree that the four-member U. S. squad----which this year consisted of
Trevor McGuinness, Froot, Endresen and Todd Harrity, every one of whom
suffered a leg injury at some stage of the tournament, with McGuinness
(ankle) and Froot (shin splints) both forced to the sidelines for
several team matches---needed to be practicing together as a team for
much longer than the one month they actually spent as a group prior to
traveling overseas. Instead, timing and money constraints limited both
their ability to grow as a unit (the teams from England are routinely
training together for a full year prior to the World Junior event) and
the scope and benefits of some of the specialists that were generous
enough to contribute to the U. S. effort.
One such individual, Damon Leedale-Brown, based for the past 10 months
at the new Reflex Squash Club in downtown Wilmington, DE, spent the
full prior decade as the lead sports physiologist and conditioning
coach of English squads at both the junior and senior elite level. The
4-5 late-June days that he spent working with the American juniors,
considered one of the highlights of their pre-tournament efforts, would
doubtless have been even more valuable had they not occurred just 10
days before the team left for New Zealand, by which time Leedale-Brown
(who had nothing but praise for the efforts and enthusiasm of both the
team players and coaches) was understandably constrained in how much
intensive conditioning work he was able to put the players through so
close to the start of the tournament. With the English juniors, by
contrast, Leedale-Brown was able to put in place a progressive training
plan and conditioning program for the players (and tailor his
instructions to the individual needs of each team member) a full year
in advance of the World competition.
Hopefully, the USSRA going forward will be able to apply lessons like
the foregoing, along with Illingworth's compelling thoughts and what is
also generally accepted as the need for more disciplined and less
haphazard training and practice habits, in a manner that will lead to a
better end result in the fierce competitive cauldron of World Junior
and Senior tourneys. Doing so will require determination and foresight
on the part of everyone involved, as well as an "on the same page"
unity of purpose that has not always been present in the American camp.