Studia Kinanthropologica

Studia Kinanthropologica 2023, 24(1):7-12 | DOI: 10.32725/sk.2023.010

Indicators of game performance and strategy at the women’s elite squash level

J. Carboch, P. Dušek

Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta tělesné výchovy a sportu

In squash, various strategic and tactical situations arise where the player has to decide how to react and what type of shot to choose. The rally pace is not established in squash. The aim is to find out the game characteristics and rally pace in elite-level women’s squash matches at Professional Squash Association tournaments.We watched video recordings of women’s matches at the elite level of squash. In total, we analysed 10014 shots in 11 matches. The average number of shots in the women’s matches was 12.4 ± 2.5, and the tally pace reached 1.39 ± 0.05 s. There was no statistical significance between winners and losers for the rally pace of specific shots. In terms of shot frequency, the female players hit the backhand shot in 64 % of the cases, and the most common error was when the player hit the ball too low onto the front wall (63 %). These observed game indicators show the characteristics of game performance at the elite women’s squash level. In practice, these pieces of information can help coaches and female players to develop training units and strategies.

Keywords: notational analysis; game performance; tactics; rally pace

Received: January 29, 2023; Revised: April 13, 2023; Accepted: June 26, 2023; Published: September 27, 2023  Show citation