Squash - Home
Australian Sports Commission
Squash is a sport of stamina, speed, aerobic fitness, agility and delicate touch. Elite squash players are also mentally agile and commanding tacticians. Today's top squash players reached the pinnacle of their sport through training programs that strengthen all these aspects of a player's game. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), the coaching team of Commonwealth Games Silver Medallist and former World Doubles Champion Byron Davis and former World Champion's Rod Martin and Michelle Martin are perfectly positioned to provide athletes with such a training program.
About AIS Squash
The AIS Squash program was opened in January 1985 in Brisbane and since then has produced many high profile players, including a number currently in the top ten. The current coaches are Head Coach Byron Davis and High Performance Coach Rod Martin, both former AIS scholarship holders.
Squash was one of the first decentralised AIS programs, and since the establishment of the program in 1985, there has been a vast array of experience in the coaching area of the program, including former squash greats, Geoff Hunt, Heather McKay and Ken Hiscoe. Geoff Hunt was Head Coach of the program for over 19 years and in that time the program has established itself internationally as the world’s leading elite squash program.
The AIS squash program has developed players that have won many of the major championships in the world including the British and World Opens numerous times. The AIS has also contributed to the success of teams at major international competitions including wins in the World Men’s, World Women’s, World Junior Boys and World Junior Girls Championships on multiple occasions over its 21 year history. The AIS squash program was most recently successful at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006 where it’s current and former scholarship holders achieved a record 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze medal haul, a record for any nation at the Commonwealth Games.
The consultants for the program are linked to the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) and specialise in the area of sports medicine, physiotherapy, sports psychology, nutrition, strength and conditioning, and massage therapy. These consultants provide the AIS Squash program with the expertise to develop the skills of elite athletes so that Australia maintains its reputation of producing world-class squash players. Scholarship holders therefore have access to world-class services in a number of areas.
The 10 scholarship holders, whilst residing in Brisbane, stay in apartments close to the training venue at Hibiscus Squash Centre. Other facilities utilised by the AIS athletes include the QAS gym at Mt Gravatt.
Ha Neul Kim