Canterbury squash stars shining on the national stage

Thursday, 4 July 2024

The intensity can be felt even behind the glass – in every drop of sweat, every swing of the racket and every bounce of the ball.

A battle of the mind just as much as the body, squash players prepare to lock in for a hellish yet exhilarating 90 minutes.

Jayden Millard, Chris van der Salm and Jackson Beresford have been hitting balls for more than half their lives and are still driven by a desire to win.

The bond between the three is tangible. Coach and players riff and banter, but the humour is undercut by a ferocity witnessed only at the highest levels of the game.

They are close comrades on the practice courts but fierce competitors when victory is on the line.

“There’s an aggression against each other, but there’s respect, and that’s the beauty of sport,” veteran coach and former player John Brown said.

Squash athletes’ fitness levels are unrivalled by any other, according to Brown, and he lets his players know it.

Students are forced to endure countless reps of pacing up and down the court, smacking balls against the wall, and doing ladder drills.

While monotonous on the surface, it is necessary to attain precision.

When asked about his motivation, van der Salm said: “Winning … everyone plays as competitively as we do because we love the battle, and we love ideally winning the battle.”

For elite players, the training regime is unrelenting, demanding about 12 to 13 sessions a week.

“If you’re mid-season, you’re probably hitting every day, and then your fitness work and stretching most days as well,” Millard said.

The slow grind is in constant pursuit of that winning feeling, a feeling both Millard and van der Salm experienced following their New Zealand doubles victory in Christchurch earlier this year.

Millard called it the highlight of his career.

While the boys fell just short of lifting the fabled Cousins Shield this year, the unbreakable bonds created were just as important, Brown said.

“You walk into a busy place with lots of people around and they’ll just give you the nod, they give you that respect.”

The rigorous squash schedule left no time to dwell, as van der Salm looked forward to the National Squash Championships this week.

“I’m feeling good and I’m playing good squash… I’m going in there with nothing to lose and nothing to prove.”

“For me personally, it’s [Cousins Shield] given me a few things to work on … it’s given me a bit of motivation to do a bit more.”