Squash is not a NEWMAC sport – but the same supportive college environment that produced 20 fall sport NEWMAC scholar-athletes helps the Smith College squash player succeed at both squash and academics!

Unlike other teams which pressure students with practices five days a week – so far this season the Smith Team has only been practicing three times a week – with days off (today for example is Otelia Cromwell day at Smith – a day that celebrates diversity) to help with academic pressure.  At Smith College, the average athlete GPA is higher than that of the general student body!

Squash training is very carefully planned by Head Coach Tim Bacon, former Canadian Jr. Men’s National Coach (he took the team of Jonathon Power and Graham Ryding to the 1990 World Championships in Paderborn, Germany).  He is the only college coach with a Master’s in Coaching, who is also a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and a Registered Mental Training Consultant – as well as being a Level 4 Squash Coach.  Every detail of training and competitions carefully planned out – here is a copy of the Smith College Squash team’s annual “periodized” training plan for 2011-12:  How good do you have to be to play for the Smith College Squash Team?  Here is our #1 in action last weekend on World Squash Day.  We are working on Jacqueline’s “Pakistani” or “Egyptian” wrist flick/snap (she is from Singapore:) and her deception – a lot of work to do, but she is learning quickly!

How good are the Smith College academics?  Better than Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc. if you measure success according to the number of Fulbright Scholars! Smith College is ranked #1 in the U.S.

P.S. In case you did not know (I have been getting a lot of letters from International male squash players looking for a great U.S. College:) Smith College is a women’s college.  If you are a high school girl worried about “no boys”, you can relax - there are boys at Smith – they take classes at Smith, you can take classes with them (more than 10,000 of them in our 5-College system!) at their colleges (a short bus ride away) – take a look at our “Boys At Smith” YouTube series.  we are about to publish “Part IV” since coach Tim Bacon (the only college coach who teaches academic courses!) has two more in this semester’s Psychology of Sport Class!

What was the topic of the first practice?  Smith Coach Tim Bacon, the only Level 4 Certified Coach with a Master’s Degree in Coaching in the world (and he is a Registered Mental Training Consultant and a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) introduced his team to the two tactical models the team will use to base their improvement plan on:  “The Egg Model” and the “System 3″ zone model of tactics.  These models guide players in the shot selection based on the tactical context a player finds themselves in when about to play the ball (e.g., on defence in back of court with difficult ball).  The latest motor learning research has shown that a “tactics first” approach accelerates learning and improves match performance.

How and why was Smith able to start so early, and why are none of the other teams practicing?  According to Bacon “the NCAA rules concerning season length are the single most important factor in the extremely high America College athlete injury rate“. “Although well-meaning, no one in the NCAA has the sport science background to understand proper training planning and methodology – they are only administrators – the result being rules that restrict season to very short lengths – almost ensuring inadequate athlete preparation and high injury rates prior to very intense competitive seasons”.

Many universities and colleges further contribute to high injury rates by further reducing the period in which athletes can train and play under coach supervision – for example the Ivy’s start their season on October 15, and the NESCAC schools on November 1.

A former coach, sport scientist and coach educator in the world-reknowned Canadian National Coaching Certification Program, Bacon has personally helped train more than 30 world champions, including an Olympic Gold Medalist in a number of sports. He took advantage of the NCAA Division III rules which allow every team (except those in conference that impose more restrictive restraints) to have a 19-week season.  Recognizing the need for periods of regeneration and the need to take into account academic stress (since it contributes to overall training stress), Bacon did not include the weeks of Fall Break and Thanksgiving Break in his official season.  He also uses a progressive start to scheduling practices – starting with twice a week and moving to five times a week, allowing his athletes time to adjust to both academics and squash – a very smart approach to College Squash!

Here is the team relaxing at the end of last season – Ben & Jerry’s at the coaches house!

Smith has already received acclaim for its excellent food, beautiful campus, innovative science programs (such as Engineering), welcoming approach to International students – and Fulbright scholars – so this is another jewel in the crown if you want a college where you can play squash.  If you are a high school student who is looking to play squash and live in a dorm like a palace, click this link and find out more about Smith College!

This is a great example of the type of “women leading” activity which is part of the Smith College philosophy – only available at a women’s college!

Here is a sampling of what the rest of the Smith College Squash Team is doing this summer:

• Right after graduating co-captain Guyman went to Rwanda to lead a group of high school students in work projects to aid the local children;
• The team’s other graduating co-captain is buy studying for MCATs to get into Med School;
• Catie Blunt, Xi Zhao, Szilvi B. Kiss were all working in the Smith Science labs (Smith has one of the top science programs in the country) – Catie managed to flood one of the labs she was working in (sorry – no pics!) – Northampton is a beautiful place to spend the summer!
• Clair Oblamski is interning at StreetSquash in New york City!

We will update what everyone is doing in college squash in our next post!  In the meantime if you have any questions about college squash or Smith College academics, drop head coach Tim Bacon a line (tbacon@smith.edu) – Tim has been busy doing professional development including a) working on a second strength training qualification Tim is the only College Squash Coach who is a NSCA Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist; b) he filmed the finals of the Women’s Junior World team championships between Egypt and the U.S.A. and will be analyzing the matches using Dartfish (he is the only Dartfish Trained Head College Squash coach) and publishing a report of the tactical tendencies of the two countries.

Ironically, you can get into some of the Ivy league schools, often regarded as the U.S.’ top  schools with only average grades if you are a really good player – thanks to a practice where a team is given 1-2 “picks” by their Admissions department.  Some might call this “cheating”, since this option is not open to all of the college squash programs – therefore creating the opposite of a “level playing field” (one of the Fairplay Principles).

Smith College, the largest women’s college in the country, is one of the toughest schools to get into if you play squash – particularly if you are an International student.  Smith is one of the Seven Sisters colleges – formed at a time when the sexist Ivy leagues refused to admit women!

The accompanying article talks about how 15% of the Class of 2015 are international students – two of whom will be playing for the Smith College Squash Team!   Jacqueline Zhou from Singapore, and Vivian (SunWoo) Lee from Korea, are one of only a handful of recruited squash athletes admitted to Smith over the last 17 years. Along with the return of three Smith students who were abroad for most of the season, they will form the nucleus of a team that is looking to move up 10 spots in the CSA 2012 women’s rankings.

How good a school is Smith College?  Over the last six years, Smith has produced more Fulbright scholars than any other U.S. college!  The Smith College squash team has featured the “best” scholar-athletes in the country the last two seasons (most scholar-athletes in 2009, top GPA in 2010).

If you play squash and are a good student you can contact Head Squash Coach Tim Bacon for more information about Smith College and playing for the Smith College Squash Team.  Tim (tbacon@smith.edu) is the only U.S. College coach who is a full member of the Faculty who teaches academic courses – and his Squash Coaching blog is the ranked #1 in the Google rankings.

Smith Squash Grads 2011

Yesterday, Tim was late to practice as his beloved MINI was in for servicing – with an unpredictable pick-up time combined with bad traffic from the dealership in Hartford leading to his absence from practice.  Here is a picture of Tim in his MINI Cooper “S” with then World #1 Karim Darwish and World #19 Miguel Angel Rodriguez.  Tim was Director of Coaching for the PPS squash camps at Mercersberg Academy in PA last summer. 

In this short video, Head Smith Squash coach Tim Bacon explains his coaching philosophy that is designed to advance the leadership skills of the Smith College Squash Team.  Szilvie B. Kiss, who has only be playing since January, stepped up and got the team organized in Tim’s absence – a triumph for Tim’s coaching philosophy.

Smith College girls came out ranked #1 in the College Prowler’s “College Rankings for Smartest Girls” rankings published earlier today!

This puts Smith College ahead of such squash-playing schools as (in order of ranking): Stanford, Mount Holyoke College (our Seven Sisters neighbor), Yale, Bowdoin, and Cornell – but we knew that already as the Smith Squash Team has had more CSA Scholar-Athletes and the Scholar-Athlete with the top GPA for the last two years!

The Smith Squash Team, entering week #2 of their “Spring Training” mini-season, is also “self-directed” (one of the team’s core values).  During the mini-season, Head Coach Tim Bacon runs two practices (Monday & Thursday), and the team gets together and run their own practice at the Athletics & Recreation Department’s Squash & Racketball Rec Play.  Here they are mixing up the top and bottom of the team ladder playing 3/4 court:

I had to laugh at the post, entitled, “A Guide to Identifying the Origin of the Male in Your Smith College Class”, as the article was absolutely correct in their stereotyping of male students from Amherst College, Hampshire College, and UMASS Amherst that attend Smith classes.  My memories of these guys in my classes (as I teach academic classes in addition to coaching the Smith College squash team):

Amherst: one year in my Psychology of Sport class, three guys from the Amherst hockey team registered, and they always sat together.  They were actually all bright (they all got “A”s) and a little preppy.

Hampshire: one year “Mickey” from Hampshire, blond-streaked, scruffy hair – he was a professional mountain biker.  He ended up dropping the course but I ran into him at the Haymarket a few years later – he had opened his own bike shop and was doing very well.

UMASS: I have had a couple over the years in different classes, but the last two did wear baseball caps – and in fact – both were baseball players (one took my Psychology class and the other my Coaching class).  They both did a great job and got “A”s

If you believe in these stereotypes you can test yourself – watch the trailer above and guess which of the main characters goes to which of the colleges in the Smith College neighborhood – then check out your answers here (fourth paragraph down).

Here is Joe from UMASS just being “one of the girls” in a micro-teaching session during my coaching class (he gets nailed in the head with a b-ball:):

International Parents:  no need to worry!  In addition to being one of the safest (safer than the Ivy’s!) college campuses and towns in the U.S., Smith has a great Public safety Department and offers a multitude of self-defence courses (including courses for academic credit) and the very well regarded R.A.D. System.

Very few college squash teams have assistant coaches as qualified and experienced as the Smith College Squash team’s Erin Robson!

• Erin was the Head Coach of Squash and Tennis for Division III’s top team William’s College, leaving in 1997 to raise a family.
• Erin is one of only two Division III squash coaches (Smith Head Coach Tim Bacon is the other) who hold’s a Master’s in Coaching – there are no Division I head coaches with an M.A. in coaching.
• Erin has been the Head Coach at Smith on two occasions – as a graduate student in Smith College’s MSc. in Coaching program (prior to Williams) and during Tim’s medical leave to have a hip replacement during the 2008 season;
• Erin has assisted at Smith for the past two seasons (see her coaching Alice Reznickova – GPA 3.99 in the video below) at last season’s Howe Cup, and also for a couple of year’s in the late 1990′s – including one season where she coached until her 8th month of pregnancy!

Tim Bacon discusses Erin’s contribution to the success of the team:

“It is wonderful to work with a coach who totally understands our approach and what we are trying to achieve, and can just jump in at any point no matter what the coaching topic!  Erin also brings a very different perspective to the type of feedback she gives to the team – always positive and always constructive.  Lastly, since we are running the team at a women’s college, it is very important to have such a great female squash role model.”

Most of the U.S. college trams are in Northeast – we just finished a record snowy winter!

But that is all behind us as it looks like spring has arrived while the students have been away on Spring Break (leaving the coaches behind slogging away on administration:)

Smith Coach Tim Bacon has been busy updating the team’s blog – and with a few posts this week has moved the team into the #1 spot on Google!  If you punch in “college squash” this site comes up first in the search – ahead of the defunct SquashTalk college page (which has been lingering around), and ahead of the College Squash Association’s official site.

Not only that – Dan Tudor, who runs a company helping college coaches recruit student athletes, reckons that our blog is one of the best in helping prospective high school students figure out where they want to spend their four years at college.

Maybe the Smith College team will have the chance to do a few runs outside when the second part of their season starts on Monday – team bring your running shoes!

So if you are an international student considering Smith College – no need to be afraid – the winter will end, and you will spend many months at school with great, moderate weather!