‘Squash Heroes Open 2017’ first tourney a success
KUWAIT: The First Squash Academy for youngsters in Kuwait held its first “Squash Heroes Open 2017” tournament in complete triumph and joy this weekend.
Last Thursday, Squash Heroes Academy hosted a fierce and a joyful competition among 52 players all under the age of 13, who were divided into four categories, (A,B,C and G) all playing at the Squash hall building at Kazma Sporting Club (KSC), with organizers in high spirits carrying their tournament slogan, “At Squash Heroes, We Are Family.” The tournament winner of class A, category for the most skilled and advanced players, regardless of their age but must be up to 13 years, was Ammar Askar, 11.
The winner of class B, which lists the second best players, was Abdulwahab Al-Badah, 12 years old.
The winner of class C, which was a category for players below 11 years old, was Wafa Al-Qatami, seven years old. The winner of class G, a focused group on young girls only, was Jana Al-Khurafi, 13 years old.
In an interview with KUNA, academy creator and Kuwait’s Squash National Team player Shamlan Ali said it “was a joyful and a beautiful time to be able to organize the event, the first tournament for the academy with such amazing players.”
“We established the academy after I returned from studying abroad. Before graduation, I was in the US and I was asked by Kuwait’s Squash national team Coach to help as an assistant in setting up the academy in Kuwait, I was reluctant at first, but since I was in the US I was able to review the types of structure of squash academies, the culture of competition created for youngsters, how the academy works in general,
and goals for each system, and how each academy creates hero players, or even for those who want to play the game” said Ali.
“Later, when I returned home, I decided to make it a full time job and establish the academy, and it became official on July 10th 2017, the idea behind the academy was to bring awareness, especially to kids, to the world of racket sports, like Tennis, Squash, Badminton, Table Tennis to all over Kuwait,” Ali added.
“My vision was to make squash a game more recognizable to children between the ages of six years up to 13 years old,” Ali added.
When asked why did the academy picked these particular ages as a condition to be able to register for the academy, Ali said because it is the prime time for kids to learn the needed skills, and to become fit for high-level training, whether at a professional level, or just to be able to practice sport for the rest of his or her life.
On a different front, establishing an academy do faces different and wide range of problems, since it is a new concept. Ali noted “at first when I established the academy, we had to deal with various issues, things like choosing a local staff for the academy, to find Kuwaiti trainers was a must, and the reason for that is because we wanted to have the strongest connection between the kids and trainers as possible.
“Again children usually come stressed out already after school or from home, and we wanted them to have fun playing such sport,” Ali said, stressing that with Kuwaiti trainers “we were able to understand more the conditions of each player.”
“We don’t try to push them hard in training. One of our main goals is to become close to players, like their older brother,” Ali added. Other problems they faced was a procedural one such as in dealing with various organizations, such as traditional sporting clubs in terms of acceptance to academies in general.
“Squash heroes’ academy was in a different club at the start, and we did face obstacles in the beginning, but later when we moved to Kazma SC procedures got easier. Reserving training courts was another problem, but I don’t blame the clubs for this, because it’s still the academy as a concept was new to adopt.”
However, Ali said now “there are two other Squash academies established, and I think Qadsia SC will be having one soon.”
Squash Heroes was the first academy in Kuwait, when asked about other rackets sports academies Captain Ali said there are three Tennis academies in Kuwait, but sadly none for Badminton so far. —KUNA