Be a better athlete
The use of a balance board enhances your agility and your ability to adapt to changes in external factors when doing sports. Often it is significant for you to very quickly change the direction of movement while not losing your balance. Another significant ability is the understanding and control of the body through improving proprioception – the sense of feeling and understanding the position and movement of the body, its balance, and the notion of force. Our body uses this sense for all activities; therefore, we need to train it – balance board eases the process and our body is more prepared for the change.
Improve your balance
The balance is an ability to maintain secure on both stable and unstable ground either when you are resting or doing an activity. This is a very significant part of our training process and daily activities, as well as it enhances our overall health and quality of life. The use of a balance board speeds up your balance improvements, as it is more effective than doing stability exercises on the ground.
Reduce the risk of trauma
In sports, a large part of trauma comes from the loss of balance and coordination. As mentioned before, training your balance allows you to better adapt to changes in movement, as well as improves the strength and stability of your joints. A dislocated ankle is a very common trauma in football, basketball, soccer, rugby, floorball, volleyball, etc. A research found that a 6-week training with a balance board reduced the risk of a repeated dislocation of an ankle up to 12 months. Therefore, the use of a balance board can be used in rehabilitation for speeding up an athlete’s recovery.
Boost your brain function
The improvement of balance and posture goes hand in hand with improvements to your vestibular system, as well as concentration abilities when doing various tasks. A research done by Dr. Jean Ayers used a balance surface for people with disturbances in their sensory system. The stability of participants’ body, muscle strength, and coordination enhanced, as well as their control of eye movements, speech, and concentration – their neural network was activated.
Challenge your progress
The training on a balance board can be done at various levels of difficulty. First, it is important to hold on to a standing position that can be a challenge at the start. Second, you can start to test your stability by starting to move your arms in vertical or horizontal movements. After that, you can use some sport’s equipment, such as dumbbells, gymnastic rubber or any exercise that would make your training more effective and challenging. You can include it in your daily basketball, volleyball, floorball (or any other) training to improve your competitiveness.
Develop your deep muscles
The deep muscles can be found anywhere in your body; they ensure the stability of your spine, chest, and pelvis. Any movement we do is based on these muscles keeping our body stable. They are significant for keeping us out of the risk of trauma; they need to be trained because we tend to spend more and more time sitting at our computers. It can be found in various researches that approximately 80% of people will face low back pain and for 20-50% of those people, the pain is chronical. In the short-term, core stabilization exercises done on a balance board are more effective than therapeutic gymnastics for reducing low back pain. When your deep muscles are active, your proprioception and balance senses are improved. Standing on a balance board strengthens your core and reduces the lower back pain.
Enhance your posture
Today, incorrect posture is very often observed, as most of us are sitting on our phones, laptops or by the TV. We work, we study and even the little ones are preferring phone screens to outside activities. Most often we do not realize the position we are sitting in – our head is leaned towards together with our shoulders, and our back is arched. That leads to more and more people asking for help from physiotherapists. They are facing various consequences, such as back pain, headaches, muscle pain, limited movement, and others. exercise on the balance board will not only strengthen your muscles but also improve your posture.
Become stronger
The strength of the muscles can be trained in various ways. One of the most popular is lifting weights; however, training muscles is teamwork. For it to be more effective, all the muscles need to work, and they need to work together. The unstable feeling and exercises on a balance board will activate all muscle groups more than it would when standing on the ground. All your muscles will work together, as well as your joints; your position will be stable, as your strength and quality of movements will improve.
React faster
The use of a balance board trains your response and reaction to changes in the external environment. Your body can react fast by effectively using the power of muscles that is useful for various sports. The speed, efficiency, and effectiveness come together with training on a balance board.
Give your child a try
The development of balance and coordination starts at an early age when a child is starting to lift the head, standing on the elbows, crawling and walking. These activities are developing in the first year and keep improving, as the child learns how to run, jump, ride a bike, dance, climb, etc. When they enter school, their daily activities change and often children develop back arches, uneven heights of shoulders, incorrect postures or even back pain at an early age. More children have reduced coordination and balance than in previous generations. A balance board can be a good solution, as children learn fast. It is fun and exciting while it significantly improves health.
BEFORE GETTING STARTED
TO GET STARTED
Let's talk more about grips, difference between them and how often do we need to change them?
There are few parameters we need to know:
- type of grip - main grip or overgrip
Overgrip is used to cover the main grip - more popular in tennis, less often used in squash. Suitable for players who like a thicker racket handle.
Main grip - used as main grip - here you can also adjust the thickness of the racket handle by winding itself - end-to-end or overlapped.
- the material from which the grip is made
The most popular grip is made from PU (polyurethane), less common is grip made from leather. PU grips are much cheaper, but they need to be changed quite often. Leather grip is expensive but durable.
- Thickness, color and perforation
It's a matter of choice - just try out different grips and find out which one you like more.
The main question is when is it time to change the grip. It depends on how often you play and how much you sweat while playing. But the principle is - fresher-better. As soon as the grip becomes dirty, slippery or scrubbed, then immediately change it. I will share one life-hack with you - it is better to choose a white or some light color grip - dirt is better visible on it (as opposed to black). As soon as grip gets dirty, you will quickly want to change it.
Squash is a very fast moving sport, so every detail is important.
]]>What are these nuances in squash?
Firstly, squash is indoor sport, we need indoor (non markable) shoes. Outdoor running shoes will not suit here.
Secondly, squash is a very dynamic sport, means there are a lot of chaotic movements in different directions, respectively, the shoes should hold the foot well and protect against injuries such as dislocation, for example.
Thirdly, squash is a very energy demanding sport, so the shoes should be light and comfortable. Try out running for an hour in heavy, uncomfortable shoes.
And last but not least, squash is a very gambling and contagious sport, means you will play often, so you need hardy shoes.
If we are talking about shoes brands, feel free to choose from such manufacturers as ASICS, SALMING, EYE RACKETS, KARAKAL, TEUTON, PRINCE, ADIDAS, BABOLAT.
]]>ifferent colors - colored (yellow, orange, green), white and black. You won’t see colored balls in the club very often, but if you don’t have glass court you won’t see also white squahs ball. Anyway since there are such balls, let's speak about them also.
COLORED (also called JUNIOR squash balls)- oversized to standard sized balls with increased bounce. They are mainly used when playing with kids who are just trying squash.
WHITE - standard sized balls. They are mainly used on glass courts. Reason is that white ball is much more visible in the video than the black one when playing on a glass court.
BLACK - classic, standard balls. Let's talk a bit more about them, since they are most popular both during training and on tournaments. There are 4 main types of black balls - with BLUE DOT, with RED DOT, with one YELLOW DOT and with TWO YELLOW DOTS. They all differ in rebound - the ball with a blue dot is the most bouncy, then it goes ball with a red dot - it is less bouncy, then it goes ball with a yellow dot - less bouncy then red one and the least bouncy ball is the ball with two yellow dots.
If you are just starting to play squash - take the "blue" or "red" ball - such balls you dont need to heat, they jump well anyway. Feel the bounce, understand the trajectory and speed of the ball. You need time to understand how the ball moves. When your game will start to improve, there will be a need for a more difficult ball, so just switch to a black ball with one yellow dot - a great option for club players. Such a ball is often used even by high-level players in order to get longer rallies in the game, as well as this ball is used in the cold season. Finally, the black ball with two points is the most difficult and at the same time the most interesting ball with the minimum bounce. This ball must be warmed up before playing. When you hit the ball it becomes hotter and softer, with better bounce.
And last but not least, there are a number of squash ball manufacturers. All these balls are quite similar. Balls from Dunlop are the official balls of all tournaments, but there are also balls from Karakal, Pointfore, Viktor, Tecnifibre, Eye, Prince, Oliver, Wilson etc.
There are two types of people - some try to play squash first and then buy a racket, others buy a racket first and then try to play squash.
It doesn't matter what type of person you are, anyway sooner or later you will need a racket.
Which racket should you choose? What parameters should you check? What is the ideal racket? Let's figure it out.
There are several factors to look for when choosing a racket - manufacturer, weight, balance, color, racket head shape, racket material and reviews / recommendations.
Let's start with the material - there are aluminum, composite and graphite rackets, but we can forget about aluminum and composite rackets and look only at graphite if you want to buy a good racket for yourself. Despite the fact that aluminum and composite racquets are very durable, they are quite heavy (weighing closer to 200 grams and up). Means it won’t be very comfortable to play. These rackets are good for trying the squash game, but no more.
Weight - is one of the most important parameter for racquets. By the way, when we are talking about the weight of the racket, which is indicated in the technical characteristics and on the racket itself, is the weight of the racket frame, means, without strings and without a grip. Therefore, do not be surprised if the actual weight of the racket is a bit more than the declared weight. When choosing your first racket, we advise you to pay attention to rackets from 125 to 150 grams. By the way, the lightest racket in the world weighs only 90 grams and this is the Karakal SN-90 FF racket.
Balance - there are head-light, head-heavy and evenly balanced rackets. Head-light rackets offers great maneuverability - it is good for volley and flick shots. Head-heavy rackets are good for power.
Head shape - there are two types - Teardrop and Round (classic) racket shapes. Teardrop rackets have a larger sweet spot, so they are more gentle in the game and offers more power. Classic racquets have a slightly smaller sweet spot, so they are more suitable for experienced players who looking for control.
Manufacturer - the following racket manufacturers are popular among squash players - Karakal, Tecnifibre, Dunlop, Prince, Unsquashable, Head, Wilson, Ashaway, Black Knight, Eye Rackets - any of these rackets are an excellent choice for both club level players and professionals.
Color or appearance is the most important thing to look at when buying a racket, especially your first racket. It should deliver you positive emotions every time when you take it on court.
Reviews and recommendations - on the one hand - you don't need to listen to anyone, on the other hand, it's nice to play with the racket played by your favorite professional player. After all, this is also a kind of recommendation.
To summarize - choose several visually attractive rackets weighing from 120 to 150 grams. If you really like a 110-gram racket, do not dismiss it right away, check it too. If there is an opportunity to test, for example if the store is in a squash club, then go to the court and make a couple of hits with each racket. If not, take a closer look at the players, maybe someone is already playing and can give you test the racket. In any case - our opinion regarding first racket - visual appearance is more important than technical characteristics.
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