I have been following Squashskills.com since its inception. I like their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter and am now a subscriber to their website. When they first started up I enjoyed watching their initial videos. I was very excited when Peter Nicol signed on. Where else on the web could you get tips from one of the top professional squash players of all time? I envisioned the site growing in to one of the top squash resource sites on the Internet. Now that they have launched their subscription based site I believe they have achieved that.
I thought about purchasing the subscription a bit before I actually paid for it. I created an account on the site so I could view the free videos. Some I had seen before some were new. The quality was certainly better than most squash videos on the Internet so that was definitely a positive. I went through the different sections of the site and liked what I saw. In particular I read “The Story of Squashskills” and am really impressed with their vision for the site. I also liked that at launch they were focusing on a particular topic for one week and progressing through the various aspects of the game. The video library is structured that way as well. You can randomly just browse the videos or you can select a particular area of interest whether that is videos from Peter Nicol or videos on the forehand. I really like that feature, being able to find videos on the topic that I want to watch easily by just clicking on the topic and being presented a set of videos that match.
I liked what I saw so I decided to go ahead and purchase. I have gone through the new videos on the forehand and backhand to start with. I am very impressed with them. The videos are very high quality. What I like the most about them though is listening to Jethro, Lee or Peter discuss the topic of the video and why they are teaching that particular shot or skill. The videos themselves are well laid out. The coach discussed the skill they are focusing on and particular aspects of it. They then demonstrate the skill and you typically get to see it from different angles and speeds. I find it particularly helpful to see the shot in slow motion with the coach describing what is happening throughout the swing.
I am excited about the V1 section of the site as well. I have not used it yet but having the option of creating a video using the V1 app for the iPad and sending that to Peter Nicol or Jethro Binns for analysis is pretty exciting. Technology is a wonderful thing and having it allow us access to world class coaches from afar is tremendous. The V1 software gives Jethro or Peter the ability to slow down your swing, see the good and bad parts of it and recommend improvements. This will be of real value to many players I am certain.
Squashskills.com has now officially launched and is live and I am happy that I have subscribed. I think it will prove to be valuable to all levels of players. Do yourself a favour and register for an account, review what the site has to offer and if you like what you see, like I did, subscribe for full access.