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Squash movement involves lots of side to side steps and changes of direction. Use these ladder exercises to help improve your lateral movement about the court in matches.
Start by stepping into the ladder with your inside foot. Then replace it with the outer foot and put the first foot out the other side the ladder. The foot in the ladder is then placed forward into the next rung and then replaced with the outer foot and so on. To help you get the rhythm you can use the mantra IN TOGETHER OUT, IN TOGETHER OUT. Increase your footwork speed as you improve and also try to avoid looking at you feet!
As your speed and coordination improves you can increase the lateral distance moved to work your leg strength, core strength and balance more. Remember to keep within safe limits for your ability as this exercise does put pressure on your leg joints in particular your knees.
One key point is to bend your knee on landing to absorb the impact and hold for a split second before pushing off again. As you jump over a greater distance the 'hold' is slightly longer. This helps to develop your strength and balance. It is important to stop the session when you tire to the point where the quality of movement is suffering.
