Trinity-Harvard:
Mens Report
Womens Report

Brown Women Train in Amsterdam

by Phoebe Anderson, Jan 20, 2004 © 2005 CSA and SquashTalk LLC

"Over winter break, the Women's Squash team took an exciting training trip for nine days to Amsterdam. Ten members of the team joined their coach, Stuart le Gassick, and assistant coach, Shay Lynch for a rigorous yet memorable experience in the Netherlands.

As co-captain of the Women's Squash team, I was privileged to spend my senior winter-training session abroad in Amsterdam. We were so excited as we reunited after winter break at Logan Airport and anxious about our first international adventure as a team. Our coaches helped us shake off the jet-lag by having practice after our naps on the first day.

We were lucky to have stayed at Amstelpark, a sports facility surrounded by a beautiful park and lake. It was convenient to stay in the same complex as the courts and we enjoyed getting to know the restaurant staff who saw us maybe more than they would have liked!

Our main training coach was former world ranked player, Ellie Pierce, who conducted some practices and acted as our city guide. Ellie - the Former US National Champion had two other world ranked women's players help with a couple practices - former World #2 Liz Irving (AUS), who is now coaching in Amsterdam, and World #20 Annelize Naude (NL). Ellie set up matches for us with Dutch players, men and women and they were fun to play. We were grateful to get to know our opponents and had many things to discuss, always having squash as our starting point.

The team really took advantage of our free afternoons, by visiting the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, going on "The Heineken Experience," touring the city by boat, and one Brown player even had the courage to rent a bike and compete with the thousands of aggressive Dutch city bikers!

We got the most out of our visit to Amsterdam. Our muscles were sore throughout the trip, we learned new skills from the professionals who worked with us, we were able to familiarize ourselves with a new city, and we will have lasting memories of our time together in Amsterdam!"