SquashTalk>Columns>Team Kneipp > Squash Year from Kneipp's Perspective

Joe Kneipp on the Doubles Court.  SquashTalk  Photo © 2004 Dan Kneipp

The 2004 Tournament of Champions again signals the first event of the year
that has a 32 man draw and the majority of the top players present. It's
usually the first Super Series event of the year and a good reason for us to
look back on what we've endured in the last twelve months on the squash
circuit.

The 2003 squash season has already been well reviewed by Martin Bronstein.

Our review is a very personal look at what Team Kneipp has had to endure and what has been involved for us for 2003. This article was supposed to be finished by early January, but too much eggnog over Christmas, and some statistics that were painstakingly hard to collate, has led to the delay.

Joe Kneipp sweating.  SquashTalk  Photo © 2004 Debra Tessier

Throughout 2003, because of squash, we've flown 229,714 kilometres and
travelled to Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Bahrain, Bermuda, Boston, Copenhagen,
Dayton, Den Haague, Doha, Dubai, Edmonton, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Koblenz,
Hanover (US), Ingbert, Ithica, Lahore, Linkoping, Luxembourg, Marburg,
Muscat, New York, Nottingham, Paderborn, Paris, Prague, Rhode Island,
Seville, Sheffield, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Toronto, Vienna, Weert, Zeoetermeer,
Zwolle and a few other places I'm sure we've have forgotten.

Dan and I have gone through 6 broken racquets (four accidentally, two from
fits of fury), 2 racquet bags, 2 big wheelie bags, about 150 balls, 120
yellow Pointfore grips and approximately 431 metres of racquet string. We've
written a staggering 87 821 words in 59 SquashTalk articles. We've laced on
12 different pairs of Asics shoes including running shoes, cross trainers,
and some of their trendy casual line --- the Onisuko Tigers.

Most of the top pros played around 10 or 11 tournaments for 2003. Of the
guys in the top 50, Amr Shabana played the most tournaments (14) and Stewart
Boswell played the least (4), because of injury. At 11 tournaments (Dayton
Open, Swedish Open, Tournament of Champions, Qatar Masters, Spanish Open, US
Open, British Open, Canadian Open, Qatar Classic, World Open) I played a
fairly typical number.

During those 11 PSA tournaments I played 23 matches, stepping on court with
Shahier Razik, Olli Tuominen, Rodney Durbach, David Palmer, Olli Tuominen,
Gregory Gaultier, Ong Beng Hee, Borja Golan, Peter Nicol, Nick Matthew,
Jonathon Power, James Willstrop, Paul Price, David Palmer, Liam Kenny, Alex
Gough, John White, Lee Beachill and Thierry Lincou (some guys more than
once). Of the 23 matches I won 12 and lost 11. I won 38 games, lost 34,
breaking down to 907 points in my favour compared to 853 points against.

Over twelve months I've still only played 11 PSA events. Considering this is
less than one tournament a month (and unfortunately some tournaments only
consisted of one disappointing match), this makes it seems like there isn't
much squash going on. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I've played Dutch league matches against Pastijn, Fitini, Keenan, White, Van
de Boogaard, Galifi, Iskandar and Abbas.

I've played German Bundesliga matches against Schwarzer, Jawaied, Lavigne,
Baker, Davis, Gough and Bianchetti.

I played a few matches in English Super League. I played an invitational
tournament in Bermuda, losing to Lincou after beating Chaloner. I won an
invitational tournament in Luxembourg and another in Marburg, Germany. I
beat Karlsson, Razik, Chaloner and Lavigne to win the Estonian Open. I
played hardball doubles in the States, teaming up with Brett Martin in the
Kellner Cup to beat Steve Scharff and Damian Walker, then Ned Edwards and
Jeff Stanley before losing to Scott Butcher and Jeff Osborne. I played three
more hardball doubles matches in November's Cambridge Invitational
tournament in Toronto.

As part of the Australian team at the World Team Championships in Vienna we
beat Japan, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Egypt and then
France in the final.

On top of all of this squash I had training or exhibition matches with lots
of players including Palmer (about 20 times), Amr Shabana, Lucas Buit,
Martin Heath, Nicol David, Jonathon Power, Janne Kytannen, Uwe Peters, Olli
Tuominen, Nick Matthew, Pamela Nimmo, Todd Wood, Borga Golan, Hansi Wiens,
Simon Parke, Ryan Donegan, Josh McDonald, Duncan Walsh, Lucky Odeh, Ron Beck
and many others. I?m not even going to go into the hours Dan and I have
spent on court in excess of this. So I may have only played 11 PSA
tournaments, but there has been plenty of squash in 2003.

We've got a record of the number of court sprints I did throughout the year
as part of training, but collating that will just depress me and increase my
urge to not do any more. Instead I'll look at a very odd statistic for 2003:

Of the guys in the top 30 I'm probably the heaviest sweater. Bozza is the
only player who sweats anywhere near as much. This isn't a good attribute to
have. It makes the racquet harder to hold onto and increases the likelihood
of dehydration and cramping. Peter Nicol hardly sweats at all --- a physical
advantage that he happily lists. I lose approximately four kilograms of
sweat during a really tough match. I'll use this figure to look at PSA
matches (and I sweat more during a two-and-a-half hour training session than
a one-hour PSA match). Taking into consideration that of my 23 PSA matches,
only about 18 of them were really tough, throughout 2003 during PSA matches
I lost approximately 70 kilos in sweat! Just imagine if I add training
matches and league to that figure.

THE DAN FACTOR
And finally to round off the Team Kneipp 2003 review I'd like to touch on a
personal note. My brother Dan has worked with me for the past two years.

Joe Kneipp gets advice from Brother Dan.  SquashTalk  Photo © 2004 Debra Tessier

For the eight years that I was a squash pro prior to Dan working with me, I had only had four months where my ranking was better than 20. January 2004 has marked the 18th month in a row (of the 24 that he has worked with me) that I have been ranked better than 16, with the past twelve months averaging between 12 and 13.

Within the first twelve months of working together my ranking went from the 30s to a career best of 11. I made the Australian senior team for the first time and won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games for mixed doubles.

Within the 2nd twelve months of working together I made the semi finals of the World Open (my previous best was 2nd round), won the World Team Championships with the Australian team and broke the top 10 for the first time. I would like to publicly thank him for the help he has given me. In 2005 he will be basing himself in the US to coach - people should be knocking down his door to get his expertise.

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