Squash Coaching

Connie Barnes (Director S&H Squash cbarnes@sportandhealth.com ), an Australian Coach, is Sport and Health’s Director of Squash. In this position she oversees squash programming throughout the 22 center Sport & Health enterprise, which includes six centers with squash courts. Connie played Squash at State grade level in Australia for 15 years before arriving in Bethesda in 2002. As well as her corporate duties Connie still coaches adults and is very active in the Sport and Health junior program which has 8 school teams and over 200 individual participants. Connie’s on-court achievements in 2004 include winning the Fisher Cup Women's Div 1 Cup, and the Potomac Fever  Women's Division and 4.5 Men's Division. Connie played in the A Division  on the Women's National Teams event (the Howe Cup) 2002-2004 and the annual Lacy Cup which she captained 2002-2005.

Shahid Khan (All clubs skhan@sportandhealth.com (202) 321-8052 )

Doug Baumgarten (Worldgate dbaumgarten@sportandhealth.com (301) 448-5499 )

Matt Dankner (Bethesda and Regency)

Matt is currently one of the top players in the Washington DC area (5.5+).  He has coached for the Princeton Squash Training Center and the University of Rochester men’s squash team.  As assistant coach, he trained and worked with former world #3 and current U.S. Junior Men’s Head Coach, Martin Heath.  During his tenure, the team climbed from 25^th to 16^th in the national collegiate rankings and won the CSA Barnaby Trophy for most improved team (2007).  Additionally, he was honored as part of the Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year (2007). 

Saif Ullah (Juniors and Women) is based at Regency Sport and Health and assists in areas such as Junior and Women's squash.  As coach for the Cooper Middle School and Langley High School, Saif places a strong emphasis on the basics of squash, like grip and stroking technique, and is a patient and wonderful motivator for the kids. A former Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) player, Saif has played tournaments around the world and now uses his tennis and squash experience to provide excellent squash instructions, especially with those players transitioning to squash, or wanting to play both sports.
 

Sports Medicine

Dr Steven H. Bernstein, MD is a board certified orthopaedic surgeon.  Steve is a 1995 graduate of Brown University Medical School. After finishing his Orthopaedic residency at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, he completed an Orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship at Washington University where he was assistant team physician for the St. Louis Rams, Blues, and Cardinals. He remains active in team coverage and is currently the head team physician for Division IAA Bowie State University. He also maintains his affiliation with the St. Louis Cardinals and travels to Jupiter, Florida to provide medical coverage for the team during spring training.

After practicing for three years in Silver Spring, Dr. Bernstein moved to Chevy Chase to join this practice in August, 2004. Dr. Bernstein practices general orthopedic surgery including trauma, hand surgery, foot and ankle, as well as pediatrics. He specializes in Sports related injury and arthroscopic surgery involving the knee, shoulder, and ankle. He has particular interest in shoulder instability, anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, patellar instability, and meniscal repair.

Volunteer Assistants

Dr Rod Barnes.  Rod learnt to play squash through the 1980's in Brisbane, Queensland during a golden era in Australian squash. Rodney and Brett Martin, Rodney Eyles, Chris Robertson, Tristan Nancarrow and many others that played in Brisbane through that period went on to be some of the world's top players. Rod chose a different path through life, sitting in an office chair, throughout this easy lifestyle he has made a habit to find time to get out on the court and whine about how much joint pain he is in, suggesting that lesser men would be in wheelchairs. To his credit he has maintained a state grade standard for 25 years and in his 40's still holds close to a 6.0 NCSRA rating, remaining one of the top players in the tri-state area.  Rod has a "real job" providing technical support to the Government, working with Riverside Research Institute in Rosslyn, VA. Rod is the President of Aussienick, and a dog's body for Queen She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.

Jeff Wollstien has been one of Australia's leading coach educators for over a decade. Whilst an AIS Squash Coach in 1991 he first became a member of the National Coaching Committee (NCC) in a voluntary capacity and has served continuously for the past 15 years. He has acted as Chairman of the NCC in 1992-1995 and more recently from 2001-2005 in his role as NCD. Jeff has been a prolific publisher of technical articles and coach education material for the past 20 years covering topics such as:
. fitness training;
. anticipation in squash;
. timing structure in squash strokes;
. mechanical analysis of squash swings;
. The Squash Australia Level 1, 2 and 3 Training Documents.
After 6 years of practical and theoretical course work, Jeff attained
the highest level of coach accreditation in 1998 receiving the ASC High Performance Coaching Award.

Squash Special Guest Assistants

Mohamed Awad (Summer Camps), was born in 1955 in Alexandria, Egypt and at the age of 15 he started playing squash. He quickly took to the game and by the time he was 18 he had won the Alexandria and Cairo opens, and by 19 he was a member of the Egyptian national team. In 1983 the Egyptian team won the world team championship.  Mohamed was brought to squash by his father, who was also a famous player and trainer. Mohamed, along with younger brother Gamal Awad who reached #2 in the world, toured the world with Mohamed peaking at #9 internationally. Since 1980, after a couple of years in Sweden, Mohamed has lived in Germany at Berlin, Bremen and Munich. Since 1993 he is the lead trainer in the Parkclub Nymphenburg.
 

Lisa Camilleri lives in Northern Queensland, Australia and won nearly every honor possible to a Queensland junior squash player whilst growing up.  She was also named Queensland Player of the Year in the seniors in 2004, 2005.  Lisa is currently ranked #64 on the Women's tour (WISPA) and is coming to the US in 2007 to try and improve on that. She will be basing with Sport and Health Jan-March and has graciously agreed to do some play the pro sessions and have hits with the members when she is available through that period.

Mike Corren is a South Australian native who rose to #38 on the PSA rankings in 2004. He started his playing days in Australia  before basing in New Zealand then Europe through the mid-late 1990's.  Until recently Mike was coaching in Salt Lake City, but is now in Auckland recovering from injury. Mike has vowed to come back stronger in 2007 and attempt to regain a top 40 spot in the world rankings. Part of this journey will include some time based in our region and we are very much looking forward to that. Mike is also pretty handy at swapping the racquet with a pen or keyboard and can spin a ripping yarn. Fortunately for us he has agreed to write a series of articles for AussieNick.

Connie at USSRA Level 2 Class with Mark Allen, October 2005.

For Pro tips: ASK WALLY and Others!

AussieNick, a squash information center for adults and juniors based on the Potomac in the USA, with an emphasis on meeting the needs of squash players in the Washington DC, Suburban Virginia and Maryland regions. It was created to provide information about Junior and Adult squash, coaching, equipment, pro tips and more. AussieNick programs are associated with squash courts at RIO (Rockville and Gaithersburg, Maryland), Tenley (North-West Washington DC), Bethesda, Regency (Mclean, Virginia), Arlington and Worldgate (Herndon and Reston areas, Virginia) Sport and Health Clubs.