One couldn’t argue with that, but I suppose it depends what you are comparing it with. Most of the girls in the class do dancing and majorettes outside of school time so that can’t be too ‘smelly’, but the boys nearly all play soccer – enough said.
This was a group of sixth class primary school children who have been getting free squash coaching at TCD over the last two years, courtesy of Irish Squash. Elvy Da Costa with the help of six Trinity students has given them a great grounding in the sport teaching all sorts of ball skills as well as how to score and ref the game.
‘Watching the coaches playing was a great experience for them,’ their teacher said. ‘They saw how to implement the skills which they were learning’.
These children are now leaving Primary School and may not get another chance to play squash for years to come, but having had such an excellent grounding at a very impressionable age there is a good chance that some of them will come back to it in the future.
A number of schools have jumped at the chance of the free lessons, but it is always a struggle to get schools on board as Squash is competing with so many other sports which have a higher profile and well financed sporting bodies behind them. Apparently school principals are inundated with calls from every sport one can imagine.
Irish Squash is to be congratulated on its efforts to promote the game of squash nationwide paying coaches to provide free lessons for any schools willing to make a commitment either during school hours or after school.
Deirdre Davys
