Tyc cuts through squash development

THIRTY minutes on a squash court supposedly burns 1 000 calories and can leave you struggling to walk for days. It is a game of physical and mental stamina. Compared, at its highest level, to chess, it can exhaust and challenge the sharpest minds and fittest physiques.

Having recently moved from Walvis Bay where he was in charge of squash development for the Namibian Squash Association, Tyc Kakehongo, (Namibian number two), spends approximately eight hours a day coaching in the ‘Dunlop triangle’ of Wanderers, Klein Windhoek Squash Club and Virgin Active. I spent a few hours with him talking squash while he was coaching a group of youngsters at Klein Windhoek and then, at Wanderers while he was running the trials for the Under-19 Namibian squad to travel to Bloemfontein to take part in the South African Schools Squash festival.
After coaching for two hours at Wanderers and Virgin Active, it is now 15h00 and Tyc is almost halfway through his day.
‘There are only four today, but normally they are 18’, he apologises as soon as I arrive at the pristine KW courts in Eros.
‘When I was in Walvis Bay, I had about 80 kids aged 8 to 19 and here in Windhoek I’ve already got about 18. By June I think I will have 100,’ he told me.
‘There is more potential here because there are more schools and more interest. But these guys are keen,’ he adds with a smile as they return apparently energised for more.
‘I started playing squash at school in Oranjemund when I was 12. Back then the only sports on offer were soccer, soccer, soccer and soccer!’ ‘But,’ he continues, ‘it is a great game, it builds character and teaches you self-discipline and how to look after your body, and it is addictive and fun. Everyone should try it!’
But his role as coach working with the NSA is not just restricted to developing keen talent on court. He has the enormous task of developing the game outside of the traditional Namibian centres of Windhoek and Walvis Bay.
‘There are courts all over the country, in Ovamboland and Rundu for example, but the game here needs a better structure,’ he adds, but a lot of the time they are not being used.
Perhaps a greater challenge he faces, however, is the perception of the game being a ‘white’ sport.
‘One of my major goals is to try to have the sport reflect the true nature of Namibia today. It is still predominantly an elitist sport’.
This in spite of five of the recently named ‘Namibian Top 16’ being non-white and being a strong element of the national squash playing hierarchy.
His passion rising, he added: ‘We need government sponsorship, which is missing at the moment; I want to involve kids from previously disadvantaged backgrounds to play. There should be courts in Katutura… we need companies with long-term vision to invest and sponsor to make this a national game.’
At 17h00, I met up with Tyc at the Wanderers Club where he was drawing up the schedule for the Namibian trials for the boys’ under-19 team for the South African Schools. With all this teaching, has he hung up his competitive racket and become a poacher turned gamekeeper?
He added boldly: ‘I’m 30 now and I want to play at the highest level here until I’m 40 or older… There’s a guy at the coast Jaco (De Witt) and he’s 50-something and still beats everyone he plays. If I stay fit this will be possible too.’
Tyc mentioned injuries and overusing his right arm a few weeks back and I jokingly told him he should play left handed against weaker players.
It is now 18h30 and some of the trialists have started to arrive. Some are nervous and seem mesmerised by their laces. Others puff out their chests and begin the psychological warfare. All fall into a respectful hush when Tyc calls them together and explains the procedure for the trial.
‘Not all of you will be selected, but don’t be disheartened, everyone should take this as an opportunity to improve and learn about their own game,’ he tells them before starting the nine boys off on a round-robin tournament that will, by the end of the night, see four selected and five asked to go home.
Tyc brims with enthusiasm when he describes to me the importance of this event for junior squash and the under 13,14,15, 16 and 19 girls and boys teams he will take with him this year.
‘It is a major goal for the juniors to represent their country, and the only chance they have at the moment,’ he said.
Whilst the trialists speed around the court like wasps in a small bottle, Tyc tells me to watch out for top players like Andrew Forrest, Danie Greeff and Amy Van Der Bijl, who are the future of squash in this country.
It is now 19h00 and I can see Tyc’s patience with me wearing a little thin. I ask him when will we see a Namibian world champion.
He grins ruefully and sighs at the enormity of this task, which starts at grassroots level with him.
‘We can produce players to a certain level, but there isn’t the infrastructure in this country to take them further at the moment… to be among the top players in the world you need to have experience of playing abroad, and really testing yourself. We need to try and produce people like Marco Becker who is playing in the Bundesliga in Germany.’
Someone like Jade Pepler who won a scholarship through his squash to a top South African school and now plays for the SA Under-16 team is a start and shows perhaps the way to go, but really his goal is to get as many people playing as possible.
•Under-19 Team selected for the Bloemfontein tour: Andrew Forrest, Jason Forrest, Clifton Dawids, & Jan Wijgergangs
•Watch this space for more news about the Namibian squad’s preparations and how they get on in SA.
•Namibian Top 16 Squash event: March 13-15.
* Chris Buckland is a freelance journalist.