Squashing all his opponents a serve at a time
Alex Palmer welcomes us on the court as he tells us why he is so passionate about squash.
A squash court that has no sighting of Alex Palmer is clearly one that lacks the excitement the sport needs to thrill you.
The paper recently spent some time with the teen at Emmarentia-based Chamber Exiles Squash Club, where he looked at home on courts he has played on since he was about 11 years old.
Now 17 years old, Alex says he was inspired to start playing the game after watching his father play. “It was something I could play in my spare time and also just knock the ball with him when he had some free time.”
Initially, squash did intimidate him. “The main thing of how to mitigate all of that is to just play more.”
Now, because of the confidence gained, he meets competition days chanting one mantra, ‘believe, believe, believe’. This mantra has helped him approach an opponent – be it one he could possibly beat or maybe one he probably won’t beat, with the belief that he will win.
It was at this year’s interprovincial tournament held in Stellenbosch that Alex surpassed himself. He played in the U19 category, even though he is U17. “I was playing with guys two years older than me, and I was a bit worried and intimidated by them but surprisingly, I managed to win a lot more than I thought I would so I was very proud of myself.”
Though he has no plans of going professional, Alex’s goal within the sport is to be as good as he can be. He sees squash as a great way to keep fit and make friends along the way.
To his peers – he encourages you to give it a try. “If you go with a friend who knows the sport they will show you how to play it; you will eventually learn quick enough that it’s not that intimidating, and it turns out to be fun.”
He explained that his club is one of the smaller ones based on the number of junior players they have. However, he uses this to his advantage as here, he is able to learn a different kind of squash. One he says you could term as ‘old man’s squash’ as it is more of a thinking game rather than the ‘typical junior game’ that sees one just hit the ball as hard as they can, “This is how I have managed to do so well because my game is so different, and it needs me to adapt to it rather just get used to it.”
Along with other great attributes, the sport has helped Alex navigate through difficult days as it’s on these courts that he can let all his frustrations out. In September he will head to Nelspruit for a competition and he plans to do well.
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