Squash Gala Day
Skill focus: Playing as a team
Session equipment
Racquets
Balls
Rebound walls
Markers or cones
Gala day draw
Download Squash - Gala day activity card to support teaching before and during the sport session.
Fast start - Student choice
Choose one of the Fast starts played in the Squash unit to use as a warm-up for the Squash gala day competition.
Squash gala day
Organisation
In the week prior to the gala-day, students may be given time to create signs to support their team at the gala-day.
Explain the organisation of the matches being played using the gala day draw below. Each game will be approximately 3 minutes.
Select a student from each team to be the team captain for the gala-day.
Give students 5 minutes to meet as a team to decide on starting positions and strategies for their first game.
Gala day draw
Use results in 'Squash results spreadsheet' to determine the team who finishes the round games in 1st position, 2nd position, 3rd position and 4th position.
Student engagement
Semi-final 1 and Semi-final 2 should be played at the same time if teacher supervision allows.
The teams who were unsuccessful in their semi-final can play an additional game for third and fourth place.
Alternatively, students may take on spectator and officiating roles, such as:
time keeping
side line official
scoring
ground control
Rules and guidelines
How to play:
Players in their teams, each with an allocated rebound wall (court).
The first two players have a full shared court rally, started by a bounce serve.
The winner of the rally gets a point and the first player to 5 points (or highest number of points scored within the set time period of 3 mins) wins the game.
Players rotate so that everyone gets to play each other in the group, keeping track of how many games they have all won
The players who are not playing with the game can help keep score and make sure that “lets” are being played for any interference.
Scoring:
At the end of each 3-minute game, the player with the highest score (or first to 5) are given 1 point. Eg. Team 1 beats Team 2 five points to three – team 1 are awarded 1 point.
Rules:
INTERFERENCE RULE - If a player thinks they may hit their opponent with the ball or racquet, or the ball hits their opponent, Stop and play a let. You then replay the point.
The ball must be served direct to the front wall. After a good serve, the players must return the ball to the front wall alternately until one of the players fails to make a good return.
A return is good if the ball, before it has bounced twice on the floor, is returned by the striker onto the front wall without touching the floor.
After striking the ball, a player must make every effort to get out of their opponent's way.
Reflection
2 stars and a wish
Ask students - what are 2 things you feel you did well today?
What skills / strategies will you take away from squash that you can use for our next sport?
Students can answer reflection questions as a whole class, small group or in pairs.
Squash certificates
Teachers may choose to award students with certificates for their involvement in the Squash unit.
Certificates available for download include:
Sport education teaching resource feedback
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