A Chat with Annelize Naude - What a journey…
Not many people can call three continents their ‘home’.
Former South African and Dutch National Squash Champion, Annelize Naude, is getting settled in Brooklyn, NY these days. But Annelize grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she started playing squash and trained as a successful junior. She alsoe represented South Africa in the Commonwealth Games whilst also studying to get her Bachelor’s degree in Sport Management.
Later Annelize moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands, to pursue her full time professional squash career. It was here that she gained further expert knowledge of the game and professional training methods after training with Liz Irving (former world # 2) in her Squash Academy for more than 10 years.
Naude jumped at the opportunity when a full time Squash Professional position came open at the Heights Casino in Brooklyn which was one of her favorite stops on the WSA tour. To work as part of such an elite team in a well established program with 160 kids is a great opportunity.
The club is known for their top international professionals and she is currently working with Linda and Laurent Elriani and Omar El Kashef. Their international experience is key to the success of the program which has produced a number of Ivy League college players and many highly nationally ranked junior players throughout all the age groups.
Linda Elriani feels that they have one of the strongest coaching teams that they have ever had at the Heights Casino and a huge part of that is having Annelize join them and said:
“Annelize’s exceptional ability to read the game of squash and pass on her extensive knowledge and expertise to our juniors has benefited them all no end. She has an amazing patience and gift to teach the juniors and they respond so well to her and consequently their love for squash grows along with their ability to play and understand the game on many levels. We are so lucky to have her with us”.
Working with Juniors
The ‘Gold’ Nationals are the finale of the junior squash season for the top thirty two players in the US in each age group and they are being held at Princeton University from March 6-8th.
Annelize is currently very busy preparing the nearly thirty Heights Casino juniors that have qualified to compete. In this area, Annelize is truly gifted and helps all the Casino juniors to have a strong mental approach before and during their matches, having astute tactical awareness and game plans, good footwork and racket skills, elite fitness sessions and amongst all of this, creating a wonderful ‘team’ environment where they all support and help one another whilst training and also during the event.
“Brooklyn Heights definitely a better and more colorful community with Annelize in it and the juniors are growing, improving and enjoying their squash more than ever”, smiles Linda…
She concludes:
“Squash in the USA has grown exponentially and with the highest quality squash professionals like Annelize Naude in the mix, it is very likely that the US will continue to grow in strength on the international stage too"…..
Watch this space then!!!
Quick Bio
Along with her credentials of 3 National Titles, 7 WSA titles, European Team Champion and a highest world ranking of 13, Annelize adds valuable international training experience to the program. Annelize used to be a regular sparring partner and squash expert to the Hong Kong Sports Institute as well as the Malaysian, Egyptian and Italian National Teams. Annelize was also represented in National League Teams in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, Sweden and Denmark.