Episode 6 - Khawaja Adil Maqbool

In this episode, we have a treat: we interview our coach, Khawaja Adil Maqbool.  

Adil is a former professional squash player who reached a career-high world ranking of No. 66 on the PSA Tour. Born in Abu Dhabi and based in Dubai, he has been one of the most dominant squash players in the UAE, holding the No. 1 national ranking for nearly two decades.

A standout junior, Adil was ranked No. 1 in Europe across multiple age groups, including Under-13, Under-15, and Under-17, and won over 17 international junior titles. He also made history as the youngest-ever Abu Dhabi Men’s Open champion at just 12 years old and became the country’s No. 1 player at age 13.

On the professional circuit, he spent over 50 months inside the world’s top 100 and competed in major PSA events around the world, including the Tournament of Champions and North American Open.

Today, Adil is one of the most accomplished high-performance coaches in the world, with more than a decade of coaching experience, working with top junior and professional players internationally and helping develop the next generation of talent.

Transcript

Speaker 3 0:00

Hello, Squatch players, and welcome to the Beyond the Court Podcast. I'm your host, Naser El-Jeaan.

Speaker 1 0:06

This is Co-host Rohan Roy.

Speaker 3 0:08

And today we're interviewing Khawaja Adil Maqbool. This former professional squash player who reached a career high world ranking of number 66 on the PS Today tour. Born in Abu Dhabi and based in Dubai, he has been one of the most dominant squash players in the UAE, holding the number one national ranking for nearly two decades.

Speaker 1 0:27

Standout Junior, Adil's ranked number one in Europe across multiple age groups, including under 13, under 15, and under 17, and won over 17 international junior titles. He also made history as the youngest ever Abu Dhabi Open champion at just 12 years old and became the country's number one player at 13.

Speaker 3 0:48

On the professional circuit, he spent over 15 months inside the world's top 100 and competed in major PSA events around the world, including the Tournament of Champions and the North American Open.

Speaker 1 1:00

Today Adil is a high performance coach in Dubai with more than a decade of coaching experience working with top juniors and professional players internationally and helping develop the next generation of talent. Adil is also our coach. Adil, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 1:15

Thanks, boys. It's good to be here. We're finally getting this sorted, so about time.

Speaker 3 1:23

What? It only took like two tries.

Speaker 1:31

Good job, Naser.

Speaker 3 1:33

Thank you guys so much. You know, I I couldn't have done it without you, Adil, and of course, Coach Dominic, who is the head coach over there. I'd like to thank him for helping me throughout the application process, and yeah.

Speaker 1:44

Wish you the very best of luck.

Speaker 3 1:46

Thank you, Coach.

Speaker 1:47

You're welcome.

Speaker 3 1:49

Anyway, so coach, you reach PSA world number 66, which is a big achievement. What's one moment from career from your career that like still stands out?

Speaker 2:00

Um one of the matches that really stands out for me is the uh I qualified amongst the top 32 players in the world for the tournament of champions. I got to play on the show court at the Grand Central, which I think is the highlight of my career.

Speaker 3 2:15

And uh if you don't ask, mind me asking, like, how did you do in the TOC?

Speaker 2:19

I ended up losing to the world number 12 in the main draw.

Speaker 3 2:23

Wow, that's still pretty big.

Speaker 1 2:25

Um at the top, there's obviously very little margins between the players. Um, what separated you from uh players just outside the top hundred?

Speaker 2:34

Um I think I had uh decent racket skills. Uh I worked a lot on developing uh you know my deception and having options from you know various parts of the court, and I was able to read the game a bit better, I feel, than the other players. Uh fitness was uh uh not my strong suit, I would say. So tactics and technique was uh more what I relied on when I played.

Speaker 3 3:01

Now, what is something like a piece of advice you would give to juniors today that are about to age up into professional that like what about how hard it is to break into the top 100?

Speaker 3:14

Um, I think you know juniors don't realize how much consistency it takes on a mental level, physical level, and technical level. So, you know, you might work on something for a very long period of time, and then in a in a crunch situation in a match, you might just get a very uh small chance to use that skill. And you know, if it's a habit, you'll do it, and if it's not, you miss that chance, and that could sometimes be the difference in consistency. So you could be having very close matches, but you're not able to close them out at times. So just being consistent uh with your with your progression, with your performance, that's key, I think. Okay.

Speaker 1 3:53

If you had to rebuild yourself as a 14-year-old today, what would you do differently?

Speaker 3:57

Yeah, it's it's always easy to uh look back at your career, and as you both know, we keep trying, I keep trying to share my experiences with you, but um you know, uh time management. If I were to put it in a very simple way, uh I would try and arrange my time a lot better. But obviously, as you get older, you get a bit more mature, that's that's normal. You guys are getting better at it.

Speaker 3 4:17

Uh clearly from how we're we obviously like we don't do that, you know, like we're we're the top of the top, we're like the best. Exactly.

Speaker 4:24

So, like clearly from how we've uh started this podcast today, time management.

Speaker 3 4:28

No, no, time management is really good. It only took us like one, two tries.

Speaker 4:32

Yeah, just just half an hour to get sorted. So, yeah, time management would be one of them. Um, and you know, uh because we all study, that's that's one of the things uh that is important. And I would I would always say that you know you need to balance your training with recovery and make sure you get enough rest. And and don't be afraid to uh you know cut down sessions sometimes when you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, you're a bit tired, because it's it's not a it's not a sprint, uh it's something, it's a lifestyle, right? So you just need to make sure you're not getting overburdened. Uh you need to keep pushing yourself, but don't overburden yourself too much.

Speaker 3 5:07

Yeah, and um now, like these past few months, you've gone we've all gone to a lot of international tournaments with the Maison team. As you've gone there, what is the biggest mistake you've seen other junior players making right now?

Speaker 5:22

Um you know the I feel that certain times uh the juniors focus a lot on just trying to hit the ball harder, they try to uh move faster to the ball and then they compromise, they compromise a bit on their technical development. Um, I can see that in tournaments, it's it's it's the same old story it's been since I was a junior, or even in the past, that you know you'll have certain players that do well in the in the younger age groups, and then as you get older, uh their their technique sort of lets them down and they need to revisit that again. So uh, you know, my philosophy of working is that you try your best to develop your technique as early on as you can so that you just it grows with you basically. There shouldn't be a point uh where you have to take a step back and then revisit your technique again, you're breaking it down because the older you get, the harder it is to fix stuff, right? Yeah, so we can I can I could see that in junior tournaments right now as well, that there were still quite a few kids who are winning right now, but like eventually they are gonna struggle, and the guys who are focusing more on their technique uh they might be losing right now, but they might have the upper hand in a couple of years.

Speaker 1 6:27

Yeah, yeah, I think uh the game changes drastically as the junior um age hoops go. At this age, what matters most? Uh technique, fitness, or match play?

Speaker 6:39

Okay, so we're talking when you're about 14-15 years of age, right? So I I would still say the same that technique matters most because if you have a solid technique, it will complement your fitness. And you know, match play gets easier and easier and more effective if your technique is good. Uh, but if your technique is weak, uh then you do end up spending a lot of uh energy just trying to stay in the game where your fitness is also not used in the most optimized manner. Uh so yeah, I would say technique at this age is more important.

Speaker 3 7:12

Yeah. Um I want to ask you how important is physical development versus skill in most players today?

Speaker 7:20

Yeah, physical development is very, very important. Uh, but as I said, technical skill should always be the foundation that you build it on, right? Yeah. Because if you don't have a very strong technical base, as I said, you end up wasting a lot of energy and you often work harder than you need to. So if you had a junior, and and you guys can feel that now in matches, you know, that sometimes you've got the better racket skills. Uh, you know, you can you can apply your tactics better if you just take a step back rather than just run down your opponent. Because at the older age groups, it's very difficult to run down your opponent. You actually need to win a match through your tactics and your your skills rather than just running.

Speaker 3 7:58

Of course, yeah.

Speaker 1 7:59

How should juniors balance tournaments versus their training?

Speaker 8:04

Yeah, it's an age-year-old question, right? Like uh again in Dubai here, we don't have a lot of tournaments, so I know you guys, you know, we always struggle with this, but um I think that at the younger age groups you should be focusing more on training than on competing. Uh, but you should have regular competition as well because the matches is what you use to test out what you've learned, right? Because sometimes you're not like uh mentally or physically ready for like games, so if you go to a tournament without any practice, then yeah, and as you know, like we when we do our sessions, we always try to have uh certain blocks that we work on, yeah, which try to imitate a match, because you know it's not possible for us to have you play a tournament every month here, for example. So like we we don't leave it for something that you learn during a tournament, right? We do visualization, uh we do a lot of uh condition games, a lot of mental work, so that obviously there's nothing that comes even close to a tournament.

Speaker 1 9:02

Yeah. Um, do you think at like a certain point, like if there's like a kid's playing too many tournaments, that will affect um their results and their growth?

Speaker 9:11

Yeah, I mean, definitely on the mental side it hurts because uh if you can't figure out why you're unable to hit the ball a certain way, uh you know you can keep thinking about it, but unless you try to work on trying to fix it, uh you're not gonna be able to do that, right? So if you're going for a tournament every two weeks and you're making the same mistakes again and again, you're just increasing your frustration. You don't really figure out why something is happening. So I think for juniors, that's what I'm saying. You definitely need regular competition, but it you need to have a balance where you're definitely using tournaments to test yourself rather than try to learn stuff at tournaments, you know. Yeah, totally agree.

Speaker 3 9:47

Um, what do you think is a habit that every serious junior player must do daily?

Speaker 9:53

Um okay, so we do a lot of that. Um I don't it annoys you guys a bit sometimes, but like uh I know it annoys you guys a bit sometimes when we're doing target practice because I'm very particular about keeping the targets a certain way.

Speaker 3 10:07

That's fun, that's fun. That's it's like my favorite.

Speaker 10:09

Yeah, well you enjoy it. Rowan's smiling, so he doesn't enjoy it that much. So yeah, I would say like the purposeful target hitting is very important. Whether you're doing a solo session, you're doing a coaching session with your with a coach or you're doing a sparring session with another player. Just make sure you just make sure you've got targets on the bond. I know, but yeah, you do call it sparring as well, right? So um you should have targets on the front wall, on the floor, what you're trying to hit. Uh, and that just basically develops your ball control discipline and it gives you confidence that you know you can hit the ball where you want to hit it, or you can just mindlessly hit the ball, which I've seen a lot of juniors doing, that they just come and run the clock, uh, which is what we try not to do.

Speaker 3 10:50

So and I think like it like it does work like after we did how we did targets for like what a month, right? Yeah, yeah. And after doing that, we went to a tournament and I noticed like all of my shots started dying, and I was winning lots of points on that. And now every time I do solos, I always just try to hit shots on the target as much as I can. Yeah, and I think it's really helpful.

Speaker 11:16

Yeah, it gives you a purpose, right? And and in a match, as I said, if you're more focused on your tactics, uh you'll want to hit the ball a certain place. So you need to have that ball control to hit the ball where you want to hit it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 11:28

Um moving more to the mental side, um, how did you handle uh big pressure matches?

Speaker 11:35

Yeah, that's a that's a good question. Uh everybody handles it differently. Uh for me, uh it was uh because I spent a lot of time training alone in Dubai, uh, which you guys end up doing now as well. Um I worked a lot on my targets, as I said. So in in a pressure situation match where I had a lot of nerves and I was not feeling like my shots were coming off right, I would literally just go back to the basics and in the match stop trying to play my opponent and I would just try to play the court. So I'd try to hit my lens on the target, I'd try to hit my cross on the target. I'd do that till I basically felt that I was settling. And you know what I found really good about this uh is that because I was trying to hit the ball tight, while I was settling into the game, I was actually minimizing the options I was giving my opponent as well, you know. And then obviously once I felt comfortable, uh then I went in for my shots and tried to play my natural game.

Speaker 1 12:28

Um which type of matches um did you feel the most pressure in? And what I mean by that is did you feel more pressure internationally or locally, or did you feel more pressure when you're playing somebody who's slightly worse or slightly better? When did you feel more pressure?

Speaker 12:42

Um I played the best quash, obviously, when I played someone way better than me, and I didn't have any pressure to win. Um, I was generally alright playing with players who were uh who I was expected to beat, so I I didn't really struggle that much with that side of the game. Um but yes, uh I did feel more pressure when I played people I knew, like friends, or you know, it it's a bit difficult to get into a zone, especially when you're in Dubai and not having regular practice. It was an emotional for me, which was tougher to manage. Uh but yeah, international matches were always uh there was more on the line, there was ranking points and so on. So it was definitely something that get put more pressure on me.

Speaker 3 13:22

And what do you think, like in your career, what was the match you had that you had the most pressure in? Just a like follow-up question.

Speaker 13:30

Um or one of them. Okay, so uh it was it was when I was trying to defend uh well locally it was when I was trying to defend uh in 2018. I was trying to defend my uh UAE Open title uh because I was only playing part-time and I had absolutely no clue uh because I hadn't competed for a long time. So I had absolutely no clue uh what my fitness levels were. Uh so yeah, that was a match I played under a lot of pressure. I did manage to win three love, so uh the pressure worked. And uh it was the last time I played a tournament in the UA. Uh so it was good to finish on a three love win.

Speaker 1 14:10

Yeah, um what's the biggest difference you think between top juniors and average juniors on the match?

Speaker 14:17

Yeah, we we discussed this quite a lot, right? Like just trying to get you guys to that to break that barrier and stop thinking like average players and we we broke that a long time ago, right, Coach? Yeah, I think before we even started, you'd already broken into it.

Speaker 3 14:30

Yeah, before I was even born.

Speaker 14:31

Yeah, probably, yeah. Um, so again, the the difference is patience and balance. You've you've heard us talk about this a lot that you know there's junior squash and then there's senior PSA squash. So there is a difference in how you handle uh the game there. Uh and there are certain players who are phenomenal as juniors, but then they don't really transition out of that junior style of playing squash. So, and that difference is again between average juniors and uh and very uh high-quality elite juniors is the patience and and their balance, right? So you need to have a patience and understand how much of a rally you need to build and when you can attack and when you need to defend. That's very important. And one of the things that you need to do is trust your process, right? Um, there is always a fear to lose, and there's always a will to win. You know, we've discussed this many times before. So I think professional players are just able to manage that better because too much of either of them can paralyze you in a match, right? So you just need to keep that in balance. And mental strength, it needs work like you do your technical stuff. So it needs small doses, but you need to do it daily, you need a small goal on the mental side as well, and you need steady progress. It's not something you can just switch on or off.

Speaker 3 15:51

So, coach, what do you think a player should do after a tough loss?

Speaker 15:56

Um, after a tough loss, you should definitely not try to dwell on the outcome too much, alright? Yeah. Um, we've discussed this plenty of times, and we've been in situations like this. Everybody goes through situations like this. You might have lost 12-10 in a match in the fifth, or you might have won, right?

Speaker 2 16:12

Yeah.

Speaker 16:13

Um, you don't want to define your success or failure on that because a couple of points does not mean that you failed in what you were doing. So if you take a closer look at why you lost, it's more important to do that rather than just feel happy that you won or you lost. Um reset, track the skills you've improved and identify areas that you can work on. Whether you've won or lost, you should be doing that anyway, right? So don't just focus on scores. Try to look at the process that you're going through and whatever you've been working on, were you able to actually execute that in a match or not? And if you've got a if you've got small achievable goals, you will definitely it's hard to take a loss at 12-10 rather than when you lose three love, that's for sure, right? But you obviously did something right to get to 3-2. So that's what you need to look at. And then obviously, if you win, that's great, but you could have even lost. So just stay stay objective about that.

Speaker 2 17:08

Yeah.

Speaker 1 17:09

I know this has happened like in my career a lot where um you sort of have like multiple tournaments where the results just don't come. Um, how do you build confidence um in that time period?

Speaker 17:22

Again, building confidence is is not just about results, right? So when you've lost a couple of tournaments, you know, you've not done really well and you've come back. We've we've not really discussed the players that you've lost to, but we have gone back to certain things that you struggled to do. Technically or technically, physically, uh, you know, uh tactically as well. Uh and at your level, as you realize, sometimes you just get the tactics wrong. So there's not much you could have done physically or or technically, because you can't improve those things in the moment, right? Uh but it's tactics that that that could have beaten the problem. So just in your day-to-day routines, uh, as we discussed earlier, if you have target-based practice that you're doing, if you can hit nine out of ten shots on the target, when you're hitting that shot in a match, you will feel confident, right? But if you are only hitting one or two on the target or you're not even thinking about targets in a match.

Speaker 3 18:15

Why are you looking at me?

Speaker 18:16

Um, I don't know, because uh I think you know. No, I was looking at him initially, uh, and then now I'm looking at you, so uh you you know why. Alright.

Speaker 3 18:30

Okay, um what do you think a perfect training week looks like for a professional player, like a professional junior?

Speaker 18:37

So not our weeks basically, right?

Speaker 3 18:41

Yeah.

Speaker 18:42

So yeah, it should be balanced, right? You should have uh a very clear plan on what you're working on. It shouldn't just be you showing up, doing a session, running the clock, and going back. So that's something very important, and you know, every week at the start we discuss what we're gonna work on, uh, and then we follow through with that. So all your your coaching sessions, your solo work, your match play, everything needs to be revolving around the aspect that you're trying to work on that week. Ideally, if you can get on court five times a week, it's it's great. Maybe two or three sessions with a coach, feeding sessions, two or three sessions where you're doing conditional games, match play. You should have two to three sessions a week in the gym as well, so you're not neglecting your physical development. And minimum, you should be doing up to four solo hitting sessions a week. You could do 20 minutes, it doesn't matter, it's it's more about quality than quantity. So even if you did a 20-minute solo session and you did it six times a week, it's better than doing a solo session for two hours where you're just mindlessly hitting the ball, right? Yeah, um we we adjust our plans quite a bit here. Um if you have a high uh workload at school, you definitely want to adapt your training that week to make sure you're not burnt out. Uh, but yeah, it turns out you're always studying hard at school, so we're never able to turn train hard. Uh who am I looking at right now? Me, definitely me, not set.

Speaker 1 20:06

Looking at Roland's 11th grade is not a fun year.

Speaker 20:09

Um but yeah, just tailor your plans, and your coach needs to be in touch with you a lot to do that, where your energy levels, your recovery, your capacity, take priority over everything else, right? It should be sustainable and don't try to copy other people. Like it should be personal for you.

Speaker 1 20:26

Okay. Um I know you kind of clarified this a bit, but um, how much solo work versus coach uh coach sessions should a junior do?

Speaker 20:36

It really just depends uh on the player's actual development level at the point, right? If you've had uh you know you have a solid technique, you don't need that much interference from the coach. He doesn't need to guide you throughout and you can work on your own quite a bit. Uh but if you're new and you're trying to fix certain things in technique, even if the coach is not feeding you on the court, but if he's watching you and correcting you, that's very important.

Speaker 3 21:03

And um, what do you think is overrated in junior training today?

Speaker 21:08

I think a lot of kids uh are just trying to get fitter and faster without trying to actually master their proper technique, which is uh something that needs to be looked at because when you overfocus on fitness, you're prone to getting injured. But if you have better technique and the you know you're growing at this age, you're all growing. So you need to take that into consideration and adapt your technique based on your biomechanics. It's very crucial to do that.

Speaker 3 21:35

Yeah, um and what do you think is what's underrated?

Speaker 21:39

It's the basic repetition of basic things. It's very boring, but that's what sort of compounds very quickly. So if you do small daily daily technical repetitions in certain things, it works best.

Speaker 1 21:52

If a player has sixty to ninety minutes in a day, how should they use it?

Speaker 21:57

Uh talking for the first sixty minutes, I think that really. Really helps set the mood, right? Okay, you should have a have a weekly or monthly goal on a particular aspect of the game that you're working, okay? Um, the way I try to structure uh sessions uh is that you always have a progression, 20 to 30 minute blocks, you focus on the technical aspect of what you're trying to do, move on from a closed drill to an open drill, and eventually getting to hope you know, ideally getting to a situation where you're practicing what it would be like in a match. So just make sure you have proper progression through your session and you have a plan before you start doing the session.

Speaker 3 22:33

Yeah. Um what has it been like coaching in Dubai recently with the current regional situation, you know?

Speaker 22:41

Yeah, it's it's it's been a bit uh challenging. Um, you know, it's uh squash is not an essential uh activity that we need to do at all costs, obviously, right? So um I mean it kind of is, but I mean it is for us, but yeah, like you wouldn't you wouldn't put your put your life at risk to go for a squash session, right? So um travel is limited at times. People are advised to stay indoors, so you know we definitely do that. Safety comes first, um, and we adjust as we need to. So yeah, it is difficult, but yeah, we're trying to make the most of it.

Speaker 1 23:17

Has it affected training mindset or routines?

Speaker 23:21

Yeah, definitely. Because uh, you know, on short notice notices when you need to cancel, uh it's uh tougher for me as a coach and you as players as well to come up with sessions that we need to do. Obviously, if you can't get to the club, maybe you want to go to the gym session and you don't want to waste a day basically. But again, we just try to remember that we can only control what's in our what's in front of us, and we don't need to worry about stuff we can't control. So again, we just stay adaptable and try to use every opportunity we get to train the best we can. Yeah.

Speaker 3 23:51

Uh and what advice would you give your juniors dealing with uncertainty?

Speaker 23:57

My advice uh is to just stay focused on things that you can control, right? Uh build small daily habits that you can keep track of, have a positive attitude towards uh every task that you're doing, and remember everybody else is going through the same thing you are, right? It's not just you.

Speaker 2 24:14

Yeah.

Speaker 24:14

So when it's uh things are uncertain, it's very easy to get distracted.

Speaker 2 24:18

Yeah.

Speaker 24:18

But steady effort and clear focus on the process will keep you moving forward. Even if it feels slow, it's okay, right? Exactly how this podcast is felt. It's taken a while, but we're at the end now.

Speaker 3 24:30

Dude, dude, hang in, hang in there, buddy.

Speaker 24:32

Hang in.

Speaker 3 24:33

He's like so okay. Alright, so we're gonna do a fun little game called Rapid Fire. Alright. Where I'll quickly ask you a question and then you have to answer quickly, okay?

Speaker 24:42

Alright, let's go for it.

Speaker 3 24:44

Ready? Best player you ever played.

Speaker 24:47

Uh Juniors, Rami Shore, um and seniors, David Palmer.

Speaker 3 24:51

Hardest opponent.

Speaker 24:52

Dark moment, completely opposite. David Shaw. At least let me finish the answer at least, man.

Speaker 3 24:57

It's not that quick, is it? The whole point of Rapid Fire is like, what's your name? Add it. Where are you from? UAE. Like. Okay. Can we restart?

Speaker 25:05

Yeah.

Speaker 3 25:06

Best player you ever played?

Speaker 25:08

Uh Junior's Rami Ashur. Seniors, David Palmer. Hardest opponent. Taric moment. Completely opposite.

Speaker 3 25:16

Just say what.

Speaker 25:17

Alright, just have to say a word?

Speaker 3 25:18

Yeah, like a word or two.

Speaker 25:21

You don't let me say the second word.

Speaker 3 25:26

Okay.

Speaker 25:26

Alright, let's go.

Speaker 3 25:27

Rapid fire, third try.

Speaker 25:30

Rapid fire, take seven.

Speaker 3 25:33

Best player you ever played.

Speaker 25:34

Junior is Rami Yoshur, senior is David Palmer. Hardest opponent.

Speaker 1 25:38

Target moment.

Speaker 3 25:39

Favorite shot.

Speaker 1 25:40

Backhand volley drop. One drill every junior should do.

Speaker 25:43

Target hitting.

Speaker 3 25:44

Most exciting junior player today.

Speaker 25:46

Moment Zachary. Can I get two more answers here? Because we're both pointing at each other. So I just want to say none of you.

Speaker 3 25:55

Okay, well.

Speaker 25:56

Okay, okay.

Speaker 3 25:56

Okay, well, that was amazing. Thank you, coach. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Thanks for listening to me. It was really nice to have you. Yeah.

Speaker 26:03

It's just great. Let's get on court now.

Speaker 3 26:05

Okay, bye.