More than 2,300 children registered to take part in the 2026 edition of Squash Junior Start, the Polish Squash Association’s nationwide grassroots programme.
After a successful first edition in 2025, the project has almost doubled its club network and is becoming a cornerstone of Poland’s long-term junior development strategy.
Last year, the first edition was delivered across 12 squash clubs in Poland. Around 1,000 children took part in introductory Open Days, giving many of them their first-ever experience on a squash court. Nearly 400 subsequently progressed into regular training programmes.
One year later, the scale is very different.
There were over 2,300 registrations for the 2026 Open Days across 21 clubs throughout Poland, which took place on 30 August.
The programme, financed by the Polish Ministry of Sport and Tourism and delivered by the Polish Squash Association, will now provide at least 650 children with free, structured squash training twice a week until the end of November.
That number, however, is expected to grow significantly.
Several participating clubs have already indicated that they intend to finance additional training places themselves due to demand exceeding the number of places funded directly through the programme.
The Polish Squash Association therefore expects that more than 1,000 children could train regularly as a direct result of the 2026 recruitment campaign.
The aim is not simply to give thousands of children a one-day introduction to squash, but to convert that first experience into long-term participation: regular coaching, membership of local squash academies and, eventually, competitive play.
That process is already visible among participants from the first edition. A large proportion of the children recruited in 2025 continue to train regularly in their local academies, while some have already taken their first steps in organised squash competition.
“The scale of interest has exceeded even our ambitious expectations. More than 2,300 registrations show us that if squash is presented to children and parents in the right way, there is enormous demand for our sport,” said Łukasz Piasecki, founder of the programme and Programme Coordinator.
“We are extremely pleased with the support we have received from the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, because it allows us to think not in terms of individual events, but in terms of building a system.
“Our ambition is that the children entering a squash court through this programme today will become the core of Polish squash in the years ahead.
“And we have a long-term dream: that in 2040, one of the players representing Poland at the Olympic Games will be someone who first discovered squash through one of these recruitment programmes.”
From a campaign to a development pathway
After August’s nationwide Open Days, selected participants are now moving into regular coaching, with two 60-minute sessions every week until the end of November. Local competition will follow before participants come together for the programme’s national finale in Kraków in December. Equipment is provided, meaning families do not need to make an initial financial investment for their children to start playing.
This structured pathway — discovery, regular training, competition and retention within a club academy — is central to the Polish Squash Association’s approach.
Squash Junior Start is intended to feed directly into the wider development of certified squash academies and junior training structures throughout the country. Rather than viewing each edition as a standalone project, the federation sees it as the entry point to a much broader player pathway.
Natalia Lopez Ryfa, National Coordinator of Squash Junior Start, believes close cooperation with local clubs is fundamental to that process.
“For us, the real work begins after the Open Day,” said Lopez Ryfa. “Our responsibility is to make the transition from a child trying squash for the first time to becoming a regular member of an academy as natural as possible.
“The clubs and coaches play the key role in this. We want children to feel that they belong to a group, develop step by step and then experience competition when they are ready. This is how participation becomes a genuine sporting pathway.”
2,300 registration — and a growing awareness of squash
Alongside the coaching structure, a major focus has been placed on how squash is presented and promoted to families who have never previously had contact with the sport.
Michał Łukawski, Head of Sponsorship and Promotion at Polish Squash, says the growth from around 1,000 to more than 2,300 participants in a year demonstrates the potential of a coordinated nationwide approach.
“Squash has traditionally been very strong among people who already know the sport, but the challenge is reaching families outside that community,” said Łukawski.
“With Squash Junior Start, clubs across the country communicate one clear message at the same time, supported by a national campaign and local activity. The result is 2,300 children wanting to try squash, but the programme’s real reach is much wider.
“Each child also brings the sport to the attention of parents, siblings, relatives and friends who may previously have known little about squash. From a marketing perspective, that is extremely encouraging, but the most important KPI comes later: how many of these children are still playing in one, two or five years.”
The Polish Squash Association sees that retention rate as one of the key indicators for the programme’s future development.
For President Grzegorz Krysiak, the expansion of Squash Junior Start also demonstrates what can be achieved through cooperation between the federation, government, clubs, coaches and local communities.
“We are very proud of how this project has developed in such a short period of time,” said Krysiak. “It is the result of the work of a committed team and 21 clubs that share the same objective: bringing a new generation into squash.
“We also greatly value our cooperation with the Ministry of Sport and Tourism. Their support gives us the opportunity to build projects with a long-term impact rather than one-off initiatives. For Polish squash, developing a broad and sustainable junior base is one of our highest priorities.”
Looking beyond 2026
With squash preparing for its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028, national federations across Europe are looking at how to translate the increased visibility of the sport into sustainable grassroots growth.
Poland’s answer is to start at grassroots level.
The immediate objective has been to introduce thousands of children to the sport. The next is to ensure that hundreds of them remain in organised training. From there comes academy development, domestic competition, national junior structures and, for the most talented, the pathway towards international squash.
The transformation from 12 clubs to 21 and from around 1,000 children reached in 2025 to more than 2,300 registrations in 2026 suggests that the first foundations are already in place.
For the Polish Squash Association, however, the biggest success will not be measured by the number of children who attended the Open Days this August or even at the end of this year.
It will be measured by how many of the children who walked onto a squash court for the first time through this year’s programme are still there years from now — as club players, competitors, national-team athletes and, perhaps one day, Olympians.
Read more: squashjuniorstart.pl
