Shaun Moxham
I was first introduced to David Palmer by Joe Shaw some six years ago, they came to visit me in the club where I was working as a coach. I had known Joe since I was a kid, his success as an International Coach of the highest level was legendary and although never having had a working relationship with him in the past, coming from the same town meant we both knew each other very well.
Joe asked if I could help set up a base for David in Europe and as our club was in need of a new international player I directly agreed to help. All things were settled and arranged and a few months later David arrived at the club. During one of the first days of his arrival I, who capable of hitting a reasonable squash ball at that moment offered to give him a hit, secretly wishing to teach this young Aussie a bit of a lesson. He was all so polite before the match with statements such as “ I hope that I can give you a good game “ and things to that effect.
Well we went on and I can assure you he absolutely murdered me, I wasn’t even close. My boss who was watching asked me what I thought, I immediately replied with “ He will be a top ten player one day," looking back, a reasonable assessment!!
After a year or so with a combination of good PSA results but unfortunately some bad luck with injuries David, who had at that stage reached 33 in the rankings asked me if I would be prepared to coach and guide him. I accepted without hesitation as by then we had built up a good friendship with each other and I was so impressed with his commitment to his goals. We immediately got to work on improving his Glass Court game as this seemed to be a stumbling block for him at the major tournaments. Within a short period of time David’s game which was based more on defence gradually begun to become of an all-round player, able to attack and defend, both with tremendous vigor. The results started to happen and David made it up to no 13 in the rankings.
We experienced a couple of stumbling blocks at this stage and called upon the help of Joe Shaw who assessed the both of us, pointing out to us where we were going wrong and approximately 6 months later, David after moving to no 3 in the rankings won the the British Open, the dream of many a squash player. If that wasn’t enough in such a short time period David went on to win the Hong Kong Open just a few months later which in doing so gave him enough ranking points to become the NO 1 RANKED PLAYER IN THE WORLD.
Since then David has experienced a few high and low points, the pressures and expectations to consistently perform can mount up after one achieves so much in so little time, here he proves that he is only human, although watching him train sometimes I have my doubts. I am sure though that the future will hold more highs, than lows. The thing which impresses me most about the guy though is that ever since I met him some four years ago, through all the successes, he himself as a person has never changed, not even a little.
It is my honour and pleasure to be associated with him on a professional level and at the end of the day when all is said and done, most importantly, he is a great mate.
