Mumbai, 17th June 2026: Less than a month ago, 16-year-old Anika Dubey from Pune stood on a podium in China with an Asian Junior Squash Championship silver medal around her neck. She is already called the “Golden Girl of Pune.” She is one of the youngest and most decorated junior racket sport performers India has produced in years. And she is a product of SportsSkill, India’s pioneering sports-tech platform that was built, from the very beginning, on the belief that a player’s geography should never decide their ceiling.
Now, SportsSkill’s platform credibility has attracted two of the biggest names in world squash to join as global coaching partners: David Palmer, the legendary Australian two-time World Champion and former World No. 1; and Chris Ryder, former PSA World Tour professional and current Head of Performance Squash at the University of Nottingham. Both are now directly accessible to every squash player in India and around the world through the SportsSkill app.
If Anika Dubey is what SportsSkill’s ecosystem produces, David Palmer and Chris Ryder are what it now offers to the next one.
How a Girl from Pune Proved the Platform Works
Anika Dubey began her squash journey on a public court. She was identified and nurtured through the Chance2Sports Foundation’s Kanga Kids programme, co-founded by SportsSkill’s own Abhinav Sinha and Chetan Desai. At 14, she won an Asian medal. At 16, competing at the 33rd Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships in Panzhihua, China, in May 2026, she came home with silver and is among the best junior players on the continent.
She was not alone. Vasundhara Nangare from Kalamb in Ahmednagar district, a town that lacks proper squash facilities and courts, was discovered at a Chance2Sports talent identification camp at around age 11 with zero prior competitive exposure and also represented India at the same championships.
Two players from different worlds. One shared development ecosystem. On the continental stage.
This is the foundation on which David Palmer and Chris Ryder have chosen to build. Coaches of this calibre do not associate with just any platform. They chose SportsSkill because the results speak for themselves.
What Players Get: Elite Coaching, Zero Distance
Through SportsSkill’s video analysis platform, players anywhere in India or the world can now access David Palmer and Chris Ryder in four steps:
- Step 1: Download the SportsSkill App on the Apple App Store or Google Play
- Step 2: Upload your training or match video directly within the platform
- Step 3: Send it directly to David Palmer or Chris Ryder through the app
- Step 4: Receive professional, personalised analysis engineered for your specific game
The platform’s Video-to-Insight Conversion Engine translates raw match or training footage into three layers of actionable intelligence: biomechanical feedback (technique, movement, body mechanics); tactical adjustments (match strategy, shot selection); and personalised drill prescriptions, all delivered asynchronously through the app, with the depth of in-person elite coaching.
David Palmer’s coaching is structured around the Palmer Performance Framework, a proprietary five-pillar methodology covering Technique, Movement & Footwork, Shot Selection, Match Strategy, and Training & Performance Development. The framework that built a World No. 1 is now available to a junior in Pune, a club player in Nagpur, or an aspiring professional in Delhi or to anyone aiming to soar high in racket sports across the world.
Overview from the experts
David Palmer, Former World No. 1 and two-time world squash champion, has always believed that great coaching should not be a privilege; it should be available to every player with the drive to improve. He feels SportsSkill allows him to work with athletes that he would never have been able to reach in person. He can now reach out to a junior or upcoming player in Mumbai or a competitive amateur in Cairo. He is totally excited to help athletes become the best squash players they can be.
Whereas Chris Ryder, Former PSA World Tour Professional, Head of Performance Squash, University of Nottingham, feels that squash has always been a sport where access to quality coaching makes a real difference, and that access has not always been equal. What SportsSkill makes possible is genuinely exciting. Through video analysis, he can now work with a junior player in Pune or an aspiring competitor in Jakarta with the same depth and attention he would give a player standing on the court. The technology bridges the gap that geography creates; he is super excited for that.
“Bringing David Palmer and Chris Ryder onto SportsSkill is not just a product milestone; it is a statement about what we believe sports coaching should look like in the 21st century. Elite guidance has always been gatekept by geography and economics. We are removing both those gates. When a player in a Tier 2 city in India can send their match video to a two-time World Champion and receive a personalised coaching response, that is when you know technology is truly serving sport.”
Chetan Desai, Co-Founder, SportsSkill
“SportsSkill was built on one conviction: that the gap between a great athlete and a world-class coach should be a matter of effort, not location. Anika Dubey’s Asian silver is proof of what this ecosystem produces. David Palmer and Chris Ryder’s decision to partner with us is proof of what this platform has become. We are proud to make this possible — and we are just getting started.”
Abhinav Sinha, Co-Founder, SportsSkill
About David Palmer
David Palmer is one of the most decorated names in professional squash:
- Two-time World Squash Champion
- Former World No. 1 — among the longest-ranked players at the pinnacle of the PSA rankings
- Four-time British Open Champion
- Commonwealth Games Medallist
- Internationally respected High-Performance Coach
Since retiring from professional play, Palmer has coached high-performance programmes across multiple countries. His partnership with SportsSkill is his first large-scale digital coaching commitment, a deliberate choice to reach players he could never access in person.
About Chris Ryder
Chris Ryder is a former PSA World Tour professional and one of England’s most respected coaching figures:
- Former PSA World Tour Professional, career-high World No. 33, with a Top 40 ranking maintained for six consecutive years
- Head of Performance Squash, University of Nottingham
- Former World Squash University Champion
- Former England Squash Development Head Coach, part of the coaching team that won double gold at the 2019 European U17/U15 Team Championships and silver at the 2018 World Junior Team Championships
- Founder, Ryder Squash, a globally recognised squash coaching platform and YouTube channel
- 20+ years of coaching experience across club, academy, and national programme levels
Chris Ryder brings the perspective of an elite international competitor and the precision of a structured high-performance coach to the SportsSkill platform. His commitment to player development at every level makes him a natural fit for SportsSkill’s mission.
About SportsSkill
SportsSkill is India’s leading sports-tech platform designed to connect athletes with world-class coaches through technology, enabling video-based coaching, data-driven performance tracking, and structured
expert feedback. The Chance2Sports Foundation, co-founded by Abhinav Sinha and Chetan Desai, operates
as the grassroots talent development engine, having identified and produced Asian-level competitors from public courts and village camps across Maharashtra. SportsSkill is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
