Eau C Squash

Training Alone

2011-01-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

Nobody to play?…No court…No racket…No ball...NO PROBLEM!

Go sit down. Okay, now visualize yourself on a squash court…but don’t see yourself thru your own eyes. See yourself as if you are watching from outside the court. Uh-oh, here comes your nemesis, that guy who always seems to make you work harder than anyone else. Time to warm up, so what the heck are you doing? Get that forehand side going, bounce the ball off the sidewall and strike the ball at a medium pace, remember you’re watching from outside the court. Straight length, take it off the volley, hitting is straight, a little harder now. Take a minute to visualize this in detail from outside the back glass…Stop reading and see yourself in your minds eye right now.

I said stop reading and visualize...
Ok, try it again, but wash off the back glass so you can see yourself with more clarity hitting way better shots.

Times up, so you’ve hogged warm up on the forehand side a bit, now hit a cross court. Okay, get your legs going, from the T to the front, back to the T and then back corner. Ok, he’s hit it back to you, time to warm up going for the short nick and few of these, now a nice high lob. Perfect….switch sides and do it all over again. Get that backhand side going, bounce the ball off the sidewall and strike the ball at a medium pace, remember you’re watching from outside the court. Straight length, take it off the volley, hitting is straight, a little harder now. Time to visualize so stop reading. STOP READING already and VISUALIZE!

Now clean off the glass and watch yourself again.

And once again you’ve hogged warm up on the backhand side, time to go cross court. Feetwork time, go from the T to the front, back to the T and then back corner. Cut off his crosscourt and go for the short nick and few more, now a nice high lob. Hopefully you won warmup.

If you need a break, that's okay, but the games about to start. This type of visualization is exhausting, but work your way thru warm up, to watching an entire match. It will prepare your mind for an actual match and you will find that you will have more energy during a real match. Your mind only knows what you tell it, so this type of training may even be better than actually playing. If you get good at it, you should win every point. I suggest you don't visualize losing...what's the point?

OK ready, time to play. Now watch yourself play a point out in your head. Write down a combination of shots that you will hit that set you up to continuously apply more pressure. Build yourself up, watch yourself play as many points as you can in a row, long points, short points and win every single one of them. Watch your feet, your racket, the ball, your head and push through each game and then each match all the way through a tournament.

So that's part 1. Here's part 2. Write it down.

Either between games or after your match (that you should have won) break out the pen and pencil. When did you feel strong? When did you feel frustrated? List all the positive and some negative aspects of your game. Write down at least twice as many positives. Draw a squash court on your notepad. Think back to where you felt the strongest and most confident on court and mark them on that drawing. What shots did you hit when you felt strong? What areas on the court were controlling points? Keep that drawing and recognize the areas of the court where you can attack and exploit that next time you are on court.
Another way to train alone is Self coaching – try using a mirror, it always sounds better coming from someone else.

This is your Brain on Squash...any Questions?

2011-01-21T21:57:00.000-08:00

Even if you're only a semi-serious squash player, being an athlete and competing in squash will sooner or later help to define how you see yourself and dictate how you feel and think. It's what you do and who you are, it's how you've committed your blood, sweat and tears, it's the investment on court that has come to shape your sense of identity. At every level in squash, from novice to professional, players will eventually come to see themselves in terms of their squash. Squash brings a player the recognition they may be lacking in other areas of their life. Your mood is often dictated by how well you played last night or an upcoming match. At the novice levels, the huge gains and initial improvement builds the ego and provides a great source of self-esteem. For competitive players, mastering new skills, overcoming challenges, attaining victory and gaining strength provides the enjoyment and satisfaction that provides them with the motivation to keep playing.

But with all the positive aspects involved with playing squash, being competitive often leaves players feeling wiped, and losing may drain one's psyche dramatically. It's the all too common squash-sob story that everyone has experienced. Losing to players who are technically and physically inferior; playing a combination of brilliant shots only to finish lazy and uninspired; focusing on all the negatives while dictating a point. The intensity of squash can be extremely taxing on the brain, leaving even the most talented players feeling burnt out, and although often euphoric may lead some players to abandon the sport. So what's the solution?

Winning squash is about controlling time. Many players use time to apply and relieve pressure - playing the ball early, slowing the game with high tosses and moving with efficiency. But many players neglect those precious moments of time between points. It's these split seconds where players allow those negative thoughts to fester and turn into devasting losses. It's those extra ticks on the clock that can be used to turn the tide of a match. I don't know what you need to tell yourself during the time between points. But if you're thinking negative thoughts between points, when will you find the time to be positive and get yourself playing your absolute best squash?

I have no idea what goes thru my mind between points, but I'll bet that if I made the effort to focus on my strengths, I would find more success and my mind would feel less fried after a match. just saying...

I'm OK, you're OK.

2010-12-06T15:17:00.000-08:00

It was interesting to chat with novice to PSA players this past weekend at the Edmonton Open and find out what drives players to play this game and to gain some insight into the minds of squash players and varying levels.

Being the first tourney of the year to implement a strict rankings based seeding system, the Ed Open promised closer competition. There were a few hiccups, but essentially it did what it was supposed to. The players who were supposed to win, won and the players who were supposed to lose, lost.

At the heart of every tournament are the C and D events, where players are still motivated by huge steps in progress and improvement and although the competition aspect of squash is still keen, players are often competing against themselves and challenged by lapses in technique and strategy. Emotions still run high if not higher in these events due to frustration regarding inability and not playing better than perhaps one perceives themselves. Don't get me wrong, this happens at every level of squash, but it more prevalent at the beginning stages of a players development.

In the more practiced levels of A and B squash, there was close competition and varying degrees of disgruntled apathy towards how divisions were set. Both men's and women's divisions were led by players who could have played a division up and reared by players who could have been relegated down a division. With a handful of the players in each division using tactics unbecoming of squash players, such as pushing off, fishing for strokes, stalling for time, being belligerent and obnoxious, initiating unnessary contact and arguing with opponents and referees. It's fair to say none of these players won at any division.

At every division there were 2 common denominators of each champion, hard work and skill. Ian Laycock the winner of the Men's Open division worked hard against Nathan Hall who had as much determination to win and may be bigger, stronger and fitter than Ian, but Ian's skill level proved to be too much for Nathan. On the women's side Susie King defeated Micaala Seth who impressed with incredible shot making and quick hands and efficient movement. Micaala had Susie falling into the splits and turning the wrong way countless times, but although her skills may have been stronger, Seth couldn't keep up with King's physicality on court.

When asked what was going thru their heads, the Women's D champion was just happy to playing again and enjoyed the game for a fun way to stay fit... and of course winning always makes it more fun. The Men's C champion Gene Marshall of Calgary changed his perspective on the game after winning 3 consolation draws coming into this tourney and finally knocking out the No.1 seed in the first round. Gene's drive to come on top of 32 started with making sure that he was focused before each point. He focused on his strength of playing hard and fast and pummeling opponents into submission, he didn't get drawn into slow squash and found success in his gameplan. The Mens and Ladies B champions were both juniors, focused and arrogant, listening to music and arguing with refs. They focused on just playing simple clean up and down the wall classic junior style squash, no mistakes keep the ball in play and force the opponent to go for too much...boring!!!!

Allan took the Men's A and his focus was to win every point. Thea won the ladies A and again a classically trained player with decent shots and fitness.

In the PSA, Shawn Delierre definately drew energy from the crowd and was loving every minute of it. He mentioned after the match that, when he got down or felt drained after losing a rally or even during a point where he was getting worked, he tried to remind himself that he loves this game and by convincing himself that he enjoyed the exhaustion and abuse of making another get, it made it easier to keep going and ultimately win the PSA title.

For me, I had a great first match with Aleem, I may have still been drunk, but we had fun. My second match not so much fun, but I played well so I was happy. My third match was awesome, most fun I've had on court in a long time.

So there you have it, play to win, play for fun or both, it's really up to you, but consider that if you play to win and you have to move up a division, it may be a while before you remember why you play.
I haven't proofed this post so it probly makes no sense. I may revise it.

Updated Rankings 2010-2011

2010-11-19T12:02:00.000-08:00

Rankings were reposted again this month with some corrections, rankings will likely change again in the next few weeks. But currently this is what they look like at Eau Claire.

Men's Rankings

29 Ciaran Godfrey

40 Paul Adamiak

46 Slaughter, Trevor

49 Diaz, Domi

60 Derek Shtand

68 Kulkarni, Kedar

116 Andrew Gilbert

260 Laurie Owen

269 Phillipe Desilets

278 Paul, Kelvin

280 Gamma, John

281 Albert, Paul

367 Sluggett, Dave

394 Johnstone, Aaron

403 Slaughter, David

464 Mercier, David

469 Howlett, Bernie

480 Cairns, David

481 Emerson, Tom

484 Mulligan, David

495 Leung, Kar

514 Murray, Stephen

552 Spyker, Rick

557 Williams, Paul

568 D'souza, Martin

616 Wilmot, Kim

711 Fernandez, Ryan

786 Mckinnon, Ian

929 Doyle, Christopher

981 Leech, Philip

Women's Rankings

49 Jear, Solana

114 Schaffer, Sandra

116 Austin, Sandi

125 Mak, Faye

132 Beaugrand, Jodi

170 Wyrsch, Barbara

192 Mansell, Adele

363 Nguyen, Christine

Squash Alberta is continuously updating the rankings and there were a tonne of corrections from inaccurate results reported from tournaments and league play in the first few months of the season.

Clarity and Motivation

2010-11-16T09:12:00.001-08:00

Failure is often more subtle than you think. In the short term you may not appear to be failing. You drift from one day to the next, repeating your errors, making bad decisions, listening to the wrong people and making the wrong choices. You constantly dream of this blurred vision of yourself doing remarkable things, that somehow, someday everything will just fall into place.

You can choose to meander thru life and eventually fail, or you can voluntarily change the way you think about squash. We all fall into those rutts where motivation to play squash is low. Being inspired to get on court and work your ass off every time you get outta bed is not something that may happen automatically.

Part of the frustration that comes with squash is the inability to clearly see your goals. Too much effort is wasted scrammbling in the cloudiness of what you think you want to do. Take the time to visualize and clearly define what you hope to achieve. See it in your minds eye as clearly as you can visulaize your hand working your mouse. See the same thing for hitting your backhand or drop shot or volleying a figure 8. If your not sure what it's supposed to look like, go on youtube and watch the pros, or go watch some open players at your club. Remember what you see and play it back in your head and exchange your face on theirs.

I have no answer to cure low motivation, but I’ve compiled some super cheezy, somewhat squash related quotes from sources I can’t remember, so apologies to those I haven’t referenced. I hope this helps to motivate you.

“Go from being interested to being committed. That’s when you become unstoppable.”
“Straight back, straight forward, press the ball, hit down, not up.”
“Write down a goal and the reasons why. Visualize it.”
“Enjoy Right Now!”
“Always do more than you think you can.”
“The mind only knows what you tell it.”
“Control your breath to Control your mind to Control your body to Control the ball to Control the Game.”
“Change how you think to Change how you feel to Change how you live.”
“Bite off more than you can chew…and chew the hell out of it.”
“Always take it too far, to learn how far you can go.”
“Work without fear of punishment. Work without hope for reward.”
“Mental toughness is consistency of effort.”
“The sign on the door to success says “PUSH”.”
“Effort breeds Momentum.”
“Straight, straight, straight, straight…. Straight, straight, straight.”
“When it’s loose, hit the right shot.”
“Press the ball to the target.”
“Gauge your footwork, vision, hitting straight, consistency…and focus on right now.”
“Make each day a chance to improve.”
“Focus on the things you can control.”

I'm told that eventually you will get to a state of mind where visualization becomes effortless and then serves to become an infinite source of motivation. Go ahead and prove me wrong.

Fit Plus Results

2010-09-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Peter Schwartz for organizing another great tournament with lots of awesome squash played this weekend. Allan Macaulay won his first A tournament ever defeating youngster Cale Williams in a grueling 5 set battle. Allan defeated Ciaran Godfrey is his semi-final and myself in the quarters, both 3-0. Cale played solid against Fabio DeStefani in his semi winning 3-1 and beating Kelsey Souchereau in 3 in his quarter final. Ciaran claimed 3rd place after Fabio withdrew due to injury during his semifinal.

On the consolation side, Clyde Dickey came back from 2 games down to defeat me in 5. Clyde played a steady game the entire match and I sustained an injury to my elbow after winning the second that had me struggling to hold onto my racket. Clyde defeated Jack Hoogstraten and I beat Daryl Lindsay to get to the consolation final.

Some players got as many as 6 matches in this weekend and I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't move one appendage or another. Congratulations to everyone who participated.

The University of Calgary Squash Tourney starts on Friday this week and if you're keen to play the deadline to sign up is today.

Fit Plus Men's Tournament

2010-09-24T09:27:00.001-07:00

With 21 players in the Men's A/Open draw, anyone can take the championship belt. Early favorites are World Health Club's Allan Macaulay and Cale Williams who have already moved onto the quarter-finals. The 4 players winning their first round to get into the round of 16 include myself, Ciaran Godfrey, Andrew Gilbert and Glen Handley.

Glen played a determined Rick Gray who hits the ball low and hard. Glen's backboard style and athleticism extended points long enough for Rick to force shots and make errors. Glen won 3-1 and faces number 2 seed Fabio DeStefani in his next round.

Andrew Gilbert had a shaky start agains lefty Mike Hiller. Mike's penetrating length dominated Andrew as he walked over him in the first 2 games. Andrew attempted to extend rallies, but Mike continued to hit the ball past Andrew time and time again. Andrew collected himself after losing the 2nd and completely changed his gameplan, looking to go short and force Mike to move off the T. With a new strategy, Andrew began to dominate play as he roared back to win 11-9 in the 5th. Andrew moves on to play unknown Micaala Seth.

Ciaran Godfrey started his tourney against veteran Greg Henderson who tried to extend rallies long enough for Ciaran to find the tin. Greg put up a good fight losing one game in extra points and surprisingly taking a game off Eau Claire's top ranked player. But Ciaran was too much for Greg in the fourth as his blistering pace made most of his shots unreturable. Ciaran now faces Medicine Hat's Todd Christianson.

In a re-match of our first round last year, I was given the opportunity to redeem myself against Jeff Schneider (who beat me in 5 last year). The gameplan was to extend points and tire out Jeff as I know he hasn't played a lot this summer. I took the first game 11-8. After coming off court and getting some sound coaching, I kept my racket up and looked to go short on loose balls and play high crosscourt lobs on low drives. I took the second 11-2. I continued with this strategy and finished strong 11-3. My next match will pit me against hard hitting Larry Laine.

There are still lots of matches left to be played, including much anticipated Kelsey Souchereau who will play Reg Munro later today. Stay tuned for more updates on the Fit Plus Men's Tournament.

Inside the mind of a Champion

2010-09-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

Having spent the weekend attached at the hip of Ian Laycock, it was a little more than interesting peering into the thought processes that occur into the heavy favorite of a tournament. Having been the number 1 seed in lower division tournaments, I thought that perhaps I would be able to relate.

Before Ian's first match against his uncle Ian B., Ian had driven 3 hours after a full day of physical fire fighter training in Vermillion. It was obvious that he was tired and may have been coming down with a cold. His uncle had to play a match earlier that day and was already feeling a bit wiped. Ian took this match to get a good warm up in and practice his shots, establish his length and focus on his court movement. He said he was feeling a bit tired so didn't want to be on court too long, but wanted to ensure his uncle got a good hit in. Ian followed up the match with a nice long steam, we went and had a few beers and some popcorn(kitchen was closed) at the bar and went back to Sherwood Park. Ian had a neo-citran and went to bed by 1am.

Saturday morning, Ian had to run to school and get some stuff done before playing his match with Andrew Linklater. Andrew is a solid player and Ian said he was just gonna try and play fast and get off court quickly. Ian was a bit nervous and he was suffering from a runny nose but took the first 2 games easily. Andrew knew he was outgunned, but still tried to extend rallies. Ian said he was feeling impatient and his length was horrible, but he was gonna try and go short and win points faster in the 3rd which he lost in a close one. The 4th game saw more of the same, but Ian's length improved which set up better opportunites to go short. Andrew was able to get some shots going and moved Ian around, but he couldn't sustain the pace of play. Ian did not appear to break a sweat in this game. We went for a steam afterwards and then off to chinese food for lunch. We didn't overeat but it was decent portion, noodles and shrimp. Ian popped a couple advil extra strength gel caps about an hour before his match with Jeff Williams cause he was feeling a bit sore.

Ian went for a steam again before his match with Jeff as his runny nose continued. He seemed more concerned with finishing his match so he could come coach me, reminding me to get a good warm up in, keep my racket up and concentrate on my feetwork. Jeff looked relaxed as he had already conceeded the match in his mind. I bet Ian $50 that he couldn't make Jeff vomit on court. Unfortunately, Jeff was trying to shoot for winners the entire match which prevented any long rallies and made for another quick dispatching for Ian. Ian was a bit annoyed but was able to catch (what could have been the end of) my match just in time to coach me to a comeback and take it 5 whil Phil.

Ian stretched it out a bit and went for another steam. We went up to the bar again and hung out with the gang. Ian and his uncle split a pizza and a few beers. Ian talked on the phone with his gf most of the time and we made an early night again and watched a movie at home. We woke up early and ate blueberry pancakes and pineapple and watched some forrest gump.

I asked Ian the game plan and he said he was gonna demolish Elliot as fast as he could. He was gonna get on the ball fast and keep him moving. Elliot looked pretty sore in the warm up as his semi-final went 5 and he won on a stroke. But Ian looked composed and was pounding the ball and moving well. The first few rallies of the first were long and exciting, but if you blinked, you woulda missed the match. It only took the first 4 points before Ian ran away with it. Elliot seemed to be frozen as Ian literally just hit the ball past him point after point. This was Ian shortest match of the tourney. Ian later said that he was annoyed that Elliot didn't make a match of it and that made him rush more than he wanted which caused the handful of mistakes that Ian made in each game. We went back to the bar and had lunch with Ray and Phil then off to the mall. We went and watched the Town, then had a BBQ in the rain. We chatted on Skype with some family and checked out the draw for next weeks tourney. Then off to bed.

Yeah, not as glamorous as you might think! But it was awesome for me to have that in my corner.

Royal Glenora Season Opener

2010-09-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

Edmonton's Royal Glenora club hosted Alberta's first tournament of the season and brought close to a hundred players out of hibernation this past weekend. As only 7 players registered for men's open, club pro Jeff Williams opted for a combined Open/A division with close to 2 dozen players. I drove up with WCP's James Jelenski and met 2 of my Calgary buddies including Eau Claire teammate Paul Adamiak and good friend and team Alberta member Ian Laycock. The draw was fierce, with brother's Andrew and Elliot Linklater, former pro basketballer Phil Scherer, firefighter Ray Patricio, veteran Tom Bedore and a number of keen players all looking to move up in the Alberta rankings. Here is a breakdown of our weekend. With the combined draw, it was a reasonable goal to get into the top 8 and play as well as I could against the top 7 seeded players.

James had to play new A player TJ Townsend in the first round and was surprised by the unorthodox swing and movement and struggled through the first 4 games until TJ ran outta steam in the 5th and James ran away with it. James' second match was against number 4 seed and club pro Jeff Williams who dominated James from the word go. Jeff won a trip to the semifinal against Top seeded Ian Laycock who made easy work of Jeff. James was knocked outta the tourney by Ryan Jadusingh in another close one.

Paul played a streaky game with Andrew Linklater, winning and losing numerous points in a fast pace and exciting match. Andrew's consistency won out in the end as Paul found the tin too many times with higher risk shots. Andrew took the match in 4. Paul moved to the consolation side where he met up against a determined Ian Buchanan (who was nice enough to let me stay with him this weekend). The match was in question the entire time and Paul struggled to keep the ball above the tin and Ian seemed to find the nick everytime he went short. Paul battled hard in the 5th to come back from 10-7 down to win it in extra points.

My first match was against Scott Anderson. With my tennis elbow, I didn't expect a lot and I was struggling with my swing. Scott ran down a lot of balls but was unable to put the ball away on me as I kept the pace slow, and in the end, my superior fitness was enough to force Scott into flurries of mistakes. I took the first 2 games easily 11-7, 11-5 and dropped the third quickly 11-3 but came back in the 4th winning 11-6. Consistency was key as I couldn't put any extra pace on the ball and Scott attempted to force the issue finding the tin and putting himself outta position too many times. The Saturday match against number 2 seed Elliot Linklater was a total walkover as I struggled to hit the ball and sharp pains in the forearm and elbow prevented any focus for me. I lost in 3 and went straight to the pharmacy for painkillers. I played again in the evening against number 3 seed, Phil Scherer conceding the first 2 games and getting down 7-10 in the third before the advil kicked in I was able to battle back and win the 3rd in extra points. I dominated the 4th game as Phil didn't know what hit him winning 11-5. With a semifinal playing on the court beside us, there was a bit of a delay for game 5 and thus another swing in momentum. Phil came out hitting a miss hit off my serve that somehow found the crosscourt nick. The second point I dominated with Phil looking like he was going to run outta steam and after reaching for a backhand the ball squeezed off the tip of his racket and the boast found yet another nick. Phil's next serve just cleared the top line and dropped in to find the backwall nick. Down 3-0 off 3 nicks, my heart sank into my stomach, but I tried to keep pace going point for point until the end, but couldn't break back that extra point. As the game extended the crowd from the semi-final all found their away over and cheers sounded from outside the court. I picked up the intensity of my footwork, taking the ball earlier and mixing up pace with slow floaty lobs that kept Phil off balance. Phil opted to play the roll of backboard as I worked him up front with fast boasts and forced him to reach high to volley with the slow matrix style lobs. Rallies were long and exciting and mistakes were few and far between as each player was looking to win points by out positioning the other. Phil won a few points with some hard hitting swings into the nick and Domi caught Phil going for a bit too much a couple times taking the stroke. But in the end, Phil found that hard drive cross court into the nick taking it 11-9 in the 5th. Phil went on to lose to Ray Patricio in the cons final.

Ian's first round was against his uncle Ian who did all he could keep the ball in play but eventually fell 3-0. Ian followed up with a second round against Andrew Linklater in what would be his toughest match of the tourney, winning in 4. Andrew played a solid tight and disciplined game, but Ian's pace was too much for Andrew forcing him to chase down ball after ball until Andrew couldn't chase anymore. Ian dispatched Jeff Williams in 3 in the semi-final and spent more time warming up demolishing Elliot in the final 3-0.

Overall a fun weekend. Losing to the number 2 and 3 seeds, but finishing tied for 7th, goal achieved!

Prolotherapy - Round Three

2010-09-15T20:33:00.001-07:00

After suffering for the last couple months with minor tennis elbow, last night was the straw that broke the camel's back...or in my case - elbow. Without any grip strength, I would say that it is almost impossible to create tension in the forearm. Tennis elbow has got to be the most excruciating ailment I've experienced. It started with just a lingering ache in my forearm, I got it massaged, I got some crazy chinese herbal patches, active release, physiotherapy. Doctors all recommended that I just stop playing squash for a couple months to allow the tendons to heal....yeah right.

I thought it would go away, tried wearing a tension band around my tricep and forearm, but it wasn't the same. My arm was weak, my hand was flimsy and my elbow caused me unbelievable pain. Ice was a temporary solution, but as soon as it got warm the irritation would start back up. Playing horribly the last couple days I decided that I need to get this fixed...NOW.

I went to the naturopath that injected my ankles with prolotherapy solution a year ago. My ankles have never been the same, by the way. They are stronger than ever, no clicking sounds, no ankle braces, just reinforced ligaments and tendons that provide me with confidence moving around court. I've actually felt my foot turn over while moving on court and the ligament supporting my dynamic weight and not stretching or tearing. So even though I knew I would have to suffer through the injections into my elbow joint (it was almost 60 injections into both ankles in 2 sessions)and then the days of soreness that would follow, I felt that it was worth the risk.

At lunchtime today I walked over to Dr.Mike Hoffman without appointment and forced him to inject my elbow and provide an instant remedy for this debilitating injury. I could barely shake his hand and even the smallest poke at my elbow made me want to cry. The initial injection was right into the most painful bony process where the tendon attached my muscle to my joint. The stabbing pain was followed by a pressurized sensation as the fluid was injected...then euphoria. The procaine in the solution numbed my elbow, then my forearm and 8 injections later, I was relieved from my pain!!!

I went back to work and things were solid, I was excited to go up to Edmonton this weekend and play a tournament. I remember thinking that my arm still feels a bit weak, but at least there is no pain. But it creeped up on me, I could start to feel a tingling in my elbow about an hour after being injected. The tingling turned into throbbing and I eventually went home cause the pain had not only increased substantially, but prevented me from being able to concentrate. By the time I got home, I could barely move my arm...I knew this would happen and I'm currently dealing. I've temporarily become left handed as the swelling in my elbow has limited it's use. It's the irritation of the tendons that initiates the bodies healing process, so anti-inflammatory drugs would counteract the therapy.

This time tomorrow I should be fine, better than new even. I hope that I can endure as the healing process is almost unbearable...thank god for belvedere. A nice 2 day rest prior to tournament play is a great thing and promises to provide me with fresh legs, a fresh elbow and a fresh disposition for the Royal Glenora Season Opener on Friday. (but seriously - my elbow feels f'd up!)

Interclub - First Match

2010-09-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Our Eau Claire YMCA men's team suffered our first team loss since 2008. Newcomer Andrew Gilbert hit the court first and came out a little flat against World Health's Amir Khalid. The ball was hot last night but both players insisted on taking big cuts at the ball and forcing lots of errant shots from the opponents. Andrew eventually found his feet and kept the ball tight and controlled up and down the walls and volleying short forcing Amir to run down a lot of balls. Andrew controlled most of the rallies but was challenged by Amir who refused to give up on any ball. Andrew grinded out a tough win in 5 games. Team Captain Domi Diaz also played a tough Match against World Health Captain Glen Handley. Lots of loose rallies extended this game to over 75 minutes. With lots of bumping and playing through, it was apparent that both players were struggling to control the ball. Both players suffered mental lapses throughout the match, each dropping a game scoring less than 6 points. Down 2-12, Glen served the ball directly into the floor inspiring a mental lapse in Domi (who couldn't stop laughing), Glen scored the next 2 points before Domi regained composure and took the 2nd game easily. The final 2 games went to extra points and eventually Domi lobbed the ball outta bounds in the fifth. Eau Claire number one, Trevor Slaughter put up a tough match against 6 foot 7 Allan Maculay, extending rallies with blistering cross courts but stuggled to get around Allan resulting in lots of lets called and arguments with the referee. Trevor changed up the strategy in the third working Allan to the front court and found more success than trying to move him to the backcourt but came up short, losing in 3. Top ranked Ciaran Godfrey battled Craig Smith another 5 setter. Ciaran stuck to his game plan of striking the ball hard and low and keeping Craig off balance. Craig capitalized on the flurries of mistakes made by Eau Claire's top ranked player. Ciaran dictated play the entire match giving and taking points from the scrambling world health player. Eventually Ciaran's pace was too much for Craig as Ciaran dominated the 5th game. World Health may have taken home the extra point, but after moving up a division from last year, Eau Claire sends out a message that we can run with the big boys. Our next match will take place in 2 weeks at the Glencoe Club at 7pm.

Squash Forms - Styles of Play - Reposted for 2010-2011

2010-09-13T23:42:00.001-07:00

1. Basic Form: basic strokes, straight length, straight drops, hitting target zones and practice drills, and the basic principle of hitting the ball where your opponent is not. Basic form allows mental focus and a slightly improved chance of creating an opening and winning a point with a basic stroke. Nonetheless, because of its few advantages and disadvantages, basic form is an effective form to fall back on when no other form will do to suit the current match situation.

2. Refined Form: is described as being very elegant, powerful, and requiring extreme precision, allowing the player to attack and defend with minimal effort, while opponents tire themselves out. This form emphasizes smooth movement and fluidity. The form relies on high lobs, and tight, precise drop shots, as opposed to quick volleys and hard hitting of other forms. Players well trained in the refined form prevent attacking shots from there opponents using anticipation and commonly confuse or set-up their opponents for a trap to win easy points. Precise footwork and movements are required for maintaining proper distance to the ball to keep from getting out of position. The racket skills required for this form are very refined and require intense focus. Timing, accuracy, and skill, rather than strength and speed are relied on to win matches. A skilled practitioner of the refined form is extremely potent. The footwork of the refined form is simple and allows the player to keep in perfect balance while attacking and retrieving. The refined form is a style based on balance, on back-and-forth exchanges and variety from all areas of the court. Elegance, gallantry, enchantment, finesse, artfulness, and economy are the core of the refined form, although many practitioners of the form have also trained themselves to avoid being predictable to keep there opponents off balance. The elegant, precise, calm, confident to the point of arrogance of many players who use this form is a result of the relaxed mindset of these players. Refined form users are supremely confident in their chances for victory, and often looked so relaxed when they are playing, they appear to be dancing. Despite its effectiveness, refined form was not without its weaknesses. Among the first of these is the fact that it was somewhat harder to volley shots and training teaches practitioners to defend against well played shots, although skilled players could overcome this with minimal effort. Another drawback is that refined form is most potent when used against low to moderate pressure, therefore is reduced in effectiveness against exceptionally skilled opponents. But the greatest flaw with this system of squash is that it cannot withstand the overwhelming speed and pressure of modern styles, which emphasize power and brute force as opposed to the elegance and precision refined form demands. In the end sheer, raw power of other forms will wear down refined form defenses, physically exhausting them, draining them mentally and forcing them to hit looser shots and making more mistakes.
3. Resilience Form: requires maintaining a constant vigilance to defend every shot with slow or tight replies, leaving the player less exposed to a constant barrage of shots. Resilience form is the most defensive of the squash forms. The philosophy of resilience form is described as "being within the eye of the storm." The practitioner maintains a centered frame of concentration, undisrupted by the pressure, speed, power or shot selection of the opponent. Maintaining a calm center where the attacking storm of shots from the opponent is prolonged. Resilience form commands powerful defensive techniques that seemed to adapt to almost any circumstance, at the cost of never reaching past the figurative eye of the storm. The resilience technique uses little to none of the attack power needed by those who concentrate on the storm itself. Those who practice this style use the primarily defensive technique of wearing down aggressive opponents by defending long onslaughts with minimal counter-attacking. Players wait until their opponents spend most of their energy, and then often employ an alternate, more aggressive attack, or allow the opponent to slowly deteriorate and they wait for the eventual lapse in the opponent's defense. The key to truly mastering resilience form may come from a mastery of the concept and philosophy of resiliency. Although some players may prefer resilience form, applying elements of other forms will confuse many opponents. Resilience form allows you to slow down an opponent with minimal effort, forcing opponents to expend precious energy with each shot, slowly tiring them while players remain fresh and strong. Resilience form attacks with defense, redirecting an opponent’s energy and waiting for opponents to become weary or frustrated, allowing them to make a mistake and creating openings to score easy points. Observers generally described resilience form as a passive form of squash. Players with extreme patience and a reserved personality often employed the form although the form stresses quick reflexes and fast positional transition, in order to overcome the speed and pressure with which many opponents can play squash. This technique minimizes the court exposure, making it nearly impossible to hit a winner against a well-trained practitioner. Resilience form requires preparation for prolonged matches where players observe and learn as much as possible about their opponent’s technique and tendencies. Many practitioners have played many lengthy matches, owing to the endurance gained from the form and its specialization in fending off and neutralizing attacks. Resilience form’s greatest power is the endurance and control a practitioner eventually develops. The defense and control it allows a practitioner makes for favorable outcomes when faced with hurried opponents who leave themselves vulnerable to counterattack. However, its defense requires a very large amount of focus from the player and even a momentary fault in concentration could spell defeat. Players with less focused minds will usually abandon this style of squash to capitalize on the benefits of other styles that require less dedication to prolonged matches. Resilience form users will play attacking shots to increase the speed and frequency at which the opponent will have to play the ball but will keep defending until they see an opening in the opponent. Truly focused players are very formidable due to their strong defense technique; however, the style depends on mistakes from the opponent and guarantees survival more than victory. Resiliency form practitioners are more than capable but need a large amount of experience to learn how to trap an opponent in their own offense. Maintaining focus to prolong the fight, and causing the opponent to become fatigued or frustrated as they attempted to keep up their offense can easily backfire as players can become fatigued against an aggressive though cautious adversary.
4. Aggressive Form: relies on a combination of power, strength, and speed. Practitioners are always on the offensive, attacking with wide, fast, and powerful strokes. Aggressive form practitioners have strong, fast, hard movements and attacks. By training hard physically to condition their body, they can hit the ball with incredible pace and perform amazing deceptive shots on court, such as hitting behind their backs and double swinging, not only for attacking shots but also to make incredible gets and score points from anywhere on the court. Players utilizing aggressive form incorporate all their training to push themselves physically, including ranges of motion, speed, and agility in order to be successful. Running, lunging, and diving are all part of the elaborate kinetics of the aggressive form. Those who use aggressive form swing their rackets at high speeds and can rain down stroke after stroke to pulverize opponents into submission. Powerful and quick attacks from all angles, either off the ground or out of the air, they appear like a blur to their opponents, attacking from all directions—from the front, the sides, overhead, and behind. Extreme conditioning allows aggressive style players to perform athletic movements but because it is such an aggressive style, it is not generally optimal for prolonged matches, as the nature of aggressive form could greatly tax the body. Aggressive style is flashy, bold, and exciting as are the personalities of those who practice it. Without strict discipline, aggressive form can lead to flurries of mistakes and leave the players out of position and open up the court to easy winners. The player’s focus is often concentrated on generating power often at the cost of precision and strategy. Aggressive form actions flow from one to another in smooth transitions represented by the three possible axes of rotation in three-dimensional space allowing the player to generate pace from anywhere, in any position, in any direction on the court. The form is intended to allow a player to quickly strike the ball at the opponent without giving them a chance to react, and then again and again before they have a chance to retaliate. Another move that aggressive form users could use effectively includes taking the ball earlier or later and hitting it with incredible pace keeping the opponent sprinting to next shot or freezing them in place and throwing them off balance.
5. Perseverance form: is an evolution of the resilience form. It combines the defensive maneuvers of resilience form with the philosophy and tactics of aggressive form which requires a higher level of physical strength due to its focus on complete domination of opponents. The perseverance form is described as being well adapted to guarding against aggressive attacks without compromising one's ability to use powerful counterattacks. Perseverance form practitioners feel resilience form is too passive and this form addresses the fact that although a resilience user may be unbeatable, it is likewise they are unable to overcome a skilled opponent. Utilizing a combination of lobs, drops and volleys, a perseverance user maintains a proper foundation in terms of defense against both hard hitting attacks and well placed shots. While a resilience form user stays on the defensive and only counterattacks when necessary or when an opening appeared in his opponent's defense, a perseverance practitioner is not nearly so passive. Immediately after defending against an opponent's shot, a perseverance stylist would follow with an attack of their own, using the pace of the opponent's own shot against them and looking to end points quicker. Aggressive form places a heavy focus on brute strength and pure power, with wide, powerful strokes and swinging volleys, while perseverance form concentrates on using the opponent’s aggressive actions to generate an equal attack with minimized effort. Perseverance form is often a style adopted by larger players. Strong attacks force an opponent behind the larger player, throwing them off balance and leaving opponents vulnerable to further brute force strokes and easy drop shots. The perseverance form penetrates an opponent's defense and pushes them deeper in the court, making it difficult to counter attack. The form is always looking to counterattack, pressuring opponents to play higher risk shots by overwhelming their defense. Emotion can become an overriding factor of this style when practitioners begin to focus too much on sheer power instead of redirecting an opponents attack. Perseverance form can lead to the complete domination of the opponent but if emotions aren’t kept in check, it can also lead to the undoing of the player.

6. Moderation Form: attempts to balance all elements of squash forms, combining the techniques from the other 5 forms into a less intensely demanding playing style. In practice, moderation form was a combination of basic, refined, resilient, aggressive and perseverance forms, and all of them in moderation. In blending the forms, much of the individuality is lost, but the strengths are spread evenly, and there is little weakness in it. Due to its "jack-of-all-trades" nature, the success of this form is largely dependent on the practitioner's intuition, improvisation, and creativity on court rather than the rote responses derived from other forms. Moderation form is not a weak form, while many other forms bolstered the player's abilities in one area, leaving them vulnerable in others, moderation form is capable in all situations but had no dramatic strengths. It provides no edge in match situation, but achieves its worth by allowing a player to attack, defend, counter attack and force mistakes from an opponent. Its strength is its balance. The moderation form is also considered a basis for more 'unorthodox' squash forms, as player’s who use it are less frequently using automatic reflex and are constantly thinking and often have time to invent unusual strategies to win points. Moderation form’s greatest strength is the way it allows a player to change the focus of the match even during a point. The philosophy of moderation form is "the leaf swept in the winds.” Users of this squash form achieve a mindset of one who is not troubled by their surroundings, but simply rides the current and adapts, being well-balanced within. In practice this form is truly the mastery of all squash forms, and if a player dedicated themselves exclusively to moderation form, the player can expect to study all styles for decades before achieving mastery. Weakness in the moderation form comes when the user has not mastered all forms. Being unable to execute all forms prevents adaptability and eventually leads to confusion. All open level players may eventually master moderation form, but usually favour a form that is dictated by there body type and fitness level.

Pomp and Circumstance

2010-09-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

It's finally here, the start of another squash season in Calgary. It's time to walk the walk and prove that the painstaking preparations haven't been all in vain. Competition season can bring out the best in players, but as we've all seen, it can also conjure up frustrations beyond one's control. After all but burning out on the courts in the spring, post-season rest is a must...even for the keenest of squash enthusiasts. Pre-season training is a time to visit the areas that created those frustrations in the previous year. But now the season is here and it's just time to play some squash.

In the past few months, I've improved my fitness, my strength and my footwork. I tweaked my shots and modified my strategy in an attempt to dominate opponents with a faster defensive style. Forcing opponents to rush, hit looser and make more mistakes. I know that I can be quick on the ball, I know that my strategy is sound, I know what I have to do to win a point. So why so early in the season am I already getting frustrated? It's my contention that the idea of winning has created this frustration, because I'm still developing parts of my game that are nowhere near as strong as the skills that are fundamental to my gameplan. Yes the season begins tomorow, yes I am excited to get on court and play and yes I want to win... In my head I tell myself "move your feet, hit it tight, look for a loose shot and apply more pressure." but in the background I hear "You've worked so hard, attack the ball, move faster, step up and volley, you should be dominating this guy." I've written this rant to help myself to clarify how I play squash, to remember that squash is just a game, and to focus on the fundamentals that got me to the level that I play at now.
Remember when Andy Roddick was an actual contender at the majors. He had a bad ass serve and a bazooka of a forehand. Remember when he started to try to serve and volley, and attack with his two-handed backhand and fell outta the top 10, then top 50. He tried to do too much to his game, it wasn't natural for him, he was thinking way too much and not letting the flow of the game take the course of least resistance. About an hour ago, I read that Rafa Nadal just won the US OPEN. There was a comment in that article that Nadal had actually changed the grip of his serve slightly a few days before the tournament and was able to increase his serve speed by an average of 10 MPH. If you watched him play in the last 2 weeks, this may have gone unnoticed as he still had the fundamental gameplan, he stuck to his guns, he picked his wedgy and put as much topspin stank on that ball as he possibly could. Thank god I found that article because it reminded me how I play squash and that my little change in getting on the ball a little bit earlier is all I need to show improvement in my game. It showed me that I can't depend on the volley crosscourt nick shot, it showed me that I don't apply pressure with ripping the ball hard cross court. It re-inforced in my mind that I play slow, controlled straight up and down the walls to force mistakes with tight shots and long rallies.

That's my shot, Mr.Dependable floaty backhand tight down the wall. It wasn't always a great shot, it took a lot of practice burning the shot into my muscle memory under all sorts of circumstances. But sometimes he goes on vacation, sometimes Mr.Dependable has become Mr.Loose cross court or worse Mr.Pound it into the tin. Here's where I'm going with this, I've learned to build my strategy on this shot, I need this shot to work if I'm going to be able to stay in a rally, if it's off, I need to find it, I need to get on the ball early and hit my target. I can't look to hit shots that aren't practiced enough hoping by some miracle that I will hit it better than I ever have before just because I can't hit a backhand tight down the wall. I'm not saying don't use your new guns, I've been working on this ridiculous crosscourt drop (ala Derek Shtand) and the straight push drop tight to the wall, I'll just be looking for safer opportunities to test out my new weapons. With all the hoopla of a new season, we can all stand to take a minute and breathe...overt your eyes from the doves that were just released, the blasting fireworks in the night sky and the cheering crowds. It's time to remember how you play squash and if you can do that, you might get lucky and come out with a W.

ECSquash on YouTube

2010-09-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

We've posted 4 videos for your viewing enjoyment,

1) Pro Squash Training Camp - Calgary 2010
2) Razik vs McDougall pt1
3) Razik vs McDougall pt2
4) Razik vs McDougall - Outtakes

look up ECSquash and you should be able to find them.
-DD

Do What You Can...

2010-09-02T12:35:00.001-07:00

Doing what you can may or may not be what is required to win.
It suggests that you have reached your limit and are unable to do anymore. So, if I do what I can, win or lose, it should always be enough regardless of outcome.
The great thing about doing what you can, is that what you can do will improve every time you reach the pinnacle of your limits. Push yourself out of your comfort zone and do more than you think you can, this is the essence of improvement. Eventually doing what you can will surpass what is required to win.

So, if you have reached a plateau in improvement, it's not your coach, its not who your training partner is, it's not your parents fault for not getting you into squash as a junior, it's you. The problem is there is a flaw in what you are doing to improve.
There is a better way and you're wasting your time if whatever it is you've tried hasn't brought you any gains.

There are countless players out there who don't have the luxury of training with the best coaches or playing higher level opponents. So step one is to stop blaming everyone around you and take some responsibility for improvement.

I used to think that I worked hard and that I deserved to win because I got a coach, learned some stuff, trained with some pretty good guys had some big wins and pretty positive results, well it turned out that's all superficial B.S. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, cause it showed me what a little bit of confidence could do for my game. But after the initial improvement, there was a definite decline in the rate improvement.

The epiphany was that I wasn't doing what I could do, I was doing what I thought was enough.

I want to train hard, I want to be pushed and I want to improve my understanding of the game, for me competition is just a venue to gauge my ability to do what I can and determine what I can and can't do. This philosophy is lost on people and they see me as being uncompetitive. Everyone wants to improve, step two is figuring out why.

I see it in lessons all the time, these people talk and give explanations and want instant fixes and they tell me why they couldn't do it, or someone else told them to do it a different way. So it seems that people don't want to improve, they just want to win.

When I get lessons, I go to learn drills that will drill consistency into my game, and then I go and do drills...if it was as easy as just showing up and watching, everyone would be in the PSA. But this is what happens everyday, people just poke at it, they don't drill it.

Anyhow, that's my first rant for the 2010-2011 squash season.

Squash Forms - Styles of Play - Reposted

2010-09-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Exhibition Match

2010-08-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

Pro Squash Training Camp in Calgary

2010-07-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

Shahier Razik will be running Pro Squash Training Camp in Calgary with Kevin Doucet at Mount Royal University on Monday August 23 to Wednesday August 24 from 6-9pm.

The camp is geared towards intermediate/advanced adults, high intensity on court training on technique and movement. The cost is $400 per person for 3 hours a night for 3 nights.
There is only room for up to 10 people on 4 courts.

Please reply and express your interest or ask for details before Friday.
Forward to everyone you might think is interested.

Hope your summer is going well!

domidiaz@shaw.ca

ECY Summer Squash 2010

2010-07-18T15:41:00.000-07:00

Registration is now open to sign up for the Eau Claire YMCA Summer Squash Training Program. Call the Eau Claire YMCA at 403-269-6701 to sign up. Members pay $60 and Non-Members pay $72.

It will start Monday, August 16 and run Monday and Thursday for 3 weeks from 6pm to 8pm.

There are spots for 12 people. There will be an hour session on court and an hour off court. The drills will be designed for A and B level players looking to get into shape and get back into squash shape.

The Eau Claire Men's Level 2 team will be facilitating the training and we will be bringing out some of the top players in the city to come train with us.

For the Hardcore Squashers

2010-05-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you hardcore squashers who will continue to train over the summer, keep in mind a few things.

First, make sure to hit the gym. Strength training will make squash easier and help prevent injuries. Do weight training to improve muscle strength and even out your body. Squash players tend to be one side dominant which can throw off your spinal alignment, causing ankle, knee, hip and lower back problems. So if you've just barely gotten thru last season, you may consider getting in better shape so you don't get injured next season.

Second, practice your skills. Work on your serve, drop shot, length, volley, footwork and the list goes on. If you're gonna improve and make a change in your game, now's the time.

Third, go get lessons. An unbiased opinion might open your eyes to some obvious flaws in your game. And a some sound advice may be exactly what you need to hear to improve it. If you just seek advice from other players than you can take it or leave it, if you try it and it works...great, if you try it and it doesn't...oh well. The best option is to go and get lessons from a qualified squash instructor. A squash coach should individualize teaching to you, if your 5'1" and he's telling you to play the same style at someone who is 6'5", you may want to think twice...don't get me wrong, there are lots of universal things that all players must learn, but your squash style should be as individual as your finger print.

And the last thing I'll leave you with is this:
Play people you are better than to practice the things you've learned in a game situation...don't worry if you lose, just practice the things you are working on. If you wanna improve any shot, you need to first be able to make that shot under low pressure.

Play people around the same level as you to work on your competitiveness and ability to win. Much of your match level confidence can be either built up or torn down in these matches, so always concentrate on keeping a clear head in these games and develop the style and strategy you want to play and get used to playing it.
Play people better than you and work your ass off. You will not get better just being on court with someone better, in fact, if you just get on court and half ass it, you will only learn to lose. You may improve slightly on you ability to chase after a ball, but the idea here is to pick up on how better players construct points, what shots they hit to put you under pressure, so pay careful attention.

And as always HAVE FUN with it, it's just a game.

Summer Summer Summer Time ...

2010-05-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

Remembering why you play squash will do wonders for you. If the pressure of living up to unrealistic and self imposed expectations for results and improvement haven't completely annihilated your love for the game than there may still be hope. The burnout of sport is seen globally at every level in every sport, so don't feel that you are alone in your suffering.

I don't have many answers regarding this issue, but I have identified my own symptoms of burnout and have alleviated the stress thru a few means. I initially thought it would be enough to just give up on squash for the summer and hope to rekindle my love affair again in the fall.

But I have since realized that I just wanna play squash so I need to continue to play, but instead of focusing on all the things that cause me grief...like winning or losing, I just need to get out and enjoy playing. A couple weeks ago I went and played badminton and had an awesome time, it didn't matter who I was playing with, what level, points, teams, strategy, winning, losing, nobody cared, we were all there just to play...and although I don't really like badminton, I loved being out there playing it.

So the goal this summer is to improve and love every minute of it.

Weight Loss - Myths and Facts

2010-04-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

In December 2009, I had reached about 198lbs, close to my all time high of 205lbs a couple years ago. Since that time I had started on the P90X workout program and followed it religiously for 9 weeks, but have since moved to only 3-4 times a week. I am currently at 183lbs and dropping. The goal is to get to 175lbs by September 2010, which would be a total weight loss of 28lbs. I've tried several types of weight loss programs and have seen the results of changing eating habits and exercise practices. So how am I doing it now, why have I been successful this year compared to years past? Well the key is understanding how the body actually works, and realizing that all these fads that people preach is total bullshit.

Here are some Bullshit Myths that will actually prevent you from losing weight.
Starvation mode slows your metabolism, this is bullshit - do you ever see any fat asses that are truly starving? Being hungry is really just our addiction to food, you can go days without eating and I'll bet you $50 you lose weight.
Don't eat after 8pm, why not? your body processes, including digestion occurs 24 hrs, just don't pig out after 8pm or before 8pm.

Eat lots of small meals throughout the day to boost your metabolism - people who say this don't even understand what metabolism means. Metabolism are the processes which occur in your body that breakdown food into useable energy. The variation in rate at which these processes occur is realtively insignificant, it's more about how much food one has to process. Essentially if you eat more in small doses than you would in one large meal, it will still take you longer to process. Cows graze on grass all day long and are f'ng huge, cheetahs may eat an entire antelope once a week and are lean beasts!
Drinking water boosts your metabolism, don't get me wrong, drinking water is good for you...but drinking water just helps to lubricate the digestive track to help you pass the waste through your system, it does not increase the rate at which metabolize the energy from food.
Cardio is the best way to lose fat...not true, building lean muscle with strength training will get you leaner faster and make it easier to burn off the calories that are stored in your fatty cells.
Anyhow there are a bunch more bullshit myths that are mainly propogated by people who work out religiously and if they stopped would also turn into fatties.
So as an athelete your calorie intake will be higher than those who don't exercise, so go ahead and eat whatever you want, just be sensible in how much of it you eat. And essentially squash is a cardio workout, so go out and do some strength training, it'll make squash easier as you won't be carrying around so much excess and your muscles will be stronger.

So What Now?

2010-04-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

It was 2 years ago that Trevor and I played Level 3 (which would be considered level 4 now) and won the season and then the playoff championship with our captain Dale Sivucha, 2nd Guy Schuler and sub Luke Vanderbaaren. Dale and Guy taught us how to win, they never really showed us anything technique wise, winning was more about using the skills that we had, which for me and Trev was running and retrieving and hitting the ball hard.

Since these times, Trevor and I have improved tremendously. More so for Trevor is his ability to move on the court. The game that he has developed is fast and constant forcing opponents to play at a pace that creates mistakes and indecision. Trevor has also developed his short game allowing him to move the ball into every corner of court quickly. On the other hand I am content to play the ball much slower and I am focused on hitting the ball tighter and to good length, although I am struggling with my front court game, I know that it will eventually get to the point of being an attacking shot for me...just not right now. Recovery out of shots is and controlling the T is also my focus however they seem to deteriorate towards the end of the match. I find that I often wait for players to clear their shot before moving to the ball although they may not grant me that same courtesy...definitely a mental barrier I need to remedy.

Anyhow, squash is among the many depressing things that have gotten me down in the last few months. Seeing an improvement in my skills only to have a decline in my ability to win has been more than a frustrating experience. I see the same frustration in many of those that play in Calgary...putting all the time and effort to improve only to get your ass kicked. At the Alberta Open, I realized that having a good support team is important and that having the wrong one can be devastating. The change in my game in the last 2 weeks has been to focus on winning and although I've had some big wins, I realized that the focus was not actually on winning, it was the process of winning a point.

On court against weaker players or in meaningless games, I am content to attempt shots that I would otherwise likely not play on a regular basis, this has allowed me to at least call upon these shots and combinations of shots during a tough match just to try and mix things up. But even then, the focus is on hitting targets and keeping it tight, controlling the T and moving in and out of the ball efficiently. My game plan is simple, force the guy behind me and make him play better shots, and when it pops loose hold and hit the ball where he isn't...not always easy.

It will be nice to take a break after nationals for a little while to get away from all things squash. But when I come back, I fully intend to be another 10lbs lighter, moving in and out of the front court efficiently and controlling the court with my shots and dominating the game with my feet.

2009/2010 Men's and Ladies Champions

2010-04-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

The Eau Claire YMCA has made an impact this year in the Calgary Interclub Squash league boasting a dynamic Ladies team and the cities youngest Men's team, both of which finished off their seasons in First Place and both claiming the title of Playoff Champions. We also take credit for the Bow Valley ladies as they are all part of Eau Claire Squash.

The Ladies level 4 team, after having disbanded and going their seperate ways in the 2008/2009 season were reunited in the summer of 2009. The ladies team suffered only 1 team loss this year and finished the season well out in first place. They capped the season off by pummelling their competition 5-0 in their semifinal match. They continued to leave no doubt that they deserved the crown by demolishing their opposition 5-0 in the Ladies level 4 final. Congratulations to Adele Mansel, Sandi Wingert, Sandi Schaefer, Faye Mak, Barb Wyrsch and Jodi Beaugrand on their excellent work this season.

Bow Valley Club's Ladies level 2 team, having moved from the Eau Claire Y last year due to renovations, also had a stellar season. The level 2 ladies managed to drop only 2 team matches this season and claimed the top spot. The semi-final pitted them against a determined team that came within one game of de-throwning the BVC ladies. The ladies were back on track in the final where they won 4-1 to become the Ladies level 2 playoff champs. Congratulations to Solana Jear, Carol Vallee, Sandy Deren, Irena Sinclair, Michelle Hollins and Helen Newsome on their continued success.

Having just squeaked into playoffs last season and knocking off the top team, the men's level 3 team fell short of a playoff championship in the 2008/2009 season. In their second year together, with new comer Ciaran Godfrey, the men's level 3 team was the youngest team in the league. Each team member brings a style of their own out to the courts and teams were easily out run, out hit, out paced, out played and outlasted. Dropping only one match due to poor olympic scheduling, the men's level 3 team cinched up 1st place with weeks before the season was over. The highlight of the year was Trevor Slaughter's huge semi-final upset on the only undefeated player in the division. With their coach Kevin Doucet courtside, the rest of the team continued their winning ways taking the semi-final in a 5-0 victory. The team carried on the momentum of a championship season and took the final 5-0, with Paul Adamiak refusing to lose in the 5th game despite being down 7 match balls to win 12-10. Congratulations to Trevor Slaughter, Derek Shtand, Paul Adamiak, Ciaran Godfrey and me (Domi Diaz) on taking squash to a new level at the Eau Claire Y.

End of Season Rankings 2010

2010-04-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

So at the end of another Interclub season here is how the Eau Claire Y faired:

CISL end of season standings and individual rankings:

Women's Teams
Level 2(BVC) - First
Level 4 - First

Individual Ladies' Rankings:
Carol Vallee(41), Solana Jear(58), Michelle Hollins(71), Sandy Deren(73), Helen Newsome (91),Irena Sinclair(100), Sandy Schafer(125), Sandi Austin(127), Faye Mak(137), Barbara Wyrsch(165), Adele Mansell(210), Jodi Beaugrand(251)

Men's Teams
Level 3 - First
Level 5A - 2nd
Level 5B - 8th
Level 6 - 7th
Level 8 - 8th

Individual Men's Rankings:
Ciaran Godfrey(50), Derek Shtand(61), Paul Adamiak(62), Domi Diaz (68), Trevor Slaughter(88) Paul Albert(268), John Gamma (278), Kelvin Paul (383), Stephen Murray (499), David Mercier (501),Aaron Johnstone(369), Dave Sluggett(378),David Slaughter(422), Tom Emerson(498), David Cairns(519), Kar Leung(535), Bernie Howlett(557), Rick Spyker(607), Paul Williams(608), Martin D’souza(618), David Mulligan(624), Kim Wilmot(688), Ryan Fernandez(838), Ian Mckinnon(949), Chris Doyle(1082), Tomasz Kezierski(1090), Zimran Muhammed (1118), Jonah Popoff(1191), Matthew Welsh(1202), Phillip Leech (1204)

Jan's Squash Advice

2010-04-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

In the last month I was lucky enough to meet up with Shahier Razik during the Rocky Mountain PSA Open in March. It turns out that he is good friends with Jan Koukal aka. Kouki, who I got to spend a lot of time with.

After the tourney, Jan wanted to go snowboarding. Ciaran and I took him to Lake Louise where we spent a warm, slushy spring day racing down endless, wide open runs and had the entire mountain to ourselves. He left the next day to play a tourney in San Fran and was back the following week, although sick as a dog. Kouki still pretty much hung out all week and of course we went back to Louise to spend a cold, icy, sniffling, coughing day snowboarding with two-planker David. Then he was back off yesterday to play a tourney in the States.

So what was I able to learn from Jan about Squash? First off, it wasn't like an interview, we didn't just sit down for an hour and discuss his career. Jan really just wanted to relax and get his mind off of squash and hang out and do fun stuff, but not too fun cause he was deathly ill.

Kouki is actually a pretty Kooky guy, he makes a lot of jokes and really likes to laugh. He says that recently he's found more success cause there is less pressure to play these days, he plays cause he loves to play. He likes to tour and hang out with the guys on the tour...especially the Canadians. He loves it here in Calgary and loves training at a higher altitude, although he complains it's too dry here. The advice here is "If you don't love it, then don't f'n play."

We talked about different styles and techniques for hitting shots. Jan enjoys playing guys who have a refined and a bit more predictable or classic style. Guys who swing at the ball in a conventional way are easier to play because you know their options, you just have to play better. Kouki says he struggles playing against the grinding styles of the mexicans and central and south americans. He says it fast and never ending, not always the tightest shots or cleanest gets, but it's still squash and you have to keep at your own game and try to put it away cause they'll never give it to you. The advice here is "No one style is greater than another, competition tests the competitor's talent, training and desire to win."

Jan came to watch me play an interclub match and laughed that I should have skunked my opponent. I'm not sure that I was on the same page at first cause winning 11-0, 11-0, 11-0 seems a bit awful. By Jan asked me, why I slowed down when I was up 8-0, why should I care if my opponent feels bad. The advice here is "Control what you can control and that's just yourself, don't worry about anything else. And never allow yourself to play worse, always push yourself to play better with every shot."

Well I won't blather on about all the other stupid stuff we talk about, but hopefully Kouki finds his way back to Calgary, I'm sure that our paths will cross many more times.

P90X - Week 9 Update

2010-02-22T00:45:00.000-08:00

Moving forward into week 9, P90X has followed thru with its promise to improve my strength and physique. As the weeks pass, the videos provide me with tougher variations for exercises and I am completing more reps and taking less break time between exercises. I don't feel that P90X is the best workout regime for squash, as my hamstring and hip flexibility has been compromised somewhat and I feel tightness and discomfort doing lunge and squat exercises.

Motivation is low, as the videos themselves are starting to annoy me. I have started to eliminate exercises that I find useless, mostly in the yoga X and core synergistics videos, I refuse to be on the cover of downward dog magazine.

I went for a 30 minute run yesterday as I don't feel P90X is a great cardio workout. After my run, I was surprised to feel tremendous tightness in my IT bands and in my calves. Don't get me wrong, I've seen improvement in areas that I have obviously been neglecting like my upperbody strength, you can see muscle definition in my deltoid muscles now.

Mixing up the workouts is the saving grace for this workout program. Ab ribber X is only slightly easier after 18 sessions and I still struggle to do chinups without chair assistance. I was able to play 2 squash matches in week 5 and felt a strain in my left hamstring. I was fast and dynamic to start either match, but as I grew tired, sloppiness crept into my footwork, racket preparation and ultimately my court sense suffered.

Tomorrow is supposed to be an X stretch day, which I will skip and do another 30 minute run. My lower back pain has become more localized and I've identified it as my sacroilliac joint as well as my hip flexors.

I've questioned whether or not to complete this program as I definately 100% feel that there are better exercises that I can do to that will benefit my squash game more. This program is a great general fitness program, but if you dedicate yourself to any workout program 1.5 hrs a day for 90 days, I would hope that you would see results.

I am going to complete the majority of this program. But I will amend the yoga X workout to be more balance poses and relaxed breathing stretches. Also, I will focus more on footwork in Kenpo X and Plyo X. I will throw in a 30 higher intensity runs and 60 minute slow runs twice a week as well as some squash footwork drills.

The goal is to be extremely squash fit, not totally beach body ripped (although that is a very nice benefit).

Training for Squash versus Training to win

2010-01-31T01:40:00.000-08:00

If you want peak levels of performance, mastering your squash skillz will take you very far, but if you want your performances to translate into W's, you must shift the focus of your training program.

Get physical. Intensity must be the driving factor of your workouts. Push yourself to see improvements in speed, strength and endurance with every workout. In order to run faster for longer, you must practice running faster for longer. Sounds easy!? This is the only way to raise your lactic threshold so that intense efforts can be maintained with a minimal fatigue. Try training continuously at above 85% max heart rate for 20- to 25-minutes, short intense workouts have a profound effect on lactic threshold.

Keep going. Maximise aerobic capacity (V02max) so that more energy is available to sustain your exercise. This is as simple as playing squash for extended periods of time. Don't just go thru the motions, push yourself to the point of exhaustion and once that point is reached, keep going, thats when the intensity of training becomes the key factor to maximizing V02max. If you want to improve your V02max, you need 85 per cent of maximal heart rate throughout the entire game for four-to-five minute stretches several times, which means pushing hard to every ball, on every point from start to finish of every game. Learn to empty the tank!

Use your head. Superior performers can concentrate entirely on their body during training and match play without interruption from extraneous thoughts or negative information which attenuates performance. Top athletes are self-critical, engaging in positive self-talk and encouragement during training and in their lives in general. Bad performances roll off their backs and they regard poor outings as opportunities to learn more about themselves and to develop both physical and mental preparations for competitions. Visualization is key, forming mental images of moving powerfully and quickly, and tuning into these images before major competitions.

Make it easy. Efficiency in exact squash movements prevents wasting precious energy during competition, making hard exertions less stressful. Each muscle in your body is composed of collections of individual muscle cells. Strengthen your muscles so the muscle required can easily sustain a certain level of effort. Simple put, make the muscles you use strong muscles. Activating fewer individual muscle cells lowers your overall energy demand and increases efficiency. Then you can step up to higher intensity squash or conserve large quantities of precious muscle fuel. Training at levels of effort higher than your usual competitive intensity allows you to keep going at the lower intensity of match play. Obviously training at such exertions can't be sustained for long, so employ 30 to 90 second intervals at close to top capacity. During competition, realize that it is not just a muscular event, an athlete's nervous system must learn to control muscular activity at the precise exertion level required to play squash. Specific training allows the nervous and muscular systems to come together in a coordinated way.

Stop. Learn to balance intense training with recovery, so that you can do it all over again. Severely intense workouts are necessary to get to the top and rest is equally important and often missing from a potentially great athlete's schedule. Highly intense workouts produce winning performances but the majority of athletes go overboard, pushing themselves to the brink of fatigue, overtraining and even injury. Learn that optimal training involves exercising and resting; to reach supreme performance levels that include fierce exertions, you must balance them with restoration and recovery. Our bodies need to take a rest, so that we can train hard. So avoid the temptation to carry out too many high-intensity workouts during the training year and learn how to identify overtraining syndrome.

Redirect your Thought Patterns (or Mental Ninja Skills)

2010-01-29T01:48:00.000-08:00

The habit of dwelling on negative thoughts can physically manifest in poor squash performance. Negative thinking, like “I’m so tired” or “He's better than me” or “I can’t do this” or “I'm too fat.” is entirely in your mind? (Unless you really are too fat)

Conditioning a negative thought pattern took years of unconscious thinking, so actively conditioning positive thought patterns will be much easier. Essentially, you will replace the old pattern with a new one. Don't focus your energy on blocking the negative thought pattern, mentally resisting the negative thought will usually backfire and simply reinforce it and make it even worse.

Learn to redirect thought patterns you wish to change with mental ninja skills, and deflect the energy of the negative thought and rechannel it into a positive thought. Practice in privacy by following the steps below and condition yourself so whenever the negative thought occurs, your mind will automatically flow into an associated positive thought.

Let’s assume your negative thought is "I'm so exhausted, I can't go on, this guy is so much better than me." This may happen before the game as you watch your opponent warm up, or towards the end of a game as you are about to lose or feel the momentum swaying.

Step 1: Turn the negative thought into a mental image.

Create a mental picture, imagine yourself heaving on the ground, so tired, barely able to stand up, legs wobbling, dizzy from exhaustion, close to vomitting, people commenting on how terrible you are at squash. See yourself surrounded by other people all pointing at you shaking their heads. The more you exaggerate the scene, the better. Imagine bright colors, lots of animation, rapid movement, and even sexual imagery if it helps you remember. Rehearse this scene over and over in your mind until you reach the point where thinking the negative thought automatically brings up this over the top imagery.

Step 2: Select an empowering replacement thought.

Now decide what thought you’d like to have instead of the negative one. So if you’ve been thinking, “I’m exhausted,” maybe you’d like to replace that with “I’m so incredibly fit, I never get tired, I can run as hard as I want forever.” Choose a thought that empowers you in a way that disrupts the disempowering effect of the original negative thought.

Step 3: Turn the positive thought into a mental image.

Now go through the same process you used in Step 1 to create a new mental scene from the positive thought. So with the example “I’m incredibly fit,” you might imagine yourself standing tall, moving from corner to corner at lightning speed, getting low, swinging hard and smiling the entire time. Picture yourself at your peak of fitness, glowing so bright that it’s blinding, and see yourself yelling with intesity, “I’m incredibly fit!” Rehearsing this scene until merely thinking the positive line automatically brings up the associated imagery.

Step 4: Mentally chain the two images together.

Now take the images in Step 1 and Step 3, and mentally glue them together. This trick is used in memory techniques like chaining or pegging. You want to morph the first scene into the second scene. Don't just do a straight cut from one scene to the next, instead animate the first scene into the second. A cut is very weak glue and often won’t stick. So instead pretend you’re the director of a movie. You have the opening scene and the closing scene, and you have to fill in the middle. But you only have a few seconds of film left, so you want to find a way to make the transition happen as quickly as possible.

For example, go from crawling on the ground in the first scene to picking up your racket, you might struggle to pick it up, it feels soooo heavy, but then everything starts to slow down around you, a bead of sweat drips from your forehead in slow motion, and you realize that things aren't moving slow, your moving that fast, sprinting from corner to corner, floating all over the court, glowing radiantly and yelling confidently, “I’m incredibly fit!” The crowd falls back in the seats in awe and begin worshipping you. Again, the more exaggeration you use, the better. Exaggeration makes it easier to remember the scene because our brains are designed to remember the unusual.

Once you have the whole scene worked out, mentally rehearse it for speed. Replay the whole scene over and over until you can imagine it from beginning to end in under 2 seconds, ideally in under 1 second. It should be lightning fast, much faster than you’d see in the real world.

Step 5: Test it out.

Now you need to test your mental ninja redirect to see if it works. Your mind should automatically redirect you to the positive one. Merely thinking the negative thought should rapidly bring up the positive thought. If you’ve done this correctly, you won’t be able to help it. The negative thought is the stimulus that causes your mind to run the whole pattern automatically. So whenever you happen to think, “I’m exhausted,” even without being fully aware of it, you end up thinking, “I’m incredibly fit.”

Pay attention to association vs. dissociation. When you see it through your own eyes (i.e. first-person perspective), it's called association. When you’re dissociated you see yourself in the scene (i.e. third-person perspective). Your results may vary with either type of visualization. Try them both, change up the mental camera angle, it can be done with practice.

Reprogram dozens of negative thought patterns, and pretty soon it will become hard for your mind to even produce a negative thought or emotion. This type of mental conditioning will give you a lot more conscious control over your internal states and your subconscious mind will take over at some point, so whenever you have a thought like “I can’t,” it automatically gets twisted into “How can I?”

That’s actually how it's supposed to be, but with all the gloom and doom in the world somehow we've learned to do it backwards. This skill can be very empowering or just used for a mental pick-me-up. Test it out and improve more than just your squash game.

Winning is the same as letting your opponent lose.

2010-01-26T04:20:00.000-08:00

Fight the good fight and stay focused on just playing squash. The longer a game goes, the chances of either player getting frustrated, tired, or starting to feel hopeless, increases exponentially. As the body tires and the focus on playing squash diminishes, players at all levels may let up and the match soon ends in their opponent's favor. They run out of options, and they crumple mentally.

People get tired, especially if you have been running them along the diagonals of the court. This leads to looser shots aka opportunities for you to be more aggressive. Trust in your gameplan, it's about to work. A confident game plan, allows you to focus on just hitting the ball, the execution, so stick with it and remove the indecision. Only when you are certain, should you change a losing game plan and when you do, change it up dramatically.

Give your opponent lots of opportunities to give up or get distracted. It's amazing how a lapse in focus can lead to a momentum swing in a squash match. It's very common for players who just won one game to let up significantly at the start of the next. By extending points, slowing the pace or taking time between points, you allow your opponent to think about how nice winning will be instead of focusing on the match itself. If your down, allow the tide to turn by retaining your focus on playing squash. Think squash thoughts, not thoughts about the score, or whether you're embarrassed, or how your team-mates are doing. Keep your focus.

Learn to spot weaknesses and how to exploit them. Really look at how unbalanced your opponent's shots are, or if they are weaker on one side, it they are slow moving to the front of the court, if they don't like receiving a hard serve, or a very soft lob serve. Vary up your shots until you find a weakness to exploit, a good time to do this is warmup. Conversely, don't let them hit the shots they like to hit. Minimize opportunities for them to capitalize on their strengths, and allow them to hit lots of their worst strokes.

Concentrate on hitting better shots as they may start to work better. Sometimes you are just off, shots clip the the top of the tin, boasts sit up too high, or you're length comes off the back wall. Focusing on improving your shots will help shift the momentum and you may find the proper length and control on your shots before the match ends.

Draw out long points and your opponent may go brain-dead and start hitting stupid shots. An exhuasted opponent will start hitting without thinking. When your opponent is too exhausted to think, you're in a good competitive position.

Changing ball condidtions may work in your favour. Long, hard rallies heats up the ball making it hard to hit controlled drop shots. If your opponent has been hurting you with drop shots while the ball is still cold, take a step upcourt. If the ball starts to get hot, be confident that the hot ball drop shot will be easier to get than the cold ball drop shot was.

Look to get a second wind and be fitter in a long match. Fitness is key in squash. Condition yourself in the weeks and months before your big matches, then rest right before your match. Give yourself a full tank to help you win the endurance contest in a five-game match. (Create the opportunities to catch your breath by hitting high slow lobs. Conversely, take away your opponent's time by volleying whenever possible.

Start to analyze your opponents mental state, they might be about to give up, or be mentally fragile. There's no way of knowing exactly what's going on inside your opponent's head. Trust your gut, if you sense their frustration, or exasperation, continue to apply pressure, keep getting to every ball, and work as hard as possible on every shot on every point, you never know when they are going to crack, it might happen at any time.

If you've got a full tank, use it...why leave any energy unspent? There is no point in saving yourself for another match, especially if lose. Short of injuring yourself, you should try as hard as possible to get every ball and win every point. Put out your very best effort every time you play a match, and remember that the match isn't over until someone wins the very last point.

Shut Up Already

2010-01-26T00:50:00.000-08:00

Neurolinguistic Programming. Watch body language and remember that a great deal of communication is unspoken. If the person you are communicating with continually turns away, resumes a task, sighs, searches the sky or does any other telltale signs indicating boredom, realize that you may be talking too much. It isn't so much that they don't care (although they probably don't), you might just be beating a dead horse...but more likely they don't care.

For gods sake...open your ears and close your mouth! Remember that true conversations occur when two or more people interactively communicate. That means you'll have to periodically shut your pie hole and let other people speak.

If, while someone else is speaking, you find yourself already formulating your next response (instead of actually listening), you're not doing it right. Seriously, people probably hate talking to you.

Pause after being spoken to and replay what was said with your inner voice. Hear what your partner has to say and then think about how to respond. Or run the risk of having people stop talking to you.

Strive to let them finish! Interrupting people isn't merely poor communication, it is rude, disrespectful and freakin' annoying. You might think you know where the conversation is going, but you can't be sure and they can surprise you, so wait until they finish what they're saying and don't feel compelled to always have to say something.

Introverts think, then speak and extroverts speak to think. Whichever you are, that's OK. But if you're an extrovert working something out by talking through it, ask yourself if you need an audience! If your not sure... the answer in NO.

In today's society, talking to yourself is considered socially acceptable. So try going off to talk things out on your own. Better yet, try to solve problems with internal monologue. Start small, it may take some getting used, but take comfort in the fact that nobody really cares what you have to say...except you.

uhh....

Don't forget how to win...

2010-01-25T02:05:00.000-08:00

1. Hit the ball to a good length
•Hit ball firmly and move your opponent to play the ball near back of service box

2. Aim to have the ball finish in the back corner
•That’s the only way to maintain the T area.

3. Keep the ball close to the side wall
•The better shot is a straight shot. •If your shot clings to the side wall, your opponent has to play straight so you can anticipate more easily.

4. Recover to the T

•From the T you can reach 60% of your opponents shots in one stride. •If you are on the T you are controlling the rally.

5. Watch the ball at all times
•Watch ball onto your racket. •Watch ball onto opponent’s racket. •Watch ball when it goes behind you.

6. Make your opponent run.
•Be aware of your opponent’s position on court •Play the ball away from him. •Move opponent up and down the walls.

7. Volley whenever possible
•Give opponent less time to recover •Keep opponent at full stretch •Volley to a good length until the oportunity to volley short •Do not go for a winning shot every time there is an opportunity to volley.

8. Know when to delay shots
•That will wrong foot opponent •Make him wait for you to play and then make him run the longest distance •Stops and starts causes fatigue

9. Go for the short shots
•Good length game and good short game wins matches •Don’t play short until you first play length

10. Change the pace of the ball
•Keeps the opponent guessing •Breaks up opponent’s game •Helps you recover when tired

The Next Level...

2010-01-24T20:38:00.001-08:00

Vision - In all your endeavours related to squash, do you know exactly what you want to achieve? It's been said "you can never come back from a place you've never been", which inspires the question "Can I go somewhere I can't imagine?"

Desire - Achievement is a product of a burning desire. Without a burning desire to achieve your vision, your goals become lost in the shuffle and you move further and further away as you begin to lose focus.

Faith - is not necessarily a religious faith but an overwhelming belief in yourself and what you're doing. Enduring countless failures, losses, setbacks, injuries and of course the inevitable nay sayers and still believing in yourself is true faith. If you think you can or you think you can't, then you are absolutely right.

Commitment - With vision, desire and faith, we must still be committed enough to do whatever it takes to achieve, regardless of how difficult it may appear to be.

Planning - stumbling blocks are the result of a lack of effective planning. Identifying short, medium and long term goals on the way to our vision will create our path, a map to success.

Persistence - when things seem at their worst, keep going. Be innovative and try something new, and if at first you don't succeed, try and then try again. Effort breeds momentum and its always that first push that is the hardest, but once things start rolling, you will be impossible to stop.

Learn from Mistakes - athletes in all sports make mistakes, and those who score the most winners/goals/baskets/home runs also have the highest rate of misses! So if you want more success have more failures. But consider a missed attempt, not as a failure, but as a result. If you learn from that result to improve your performance next time then it is a victory. "Success is the result of good judgement. Good judgement is the result of experience and experience is the result of bad judgement!"

Knowledge - Those who succeed in every field are often the most knowledgeable on that subject. Develop a love for learning about squash and relate seemingly unrelated areas to it. If you want to do well at squash, immerse your mind in it.

Mental Literacy - Literacy is the understanding of the alphabet to enable you to read and write and to communicate and understand ideas transmitted through that medium. Numeracy is the same but in the language of numbers. Mental Literacy is an understanding of how the mind works particularly in memory, creativity, learning and thinking skills. You can practice these skills and through understanding how the mind works, you can marshal your mental resources to improve your squash.

Imagination - utilise your imagination. to create your goals in your own mind first, apply yourself and watch it materialise before your eyes. Imagine yourself playing open level squash, believe it and do what ever it takes and you can play at the next level.

Positive Attitude - an optimistic attitude puts you in a state that enables you to achieve what you want more easily. Life may give you hard times but you will deal with them much better.

Auto-suggestion - Stack the odds in your favour and tell yourself that you are going to get the result that you want. If you tell yourself often enough you will begin to believe it and with that sort of faith anything is possible. Try it, it works.

Intuition - Have you ever felt that something was not quite right and then discovered things were not all they appeared to be. Or conversely did you ever just know that something was going to happen, however unlikely, and it did. Trust your instincts because more than likely they will be right.

Peer Pressure - How many times have your parents asked you not to hang around with a certain group of kids because they will be a bad influence? You are greatly affected by those that surround you, your peers and the select team of advisors and close associates who have a strong influence on your thinking. Whatever level you want to play at, surround yourself with those players.

Heroes - There is nothing to stop you from taking inspiration from people inaccessible to you. Use their positive influence to shape your future. Ask yourself what Jesus would do if he played squash?

Truth and Honesty - Lies need justification and soon the web of deceit is too much to handle. Rest easy in the knowledge that you are honest and don't weigh your mind down as you will lose focus on your goals.

Courage in the Face of Fear - Courage is not the absence of fear, it is taking action in spite of fear. Set sail and head into previously uncharted waters. Take a leap of faith to achieve great results.

Creativity and Flexibility - be creative and flexible in developing your squash. It is the results you want not the process you have to go through to get it. So if it doesn't work try something different.

Love of the Task - What would you rather do - play squash or get drunk? Whichever answer you gave (and there is nothing wrong with either) it is because you enjoyed doing one more than the other. If you are enthusiastic about something you will enjoy it more and you are more likely to be good at it. Remember why you play squash and do what you have to do and enjoy it. Start making excuses to go and play squash or train for squash. It's hard work but no one said that we can't enjoy everything that we do. The choice is yours.

Energy - With sufficient energy, you can do anything you put your mind to. Find what saps your energy (be it certain food, certain people etc) and remove that from your life. And conversely find what gives you energy and add that to your life.

Focus on any combination of these things to take yourself to the next level.

P90X

2010-01-02T23:27:00.001-08:00

After weeks of careful research and watching hundreds of testimonials on youtube and speaking with extremely fit people who have completed the program, I decided to undertake the P90X program and decide for myself whether this program would indeed improve my strength, flexibility and do all the wonderful things it promises to do in just 90 days.

After one week of maintaining the strenuous workouts for 1.5hrs a day and minimizing my natural tendency to overeat(but not following the diet plan or eliminating alcohol), I have already felt the effects of this grueling exercise regime.

The first workout is by far the most difficult combining pushups and chinups, followed up on the second day by the second most difficult comprised of plyometrics or jump training. Compared to my summer plyometric training, this is less rigorous but by no means easy. Yoga, legs and back, then Kenpo X(which is pretty much Tae Bo), then a day of stretching finish the week off which will be repeated for the following 2 weeks. All of the weighted workouts are followed by Ab Ripper X, which is a 15 minute full core workout that really strains my hip flexors, but I've already seen improvement.

Muscle confusion is the name of the game, and mixing up the workouts is supposed to prevent the exercises from ever becoming easy and keeping the body guessing allowing for maximum results. Rest is essential as I have found myself becoming extremely tired after workouts and really straining to play squash. I have played pretty much every day although, after plyometrics on the second day, it felt like I was wearing cement shoes.

Tomorrow is a X stretch day, which I look forward to. My lower back and knee pains, which have become more intense and chronic over the last few month are beginning to subside as has my restless leg syndrome, probably just from being so exhausted.

I plan to take weekly pictures and make updates regularly to monitor the effectiveness of this program. I had decided to use this program to supplement my inability to play squash in Ft.Mac. this winter and I suspect that once I can't play squash, I will need to manage my dietary intake more carefully.

Year End Rankings 2009

2009-12-24T00:11:00.000-08:00

Here is where the Eau C interclub players are sitting in the rankings at the End of 2009. (including the BVC women)

58Ciaran Godfrey, 84Derek Shtand, 85Domi Diaz, 86Paul Adamiak, 88Trevor Slaughter, 290John Gamma, 402David Slaughter, 410Kelvin Paul, 413Aaron Johnstone, 416Dave Sluggett, 428David Cairns, 430Tom Emerson, 445David Mercier, 461Bernie Howlett, 497Rick Spyker, 519David Mulligan, 569Kim Wilmot, 730Martin Giffy D Souza, 927 Paul Albert, 770 Scott Gordon, 824 Ryan Fernandez, 927 Chris Doyle, 830 Ian Mckinnon, 990 Tomasz Kedzierski, 1027 Zimran Muhammad.

35Carol Vallee, 46Solana Jear, 73Helen Newsome, 62 Sandra Deren, 89 Michelle Hollins, 112 Sandi Austin, 183Adele Mansell, 143Barbara Wyrsch, 158Faye Mak, 216Sandy Schaffer.

Eau Claire YMCA Club Championships 2010

2009-12-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

The Eau Claire YMCA will be running a club championship tournament from May 12-16, 2010. Stay tuned for more details.

Weight transfer and balance

2009-12-20T22:11:00.000-08:00

Moving while striking the ball will affect the accuracy of the shot, but it can used to increase the power of the shot. A forward motion while striking the ball may increase the pace of the shot, but it will make it more difficult to recover to the centre of the court after hitting the ball, especially from the front of the court.

Balance is key when applying weight transfer techniques as it can get players into trouble. Steady the feet as it is necessary to have a wide base of support. If the feet are still moving when the weight transfer occurs, it will make the shot inaccurate, as it will pull the swing out of alignment from the target and prevents a strong recovery out of the shot.

Balance is also thrown of by the lifting of the head as the striking of the ball occurs, this may shift the direction of weight transfer or prevent it completely.

Moving off the ball, or stepping out of your shot too early, (prior to the follow through) will shift the direction of the stroke and attenuate the power of the shot.

Stance and foot position are very important when hitting your targets. Striking the ball when your feet aren't set, cross-legged or in a split will obviously hinder the shot accuracy as well as the recovery to the center court. The speed of recovery will slowly deteriorate and the shot consistency will begin to fail.

Always focus on being balanced when striking by maintaining balance on both the front and back foot (test it out by attempting to swing while having the weight on either leg). It is important to be able to step back towards the center court after striking the ball, as opposed to taking a step forward or stepping into your shot, then turning around and moving back.

Developing the movement and judgement required to strike the ball accurately and then regain balance as well as recover to the center court will come with practice, but players at every level can stand to focus more on setting their feet to hit the ball tighter and with more pace.

SAFETY FIRST

2009-11-20T15:05:00.000-08:00

Injuries can happen at any time in sports and are often the result of someone else. So no matter how many times you've put yourself at risk remember that it only takes one incident to cause serious damage. This week I came within an inch of hitting Ciaran directly in the eye with my racket. And this is a picture of Derek who is lucky to have walked away with 10 stitches and a hell of a shiner, this could have been much worse had a squash racket hit him just a few inches higher.

When I first started playing I too was hit in the eye by an excessive swinger, the racket cut my eyelid causing a serious amount of bleeding and caused me to lose consciousness. I had 3 stitches in my eyelid (which they don't freeze) and the entire left side of my face had swollen. I was lucky that day and have since promoted the use of eye protection.

Player Profile - Viktor Berg

2009-11-11T15:29:00.000-08:00

Viktor Berg has some serious Racket Skills. He is the only Canadian ranked in the ISDA top-eight and this guy has some serious on-court personality. He has been ranked #1 in doubles and as high as #39 in singles. He has been partnered with Damien Mudge, playing the right wall and has won pretty much every doubles tournament in North America. He's also played some very successful mixed doubles where he plays the left wall with Jessie Chai. Viktor is from Vancouver and runs Pro Squash Training Camps with Shahier Razik of Toronto. Ciaran and I trained under him this past summer and Ciaran has tried to adopt his two handed setup on the backhand. Viktor's style of play is very dynamic and incredibly exciting to watch, he promotes volleying the ball at every opportunity and applying pressure thru fast game play and hitting with pace. He pulls out all the stops whether it's faking the backhand drop then swinging his arm around his body to play the behind the back hard drive or chasing the ball to the backwall to play the boast then taking the time to fix his hair in the reflection of the glass. Unfortunately Viktor will suck back the occasional cigarette, but Viktor ranks tops in my book for best hybrid squash player.
Check out this video where Viktor is hitting the figure 8 drill to all four corners of the court. This guy is amazing!

Game Play - Rules

2009-11-11T10:39:00.000-08:00

Rule 15.1 states that players must observe the Rules and the spirit of the game. One of the unique characteristics of squash is the demand for sportsmanship between the 2 players who essentially share the same court space. Often people feel that if there is contact of any kind between the 2 players, then a let (or a stroke) is warranted.

This is not the case, rule 12 sites "Interference", and although the player whose turn it is to play the ball is entitled to freedom from interference by the opponent. Discretionary calls are emphasized in 12.2.3 "reasonable swing", 12.7.1 "Minimal Interference" and 12.7.2 "Effort to play the ball".

12.2.3
A reasonable swing means, if I am behind you and you have to play the ball in front of you and you contact me with your racket, it is a NO LET because you have an excessive backswing(rule 12.10)(an excessive backswing is one in which a player's arm is extended towards a straight arm position and/or the racket is extended with the shaft approximately horizontal). But if I am behind you and you have to play that ball where you stand or behind you and you hit me with your racket then, it's a STROKE. Playing a LET because of an unreasonably large swing is often called in these situations, when the truth is it is up to the referee to use their discretion and make the call of either a STROKE or a NO LET.

12.7.1
Bumping is a common problem at all levels of squash, but just because there was contact does not entitle a player to a LET. If players stopped play everytime there was any contact, games would never end. This is often a tactic of a lazy player who may feel that the ball has aleady past them and it would be easier to ask for a let. It is up to the discretion of the referee to decide if contact has indeed interupted the players ability to play the ball. Too many times, referees reward these lazy players with a LET when in fact, it is a NO LET.

12.7.2
If interference occured, but there was no way you were gonna get to the ball, NO LET. If interference occured but you were making no effort to play the ball, NO LET. It's up to the discretion of the referee to decide if the player made every effort to play the ball.

Rule 17, Conduct on court - deliberate contact and dangerous play. Often players who try to use the LET and STROKE rules to their advantage often neglect Rules 12.12.1 and 16.3.1.3. Initiating contact to ask for a LET, running directly into an opponent instead of playing the ball or hitting the ball to attempt to hit the opponent with the ball to get a stroke should result in a CONDUCT WARNING, then a CONDUCT STROKE, then a CONDUCT GAME then a CONDUCT MATCH awarded to the opponent after multiple offences.

There are sooooo many discretionary calls in squash, I myself as a player feel that I need to trust that my opponent will be a fair player and that the referee will not try to include themselves in the match but rather provide correct calls on the play. But this is often not the case, people don't call their double bounces, or their scoops, and nobody thinks they hit the ball out of bounds. But referees too many times either over-officiate cause they think they know the rules, or under-officiate cause they have no idea.

The lesson is read the freakin' rule book (RULE 15.1) before you play or referee a match.

Game Play - Strategy pt.1

2009-11-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

Before you can incorporate a strategy into your game play, you first have to establish your capabilities. This includes 1)fitness level, 2)speed of play, 3)racket skillz, 4)mental capacity and 5)court sense.

The easiest of these to develop is fitness level. The cliche "Get fit to play squash, not play squash to get fit" is a paradigm that more people need to develop. Lasting longer on court means being able to train harder before getting tired, and this will translate in to having an easier time on court during a real match. In order to play an attrition based game and run your opponent into the ground, you must be exponentially fitter than your opponent, not just a little bit. How many shots can you play before your mind tells you that you're exhausted?

Speed of play deals with pressure, better players are able to play faster and slower. Moving faster on the court and hitting the ball harder are part of this. Learning to take the ball at different times, early or late, off the ground or off the volley. When you play the ball faster, you take away time from your opponent, when you play it slow, you give yourself time. Learn to control time and space on the court and you will win more matches. How early are you on the ball? How often are you controlling points or are you always scrambling and just hoping to hit the ball?

Racket skillz need perfect practice. 10,000 repetitions makes permanent. if you want to hit a perfect drop shot while on the hard sprint into the forehand corner. Do it perfectly 10,000 times to develop the necessary muscle memory to hit the ball the same way. It takes practice to perfect the cross court volley drop into the nick or even just hitting tighter to the wall. How consistent are your shots?

Mental capacity deals with your ability to focus on the task at hand. Do you know what your trying to do? Winning isn't the answer, it's merely the outcome of accomplishing all the tasks you have set for yourself during the match. The great thing about mental capacity is, once you've conditioned your mind to do things on court, such as learning your footwork, or getting your racket back, it becomes automatic and the only thing you need to do is decide where your gonna hit it. Compare this to riding a bike, once you've taught your feet do the pedalling and your hands to control the handle bars and your body to stay balanced, all you have to do is steer. The bad thing about mental capacity is, once you've made something automatic it really is a bitch to change. What are you thinking about when you are on court?

Court sense is developed from being on court and playing lots of matches, you can train, train, train, but if you never hit the battle field, you will get shot in the heart without ever firing your gun. Learning how the ball comes off the walls, how high it sits off the floor, how it bounces after your opponent hit it in different ways, the movement around another player, the way that you hit the ball, it all changes with every player on every court on any given day. Court sense is being able to see this in your minds eye exactly the same way it plays out in reality. So when you hit the ball, you know where it is gonna go, and when your opponent hits it you know that too. Some people call it anticipation, prepardness or even a inherent sixth sense. How quickly does your mind process everything that's happening on court and then tell you exactly what you need to do to respond?

Once you've established where you are at in your own game you can start to develop your prefered style of play with contingency plans to adapt to multiple player styles.

Training Tip - Mental Edge

2009-11-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

First of all, if you don't already have a coach, get one. At the novice to intermediate level, the coach you select only needs to help you identify areas for improvement and help you to improve those skills. The truth is, until you get to a level where the majority of your competitors are capable of hitting at a consistent level, your main focus should be to improve your skills.

Simply put, if you haven't practiced hitting a straight drop, when you need it in game, you will hit tin because of your lack of physical skill, not because of your lack of mental skill.

As you improve, your competition will also improve, so your main focus will be to remain consistent under higher amounts of pressure. It's when you understand the meaning of increased pressure that you start to realize that performance at a higher level requires some mental skills.

Today, I had a lesson on mental skills. It's only recently that I've felt that my physical skills and fitness have improved to a point where decision making, focus and motivation play a more important role to winning a match at the level I am playing.

1) Olympics vs NHL: what does this have to do with mental skills. Olympic athletes are under tremendous pressure to perform as they only get one chance every four years. Professional athletes can ration there output. It's up to you when you get on court, if you want put everything you have into it, or save a little extra. Getting on court includes practice days, going half ass'd in practice shows in games.

2) Play for those moments: visualize those moments of tremendous pressure and play them out in your mind. Feel the emotion of making the comeback, or not letting up when demolishing an opponent. Teach yourself to thrive on competition and not shy away from adverse situations.

3) Condition yourself mentally by pushing yourself physically. Drive yourself to peak fitness, learn to play when your legs are exhausted, when you feel dizzy and your having trouble breathing.

4) Focus on the process not the outcome. Dedicate all your mental focus on each shot and then switch your focus onto your next shot. It's the only thing on the court you can control and if you know what you have to do, you are less likely to make a mistake.

DREAM BIG - The mind only knows what you tell it, so go on youtube and watch a PSA match, then play that match out in your head before you go to bed, except put yourself in the position of the winner.

Lastly, strategy... I will discuss strategy in my next post. But as a teaser, your strategy should showcase your strengths, but be adjusted to exploit your opponents weaknesses.

Rankings at the "Eau C"

2009-11-05T15:07:00.001-08:00

The Squash Alberta Rankings are a good indication of where someone's level of play is. Ranking is based solely on performance in matches that are sanctioned by Squash Alberta. This includes Calgary Interclub Squash League, Edmonton Squash League and Squash Tournaments that have registered and been approved for sanctioning by Squash Alberta.

If your name appears on the ranking system, but you don't have a number beside your name, or it says "0", then you don't have enough games played, or wins to gauge your level of play. Currently there are over 1200 men and 400 women ranked in Alberta with hundreds of players who are entered in the system but have yet to be ranked.

Here is where the Eau Claire Interclub players are ranked...(I've included the Bow Valley Women as they are really from Eau Claire.)

74Paul Adamiak, 76Derek Shtand, 90Ciaran Godfrey, 93Domi Diaz, 134Trevor Slaughter, 269John Gamma, 368David Slaughter, 376Kelvin Paul, 386Aaron Johnstone, 393Tom Emerson, 411David Mercier, 426David Cairns, 428Bernie Howlett, 465Rick Spyker, 476Dave Sluggett, 484David Mulligan, 530Kim Wilmot, 693Martin Giffy D Souza, 871 Paul Albert, 860 Scott Gordon, 880 Ryan Fernandez, 921 Chris Doyle, 911 Ian Mckinnon, 933 Tomasz Kedzierski, 976 Zimran Muhammad.

35Carol Vallee, 46Solana Jear, 71Helen Newsome, 79 Sandra Deren, 89 Michelle Hollins, 107
Sandi Austin, 172Adele Mansell, 137Barbara Wyrsch, 150Faye Mak, 339Sandy Schaffer.

Calgary Open

2009-10-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

In the end, Matt Giuffre took the men's title 3 games to 0 against Calgary's own Graeme Schnell. The pace of the game was compelling and both players were moving with incredible speed and hitting the ball with a marksman's precision. After the match, Matt represented Edmonton extremely well, giving accolades to the tourament organizers and showed the squash community in Calgary how to be a professional. Players everywhere can stand to take a lesson from Matt in being an ambassador for squash and being a role model for many up and coming players.

In the ladies final, Club favorite Kelsey Souchereau finished a close second, losing a very physical and heated match 2-3. Kelsey showed grace and character during the match, asking for a let for her opponent, when the crowd appeared to harass her. The pro from the Calgary Winter Club showed less than a favourable attitude, staring down patrons in the crowd and yelling words of intimidation when cheers for Kelsey abounded. Tough loss Kelsey.

I can see why the sport of squash hasn't taken off and become mainstream. Today I saw a junior lose in the C or B division to a university student, who only started playing a couple years ago. After the junior lost in 5, he cried and his dad (or uncle) accused his opponent of being a cheater. The dad then went and berrated the official. Needless to say, that this junior was from the Calgary Winter Club. Please don't get me wrong, I think that the Calgary Winter Club has an amazing program for up and coming players, but should perhaps foster a little humility and encourage sportsmanship, but if their prime role models act that way on court, it's a shame but they too will learn to play like that. On the bright side, players coached by Jon Hill at the World Health Club and Glenn Stark formerly from Glencoe did truly impress me with there demeanors on court, it is obvious that these coaches, although very competitve, enstilled values above winning to their players.

My biggest contention is that mainstream sports including hockey, soccer and now even golf and ultimate fighting have attracted huge followings. I guarantee we will see ultimate fighting in the Olympic games before we see squash if the attitude of squash professionals and tournament organizers doesn't change. The geologists tournament oversells there attendance cap every year, why? because the emphasis is on enjoying the sport of squash in a fun and exciting atmosphere, where cheering is encouraged and players don't take them self too seriously. The UofC charity open is also becoming another popular tournament for high end players to showcase there talent for loud and boisterous crowds carrying signs and noise makers.

Here's my point, if the world squash federation ever wants to see squash in the Olympic Games, there needs to be an emphasis on promoting squash among the masses as a fun and enjoyable sport that everyone can play. To date, the federation has does very little to get people who don't play squash to even be interested. It isn't enough to promote to the fuddy duddies who already play. Instead, attitudes need to change, players need to encourage the sport among their friends who don't play, get them to come out and cheer for them, loudly and draw in crowds. Sports where the crowd can cheer and get excited for there favorite players seem to develop a greater following than sports where athletes are prima donnas and spectators are forced to remain silent.

Calgary Open Squash Tournament

2009-10-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

Predictions
Open -
Men's - 1)Matt Giuffre, 2) Graeme Schnell
Women's - 1)Kelsey Souchereau, 2) Susie King

The men's A draw promises to be a spectacular event with the largest field of 26 players fighting for the championship. The eventual champion will have to make it 5 wins in a row to get the crown. Unless it is one of the top 6 seeds who received a first round bye, with Ian Jeffrey, Cale Williams and Dave Niscak already making thru to the quarter finals. Players from Edmonton, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat will be playing 2 matches tonight and tonight the quarter finals will be set.

There are 162 players in 11 divisions, everyone is guaranteed 3 matches. Matches are scheduled starting at 9am and finishing close to 11pm. There is a banquet tomorrow and the finals will be played out on Sunday.

If you weren't able to make this tournament, there is another one in 2 weeks at Banker's Hall.

Prolotherapy or Regenerative Injection Therapy (RIT)

2009-10-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

Prolotherapy (or RIT) is an invasive naturopathic treatment that causes the proliferation of new ligament tissue. Osmotic shock agents, (in my case 12.5% dextrose, 1% procaine solution) are injected at the area where the ligaments attach to the bone (in my case, both ankle processes on both my left and right feet). The agent breaks open the surface of the cell walls and allows the cell contents to spill out including prostaglandins....blah blah blah...

A total of ~30 hypodermic needle injections into my ankles over the course of about 15 minutes was absolutely the most excruciating treatment I've ever experienced, even with the local anestheic. The swelling and pain of the treatment is suppossed to trigger a healing effect and leave you with increased range of motion, regained strength and flexibility and reduce the pain and swelling after a few days. I have a follow up treatment next week, and a my final treatment in a month.

I'll keep you posted as to how the treatment works as it's suppossed to be helpful for all kinds of injuries involving tendons, ligaments and cartilage.

Calgary Open

2009-10-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.r2sports.com/tourney/Login.asp?TID=5784

The deadline to register for the Calgary Open is this Friday. Follow the link above to sign up.

Where: World Health Club in Edgemont
When: October 21 to 25, 2009

The cost is $65.00, you will be guaranteed 3 matches, a tourney souvenir(probly a shirt), an east indian theme dinner on Saturday. Call Jon Hill @ 403-239-4048 or email him at jonathanh@worldhealthclub.ca

Training Tip - TARGETS

2009-10-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

The target is where the ball will contact the front, side or back wall after your racket, not where you intend the ball to finish. Every ball you hit should have a purpose, even if you're chasing it down under tremendous pressure.

The basic targets you should learn are 1) Serves, 2) Straight Drives, 3) Cross court drives, 4) Straight Drops and 5) Boasts.

You should learn to find targets in practice and see where the ball finishes. Every court will play a bit different, so in the warm up before a match, figure out the targets.

The Magic Spot - the top three feet of the front wall is always a great target. Try it out and see how easy it is to get outta trouble or keep your opponent in the back court.

Weight Training Program

2009-10-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

This is the program that the Trainers at Fit Plus put me on to try and develop my back muscles and even out the strength of my left and right sides. (I would suggest having a consultation and finding out what would work best for you, but in the meantime, go ahead and try my program.)

Each workout takes about 30 minutes, workout 2 days, then a day rest, then do another 2 days, then another day off. It's pretty flexible, you can do it after playing squash. Also, I try to do an hour run (about 10km) on Sundays, and sprint training once a week(10 minutes).

The benefits of weight training are huge, try it out and see the results for yourself.

Day 1 -
3 x 12 - Seated Rows
3 x 12 - Chin Ups (assisted)
3 x 15 - Pullovers
3 x 15 - Back Extensions
3 x 15 - Hamstring Curls
3 x 12 - Seated Calf Raises
3 x 12 - Lunges with Dumbbells
3 x 12 - Bicep Curls with Dumbbells
3 x 12 - Reverse Curls with Barbell
3 x 15 - Jet Seat Leg Raises

Day 2 -
3 x 12 - Chest Press with Dumbbells
3 x 12 - Flys with Dumbbells
2 x 15 - Squats with Barbell
2 x 15 - Step Ups with Dumbbells
3 x 12 - Tricep Pushdowns
3 x 12 - Shoulder Press with Dumbbells
3 x 12 - Tricep Dips on a bench
(I'm supposed to do core/ab stuff...but I just end up lying down and stretching.)

Sprint Training
1- Warm Up
2- High Knees
3- Kick bum with Heels
4- Side Shuffle Left
5- Side Shuffle Right
6- Hurdlers Kicks
7- High Knees Jumps
8- Lunge Walk
9- Backwards Lunge Walk
10- Fast Jog
11- Full Sprint
12- Cool Down Jog

Free Squash Lessons

2009-10-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

Wednesday nights from 6-7pm and 7-8pm at the Eau Claire YMCA. Call 403-269-6701 to reserve your spot.

Friday night drop-in from 5-7 pm at the University of Calgary.

Lessons are free for members, but you can pay the drop-in fee and learn from one of the many qualified instructors.

Welcome to Eau Claire Squash

2009-10-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

This blog is meant to serve as a conduit of information for whoever wants to know more about squash in Calgary. It will replace the mass emails that I used to send out.

Posts on this blog will include training tips, drills, gameplay, info regarding lessons, Alberta tournaments and Calgary interclub etc.