This blog is starting to become nothing but journal entries - I better start doing something else besides squash and poker, or it's going to dry right up.
I just got back from the club night at Victoria Squash Club. I didn't get to play as much as I did last time I went, which is unfortunate, because I stayed for almost three times longer. Oh well, hopefully it'll be a little more quiet next time. In any case, I played one A player, and a couple of friends of mine.
The A player (I play at a low C level) kicked my ass repeatedly. He hit non-stop lob serves to me, and showed me what I was doing wrong. That's really good - I always appreciate advice like this, but it's frustrating, because it's very difficult to practice this kind of return unless you have someone to do drills with that can reliably make the same serve. I'll have to talk to Stuart about this, and see if he can help me with it.
The C level games went about as I expected, I won two of them, and lost my last one to my friend Jeff. The game I played with Jeff was close, but Jeff had just finished a game, so I can't really take to much credit for that. Nevertheless, I feel that my practicing and progress is paying off - it's no longer a total slaughter when I'm playing Jeff.
The things I'm trying to work on right now are:
- Keep drives close to the side wall
- Keep improving high soft shots
- Keep my racquet head up when preparing for drop shots
- Take forehand shots off the left leg
I didn't realize it until recently, when I really tried to pick apart my game, but I've noticed that a lot of my drives are either hitting the side wall, slowing down, and coming further out into the center, or start out far from the wall, and maintain that position. I'm spending more and more time practicing straight drives as much as possible, so hopefully I'll gradually start to see the improvement in this area that my game needs.
Whoa! Totally out of the blue. This shot takes a lot of practice. I'm gradually getting better at it, but I've noticed that I'm still putting too much power into the shot. It's amazing how much distance the ball will travel with the softest touch when it's put up high on the front wall. Practice sessions for my self currently consist pretty much of the high soft shots and drives straight down the wall.
My friend Nate noticed that I was dropping my racquet head everytime I went up to the front for a drop shot. This is a really bad habit - I don't want to let people know what shot I'm going to make until the very last moment. Whenever setting up a shot, make sure that the racquet head stays cocked and ready - don't actually make the shot until the very last moment.
Damn this is so hard to get down. I'm so used to hitting shots off my right leg all the time that it really is difficult to break out of the habit. Nevertheless, the only way I'm going to learn is to force myself to think carefully about my footwork, and make sure I'm taking shots off the left leg, no matter how frustrating it is.
One shot I've noticed lately that is very effective is whenever the opponent has made a loose shot towards the center of the court, and they are stuck behind me- keep an eye on them, and move them backwards - they have to give you a clear shot, so as you back up with the path of the ball, you push them further and further away from the front of the court. Then, drop the shot into the front corner of the court. Just don't overuse the shot - if your opponent gets wise and starts running around you and waiting in front for the drop, hit a drive to the back corner, and get him running in the other direction.
That's all for now, it's Star Trek time.
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