Blah. My squash lately has been ridiculously poor. I played my friend Bevan today, and at one point I had a seven point lead and still lost it. I've been going through a real rough spot. Instead of playing games, I should really be working on some serious drill time, so that I can get my head in the right spot, and focus solely on making the decent shots when I'm not under pressure. Playing games in this mood tends to make things worse, I think, because it builds on itself, and begins a downward spiral, which can only lead to a horrible grisly death. I almost typed gristly there, instead of grisly. That would have been hilarious. Can you die from gristle? I'm not sure, but maybe playing squash when you're in a slump is the way to find out.
Instead of spending time at the club tonight, I'm watching Star Trek and practicing dancing. I promised that I was going to put up some videos of leg rolls. As I promised, they're going up now. Here are individual leg rolls, double leg rolls, and single leg rolls done sequentially. Think I look ridiculous doing these rolls? That's because I do. Anyone that cares to practice along should realize that dancing is like any other activity - it requires training to do well, and initially, the muscle movements required are going to look stupid. If you feel dumb doing them, just imagine how dumb I feel posting videos of myself doing them.
I'm trying to come up with a routine to work these rolls into so that I can practice the moves within part of a greater routine. I'm not a big fan of routines, as they're not particularly dynamic, but I feel that it is important to practice specific moves within a routine from time to time, so that you get the feel for practicing that move in a setting other than simply doing it over and over.
Also, you may notice that my arms are moving like crazy in some of those leg roll videos. That's because this is fairly new to me, and I'm still getting things down. Some people might find it helpful to hold on to something while trying to do this. My technique for learning usually goes like: Get the motion down first, then perfect it by isolating it. Don't worry too much about the rest of your body initially, but make sure that you keep note of what's going on in the back of your head.
I'm also working on the following right now:
- Variations on the Fresno
- Waving through my chest
This is nothing big, just trying to properly isolate the hits on my chest more, and trying to provide different ways for getting back and forth into each side. More positioning for my hands and arms is also important.
Video of this can be found right here. Properly waving back and forth through the chest is an important isolation to be able to use, as almost all of your waves travel either vertically or horizontally through your chest. To perform this move, try to make sure that you're keeping your shoulders from moving too much, and hold your head and the rest of your body fairly still. Breathing in helps to expand your chest, and puff out one side, then the other, then deflate the first side, then the other.
Having made some videos for a friend of the Scooby, and the Scooby Walk, I've realized that I still have work to do on these moves as well, and will be putting those into the practice routine as well. If anyone wants to see these videos, post a comment (haha, spambots will never have access to them) and I'll put them up. I've also created a pretty basic arm wave video, showing my best attempt to break down the isolations required. I'm not going to post that until it's requested, as I'm not sure if anyone would care to see that.
That's all for now.
I hear Bevan wears a skirt.