Squash Journal #10 - February 3, 2005

Well, I've been meat-sacking big-time for the last little while. I had my first lesson today in quite some time, and as usual, it turns out I've forgotten how to correctly make a forehand shot. Seriously, this thing is my everest. Stuart continually tells me how weird it is to see someone who's backhand is so much better than their forehand. Yay me. I guess that could be a good thing, since usually it's harder for people to improve their backhand than their forehand, but .. well, I feel like I'm evidence that that isn't always the case.

Anyhow, I thought that I'd fixed everything on the forehand, but I was totally wrong. So, what am I doing wrong?

• Swinging the racquet like a 2 x 4

This is basically the tennis swing - you keep your arm straight, rather than use a throwing motion like when you skip rocks across the lake. Augh! I thought I'd solved this. Oh well, back to the drawing board, and in front of the mirror. How do I fix this? That's the next couple of points

• Lead with the butt of the racquet, or die a horrible death

The butt of the racquet should literally lead through the swing all the way until it is right out in front of me. Don't make any effort to swing the head through, this should happen naturally. Everytime I make an effort to swing the head through, I must eat a raw fish. This is the only way I will learn the new way. (If you got that reference, you are very cool).

• The swing should really start by bringing the elbow into the side.

Make this feel awkward! This is driving me nuts right now, but if I don't do this properly, I will force myself to watch an episode of Saved by the Bell for every time I cheat.

How am I going to make sure I fix this? I'm going to be the coolest guy you ever did know, and I'm going to damn well practice in front of a mirror until my arm hurts. Then I'm going to bloody well make sure that it's right, and do drills, over and over, until I've got my arm and head to memorize how its done. Then I'm going to wear a leather jumpsuit and play all of my games wearing that, just because.

Let's hope that we see some improvement by next week.