I’ve been working on many different aspects of my squash game lately, and it’s starting to come together well. I’m not putting any expectations on myself to win any tournaments, but I definitely feel like I have a shot if I continue to play well, and I think I’ll be ready to move up into the next division (A’s) by the end of the squash season this year.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately, and which I think is a valuable skill to have, is good deception. Squash, at its core, can be reduced to two parts. There’s a physical component (anyone that has stepped on a squash court for a game without ever having played before can confirm that the horrible things that the game does to your ass alone are enough to prove this point), and a mental component. I’ll delve into these two ideas first.

Physical

Squash is played in a very confined space, but playing the game well is about making your opponent cover as much of that space as possible. As you continue to improve at the game, you get better at anticipating, and better at covering more and more shots, and this means that you have to learn more patience and be willing to rally longer. The longer you rally while controlling the T, the better your chances of winning the battle of attrition against your opponent become.

Some people may read this and immediately disagree – what about winners? What about errors that your opponents hit? Well, guess how you get to the point where you’re able to hit a winner, or force your opponent to make errors? That’s right – you keep them under consistent pressure, and let them either hit the error themselves, or hit a loose or weak return from one of your shots that you can then attack. Rallying and patience is what gets you to this point.

I actually just finished reading a Magic-related strategy article that I felt really applied to this scenario, describing the process of knowing when to apply pressure to your opponent, and when to regroup and play defensive and patiently waiting for a more opportune time to attack. Squash is the same way. You need to play safe shots until you achieve an opportunity to attack, and then consistently apply pressure to your opponent until they either hit an error, allow you to hit a winner, or they can get back into a rally (in which case you go back to playing safe shots and repeat this process).

Mental

Again, as squash is played in a very confined space, you need to constantly be looking for ways to move your opponent around that space as much as possible. If you wanted to take a very technical approach to the game, you could look at each shot you make as a way of maximizing the amount of running that your opponent has to do. If you can consistently apply this rule to each shot you make, you will no doubt have played the best game you possibly could have, and your opponent will have to follow the same rule themselves in order to defeat you.

As I mentioned above, the farther along you move, the more difficult it will be to simply hit winners, and the physical game will no longer be enough to win you a game. I was reading an article that my friend Rob sent to me in which Jonathan Power had written about the fact that the more you improved, the more you have to start thinking multiple plays ahead. If your opponent can start to read your pattern, they can start to cheat and anticipate your shots, and now you’re no longer maximizing the distance they need to run. Actually, if we get really technical, we want to maximize the amount of energy that our opponent has to expend – running in a straight line towards the ball forces them to generate some momentum and use up some energy. Better than that, moving in one direction, then stopping and changing that direction requires even more momentum and thus requires even more energy (simple right?).

In essence, you now need to not only make your opponent physically cover the most amount of ground, but also to cover the most number of shots mentally – by preventing your opponent from eliminating any one particular shot as something he might have to cover, you tax him more mentally, and cut down his ability to reduce the distance that he needs to run. Anticipation is one way of reducing the amount of space you have to cover, because you can use it to control the T and cheat over towards the direction your opponent will shoot – the more you cheat, the less you have to run. Clearly there is a connection between the physical and mental aspects of the game, and part of this connection, to me, is deception.

Deception

Alright, we’re finally getting to the point. So, we’ve reached a point where our opponents are getting better and better at anticipating the shots that we are making. We are no longer maximizing the amount of running that our opponents are doing, and so we need a way to tax them more.

By presenting the opponent with one shot, then hitting another, we have achieved one of two outcomes:

• Best-case scenario – they start to cheat towards the shot that you are presenting, and are forced to overcome that momentum, change direction, and chase after the shot you’ve made.
• Worst-case scenario – they are forced to remain stationary until the last moment possible: when you hit your shot. I call this the worst case scenario, but that’s a misleading name, because there’s nothing bad at all about this. By delaying our shot and forcing our opponent to wait until the last minute, you have forced them to generate overcome their inertia. They have to come to rest on the T, then need to generate more momentum to begin moving again once you’ve made the shot. It’s a lot easier to run straight from the back forehand corner to the front backhand corner, than it is to run from the same corner to the T, stop, then from the T to the front corner.

You can see that there is clearly value to playing with good deception. This is all very new to me (there’s no point in studying good deception if you aren’t able to hit a good shot – you may be able to send your opponent in the wrong direction once or twice, but after he starts to wait a little longer for your shot, he’ll just cover the bad shot and put you away) so take what I’m saying with a grain of salt. These are the techniques that I have noticed contribute towards good direction.

• Body/Head/Racquet positioning and posture

Think about what you look for when you see you’re waiting for your opponent’s next shot: The way they prepare their racquet, the way they have their body positioned, and the direction they look after they make their shot. There’s probably more, but these are the main ones I observe.

So we’ve got three things straight off the bat that will help us out. By presenting our body posture in a certain way, we can lead the opponent towards believing that we’re going to hit a certain shot. Think about a boast in the back corner. Typically you position yourself with your shoulders facing towards the corner, allowing you to swing your racquet at 45 degrees towards the wall, boasting into the front backhand corner. If you have the space and time, you can approach and set up your shot this way, but instead of hitting a boast, use your wrist to pull the racquet head through earlier than normal and hit the shot straight down the line.

This trick doesn’t always work, but it is important to remember that our goal is not to trick our opponent and win a point. It is to make them cover the maximum amount of distance and momentum for any given shot – remember that point whenever you apply deception to your shots and then think “Oh, that didn’t work, he covered the shot”.

• Shorten your swing

I came across this one serendipitously (one of my favorite words right there. Go out and use it today!). I was taking a lesson with Stu, Jeremy and Tim, and Stu told me to focus on making my swing more compact, and using my wrist more to snap the racquet through. Think about the difference in swings for a drop shot and a drive. How about a hard, low crosscourt, and a lob? You not only want to provide the same body posture for all of these shots (and thereby increasing your deception), but you also want to be able to lead up to the shot using the same racquet approach.

The shorter and more compact you can make your swing, the more you closer you come to bridging the gap between the swing you prepare for your drop shots and for your drives, and the more difficult it will be for your opponent to get a read on you.

• Build your rallies and earn your deception

Anyone that has played squash before knows the importance of building a rally. We all go back to play the straight drive down the wall and treat that like our foundation. This is exactly analogous to dancing – I have a basic set of movements that I use as my dancing foundation, and I can slip into and out of these movements easily. They provide the palette from which I draw the rest of my dance on. The same is true for squash – you should have a good foundation made up of drives, which you can move in and out of as needed. When you’re in trouble, you return to this foundation until you can once again regain control of the T and start a new round of attacking.

Deception in squash is the same as it is in poker. You need to present a pattern to your opponent before you can start to throw them off by deviating from that pattern. If you go in and use deception on every shot that you make, you’re going to train your opponent to watch very closely for your shots, and wait until the last minute before they move to cover whatever you hit. As I said, this isn’t a bad thing, but remember, we want to maximize the amount of energy our opponents expend on court, so we want to aim for as many of those best-case scenarios as possible.

In order to accomplish this, you need to draw your opponent into following the pattern of your foundation, and then applying deception to force them off the pattern they’ve gotten accustomed to. This has the added benefit of forcing your opponent off their mental game. If you can settle into a pattern, you aren’t forced to think about the game as much, and can play a little more naturally. Causing your opponent to think along a certain pattern, then throwing off that pattern can be jarring, and will tax them mentally.

One last thing that Stu has mentioned to me many times in past – sometimes the best deception is the most obvious shot. If you’ve established the fear in your opponent of your deception, they will start to suspect the more obvious shots, and watch closely to what you are preparing when you are making a return. Delay your shot when it is appropriate, and then hit the safest shot.

You have to remember – you are always trying to maximize the energy your opponent uses, but this doesn’t mean deceiving them every time and it doesn’t mean necessarily hitting the ball to the place on the court that is the furthest away from them. Think of it this way: If your opponent has hit a really tight shot to the back corner and is now cheating very far back and to the side to cover your return, it may seem obvious that you could force them to cover the most court by dropping the ball in the front backhand corner, but this will not be the case if you hit tin, or hit the shot loose.

At every shot you make, there is a best choice that you can make that combines the following principles (and probably plenty more that I’ve missed): Maximize the amount of energy your opponent spends covering your shot, minimize the amount of energy your opponent can force you to spend covering their return (so hit tight shots that cut off their available angles), and minimize the number of errors you hit and winners your opponent hits (again, hit high-percentage shots that keep your opponent under pressure).

That’s the end of my lunch break, so that’s the end of this entry. In any case, I’m excited to pursue this further on the court and continue to add towards this aspect of my game. For good examples of deception in action, go on YouTube and search for videos of Jonathan Power – my friend Dan pointed out to me how compact his swing is, and if you watch, his approach to the ball is often very calculated. Try and guess what shot he is going to hit before he actually makes it and see how close you are. If you were wrong, how were you tricked? If you were right, what factors contributed towards you guessing that was the next shot? Once you’ve done this, come back here and tell me all about it, because I’m way too lazy to do that myself.

Well, I'm home sick right now with the hope that I can clip any cold that might be trying to "get all up ons" with me before the weekend comes here. Given that, I'm not really up for dancing physically right now, but it is still on my mind. I've been thinking a little bit more about the technique known as animating lately, so why not write about that? Haha! Super duper, let's giv'er.

Animating

For a while now, I've felt drawn to the funk style technique known as "Animating". When I first started dancing, I was uneducated and underexposed to the great variety of dance styles that exist under the "funk styles" moniker. Certain style names, even though I couldn't recognize them visually, stuck with me, likely just because of the intrigue their names would have: Bopping, Animating, etc.

Some styles have names which make it relatively easy to distinguish the style from others as soon as you see it. Tutting for example, was one of the first styles that I learned to see within any given dancer's styles of choice. The name immediately conjures up images of the old stereotypical King Tut's that existed in Bug's Bunny cartoons, and the song "Walk like an Egyptian" (Hey, look at that, I'm making myself sound old). Arms and wrists at right angles just seemed to fit with this style’s name.

Other styles have names, and matching styles, that to me feel a little more subtle, or perhaps just broader in scope. The name "Animating" is one of those styles. What exactly would someone "Animating" be doing? It's hard to choose just any one particular type of movement or activity that would cover such a broad name. Think of how many different types of animations have been created (or even just how many different types of cartoons have existed), and you get an idea of how broad this style truly is.

The subtlety of Animating is what draws me to the style. That subtlety is a very difficult thing to capture, mentally and physical, and make tangible in your dancing, and that, in my opinion (humble or otherwise), is a challenge that makes it well worth the effort. A good animator, like a master in any particular type of funk style dance, can make these animations very explicit (adopt a stance and mannerisms identical to a well-known cartoon character, and, moving and making facial expressions like them), or very subtle (if I can get away with getting technical here, they can *overlay* their animating techniques on top any other style they are doing).

This, to me, is awesome! I love dancers that have a depth to the way they move. I will always appreciate good movers, no matter how deep or shallow their dancing is, and no matter what style they do (funk styles or otherwise), because dancing, at its core, is moving in an aesthetically pleasing manner - it looks nice to watch (as an aside, that is the reason why I will never understand people hating on any given particular style of dancing - they are all dope, in their own way). However, dancers that are deep are able to portray multiple levels within their movement. Overlaying different styles on top of each other is how you achieve this (quick example -> Do some waving, but imagine that you're a robot doing the waves. Keep the same isolations you use for your waves, but move through them more jerky and mechanically).

So, I've probably spent enough time explaining why I like Animation, and how it appeals to me, I should get on to what I've learned. I'll preface this with the fact that I am still very new to animating. Like I said, it's taken me a long time to learn exactly *what* animating is, so it has been very difficult to put practice time into learning it.

• Characters

Make up your own character. Think of a cartoon that you remember as a kid. Pick something visual about that cartoon, and envision yourself moving that way. Try walking around like you imagine this character would. No matter what, keep things simple, and don't overcomplicate things. Make the visual queue that you choose from the character a very small, simple one.

I can't stress this enough. Keep things simple.

So often (and believe me, I speak from the experience of doing this myself), aspiring funkstylers start out trying to do way too much. In fact, I suspect this actually transcends across to other more traditional styles of dance, like ballet. Sometimes analogies help people, so here's how I think of it: If you're building a house, you're not putting the windows and the more delicate stuff on the bottom. Think of a foundation as the very simple, most basic things that will support everything else you do on the dance floor. I used the word basic, but it's important to realize that basic does not mean boring. There is a delicate beauty in something that is simple and elegant, and this is what you should strive for in your foundation. Practice it a lot, and use it as a form of meditation. If you are having a bad day, find a spot and go into your foundation. You want it to feel comfortable and like something you can slip into and out of without thought. Learning how to do this when you're having a bad day will both relax you and prepare you for the same kind of transition you'll need to make when you're competing or out dancing.

Summary example: Let's say you like the way Scooby Doo walks. Start out simple, and just practice bending your legs while you're standing the same way that Scoob does. Get that down first. Then, work on maintaining that bed throughout the motion of walking. It will feel awkward at first, because this is a new way of walking for your body to adapt to. Don't give up hope though, this awkwardness should be seen as a challenge, and a goal that you will be able to overcome (seriously, you will overcome it, and it will renew and invigorate your love for dancing when you do).

• * Facial movement

Remember me talking about subtlety? Well, here's a great way to introduce that subtlety. Facial expressions and movement are great element to take from the character in your head and make real on the dance floor (note that I say in your head - don't just think of a character on TV and mimick him. Your own imagination can produce a much more vivid character - use cartoons as a way of inspiring that character).

What's the rule? Keep it simple. You don't need to make it look like you're ripped on meth.

Example: I like to crack my face in to a giant, car-salesman-like smile from time to time. I usually use some kind of transition, and just keep my face in this pose (and for more details on that, spacecapital, over on westcoastpoppin.com, has written an excellent article on transitions - big props to spacecapital). I find it looks all the more bizarre to have a giant contrived smile on my face, but without any movement. I carry on dancing as I was before breaking the smile, and then use another transition to relax my face and stop using it to dance with.

Here's another problem I suspect is common - when people start becoming aware of their face as a tool to dance with, they can start to overthink it, and animate with it without stopping. Always think of being subtle - techniques will look all the more potent if you do them briefly, and then move on - sticking with a particular motion for too long will allow the viewer to adapt and get used to it, and funk styles are generally styles designed to throw off the viewer's sense of normalcy (think gliding).

• Deadpan

This was some advice I read on the WCP forums just the other day. I can't remember who made the post, but the original quote was from Wiggles I believe, along with a bunch of other advice he'd provided. He stressed the importance of learning dead pan if you were animating. I've only just begun to start practicing this, but as soon as I read this, I understand how important it was.

The human face, by and large, is constantly showing some kind of emotion. As a social species, the importance of emotion is obvious just by looking at how many muscles we have that in our face that are devoted to showing it. One thing that I've already covered is the technique of showing a burst of one steady emotion - unchanging facial features are unusual, and throw off the viewer's visual. But think of a face with no emotion in it. It is equally unsettling, and to some people, probably even more so. It is so rare to see a face that is showing no emotion whatsoever that it draws the eyes.

For my own practice routines, I'm doing things like looking in the mirror and completely relaxing my face, then transitioning from a relaxed phase to an emotional one, and back again. Lastly, I'll work on keeping my face emotionless while I'm dancing. This is the tricky part, because it is a matter of combining your fundamentals. You know that you've got a fundamental down right when you can perform the technique without thinking about it. Once you've achieved this, you will suddenly realize that you got a base from which you can draw on, as you will no longer need to think about how you're moving, solely about the music.

• Good animators

My favorite animators have to be Mr. Animation and Salah. Mr. Animation’s name has always been one that I’ve associated with the technique, but when my first exposure of him was in the Run DMC video “It’s like that”, I saw gliding and botting more than anything. It took me a while to understand what he was doing outside of that video that consisted of animating.

Salah was a dancer that I used to think relied too much on his flexibility for his dancing, but it would be absolutely impossible for me to maintain that opinion now. That flexibility is definitely something remarkable, but he doesn’t use it as a prop or a crutch for his dancing. He wields it like it’s a morning star of justice (imagine trumpets blaring as you read that last part). Seriously though, Salah is an excellent example of someone using facial expressions well (he animates using all of his body, but his facial expressions always draw my eyes).

If you haven’t seen both of these dancers, go search on youtube for videos of them both. I’ve seen videos of Salah before, but it’s tough to find Mr. Animation.

I think that’s all I’ve got in me right now - Zz'z time.

Just a quick entry right now, in between tasks at work. A friend of mine recently pointed me towards a popping website that is just starting out over at:

www.westcoastpoppin.com (no g at the end there)

I've been looking for a good set of forums to share views with fellow dancers for a while now, and I'm hoping that this community can grow and start to bring some Victoria dancers into the fold.

Anyhow, for anyone that doesn't care to learn themselves, but still likes watching the art form, there's videos available on the site (though I haven't watched any of them myself yet), and for the rest that want to learn more, get on those forums! I post under the name "Philosopop" (old school throwback).

The Keating Squash club is having the Beach Bash this weekend, so I'll be out in full force doing my best to injure myself. Stay tuned for progress reports, and if you're a squash player, see you there!

Bling it on. That was the title of the tournament I and a bunch of friends checked out this weekend, up in Nanaimo. I'll do some background first. Last year's Nanaimo was the first time I'd gone to a squash tournament that was out of town. Bevan, Jarryd and I went up to the western themed tournament in my car and we had a great time. It was the first time I'd ever hung out with Jarryd, I met a lot of new friends, and all the variables lined up really nice. That's computer-ish-y talk for saying that the Nanaimo tournaments will always have a special place in my heart. I think. I'm just faking it most of the time.

This year Dan's parents were generous enough to lend him the SUV, so Nikki, Dan, Eric, Jarryd, and myself were all able to go up together. I met Dan and Nikki at lunch after I got off work, and we headed to go and do some shopping to pick up some clothing and bling to go along with the tournament's theme. We pulled into the Yates St. parkade and I mentioned that I wanted to check out Sitka as it had been a while since I'd last gone in there. Awesome, 65% off all their clothing? What a wicked deal. I picked up a sweet zip-up hoody for only 39$, which is wicked, because I've wanted a new hoody for a while, and I like Sitka's clothing and designs a lot. We're starting out on the right foot here. We bought some incredibly gaudy ear-rings and necklaces from Claire's in the mall, and talked to someone who directed us to Mayfair Mall for our ultimate tacky trump card: the grill.

For those that don't know, the grill is the latest in hiphop technology, and looks something like this.

I'd already spent enough money on clothes and accessories, so I passed on the tooth-wear. Dan and Nikki each picked one up, and we headed over to Red Robin's for some lunch before heading up. That being completed, we went and picked up Eric, then waited for Jarryd to show up. Weird, he got dropped off by some blonde woman that none of us knew. Turns out Jarryd didn't know her either - he just offered to pay her ten dollars if she gave him a lift out to Eric's place. Okaaaaaaay..

Alright, we've assembled the road trip crew, we've got beer, and we've got a destination in mind. We all headed up in the SUV and we're starting to get excited for the weekend to come.

I dropped my bags on the floor, looked over at the two beds in one room and the couch in the other room, and wished that I hadn't mentioned my ability to stun herds of buffalo with my snoring. I flopped on one of the sweet sweet beds knowing I wouldn't be sleeping on it and instantly gained the ability "sleepytired +10". I noticed the remote for the TV, reached for it, and in one deft motion that both displayed my incredible dexterity and my eagle-like hand/eye coordination (well, eagles would have really good hand/eye coordination if they had hands), I turned the television on.

Interlude - I don't have cable TV, and I'm fine with that. I barely have enough time to watch more TV than a couple of hours during the week, so it's not like I'm missing much. However, those that know me are aware of the fact that I can, and seem to enjoy, taking in large amounts of what some scientists wearing tin-foil hats call "mindtrash". Dan and Nikki pulled me out of my catatonic TV state ("Hey look, I think Adam's drooling") and it was time to head to the squash club.

First night

We rolled into the squash club and head over to register. Blake's girlfriend Melissa checked us in, and gave me a big compliment saying that my entry form was the best one they got. Many people go to squash tournaments to win their division and play good squash; I go to fill out the entry form. We got our tournament shirts and drink tickets (haiyo!), and headed to check out the draw. I was looking forward to seeing Blake - he and I get along well, and share some of the same quirks, which always makes it easier to be around someone. When I did see him, I was not ready for what I like to call the "Righteous Beard Bomb" that he dropped in my lap. Blake was a level 10 Amish person if ever there was one. Neck beard, bare upper lip. Do I need to say anything else? Seriously, this beard bomb was righteous.

11:40, my first match. Wow, that's late. We stopped for coffee in Duncan, so I'm good on the caffeine tip. I run into a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while and socialize. It's nice to be back to such a welcoming environment - huge props to all the people that work to make that happen in up there. We head out to pick up Bevan from the ferry with Jordan as our navigator. I don't really remember whether anything was happening in the ferry terminal - my mind was starting to drift towards the game I had in a few hours. Bevan comes off the ferry, throws up the horse shoes, and we break the good/bad news to him. You're riding in the back of the "whip".

First matches are looking good for everyone, and I like where I sit in the draw - I'm not seeded, so there's no pressure on me, but I feel confident about my first opponent, and I've been playing well, so I'm just going to focus on that aspect and continue to let my confidence build. Confidence is a big thing for me when I'm playing squash, and if I feel good about things, I play a whole lot better.

Blair Bullus was my first opponent, who plays up at UVic. He was the guy that beat me last year, but I have been training a lot since then, and I think my game has really improved considerably. If he's improved at the same rate, then worst case scenario, I'm going to have a really good match. We get on court, hit the ball around, and while he takes early leads in both the first and second games, I get my nerves and game in check and come back to win them with streaks of points. The third game my confidence was good, so I decided to switch up the game and change the pace to throw him off balance - I'm not taking away anything from Blair, but I was impressed at how the change of pace affected his game, and I took the third game reasonably quickly.

When the smoke had all cleared, most of us were still in the running! We had some drinks, stretched (well, I stretched and people made fun of my awesome back stretch maneuver), and chatted at the club until 1ish. None of us had games until the afternoon, which was great news. We didn't want to go on a bender, but it's fun to catch up with people, and takes a while to let that excitement die down - playing at 9 in the morning would have been a bit of a downer.

We headed back to the hotel to get caught up waiting for some B-looking movie to finish filming, and wound things down around 3 in the morning. We had been listening to tunes on Dan's iPod, which was set up with speakers in our hotel room. Dan left it in my room, and had been controlling it with his remote control. The first thing I did when I went to bed was to unplug the iPod from the remote and the power source. I know Dan pretty well - it seemed like a valid precautionary measure on my part.

First day

I woke up in the morning, and flipped on the tele:

"What, why is this guy eating KFC out of a bucket and selecting women?" "Oh my god, is that Flavour Flav?" "Wow, I love this show". That was my thought process over the first two seconds during which "The Flavour of Love" flashed in front of my eyes. Bahahahahahahaha, what a ridiculous notion, I couldn't get enough. Flavour Flav, one half of the duo behind Public Enemy, now has his own show where he is essentially "The Bachelor. Ghetto edition". Everything about the show feels so contrived, I can't stop watching it. I head next door to wake Dan and Nikki up and get them stoked about Flavour Flav as well. I mentioned to them that the first thing I did when I went into my room was to unplug the iPod so that they couldn't wake me up by turning it on. They looked at each and laughed - apparently the first thing they did when I went into the room was to try and turn it on, and were so dissapointed and confused when it didn't work. Haha! One point for Adam. Eventually we get things started, and head out the door to the club.

The first match I'm playing is against the guy that is the third seed. He looks older than me, so I hope to get him running around the court and just play tight. I initially resisted it, but my game lately has drifted to taking advantage of my movement to the front to cover a weak drop, and a hard low cross court to the back of the court. This shot has been working really well for me, however, I didn't want to become a player that had only hard low shots. One of the things I really like about squash is the fact that it can be so non-linear - playing just hard and low and not taking advantage of shots like lobs and drops is not the way I want to play. I decided that just because I played this shot, it didn't dictate how the rest of my game was played, and so I started to just accept that this was going to be a shot I'd use. Good choice - it put away a lot of rallies for me this weekend.

John Cox played really good - he was nearly twice my age, but played just as hard as I did. I had him at match ball in the fourth game, but couldn't put it away, and we ended up going to 10-9 in the fifth. I thanked him and the ref, and crawled out of the court. A lot of people really liked this match, which I took as a real compliment. People kept coming up to me and telling me how entertaining it was to watch. That's a pretty high compliment when it's coming from people that don't even know you, and I think it's only fair to point out that half that credit goes to my opponent.

I looked to see when I would next play - 5ish tonight. Annnnnd, my opponent won his match in 3 straight games. That's not what I like to see. He'll be going on court with just over half as many miles on his legs than I will be. I grabbed a beer, hung out and watched matches. We rolled back to the hotel for a bit, lay on our beds and watched some lazy TV. We got ourselves together, I pulled my eyelids open (I was getting tired at this point) and got ready to play. This time it would be the number 2 seed that I would be playing.

I was feeling mentally tired, but physically, still able to move around. I put a lot of effort into stretching this tournament, and it really made a big difference. Stretching is a thing that benefits you in subtle ways, and pays off in the long term. I started adding the yoga pose "Downward Dog" into my stretching routine this weekend, and that seemed to help pull my back out a little bit and keep it limber. I can't get my feet flat on the ground yet, but will give it time and see how things go.

I went on court the same time Bevan went on against Arnie and duked it out with my opponent. He was a nice guy, but didn't keep me under any pressure, so I was able to completely impose my game on him. After three games, we shook hands and both walked off the court a little relieved - as long as we didn't go five, I think we were both happy, no matter what the outcome.

Second night

So just like that, I was in the men's B finals! I came up to Nanaimo to have fun, and so I had already decided I wouldn't let my standing in the main draw affect having fun with all my friends. I showered and had just enough time to talk to Dan before he finished up against Kevin - he couldn't get his game going, and so he was out of the draw. It wasn't all bad news though, as Nikki was also now in the finals for the women's A draw. That's pretty cool - two Cook st. players both in the finals.

We showered and hung out at dinner. Everyone got their costumes on, and rolled pretty hard in their finest pimp gear. Jarryd finished reffing his match and got into his costume, and in doing so, created what was perhaps the funniest moment I've ever witnessed:

His costume consisted of a basketball jersey, a chain around his neck, and a toaster that he was wearing. Screw wearing a clock around your neck - the new school ghetto way of doing things is to keep your toasting tech onhand and close by.

Jarryd rolled up to us, and I've never seen someone more stoked to plug in a toaster hanging around their neck and start making toast. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that metal conducts electricity, and started twitching when he turned it on and saying "Wha, why is it hurting?" We noticed that the chain around his neck was in the toaster and told him "Hey, get the chain out of the toaster". What we didn't realize was that Jarryd had specifically wrapped the chain around the element in the toaster prior to putting it around his neck, so the look of surprise on his face when he performed an experiment very similar to Benjamin Franklin's was priceless. Fortunately for Jarryd, the toaster came unplugged, and he escaped with a set of marks on his neck that look a lot like one might expect to see if you put a really hot chain against someone's bare neck.

Seriously though, who doesn't like toast?

There were some kids breaking in one of the squash courts during dinner, so I went down to see what was up, and to bust out a little bit of popping - hey, I can't pass up on an opportunity to bust out right? Then, we gathered the crew together and headed out at night to sample some of the dingy bars that Nanaimo had to offer - initially we figured we'd wait in line for an hour to hear some live music, but when that got boring, we checked out "The Cambie" (tagline: Shitty looking stable by day, shitty looking bar by night).

Second day

Sunday morning I woke up and headed into the other room to see if Nikki and Dan were already awake. Sweet, they were, so I didn't have to lay in bed waiting for the rest of the crew to wake up. We gathered our stuff, Dan and I headed to the club to get the vehicle (based on the promise from Nikki that she would return the favour by getting us toast), came back and checked out.

Last day of matches, and its all about the finals. Dan had gotten knocked out the previous night by Kevin Smith, so it was Nikki and I playing in the finals for our divisions, Women's A and Men's B.

I went into my match figuring that I would probably not be leaving with the victory, but knowing that I've been playing well all weekend, and that as long as I carried along with that path, I would be happy. I've played Arnie Clark before, and the kid hits the ball in a way that usually makes people ask "How much steroids does that kid take?". Seriously, it's distracting to play against him because your ears start to hurt from all the sonic booms that his shots make. My game plan going on court was to take pace off the ball - put it up high and move him off the T so that I could control the rallies and make him do the running. When I was able to execute on this plan, I was doing well, but Arnie could hit the ball with so much pace that I would typically just get buried behind him making weaker and weaker returns until I either made an error or he put it away.

In case anyone is interested, here are some of the things I did wrong:

• Volley the serve, nutbar

Yeesh, I came off the court after my second game, and Dan walked up to me to give me some advice. The first thing I said to him was "Hey, I should probably start volleying those serves hey?" He laughed and said that I was ahead of him and obviously knew what I was doing wrong - for the first two games, I would just concede the T to Arnie and put myself on the defense letting his serves go to the back and hitting a weak boast for the return. I hit a few winners from back there (which is nice, because I've been working on boasts with Stu, Tim and Jeremy), but this should not be the norm.

• Keep the high shots wide

After my first game, Dan commented that I wasn't putting Arnie under enough pressure because my shots weren't wide enough - by keeping them nice and high, and a little wider, he was forced off the T that much more, and I was given that much more time to recover and be prepared for his return.

I felt a little bit outclassed, but the crowd was flattering, and when I came off after losing in 3 games, I felt a little better hearing people telling me I'd played well in spite of the fast loss. I didn't feel bad about the loss - I'm really stoked that I made it to the finals, unseeded, and am going to make an effort to play some games against people that have styles of play similar to Arnie's - possibly Dave Wheaton. I think that I can adapt to this fast pace and defeat these people, but it will require that I spend some time playing them in order to learn how to do it effectively.

I showered, and Nikki proceded to dispatch her opponent (Dawn, I think her name was) in 4 games. Nikki was playing pretty well, and I was mostly just glad that she'd decided to play the Women's A draw instead of the Men's B. So, it was on to the final match of the day: Kevin Smith and Adam Radzminski.

There was some drama last year between Kevin and I, as anyone that has been reading this blog knows, but his court composure, at least what I've seen, has improved since I last saw him playing, which was good to see. To me, court composure and keeping your cool is the single most admirable attribute I see in a squash player I respect. It's easy to do drills everyday for weeks on end and get your game to a certain point (okay, it's not easy, but it's easier, I think), but it's very difficult to keep yourself composed, calm and collected on the court when you're being put under mental and physical stress chasing a ball around the court. Throw into that the potential for calls that you don't agree with, and that you don't usually get a choice of who is reffing your game, and it's a recipe that requires real discipline to stay real out there. So, anyhow, I sat down next to Dan after showering, and hoped to see Kevin beat Adam, who was the favorite (I have nothing against Adam, he seems like a good guy, I just wanted to see a local bring home the prize).

The games were good, but Kevin didn't quite have what it took to take out Adam - the guy is 6'4" and makes it to the front and back in one step. It's really quite impressive seeing how little effort he seems to expend covering shots on the court.

Wrap up

We all got our stuff together, and stuck around for the presentation of the prizes. Dope, I got to choose with a lot of awesome prizes left on the table (the sponsorship for this tournament is really good - again, nice work guys), and picked up a gift certificate for Sunday brunch at the Longwood Brew Pub for two. A nice trip for Bay and I to make when we've both got the time for it.

We said our goodbyes, hopped in the SUV, and headed on home. I'm sitting on the couch on Monday night finishing this entry off after having taking the day off to do basically nothing but lay in bed and recharge my batteries and get ready to shift back into work mode. After everything's been said and done, this was an awesome trip, and Nanaimo did not dissapoint in any way - we rolled with a really tight crew, had a blast, and once again, I'm really looking forward to hitting this up again next year - hopefully playing in the Men's A draw this time.

MVPs for the tournament: Nikki, Dan, Bevan, Jarryd, and especially Eric for being good enough to drive us down on Sunday. Also, Blake, Melissa, Amy, and the other members working the club who's names I feel terrible right now for not being able to remember (let me know if you know them and I'll update this). If anyone has any doubt about whether or not it's worth the extra money it costs to go to a tournament that is out of town, let me assure you that the cost is a steal of a deal compared to the amount of fun that you have when you head to one of these. Put Nanaimo on your list of tournaments to check out for the next year's squash season, and until then, keep your eyes open for the Comox tournament in April, and the Jericho Sun and Surf tournament during the summer. We'll be making appearances at both of these tournaments, and we do guarantee fun times and awkward conversations.

I'll be trying to make a new entry within the next couple of weeks as I prepare and train for the Beach Bash, which Dan is running this year out at Keating Squash Club. I'm hoping to pull a good performance in the B division again then, so I'll be training over the coming two weeks in preparation for that.

Until then, laters.