Recently in Squash Category

More in the realm of minutiae from our hero's blog today..

I've been playing squash competitively for four years now. I love the sport, and it's nice to have something that is both a very good method for maintaining fitness, and also a very fun sport.

On top of all that, the game has a very strong strategic component to it, and it is an extremely social sport. These are all aspects that bode well for my particular character, and help motivate me to stay focused and develop drive to continue improving.

However, I've never really approached squash with particular fitness goals in mind. The aim for me has always been to improve, but always with the main focus being that I wanted my shots to improve.

This past season I saw some reasonable improvement, though I wasn't improving quite as quickly as I would have liked. That being said, the higher up in level you improve, the more you start to see the phenomenon of diminishing returns. Greater effort for less improvement.

This year I'm taking a new approach. My goals are certainly to see an increase in my squash game, but also to set some tangible fitness goals that I can drive towards. I would consider myself a very fit person for my age. I play squash four to five times a week, I jog, I lift weights, and I also make an effort to walk or bike instead of driving whenever I can. I try to eat healthy, I don't smoke, and I drink a lot of water throughout the day.

K, that was pretty obnoxious, but necessary. Here are the areas that I would like to make some improvements towards this squash season:

• Less regular drinking



Boy, do I love beer. It tastes delicious, I love drinking it with friends, and yup, sometimes I love drinking too much of it. I'm comfortable with this, it's good to have some vices. However, if I can cut back on the amount of beer that I'm drinking on a regular basis, I will be able to cut back on the number of excess calories that I'm dumping into my system on a weekly basis.

How do I intend to do this? Easy - just being mindful of when I crack a beer, and thinking about the number of calories that each beer has. This doesn't mean that I intend to stress about every single beer that I crack - just that I'm aware and mindful of them.

• Cut back on excess calories and trim off some extra weight



Summer was good to me, and filled with lots of decadent eating. I'm anything but overweight, but I would like to trim down for the season and minimize the amount of extra weight that I'm carrying around. Actually, I should rephrase that. My goal isn't to lose weight. It's to turn any extra fatty tissue that I'm carrying into muscle.

To accomplish this goal, the first thing I'm doing is just taking note of the number of calories I eat every day. A little while back I posted the number of calories, on an average day, that my body is burning through. The next step is to figure out how close I am actually coming to this goal. I signed up for an account at www.livestrong.com, and their calorie calculator has a large database that you can search through (and, as an added bonus, can also suggest lower calorie substitutes if you're interested). On top of that, you can also add in exercises and have it automatically calculate the amount of calories that you are burning based on this exercise.

This a good tool. The most important thing to be careful of with something like this is to make sure that you don't take being mindful of what you're eating into the realm of neurosis. It's easy to become neurotic about the number of calories you're consuming every day, and things go downhill fast from that point.

Update: After using livestrong's daily plate calculator for a few days, I'm really impressed. They have taken a wiki-like approach to their database of foods, allowing users to manually enter an item that they have consumed, along with its nutritional information, and that information then becomes available to everyone out. I was amazed last night when I finished my glass of skim milk, and on a whim typed in "Islander Skim Milk" and saw "Comox Valley Islander Skim Milk" popup in the search results. That's a pretty obscure brand that's already been logged. Very handy.

The most important point I want to make here, from my own point of view, is that if at any point I reach a state where I've eaten more calories than I need, and I'm still feeling peckish, I'm not going to stop myself from eating some ice cream as a treat. It is important to reward yourself when you think you deserve it. All work and no play makes for a habit that won't stay.

• Build more fast-twitch muscle



Fast-twitch muscle is the muscle fiber that helps your body make fast explosive movements. Squash requires both high endurance and explosive movements (think doing shuttle runs for 45 mintues), and I would like to continue to build on my legs to develop more of this kind of muscle.

Weight lifting is one way to achieve this goal, but I'm only willing to go so far, and I want to take a varied approach to exercise so that I don't get burnt out focusing on goals that are too focused. Training on the squash court is, at least in my opinion, roughly equivalent to a full session of leg workout anyhow, and so this will be act as my main way of training for this goal.

Probably most important is just to make sure that lessons don't drop off as time goes on. Although Brendan and I have a pretty good routine set up, it's easily to let things slip if you don't remain diligent.

Going to the gym is boring for me, and I generally hate the sort of people that go to them. About two years back, I bought a set of spin-lock weights. Essentially just a bunch of ten pound weights, and two dumbbell handles. I can't go much higher than fifty pounds on either side, but, I'm not really interested in going much higher. My goal isn't to be huge, it's just to suplement my fitness regime with some weight training. The other benefit of doing this workout at home is that it integrates perfectly with my other hobbies - do a set of reps, play a game of Virtua Fighter, do a set of reps, work on some design for my blog. For me, the key to maintaining a workout regime is to introduce it in a way that minimizes its disruptiveness. If working out every night means that I no longer have enough time to play squash, or hang out with Bay, guess which one I'm going to drop? I'm hoping that this approach will allow me to continue on with these goals.

So I think that's mainly it. It's interesting calculating calories. I've never bothered to do this before, and its funny to see how I stack up against the figures that are recommended by the various health authorities out there. In general, I try to eat when I'm hungry, and avoid eating simply for the pleasure of it (I really do enjoy eating, but also recognize the danger of giving into this impulse). Since the first step is simply to record what I'm eating, and not bother making any changes, I've discovered that I hit the mark pretty close (it'll be interesting to see how that changes on pizza day at work), but that my diet is definitely carb-heavy, and low on protein and, get this, fat. Weird hey? I'm still trying to figure out ways to alter this balance, but I'll definitely start to turn my eyes towards things like peanut butter instead of toast and margarine when I'm looking for a snack.

Oh yeah, and least shocking revelation of all, I'm getting too much sodium. Is there anyway for a human being these days to not consume too much sodium? This little bastard is everywhere!

Pac Rim

I'm relaxing at home after a long weekend playing squash. This weekend marked what is typically the end of the squash season, as the weather starts to turn for the better, and people have less desire to stand in a small glass box getting a schvitz on with another dude. And now for the segue... I think that that description would be a good candidate for getting squash into the Olympics. The introduction paragraph is now complete, and I will move boldly onwards.

Hello, and welcome to the first paragraph of the body of this entry. First up, the results. I had a disappointing loss in my second game of the main draw to Cam Burnett, a great guy with a good broad australian accent (I'd probably be willing to forgive someone taking my wallet if they did it with a sweet accent). Cam went on to win the B draw, so that offers some consolation.

As I was worried about, the typical mental block I suffer from re-emerged to claim my brain for the three quick games we were on the court for. I've been trying out a number of things this season with gradual success, and the only approach is to continue adapting and until I resolve it.

Having said that, I'm pretty happy with how I've fared this season. I feel like I can play an A-level game without embarassing myself, provided I am able to hold in my head that I am, in fact, capable of that. It's without a doubt that it is the battles that makes us stronger, so I can always try to hold in my head that this is a challenge to be triumphed over.

If anyone has their own tricks to share, I would be interested to hear them - leave a comment.

The tournament was precluded with Stu having to go to the hospital, which cast a bit of a pall over the whole thing. However, Dan received good news on Sunday, and it really speaks to the strength of the community that the event was still a huge success and a really great time. Rather than focus on the negative, it's the positive parts of the tournament that I like writing about.

There were a ton of old friends in town that I haven't seen and hung out with for quite a while, and it was great reconnecting with a bunch of them. Everyone has improved, and the squash was really great. The open draw this year consisted of a couple of friends, Thomas, Jarryd, and Ryan, along with some other familiar faces. And, to round it off, Sarah Fitz-gerald, the former world #1 female open player.

Jarryd and Sarah played first round, which was an interesting match. There was some contention about whether or not Jarryd was playing too roughly, and he received two warnings from the refferee about this. It looked to me like Jarryd was just making every effort to the get to the ball, and I was skeptical as to whether or not the same warnings would have been given out if Jarryd was playing another guy. Oh well, not a big deal.

Viktor Berg won the event, although I think that was mostly a foregone conclusion. Sarah came in second, which was interesting - I think most people didn't really know what to expect of her, and whether or not she would be up for it, but she certainly was. I had to play my own game for the final, but I heard that Viktor was fairly in control the whole way through.

The partying was pretty great - we kept things rolling throughout the weekend, and there was the perfect amount of beer flowing - not too much, not too little.

Lessons Learned

One thing this tournament gave me an opportunity to do was practice adapting my pace. I haven't really done this at all for a long while. If I think about it, most of our lessons are done at a fairly high pace, so it's not something I've thought about. However, three of the four opponents I played against this weekend were weakest (in my opinion) against a slower pace.

Cam played a good all-around game, but Bevan confirmed my initial hunch when he said that he loved to hit pace. Slowing things down against Cam didn't win me the match, but it definitely was the right path to head down. Anytime you can take your opponent out of their element, you introduce a little bit of uncertainty to their mindset.

Next up I played a little dude from England called Alex. Alex was 13 and definitely precocious at times, but he was pretty cool and I enjoyed playing him. He played a damn good game, especially for someone that only just came up to my torso (I guess that's why he's ranked 7th in England for his age group). The juniors that I've played have typically learned pace before they've learned playing soft and slowly. It takes a little more patience to play, and that's always something that I find improves as I age. There's always exceptions to every rule, such as Tyler Olsen in this case (who almost won the A's - big ups the T-dot massive).

Alex adapted reasonably well to the shift in pace, but playing high took away a lot of his power, and it's pretty hard for a little guy to volley early due to their height. Still, it was a great match, and I got to play the villain (playing against a cute 13-year old kid with a British accent is the ultimate introduction and setup for the villain in any squash-related super-hereo movie).

The last opponent I played was another junior who loves to hit the ball hard. Taking that ability away from him removed his ability to let out his frustrations (and this guy definitely gets frustrated with himself). I played softly and patiently and essentially let my opponent beat himself.

MVPs

Dan and Jocelyn are without a doubt MVPs for the weekend, largely carrying off the whole tournament themselves. There's a million of other people that contributed in their own ways, and that's pretty dudical too. At the center of that all, though, these guys were definitely at the nucleus.

Wrap up

So, the squash season is drawing to a close, but what a great tournament to end on. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the Sun and Surf tournament in the heat of the West Coast summer, and seeing how everyone has developed.

Two of my friends, Jarryd and Thomas, are moving out here for the summer, and that is likely to be a pretty good time. I see tacos and patios on the horizon..

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.

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.

Alright, for the first time in a six weeks or so I'm finally starting to feel like things are getting back to where I want them to be. So, that means it's time for an update (that and the fact that I think Jarryd will quit being my friend if I don't get on it).

Getting injured sucks. All of the training I'd done during the past summer to improve my fitness and game are gone... It's frustrating stepping back onto a squash court and not having any of that with me. Then, on top of that, add the fact that none of my physical game is where I remember it being.

I had just started getting back into the mix two weeks ago, when I got caught in the eye doing some drop shot drills. Getting hit was my own fault - I was cheating forward to get the drop shot that I knew was coming, and put my face right in front of the path of my friend Rob's racquet. Oh well. He drove me to the clinic, I got four stitches put in my eye, and was out the door.

You know what four stitches means? It means two things: I'm off squash again until I get them taken out, and that I'm wearing goggles everytime I play from then onwards. The irony of the situation was that I had randomly decided to wear goggles this time when we were doing drills. I got frustrated part way through though, because they were fogging up and constantly getting sweaty, so I took them off. Three minutes later? Beaned!

The racquet caught me just above my eye, on the lid, so I'm actually pretty lucky - if I had actually gotten hit in my eyeball, I'd probably be dealing with some vision loss, and I'd be taking a much longer time out from playing.

So things were pretty rough. I got the stitches out in time to play the first game of Division 2 league, and I got PWNED. The guy that beat me was named Gary Sawada. He was pretty nice, played reasonably well, and the way I was playing he deserved the win hands down. I felt like I could beat him if I was playing the way I had been before injuring myself, and that was somewhat frustrating. By far the most frustrating thing was people offering me advice on what to do. This is always tough, because I know that it's given with good intentions, but when you're coming back from an injury, you know that you suck. It wasn't that I didn't know I needed to hit the ball tight and deep. It was that I couldn't. I guess I should just suck it up and be gracious that I have people that are willing to give me advice - better that than have noone want to help.

Anyhow, I've been putting in the time since then working on drills and playing games in between that. I started jogging again, which sucked (I barely made it half the distance I was going at the start of the summer) but it's all a step in the right direction. The past few days I've really felt like things are starting to come back to where I remember, and the best part about that is that I'm actually having fun playing the game now, rather than leaving the court miserable at how poorly I'm playing.

Dan and I did some work on volley boasts the other day, which is a shot I see him use all the time. I've always played this shot, but not really understood why it's been so ineffective. I see Dan use it to great effect, and then when I would go and do it, the opponent would cover it easily and unleash some devastating attack on me. This is what I was doing wrong:

• Hit the ball softly

Stupid eh? I should know better than this, but for some reason, I would just make the assumption that I need to crank on that ball. This isn't a kill shot - it's a moving shot, and you need to hit it softly so that the ball ends up softly in the front corner. As soon as Dan pointed this out to me, I realized how much sense it made, but it's just one of those things that didn't occur to me until it was said explicitly.

• Don't make this shot after the opponent has made a weak lob

Usually the times that I would make this shot were after my opponent had hit a weak lob. This is obviously a bad play. Why? Where is the opponent sitting after hitting a weak lob? Right at the front of the court, waiting for me to volley boast the shot right back to them. It's just a bad choice. I want to be hitting this shot after my opponent has hit a weak drive - they'll be caught behind me and have to run through the diagonal if they want to make a return.

• Use this shot to cut off balls that would otherwise make it past me.

One of the nice things about this shot is that you can hit it with a little less time than you might need if you were trying to hit a volley drop or drive. Standing on the Tee, watching your opponent, prepared for their shot, you have a good amount of time to step across and softly launch the ball on its path to the front corner.

So that's what in the mix right now. I took some pictures of my eye shortly after getting the stitches put in, and I'll put those up tomorrow night, once I pull them off my camera.

Cowboy up.

Been a long time since I've written... very busy... blah blah blah.

Good, I've gotten the excuse for lack of updates out of the way. Let's get into the details of why, and what is currently sucking (and there's a lot) about my game on court.

Been a busy few weeks.. Bevan headed out for his new job in Vancouver, and I said goodbye to a good friend and a great training partner. Sucks that he had to go, but hey, what can you do (other than call him a lot at work and get him fired). He, Jarryd, and myself went out to send him off Friday evening two weeks back, and then Saturday I got up early to go and check out the Phantom of the Opera with Bay, my brother, his girlfriend, and my parents in Vancouver.

The opera was good, but I'd seen it once before and it seemed to lack a lot of the punch. I will always like the songs, but didn't feel moved the same way I did when I saw Les Miserables (people keep telling me that they are different kinds of shows, but that's irrelevant to me - I can be moved in any number of directions: humour, sadness, anger, etc., and I don't care which direction it is, but I want to feel something when I'm watching a show like this).

As anyone that's seen the photos knows, my ankle has been pretty messed up over the last few weeks. When I got back from the Jericho tournament, I went to the clinic and then went and got some x-rays. Nothing too severe, and no fractures - just a really well pulled tendon (or was it a ligament?). I got an appointment and went to go and see a physiotherapist the next day. I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing, and me wondering "Who the hell would be calling me at 7:05 ahhhhh shitter, I'm late for physio".

I rushed out the door and went to start doing excercises. The physiotherapist was cool, showed me what she figured I'd done with my ankle and got me started on some ultrasound, some electro-shock therapy, some excercises and a solid half hour session on the rack. She told me I'd probably be off the court for at least a few more weeks, so I should spend some time on a stationary bike and gave me some excercises to do at home.

I did the excercises, came back a week later, and Julie said that I would probably need another couple of weeks before I could get back on court. This is killing me. Oh well, better to play it safe than to risk another ankle injury.

Two weeks later, I went back in, she commented on the muscle loss in my calves (more stuff to build back up) and said that I was good to get back on court. Thank god. The euphoria I was experiencing while thinking about getting back on court and playing squash again lasted precisely up until I stepped on court and tried to hit the ball.

Did I really use to play this sport? Had I actually won a tournament in the past? Sure didn't seem like I had given how I was hitting the ball. Everything was off. I was hitting loose, my volleys were coming off the back wall on the full (that means they weren't even hitting the floor before hitting the back wall), I was hitting everything into the T, annnnnnnnnd there's more!

Tonight marked the fourth time I've been back on court. I've done two drill sessions, and played two games, and I'm just now starting to get back into the mindset where I'm ready to sit down and think about what I want to work on, and what I need to carry out to get my game back to where it was before I injured myself. So, what am I doing wrong?

1. Patience

Stu's called me impetuous multiple times before, as I jump in front of a really tight ball along the side wall and try to hit a winner. Patience is one of the hallmark's of great squash players, and I currently have none of it. This makes sense if you think about it - I'm finally able to get back on court, and I all I want to do is play squash dog-gone it (I've been watching MacGuyver lately, so all of my cuss words have gotten super awesome). I don't want to play patiently and wait for the right time to kill, I just want to pounce on everything I can and put it away.

Turns out that trying to put every ball away is the perfect strategy to lose games 9-0 with when none of your shots are good. There's a snowball effect going on here. My shots are loose right now - I've been off court for over a month, and I need to gain back my edge. In order to compensate for the fact that it's harder for me to hit tight shots, I need to take more time to focus on the shot, and avoid sacrificing accuracy for power (shout outs to Danchez for that piece of advice). If I'm trying to pounce on balls and put them away, I'm not giving myself enough time to focus on making a good shot, and I end up hitting loose, fat balls straight to the center of the court, and my opponent puts down his martini just long enough to put way yet another point against me.

So, physically solving this problem is easy. I just need to make one simple rule for myself: Don't put away the ball. Easy right? By forcing myself to just hit drives, keeping the rally going, I'm giving myself a chance to focus on the core foundation of a good squash game. It also gives me extra practice getting my drives back to where they were, and lets me get into the right frame of mind - bury your opponent in the back of the corners. When they hit a loose shot, go ahead and do something with it, but otherwise, just keep hitting deep.

Mentally, this is tough - like I said, I want to play (and after watching MacGuyver, I have an urge to grow a sweet mullet too). Forcing myself to be patient is difficult. In both of the games that I've played lately, I've had to take a few seconds to think about this and then make it a focus. My game definitely improved while I was doing this, but after a few rallies I'd slip back into kill mode. Hopefully by writing this down and making it explicity it'll get easy to do. Ultimately, this is a valuable skill to have in squash, so by training myself to pick the moments where I attack, I'll be improving my game overall, not just getting back to where I was previously.

2. Longer rallies

Okay, so I'm kind of cheating here - this is very similar to the above point, but I need to mention it anyhow. I'm fit, and I've got endurance. I can handle long rallies, and I need to think about using this to my advantage. The longer I can make the rallies, the better for me. There's lots of reasons why this is the case.

The longer a rally goes, as I mentioned above, the more time I'm spending keeping the ball in play, and the more I can focus on making good fundamental shots.

The longer the rally is, the greater advantage having high endurance and being fit becomes. If you're feeling tired, just imagine how wiped your opponent must be. Keep that in mind the whole time you're playing.

Thinking about keeping the rally going gets my mind off thinking about putting the ball away with a winner. If I had to choose one thing that Bevan or myself would see each other doing in tournament matches and tell the other to stop doing, it was being impatient and trying to kill the ball. Focus on the rallies, and let hitting winners come naturally.

3. Hit tight, deep shots

See a pattern here? We're back to what I always return to: the fundamentals. So, like I said, my shots are loose. Everything else sucks too, but I can only deal with one thing at a time, and if you're going to choose something, make it something that is fundamental.

So, I'm back where I was last year - going to the court by myself, and hitting drives. Over and over... and over. Then stop, get some water. Then do it some more. It's simple, and that's what I need to work on right now - the simple stuff.

So, I've got my work cut out for me. Nothing here is particularly complicated, it's just a matter of regaining the discipline to put it into practice.

The rest of the time I had when I was injured I put into practicing dancing. I wasn't able to practice anything particularly energetic, but the need to strengthen my ankle. As I've said in the past, gliding is a technique that requires very good balance on the ball of your one raised foot. This technique adapts itself particularly well to the excercises I needed to do to strengthen my ankle back to its former glory.

So, I spent a lot of time balancing on the ball of my foot, and then practicing sliding my other foot, kept parallel to the floor, around the the ground. This is again practicing the fundamentals. I'm not practicing any specific move here, I'm just working on improving my ability to balance and maintain my position while moving my other foot. This is a valuable skill for any popper to have (or really, any dancer at all) and is worth practicing if you're ever bored and looking for something to work on.

I've been working on a few other techniques in particular, but will save those for a dance-related entry. The pivot that I had been working on is very gradually coming along. I'm able to pivot pretty well when fully standing, but now need to start to bring my body down lower, and spread my legs apart further (the further apart the legs are, the greater the effect).

I think that's enough for now. I'm trying to get back into the training headspace, and have been lucky in that I have lots of people that are down to do drills with me. That means I should hopefully have plenty of entries coming up. Until then.

So, what good are stories about hurting myself if I don't post proof of the injuries afterwards? So, here are some gross pictures of my gross foot. I wasn't lying about the color - check out those toes!

So yeah. My friend Dan asked me if it was worth it. Totally. I recommend this approach to everyone next time you want to have a wicked time at a party.

Alright, my legs are just starting to regain the ability to support me moving anywhere around the house, so I dragged myself to the keyboard and dug in for an entry.

The weekend was good - we had another cup/team tournament this weekend, and I don't think I've ever played in one of those and not had a good time. Although I played absolutely horribly this weekend, it didn't deter from the good times of hanging out with friends and enjoying the awesome weather at a BBQ at Stu's.

I've been playing really well up until this Thursday - I was happy with my fitness, and the things I've been training were working for me. Bevan and I had a good game in league on Wednesday that went to 10-9 in the fifth, and I was stoked to play more over the weekend.

WHAT WENT WRONG??

(cue the music for the old videos you had to watch when you took foodsafe). Here's a list of what I think I did wrong, and the steps that I'm going to take to fix them.

1. Predictable squash

Oh my god. This was the worst one, because I was aware that I was doing it, but just couldn't seem to break myself out of the habit. The first game I played was against John Foxall. I'd beaten him before, and was hoping that I'd be able to take him this time too, but he did me the favour of handing me my ass on a platter (and rightfully so, given how I was playing). I started to realize how predictable I must be playing after the third time he covered my predictable backhand cross court drop to the front right corner and pounded it to the back of the court. Even aware of this, I just couldn't shake it. Predictability in squash sucks. The game is called "the thinking man's game" (or at least, so I saw somewhere on a website) for a reason, and if you're letting your opponent easily anticipate most of the shots you make, you're going to lose that mental game.

Training to avoid this is just a matter of practicing all of the shots that I like to make, and focusing on switching up what I do when I start to notice this. The next few games I play I'm going to go back to focusing on the fundamentals, and try to let my natural instincts dictate the next shot I make, rather than over-thinking things. I find sticking to the fundamentals very helpful when I get caught up in a rut. If there's nothing else you can do well, at least hit consistent straight drives to good length.

2. One dimensional squash

This is very similar to the above problem - I felt like I had two, maybe three shots that I was using this weekend - low, hard, drives to the back, and a backhand crosscourt drop. These shots are good, but squash is a game about deception, and maneuvering your opponent around the court. If all I ever do is one of these two shots, I'm limiting the tools with which to accomplish that.

Changing this is going to come from the same as above - focus on the fundamentals and let my self subconciously choose the shot - go with what feels right. The other thing I'm going to do is put on some of the squash videos I have and watch some of the pros play. This always motivates me, and reminds me of what a really good clean game of squash looks like. Seeing people play like that makes me want to get out on the court and really focus those bread and butter shots.

Those are really the two main things I want to work on right now. Once I've gotten my head back in the right place, I'll start to spend more time actually improving specific shots, but until I've got strategy back together, that's going to be my focus.

As I mentioned, I'm going to the popping and locking workshop this Wednesday. One of the main things I'm hoping to learn from the guy is how he goes about teaching people and gauging there ability. I really love the styles of dance that I'm into, and would really like to see them become more than an obscurity in Victoria - Vancouver has a very active popping scene, but I only know about three to four people on the island that are really into popping. Being able to teach it better is something I'd love to know so that I can pass on the same sort of fever that I have for it.

I'll write about the experience when I get back from the show, and hopefully find some time to make some basic videos showing the things that were focused on. Last chance if anyone is still interested in checking it out, let me know at deathsushi@hotmail.com.

Alright, I think this is the first entry I've made since starting Pain and Torture, or at least the first one that will talk about that. I've been super stoked on squash lately, and have turned a lot of that energy into training hard. I'm jogging for about a half hour two to three times a week on my lunch break, and doing Pain and Torture (court movement and speed training with a dash of drills on top) once a week. At the end of the day my body is tired, but I wake up feeling well-rested and refreshed. I feel very fit, and that's a pretty good feeling.

We have a pretty sweet Pain and Torture group: Bevan, Drew, myself, Emily Paton, Emily Parsons, and Nikki. Bevan and Drew run hard, and the girls are all several thousand times faster than I am, so I've got a lot of motivation to push.

Playing league, taking lessons with Dan, hitting with better players than myself, and our hitting drills have made me very aware of a few things I need to work on, so, let's bring out the littany..

1. High Backhand Volleys

Whoa. I suck. Seems to me like improving and playing squash is laced throughout with moments where I go "how on earth do I get by with shots like that?". Lo and behold, high backhand volleys are just such a shot. Horray.

I mentioned me trying to work on getting my elbow up higher for this shot, and that ties in with the other thing I need to work on, which is racquet preparation. These two are mutually inclusive - they both relate to setting myself up properly for a good shot. The more you play squash, the more time you start to feel like you have between each shot, and to make a return. I think this is owed at least partially to learning to prepare yourself as much as possible before making a shot (and I suspect this is a factor in most sports, with the exception of Nascar racing, where it is overshadowed by the advantage of missing part of your frontal lobe).

So, I've been making a real effort towards this end, and really started to notice a difference last Thursday when I was drilling with Sarah and Emily. There's still a long way to go, but at least I can start to feel/see some results. Racquet preparation (actually, preparation in general) is an easy thing to do - I mean, it's not like training yourself to swing a racquet properly, or to boast at the right angle - it's not so much a skill as it is mental training (which I guess is a skill in itself). Because of this, there's really no excuse for me having taken so long to start thinking about it.. but that's just the way she goes (old trucker proverb).

2. Fitness

This one isn't really a skill so much as training - but I'm planning on putting a fair amount of effort into improving my fitness over the summer, and so I hope to have a real advantage when I step on court against someone that hasn't put in this kind of effort.

There aren't really any specific steps to doing this - just me going jogging, getting good rest, and eating healthy. I still don't really have any idea how to measure how well this is coming along, other than to see how long it takes me to recover between games and at the end of a match. That being said, I've been jogging for about three weeks now, and doing pain and torture for the same amount of time, and I feel like I'm starting to notice a difference. I can't remember how many weeks it's meant to take before you can visually notice changes to your body based on your workout routine (I think it's about three weeks), so this could just be a placebo. Either way, feels good.

I think that most of my focus this summer is going to be spent on fitness, along with tidying any other big errors I notice in my game until league starts up in the fall. Bevan and I are both planning to tryout for division 1, but I don't really think that I'm likely to make that cut, so I'm hoping to get into division 2 with a reasonably high rank. This should be possible if I stay steady with my current pace.

I guess posting the weaknesses in my game on a public website may make it more likely that those weaknesses will be exploited, but my thinking is along the lines of "what better way to practice a shot you suck at than by having people try to exploit it against you". The more people that know what I suck at and use it against me, the faster I'll learn to make it correctly.

I just finished editing some dance videos, and will put those up, along with an entry about what I'm currently working on shortly.

Updates have been slow lately - the weeknights have been packed with things for me to do, Bay and I are looking for a new apartment (let me know if you here of any 2 bedroom units with in-suite washer, dryer, dishwasher for around 1000-1200), and work has been very busy. My computer at work was causing problems and so I had to backup my files and format the hard-drive. I spent the last three days of the week restoring everything to its original state, which is a really lame way to work. Additionally, I didn't have any sound card support on the machine for those three days, so I was stuck listening to plain boring old white office noise.

Everything for me (and probably a lot of other people) is very cyclic. I get super stoked on one of my hobbies and go head-first into it, often to some neglect of the other hobbies. Magic and dancing were really at the forefront after the Pac-Rim, partially just because I was starting to suffer from tournament burn-out. That doesn't mean the tournaments stopped being fun - they're always fun. But, tournaments definitely take their toll on me. I'm not much good at being a boyfriend, cleaning the house, taking care of chores, or relaixing mentally when I'm playing in tournaments. It's just the way I am - I devote all of my focus to thinking about the games and visualizing how I want to play. Anyone that has seen me play knows that this gets thrown right out the window as soon as I step on the court, but it still doesn't stop me from doing it.

We had a cup tournament this past weekend, and that got the squash gears turning again - so now I'm back on the squash train. Both summer league and pain and torture started this week, and those two items are also keeping my motivation running high. Most people already know, but Pain and Torture is something Stu puts on every summer that is essentially court speed and training for an hour and a half, once a week. The idea is that you train during the off-season (Squash season over here is during the winter), and then kick everyone's ass with your conditioning when the season starts up again. I've also started jogging during my lunch break (I work downtown, so there's lots of beautiful coastline to jog along) and so I'm looking forward to having a lot better conditioning come next season.

Our summer league is a really good bracket this year, and I place myself somewhere in the middle of the players in my slot, which is nice. Playing at the top gets boring, because you're likely to win every game you play. Playing at the bottom is hard, because no one likes getting their ass handed to them each week. This way I get the best of both worlds - self-esteem boost sometimes, and the chance to get wailed on (and learn from it) the rest of the time.

The lessons I've been taking with Dan and Stu (plus help and tips from guys like Mike (Gaube) and Jarryd) have really been paying off, and I've been making a lot of effort to work on what I've been shown. So, as per the norm, here's the current list of things I'm working on.

1. Court movement and positioning

Dan, Stu, and Jarryd have been telling me about this forever, but my focus in the past has been on learning to get my stroke down correctly. There's a bit of a catch-22 here. Good court movement and positioning set you up to hit the ball correctly, and give you the greatest number of options for shots that you can make. However, for a beginning player, I didn't see that. All I could see was that my swing sucked eggs. I don't regret the way I've learned, but now that I'm happy with my swing (that doesn't mean it doesn't need work, but I no longer suffer from an aneurism every time I hit the ball), I've shifted a large amount of my focus towards the way I approach the ball.

My favorite drill for working on this right now is boast and drive. For real beginners out there reading this, it's a pretty simple drill. One guy boasts the ball to the front, and then the next guy drives the ball to the back. Then guy number one boasts to the opposite front corner, and guy number two drives. Simple. I like this drill because I find boasts the most difficult shot to position myself for - I have a natural tendency to follow the path of the ball into the front corner. When I do this, I end up too close to the ball and have the following options:

• Drive to the back corner

If I take this option, I'll be too close to the ball, and my opponent, if they're on the T, will step across, hold their racquet up and be awarded a stroke against me. No good.

• Drop shot/Trickle Boast (is that the right name)

Again, I'm too close to the ball, so I've got farther to move to get back to the T, and again, an alert opponent can step in and trap me beside the ball. This is not a cheap play on his part - I've positioned myself too close to the ball and am not giving them a clear shot at the ball. Stroke to me, or, best case scenario, I'm out of position and am running like crazy after the shot they make.

• Lob

Hey, I love lobbing. It is without a doubt my favorite shot in the game. But, I don't like being predictable, and I hate making bad lobs. If I'm too close to the ball, I'm not able to get the right angle for my lob, and it's going to end up being a fat shot in the middle of the back of the court. My opponent positions himself, I'm trapped against the side wall (I have to give them a clear shot to any part of the front wall), and they make any number of shots for an easy point.

So, to train this, I do boast and drive with a friend, and focus mostly on anticipating the path that the ball will take and position myself to make the best shot given where the ball will end up. This is what I have learned to do - the more you play squash, and the better you get, the more time you find you have. When I started playing, a boast to the front corner meant I had to charge to retrieve it. I didn't have time to think about the path of the ball, where it would end up, or how I needed to position myself, because I was playing a purely reactionary game. Once you start to learn how to anticipate the shots your opponents will make, and where the ball will end up, you give yourself more time to think about how you're going to hit the ball.

2. Boasts

I was doing boasts with Dan and it became immediately apparent that there is still a lot of work to be done on this shot. I was relieved to find out that my technique is correct, I just need to work on where I hit the ball into the side wall. I've had to work through so many different bad habits that finding out that it's just a matter of refining technique is all good.

Nevertheless, my defensive boasts are usually hit either too far forward or too far back on the side wall, so I need to keep working on boast drills until I know exactly where the sweet spot is. Kevin and Stu have both told me that sometimes it helps to visualize another squash court beside the one you are playing in - hitting the ball into the front corner of this imaginary squash court is exactly the angle that you want for a good boast.

My forehand attacking boast is lacking in deception. I feel good on my backhand, and can catch people off guard when I approach a shot that has popped out near the T, but on the forehand, I need to practice making the swing for an attacking boast look like a forehand drive.

3. High volleys

So I asked Dan what he would tell people if they approached him before playing me in a tournament and asked how they should beat me. His reply was that they should try to hold their shots more and throw me off balance, lob more, and change up the pace.

Dan would know better than I, but I've been spending a lot of time working on softer slower shots, like high lobs from the back of the court and deep crosscourt shots. I also make a point of trying to play some people that like fast paced games and other people that like slow paced games, so I'm feeling pretty good about my ability to change the pace, and to deal with having it changed on me. This is, of course, only a reflection of the games I've been playing recently - I have no doubt that as I continue to improve and move up, I'll come to realize that there's a whole lot more ground here that I need to cover.

I'm not sure how to train having shots held against me, other than to continue playing people that are better than I am.

My high volleys are indeed a compelling reason for me to quit playing squash altogether, and I know how to train this one, so this is the last thing I'm currently working on.

Jesse and I have been practicing volleys whenever we can find a time that works for both of us, and hopefully we can start including lobs and volleys in our drills. Mike Gaube showed me the other day that I need to get my elbow up higher so that I can use more whipping motion in the swing. Currently I'm using my arm to generate a lot of the power, which greatly reduces the punch you can give the ball.

Before my games right now I'm spending time doing figure 8 drills as well as standing volleys, which will hopefully help this last item. Just stand in the back of the court and hit high volleys to yourself over and over. As I improve I'll start varying the pace on the ball a bit and practice kill shots as well as deep returns.

That's everything for now. We have another team tournament coming up in July, and then August I'm going to head over to Vancouver for the Sun and Surf tournament at Jericho. I missed this one last year, but it's meant to be pretty def.

UPDATE: I was talking to my friend Simon tonight (a fellow dancer), and he noticed I was using a sweet sweet sweet picture of Luke Perry for my MSN avatar. Everyone who knows who Luke Perry and Jason Priestly are owes it to themselves to follow this link and check out some of their amazing adventures.