Category: Squash

Yesterday I went on the court for the first time in about 6 weeks. It was wonderful. I had about 40 minutes by myself hitting the ball and then played with Jon (the guy with the fruit basket story). I made sure I did not push myself too hard nevertheless it was a 3:0 and another 1:0. Mike Z. showed up when we finished and we had a short chat. I will probably soon play with him.
I still need to take it easy but it looks like that I should be back in a few weeks at 95%.

Since about 4 weeks I have not been able to play any squash because of a modest injury to my Achilles tendon. It is getting better but it is not yet gone. I will play on Monday if all goes well. Let’s see how Monday is going to go.

Today I had my first club match playing the second position. I lost clearly 3:0 against Shane, a friendly guy from New Zealand. BSC Allston is the second best club in the league, so there is not too much shame in loosing.

I could have done a number of things better, though. First it is important to remember that if something does not work, do not insist and make the same mistake over and over again.

Shane had a good hard serve onto my backhand which I tried to cut off and put in as a nice drop, generally speaking probably the right idea. Unfortunately my drops went mostly into the tin, which cost me well over five points — maybe even ten. This can not happen when one plays against someone who is as good as oneself or maybe even better.

The other thing I am still doing is that I do tend to bring back the ball long, even if I am upfront and could drop effectively. I will have to work on that shot. Dropping is still one of my weak points.

Less obvious for an outside observer also that I did not employ my patience to set up the rally for the point. I was too hasty trying to make the point while it would have been better to keep the ball in the game and wait for a clearer situation.

Well, as long as I see what I do wrong I can still improve: next time it will be better!

Wednesday we played the University Club team. It is a really an interesting club. Many people from the city, and you can see they mean and do business. I was very surprised when I met Joe Cortes at the club. Thinking about it I have to admit it is not surprising at all as his ex-wife Sarah actually was the one who introduced me to the club a while ago. It is the first time I am back since then.
Anyway, this club is the top club in the league and of course we got our butts whooped. My match was not so obvious: I won the first game to 7, but then lost my focus and could not win another game. I lost the match 1:3, but that was the second best result in the team. Christopher pulled off a 2:3 and Frans and Jan got a disappointing 0:3.
As usual, once you have a squash permit for the evening, we played some more matches and my final match was against Christopher. He had a tough match with Jan before and had lifted some weights but anyway we played, and by the way I was not the freshest either. Long story short I beat him quite convincingly 3:1. This was the second time I had beat him in the first match we played on an occasion. He made more mistakes than usual and I think that might have been due to the lifting. We agreed we would have a real challenge match on Friday.
Friday came and we met at 1pm at the courts, both in good spirits, joking around as usual we warmed up comfortably and finally started our match. I won the first set but it was quite some action, some long and pretty nice exchanges, and I could win most of the long ones which made me confident and happy. The second set Christopher go his game together and fought back successfully. I was prepared for everything in the third and it did not start that well but I was able to keep it together and win the third. That did it and Christopher lost his composer in the fourth and last, because I won the game and match 3:1. This catapults me to the second slot in the team, leap frogging Frans.
So what is next? I will of course challenge Jan 🙂 our number one player.

After Blake’s birth I have slowly started up with squash again, and surprise, surprise it worked quite well. I finally had a chance to play some challenge matches. I played one with Christopher, which I lost and I played one with Najib which I won with a whopping 3:1. Well, of course this is dependent on the day but well I won this time. I had also already won the last two matches with (Apra)Tim.
The most prominent consequence of my victory over Najib is of course the fact that I am now the number 4 player on the 4.5 team from the MIT club.
In my so far two matches (played when there was one injured/travelling person) I lost 0:3 and more recently 1:3. Yesterday finally we had another away mach in Natich, MA (cross courts). We (Chistopher and I) drove with Frans’ wonderful Lexus 4×4 and had a good squash heavy conversation between the three of us. When we arrived at the club we changed quickly and I started as the first one to play number 4 match with John. At the same time Christopher got his match started. I was in good spirits and had my head relatively straight, which was not the case in my last league match.
In the first set we were feeling out where everybody was and I was glad to get a bit ahead and keep it that way. In the second set I changed nothing played long and hard and won in a somewhat tighter battle but I felt rather confident. The third set in the end I just kept the game at a fast pace and John lost his composure and I brought it home without much problems. This was a great feeling and we had a beer together. I played some more sets with various people and enjoyed my first league victory. Hopefully more to come. The same evening Christopher (3) lost his match 1:3, Frans (2) lost against a 17 year old very well playing kid 0:3 and finally Jan (1) brought a whopping 3:0 victory to the table. So MIT won this battle, which has pushed us up a little but it will not be enough to get to the playoffs. Frans dropped me off at home which was awesome because Ana did not even have to get up to pickme up.
Tomorrow I have a challenge match with Najib…. I need to start challenging the likes of Christopher and Frans 🙂

I played some squash tonight after having done a great class on gyroscopes, the nightmare of any student (and professor). The last few weeks I have been playing, the quality has been consistently high, playing good length and tight to the wall. Today was particularly good feeling sharp and returning reliably with few mistakes. I played with the young Indian (I always forget his name) and got my shots in reasonably well. He has improved a lot but I can still make the game.
Afterwards I asked Mike and ? from the varsity team to play with me. They presently occupy place 4 and 2 on the team. I was able to beat Mike consistently at about 11:5. The number 2 from the team though, beat me to 8 while I was able to win the second set at 14:12. I had the impression I would also win the following game, but you really never know. Andre Yoon is presently the number one of the varsity club. I should play with him to see where I am standing 🙂 I think it would at least be an interesting match. All games were high speed and had some very nice rallies. Few points were really short, so we were panting….
Next on the calendar is to go up the ladder in the 4.5 team. I should be able to beat Najib and Christopher. Frans, Adrian and Jan I am not sure but it is clearly not impossible.

I had a great day today at the courts. I played with Tim and though he developed a broken shoe we completed the best of five game. We had to go the full distance but luckily this time I won. Very much in line with the good game I had with Christopher on Friday. Afterwards we played one more game which I also won and I hit a little by myself after Tim left.

I was ready to go home, when Nadim arrived and we started to play some squash. Surprisingly I did win the first two, I lost the third but almost won the fourth, it must have been fourteen or fifteen. It looks like I have upped my game.

Today, I played Squash with Christopher Malenfant which I have regularly won a set against but rarely a match and never the first match we played in a session. Today was the first time I was able to win the first match in a tight 3:2 battle. We played one more set afterwards which I lost but who cares :-).

So the question is was there a recipe to success or was it just a random win. I believe there is of course some form of the day argument, but I generally followed the strategy to not play weak high cross courts, in particular returning the serve onto my backhand. Also I rather kept the ball long and reasonably tight. Dropping makes me commit too many mistakes. I have to work on that. Christopher retrieved really well, but generally once in the attacking position I could bring the point home.

Bottom line: this was a great day, I have to work on my strategy with Christopher and consider strategies to win the game with other players.

Tonight the MIT 4.5 team played against the Squashbusters team from North Eastern University. It was a great evening at our home courts. Our team was pretty complete with Jan, Frans, Christopher and Najib. This time around, finally all except for Christopher won. It was a great night and lots of fun. I did not play a team game but I enjoyed good squash (1:4) with Mike (not sure what his surname is) and then 2 games (2:0) with Wes (the number 4 player from Squashbusters) and finally 2 nice sets (1:1) with Chris (the number 1 player from the Squashbusters).  I am starting to let the ball longer in the game to wait for the point rather than pushing too hard to make the point with a risky shot…. let’s see whether I can continue in this direction.