Our Squash Journey

“Squash is not a sport – it is self-flagellation” – I have decided to join this sado-masochistic bandwagon now by putting myself through a grueling, limb-busting, puke-inducing, sinew-tearing training session daily for about 40-45 min.!!
Let me clarify – I am not preparing for any professional competition – you would have guessed that by now – 45 min. a day is too less even for amateur competitions – even for a session that is so intense that every morning I really start wondering if I am developing masochistic tendencies.
I had been playing my self-taught version of squash for some time – which included using a bit of intelligence and trying to smash the ball as hard as possible. This used to work fine in patches – I would play okay squash at times – but would often get thrashed by players with better ball-control! One ortwo games with better players and I would be completely at sea with my tactics, strategy, game sense - running all over the court like a headless chicken!!
There were two things that made me want to put an end to this thrashing that I was receiving on a regular basis from the better players. One, I decided that for once in my life, I want to put sustained efforts over some period of time in developing skills at some sport. Two, tired of getting second hand information from the internet and from the various other sources, I wanted to actually become better at a game by understanding and learning the basics of a game – taught properly and drilled into me. I had been playing some sports at any given point in time – cricket, field hockey, volleyball, table tennis etc. however, all of these were self-taught – that left me with what a friend once called – “curse of mediocrity” – better than average at all these sports but not really very good at any one of them.

Squash has provided the perfect opportunity for this - I also have a small group training with the coach that I train with. Most of them are better squash players than me – but I am hoping that sustained efforts for 5-6 months will make me a technically better player.

We stay in a fairly large apartment complex in Mumbai. We are fortunate that this apartment complex has a fairly large and functional clubhouse with various facilities – like a fully equipped gym with trainers, squash court, tennis court, swimming pool etc. Our training started on 11th of November and all of us have lasted the first week of training – albeit with sore muscles and aching limbs!! My wife has been extremely supporting in my efforts to undergo training as morning times are really rush hours for us – what with our having to get our daughter ready to go to school!! But we are managing!!

This blog will trace my journey and the journey of my training mates over the training duration. I hope I can make this blog as entertaining and fun as the training is!