You Better Believe It!

Published: 10 Oct 2006 - 12:09 by raystrach

Updated: 18 Oct 2006 - 16:46

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I know it must be a shock for our many Squashgame fans out there to see this little corner of the website change at last, but, rest assured I have not been idle. Both in my personal quest to be the very best Squash player that I can be and to make Squashgame.info even better.

Talking about my injury woes week after week was becoming a very big bore to everyone, I'm sure, so I have been trying to get my troubled leg back to near 100% fitness. Whilst that has no quite happened yet, last night i was able to do some training, without any apparent negative side effects.

Because my exposure to Squash over the past few weeks has been somewhat limited to a single coaching session per week, I have not had the chance to observe and be reminded of many of the situations that deserve attention here at Squashgame.info.

There has been one however, that has been active in the forum. This is the idea of plateauing. It is an interesting problem because there are so many threads to the problem and a myriad of ways that the problem can be solved. Viper's post on the subject, (view here) elicited a number of well thought out responses on how he could move beyond the plateau. None of them were necessarily wrong, but none were necessarily right either.

My one coaching student at present is experiencing a similar problem. He will overcome it, if he really has the commitment, which he has, but i will be after a lot of frustration and effort. I can't wave a magic wand, or give him a piece of advice that will make it all better. He needs to find the answer somewhere inside himself.

What are the things which are preventing him, or anyone from moving from the plateau?

When doing building at uni as a young bloke, we did a subject called critical path analysis. This was a planning subject which helped build buildings in the shortest possible time. There is a path which is the shortest point between the start and the finish. Citical things must happen in a timely way for this to be achieved. Other things can go on concurrently, but unless they go way overtime, getting them done quickly has no bearing on when the project ends.

it is a bit the same in Squash. Whilst technique and fitness are tactics are very important and will have an impact on how good you can be, to me, they are not the determining factors in achieving a particular playing standard. To me, it is the belief in oneself to achieve one's goals and the ability to convert that belief into results.

I have seen many good players, who, in theory could be world beaters, but for whatever reason, they cannot seem to get the results. There is always a glitch at a critical time which prevent them from taking the next step. Unfortunately, this often ends up being a cycle which is impossible to escape from. the more chances you have, but miss, the more the self confidence gets eaten away.

To move from the plateau yo must believe in yourself first then,