Caught Up With No Breakages

Published: 26 May 2008 - 20:26 by raystrach

Updated: 26 May 2008 - 20:33

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Those in the large Australian capitals are lucky that they are able to access Squash competitions with plenty of variety in opponents on a week to week basis. I suppose regional Australia is proibably like many other countries around the world where there is mainly intra club competition meaning that you tend to play the same people time and time again.

On the weekend, one of the local club owners invited those from the Hervey Bay club and from the Gympie club to participate at nearby Maryborough for a graded tournament. Check the map here. I was looking forward to the day because i had lived in Gympie for about 12 years and had not seen a many of the players for 3 or 4 years. I was also hoping to kick start my playing again after having been doing so much travelling in the past few months.

Anyone who has followd my Squash progress over the past couple of years know that I break very easily, so it was my goal to play three best of three matches and survive without injury. I was happy to be able to achieve that aim, but was not so happy when two of my former students beat me. Knowing that I have plenty of improvement left in me, they will keep for later.

Anyway, back to the variety of opponents...

The good part of the day was that everybody, from the very best players to those with the lowest playing standard were able to play people that they may have never played before. New weaknesses were exposed, new tactics formulated and I am pretty sure that everyone who participated got some sort of boost out the the event.

Whilst many in squash bemoan the fact that not enough people enjoy watching the game, sometimes the celebration of actually playing does not get enough publicity. I know that when I started inlcuding more juniors in tournament squash in this region in the mid nineties, it boosted the enthusiasm of those who playes as well as infecting a lot of others with that same enthusiasm.

The beauty of this approach is that something is created out of virtually nothing. Getting two groups who normally do not associate together to compete against each other is a great way to improve peoples' enthusiasm for the game. Creating new acquaintances and friendships is an added bonus.

Now, getting back to my own Squash, it was good to see my former students being able to play the game of squash demonstrating some skill in the process. They could all volley, boast, drop and drive and had some idea of the tactics involved in the game. It was not all just crash and bash.

Well Done, but be warned, I do not take defeat lightly.