I won!

Played two matches on wednesday night

One the first as expected (the bloke ALWAYS gets one damned game off of me damnit cept when i am REALLY trying hard)
Then I went down to the main game. Guy Ive never beaten. BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG hitter. Smashes it. Lost the first, looked up at the captain of our team n said 'well I'm playing as well as Ive played since I started playing again - this is the best I can do n it simply isnt good enough'

Then won the next 3 straight 9-4, 9-3, 9-2. Won going AWAY. As HIS captain was overheard saying to him after game 2 ' he plays a high risk /high reward style of squash - when its on its on DONT play him at his game' heh.
He tried matching it stroke play fer strokeplay n couldnt do it.
God it felt good. This is the bloke who smashed me 9-5, 9-3, 9-2 in the forst round when I was sick as a dog. Felt good. Especially as i felt like id been hit by a truck going into the game.

Funny thing form. Whenever i feel super I play like shit. Its like ya a bit high or something n cuz I feel so good (compared to normal) I think I dont concentrate anywhere near as hard as I should. Make silly mistakes. When I feel sore n achey all over I play extra well I think cuz I concentrate super hard. Last night I felt almost indestructable on the court. I knew I couldnt run down EVERY shot he hit so I quickly chose if i thought i could A reach it n B was it worth the effort?. If the answer to B was hell no I didnt try to run it down. My trouble is inertia due to my stupid weight. Once I get GOING I move as quick as anyone. Its the GETTING going that is the trouble. And going forward up the court I seem to find troublesome. Always have. So I make a choice with what shots to chase n what not to. I realised today that in game one (lost 9-5) I made a conscious choice to force rallies deep down my backhand side. Normally 2 righthanders both go at it down THEIR backhands (lefty forehand) n the pattern remains when they play us lefties - consequently we get lots of forehand practice (pattern also holds when 2 lefties play - unconsciously we are used t oplaying down the forehand court all the time). So I decided to MAKE the game rotate down my backhand side - even though it exposed me to my opponents' formidable forehand drives. I think my subconscious knew I could beat him there if i could frustrate his drives to length. Which I did in the second game - also I switched the play annoying back n forth to my forehand to try to break up his confidence.
I also murdered EVERY (well almost) serve he delivered to my backhand with poetic crosscourt volley nick kills, firm straight volley drops n delicate little cross n straight drops off serves I couldnt volley - to the point where he KNEW if he won the rally his serve was gonna get the treatment -which made his serves WORSE to my delight.

Sorry
I'm well chuffed
I played as well as I think it is possible for me to play last night n i DONT feel sore n sorry today. It feels nice to have finally put together a total game - running n moving unhindered n without serious restriction of breathing through asthma, hitting shots the way they should be hit, whether aggressive attacking strokes or positional play, knowing when I DID play a poor tactical shot or a rare mis-hit why it happened n how to avoid it again. N I didnt get cranky at anything. THAT shows me I was actually concentrating on the GAME.

Now I just have to do it the same every week.


Well the weight is sloooowly hovering its way downward. Again. *sigh*

I have to go to the cardiologist on monday. The doc SAYS the cardio said there was nothing wrong. So I says well why does he wanna see me then? Couldnt answer. doh
He put me on one aspirin a day which is a blood thinner. Dope. Aspirin is contra-indicated for asthmatics. Which is why Ive been sucking on my ventolin (salbutimol) so much lately. Happily though I am getting better sleep since the doc changed my evening prventer to one with no ventolin in it as it acts as a sort of 'upper' making it hard to sleep. So that is good as my regular reader will remember I was going slowly crazy for a while there.
I figure there cant be tooooooo much wrong as I suspect Ida dropped dead by now with the amount of squash Ive been playing lately. enough so that Ive decided to rest from squash from today (thursday) until mebbe sunday arvo or even up to comp on monday night. Just go to the gym in the mornings n work on the weight loss n cardio vascular etc. Reason being When I got to the courts last night I could barely lift my arm it was so sore. Once I got playing it was ok but b4 n after sucked. Simply too much i think.

Anyway...

More tomorrow mebbe