I got beat up

Atleast I feel like i got beat up after my 5 game, hour long match last night. Oh ya, and it was against a girl.

I had my first league game last night in squash. I've been looking forward to this match cause it's the start of my quest for league dominance. However things started off a little rocky.

I played this girl named Denise. While i was walking up to my court to play last night I was sure I knew who i was playing. Lets just say, I looked at some girl who was hanging out by the squash courts and was sure she was playing me. This girly girl who looked like she was more concerned how her IPOD looked then how her squash game would be. I had the whole speech in my head I was going to give the squash pro telling him off for thinking i'm that shit at squash. But first things first, I'm going to kick this chicks ass.

I headed to my court to warm up and then the actual girl I was playing walked in. Not the one I thought I was playing. Just a side note, she was alright looking, i'll give her a 7. This one looked like she could play, and when she started warming up, i got a little nervous. Could i lose to a girl? Would this be the first time in my life I lost to girl? She starts hammering the ball up the wall, over, and over, with force. I mean I can't even get that speed and force, she's just firing it. Then the ball over to me to warm up. I try to pound it to show my shit, doesn't work. Clunk, off the rim, clunk off the neck, boom off the tin, "here you go", as i defer to the master. She wails away again, i think i'm in trouble here.

After watching this chick warm up and work the ball i think my best chance is to cut her warm up off and hope she's cold for the start so i can jump out to a good lead. "I'm ready when you are."

I got the first serve. After shaking some of the nerves off I start playing my game. And i find myself up 5-1. Then i hit my first wall. I can barely stand I'm so winded. She came storming back to make it 6-5, but i eventually battled to a 9-7 win to take the first game.

Tired as ever from giving everything i had, she took the next 2 games. I just had nothing in me. I tried my best to keep her running, and i was doing a pretty good job of it, but she just got to everything. She made just about all the shots she had to, and i could put her away. I had here behind me the whole game (standing behind me waiting for me to hit is the best position I can be in) back and forth from one corner to the other, but she was retunring everything. My drop shots weren't great last night, had they been better I would have had a better chance.

So for the 4th game I dug deep. I knew I had to. How could I loose to a girl.

I got off to another quick start. Jumped up to 6-1 Denise faught back a bit, but really I was to determined, and I took this game 9-5.

The final game was a great on. Again i jumped out to a 4-0 lead. But she came back and tied it up at 4. We played about 8 points with noone winning one untill I finally broke through and got to 6-4. But she won the next point, and was able to win 2 serves in a row to go up 7-6. I start to panik slightly in my head, oh shit, am I going to lose to a girl? (If you haven't noticed yet, I don't want to lose to a girl). We are almost an hour into this match at this point. I have barely anything left, My legs are shaking I'm so tired, i even thought and felt like I was going to puke I was so drained. When I say I got beat up, i feel like it today. My legs are sore, my shoulder and right arm are hurting, my back is killing me, haven't felt like this since the first time i played. Anyways, so she's up 7-6. I fight to get my serve back and managed to win 2 points to get up 8-7. She wins her serve back and I have no desire to let this go to 8-8 which resultsin playing win by 2 and possibly making this match even longer, i can't handle that. She served up a weak ass serve for some reason and i hit a gourgeous backhand down the line and she wiffs. I get the serve back and finished her off to win 9-7, 3-2 for the match.

Definitly one of the toughest matches I have played. The main thing is I came away with a win in my first league match, and i didn't lose to a girl.

Check back next week for my second game. I've got 8 matches, follow me to a championship.

The Skills Have Been Tested

This weekend I had the first squash tournament of my young career. I've taken up squash and fallen in love. I've made it my personal goal to excel in squash. Most people would be happy to just play and probably just stay at whatever level they are at. After only a few months of squash, I came to the conclusion that mediocrity just won't do for me. I think I got this from golf. In golf I currently play with the best at the club and (some of the time) compete with them, if not work to compete with them. Wether it's tournaments or sunday golf, all I won't to do is be better then all the guys I play with. The same has happened with Squash.

The squash leagues at White Oaks is set up in 4 divisions, and each team has 6 levels of players on it. 1 through 6, A, B, C, and D leagues. Unfortunatly, squash is much more difficult then I thought, and I find myself in the D division, at a level 3. I started in october at a level 5, so I am improving. Obviously my ultimate goal is to be A -1, but for now I'm just shooting for C division and I'll move on from there.

So the tourny.

Started off on friday night. I was to face another D lister and I honestly thought I would breeze right through the match. Unfortunatly, my opponent had a crazy forhand serve that I struggled with. He would hit the ball with a lot of speed and low, so it came screaching to the back corner everytime low and hard to the the one place i struggle on the court, backhand return. Last tuesday at my lesson I worked on this return for the whole time. I know it's my weakness and it's frustrating as hell, but I can't do anything but work on it and get better at the return. To say the least, I wasn't prepared to face someone who's strength was serving to the backhand. I put up a decent fight for this match, but the serve proved to be to much for me and I lost 3 games to 0. Not the start to my tournament experience I was looking for.

Oh well, onto the consolation round of the D league. Atleast winning this bracket would be something to build on. I was to face another guy I've never played or seen. This match was much better. Again playing someone on my own level and feeling good about my game after a good nights sleep I was ready to move on in the win coloum. This match was a real battle. First game he took 10 -8. I was hitting all my shots, serve was good, drop shot was on point, and I was feeling good. I took the next 2 games to go up 2-1. Unfortunatly, I couldn't put him away in the 4th game and we were all tied up at 2. The last game was one of the toughest games I've ever played. My opponent got off to a quick start and I found myself down 6-0. I fought so hard. There had to be 10 points back and forth before I finally got on the board. I started to make a run. Next thing I know we are tied at 6. I'm soooo back in this. I then got up 7-6, but lost my serve on the next point. Unfortunatly, that would be the end of me as he took the next 3 points to win 9-7 and take the match. I took some good things from this match. First off, I should I could battle back. secondly, I played my shots and didn't let him dictate the game or pace. This match really could have gone either way.

So now I find myself in the consolation round of the consolation round. Pretty sad. Playing the losers who were gauranteed 3 games, but suck. So i came back saturday night and played some schmuck. Warming up I knew I was going to kill him. I took the match in about 15 mins. 9-1, 9-0, 9-2. Then in the finals of the shittiest players in the tourny, I was hoping for a decent match atleast, but again found myself up against another weak player. This time is was some 12 or 13 year old kid. Don't get me wrong, there is a few 12-16 year old kids at the club that could be playing in A division, but this kid just sucked. I actually felt kind of bad kicking his ass, but what am I supposed to do? It's a tournament. So i took the first game 9-4, then 9-2, lost my concentration and lost a game 7-9, but then took the last one easily 9-1. So i was the big winner of the biggest losers.

All in all, it was a great time. I got some good experience. My first 2 matches had quite a few people watching, which was pretty cool, even the support after the game everyone telling me how well i did for someone who just started out was good. and it was fun. Definitly looking forward to the next one, just have to work a little harder to make sure I play better.