Monday, January 24, 2011

Training Alone

Nobody to play?…No court…No racket…No ball...NO PROBLEM!

Go sit down. Okay, now visualize yourself on a squash court…but don’t see yourself thru your own eyes. See yourself as if you are watching from outside the court. Uh-oh, here comes your nemesis, that guy who always seems to make you work harder than anyone else. Time to warm up, so what the heck are you doing? Get that forehand side going, bounce the ball off the sidewall and strike the ball at a medium pace, remember you’re watching from outside the court. Straight length, take it off the volley, hitting is straight, a little harder now. Take a minute to visualize this in detail from outside the back glass…Stop reading and see yourself in your minds eye right now.

I said stop reading and visualize...
Ok, try it again, but wash off the back glass so you can see yourself with more clarity hitting way better shots.


Times up, so you’ve hogged warm up on the forehand side a bit, now hit a cross court. Okay, get your legs going, from the T to the front, back to the T and then back corner. Ok, he’s hit it back to you, time to warm up going for the short nick and few of these, now a nice high lob. Perfect….switch sides and do it all over again. Get that backhand side going, bounce the ball off the sidewall and strike the ball at a medium pace, remember you’re watching from outside the court. Straight length, take it off the volley, hitting is straight, a little harder now. Time to visualize so stop reading. STOP READING already and VISUALIZE!

Now clean off the glass and watch yourself again.



And once again you’ve hogged warm up on the backhand side, time to go cross court. Feetwork time, go from the T to the front, back to the T and then back corner. Cut off his crosscourt and go for the short nick and few more, now a nice high lob. Hopefully you won warmup.

If you need a break, that's okay, but the games about to start. This type of visualization is exhausting, but work your way thru warm up, to watching an entire match. It will prepare your mind for an actual match and you will find that you will have more energy during a real match. Your mind only knows what you tell it, so this type of training may even be better than actually playing. If you get good at it, you should win every point. I suggest you don't visualize losing...what's the point?

OK ready, time to play. Now watch yourself play a point out in your head. Write down a combination of shots that you will hit that set you up to continuously apply more pressure. Build yourself up, watch yourself play as many points as you can in a row, long points, short points and win every single one of them. Watch your feet, your racket, the ball, your head and push through each game and then each match all the way through a tournament.


So that's part 1. Here's part 2. Write it down.

Either between games or after your match (that you should have won) break out the pen and pencil. When did you feel strong? When did you feel frustrated? List all the positive and some negative aspects of your game. Write down at least twice as many positives. Draw a squash court on your notepad. Think back to where you felt the strongest and most confident on court and mark them on that drawing. What shots did you hit when you felt strong? What areas on the court were controlling points? Keep that drawing and recognize the areas of the court where you can attack and exploit that next time you are on court.
Another way to train alone is Self coaching – try using a mirror, it always sounds better coming from someone else.

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