The year so far

After being based in Almere, Netherlands for nearly 8 months, I look back at the year so far. It has been a good training base and an excellent environment to help me train and be closer to tournaments. I live at the most convenient place with two other Squash players, Steve Finitsis and Bradley Hindle of Australia. We bike five minutes to the sports centre where we train. Sportscentrum Almere has one of the best gyms I have trained at alongwith Tennis, Badminton, Basketball courts and 8 Squash courts.



The year didn't start very well with an injury on the second day. I was on court with my training partner Steve and felt a twinge in my right calf as I took off from the T to the backhand front corner. I stopped immediately and couldn't put any weight on it at all. It was scary and I knew it was a bad one. For the rest of the week I limped, with the right calf unable to take any weight. It was a tough time as I was unable to train for the whole of January. I iced the calf, put it in hot water and massaged it three times a day - the whole exercise took an hour each time. I couldn't understand why it had happened. I had been doing a lot of strength work so it wasn't that the muscle was weak. Someone in NY said that it was lack of minerals in the body which could be true. However, one thing that is consistent with the back injury I had last year was that I was sore from previous training sessions and the muscles were compensating for each other.
It was only in mid February that I was able to train again. Coming out from injury I was extremely keen and took the training head on. Steve and I hammered the weights in the gym session and I got on the treadmill to clock the interval sessions. This was followed by good routines and hard games with Steve and Brad. I was the best prepared for Canary Wharf Classic in March. I drew Chris Ryder whom I had never played before and expected a tough match. However, it wasn't to be as I played much differently to what I am used to. I was running more than playing and found that all the work had turned me into a fitness player. I was doing well and kept trying to push the pace up. It might work for othersbut didn't for me as I failed to adjust and went down in 3 games to an in-form Englishman. Very disappointing.
At that stage, it had been a year since I had visited the family in Pakistan so I took a much needed active break from the Squash scene and had a ball back in Pindi. It was great to see everyone doing well. I was there for ten days and decided to return to train for the Irish Open towards the end of March. The tournament later fell victim to the ash clouds of Iceland and has been postponed till September. My next event was Internationaux de France at the start of May.
I adjusted a few things in training and used the four weeks to prepare well for it. I felt well prepared for the event and expected a good match against another Englishman Shaun le Roux. We finally got to Bordeaux after a long trip and found the oldest building ever to have a squash club in it. It was a warm and welcoming atmosphere at Monsieur Robert's place but the playing conditions were very hard with an uneven front wall as well as the floor. I started well and took the first game but he did well to get back into the second and capitlaising to take the third as well. I fought back to win the fourth but couldnt hold form in the shootout of a 5th game to go down in 5.
With all the disappointment in the year there was some celebration when I took out a small invitational event in Luxembourg in April organised by Wellingtonian Nathan Sneyd. Snibby looked after us well and we had some good matches and a great time in Lux. There was a good bunch of happy players at dinner which included Paul Tuffin, Steve Finitsis, Dylan Bennett, Peter Creed, Jethro Binns and ofcourse our hosts Snibby and a couple of good locals.
Currently I am in my second week of training after a week off after the last French event and look forward to the next one in Toulouse starting on 16 June.


More later.