After playing some great squash last Tuesday, last night I hoped that I could continue the form from last week.

Not thinking about it, I had expected that I would probably be playing one of the older guys in the Robina Squash Club. As a by product of the teams being re-balanced again for this season, I was happily surprised to find I was playing a new guy! One of the single best things about playing fixtures is that you get to play a lot of different people, who typically have different hitting styles and on court tactics.

My opponent tonight was a young Scottish doctor, who looks as though he is in excellent health and fitness. With that in mind, I set out to make sure he was moving a lot on the court to try and take a little of the energy out of his legs; nothing worst than a squash opponent who has superb court coverage and excellent stamina!

We had a great battle over the four games, trading serves early on the the first game and later running each other ragged on the court. After the four games were done, we were two a piece on the games but I came out ahead on points. Now that I’ve played our young Scottish friend once, I’m really looking forward to clashing with him next time – I intend to go in with a different strategy.

A couple quick observations about my game last night:

• My opponent was able to play a pretty solid drop shot off my serve when it didn’t force him right into the back corner. Next time I encounter him, I’ll be making a point of keeping the ball very deep on the serve; not necessarily hard – just deep.
• We were running around so much on the court, I could feel myself tiring by the end of the second game, which soon translated into looser shots being played. Next time, I’ll be making a conscious effort to take the time with the ball, even when tired to try and keep it tighter against the wall.
• While I ended up winning on points last night, I don’t think I varied my shot enough – which is largely due the the previous point I made. Keeping your hitting style fluid on the court really gives you an advantage, as your opponent has less opportunity to predict or preemptively move for the ball.
• Last night I was hitting the ball too early, not to the point where I was mishitting the ball but that it wasn’t giving me an opportunity to hold the ball. The symptom of hitting the ball early or on time is that unless your opponent attempts to predict your shot, you remove the ability to hit the ball where your opponent isn’t, simply because they haven’t been forced to move for the ball yet.

In any case, it was a great hit last night and I really enjoyed playing someone with a different hitting style on the court. Looking through the teams for this season, I believe I have at least one other new player to come up against yet – it’s going to be fun!

If you’d like to join the club and enjoy a regular weeknight hit, get in contact:

Robina Squash Club
University Drive
Robina QLD, 4226
0427 627 229