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Squash Marathon
My club took part in a 26-hour squash marathon. We raised over £3000 for St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds which looks after terminally ill patients. All in memory of a former member of Rothwell Squash club.
We played in a relay type fashion non-stop from 4 pm on Friday through to 6 pm on Saturday. Everyone got to play everyone else at least once, sometimes twice. The most time you’d get between games was just over one hour.
The first part of the marathon was pretty easy. It started getting difficult on the stretch from 3 am to around 9 am. Your body just wants to sleep, but just as you are beginning to feel sleepy you’re back on the court for another burst of adrenaline!
All in all a great experience though and I would definitely do it again.
We even got published in the local newspaper, although the link has since expired! 🙁
Keep Your Head Up
(Photo Credit: David Rush)
Keep your head up even when you’re mid-match and you’re losing by a couple of games. Don’t beat yourself by walking back onto the court feeling like you’ve already lost.
Stay Positive
If you’re two games down and are about to walk back on to the court to start game three then walk on the court as if you’ve already won the match. Keep your head up, look and feel positive.
If you don’t walk back on to the court with a feeling that you’ve got a chance of winning then it’s highly unlikely that you will win even a single game.
Change Tactics
Now is the time to mix it up. What can you do differently? Have you been playing a fast hard match up to now? If so, then try slowing it down, throw a few high lobs into the game – think more about your game and use the lobs to give yourself that extra thinking time.
Conversely, if you’ve been playing a slower, more thinking type of game then try notching it up a gear. Play your next game like your life depends on it. Put everything you’ve got into it. Your opponent might be more tired than you think.
If you have friends or teammates watching your game then ask them to remind you of which of your shots have been your most effective. Or have they noticed any weaknesses in your opponent?
Change it up and go back on court believing that you’re going to win.
Squash Play
(Photo Credit: Ian Butterworth)
Squash play follows a pretty standard pattern. First at the start of a match the right to serve is determined by spinning the racket. The person not spinning the racket usually chooses for a logo on the butt of the racket to be either up or down. Whoever wins the spin gets to serve first.
The server can choose to serve from the right or the left box on his initial service. Most players choose to serve to their opponents backhand as this is assumed to be the persons weaker side for returning.
Let’s say for example that Bill is playing Bob and Bill wins the spin and gets to serve first. Bill serves and then Bob returns the ball, each player then proceeds to strike the ball alternately until either Bill wins the point or loses his service.
If Bill loses the rally then Bob serves.
If Bill wins the rally then he gets a point.
Play continues like this with the server gaining points if he wins the rally, or losing his service if he loses the rally.
You lose the rally if you hit the ball out of court (touching the red line is deemed out of court), if you hit the ball into the tin, if you serve a fault, or if you give away a stroke by obstructing access to play the ball. For further details please see squash rules.
This pattern of play continues throughout the match.
The above assumes the scoring to nine system where only the server scores for more details on scoring including the new point-a-rally system see squash scoring.