|
| Mental Squash: 1. Overview |
| A series of actions to improve your mental approach to squash. |
| By Ron Beck © 2004 , Acton MA USA. March 2004: |
 |
The fascination of squash is its combination of the mental and the physical. Lots has been written about the physical training for squash - both the drills to use to improve your skills and the training to undertake to increase your physical fitness and capacity. Little is in print that will help you with the mental side of squash. This series will attack the mental side of squash.
The aspects of mental squash that I will address are;
|
|
- Focus on the game: Preparing for the game, how to train yourself to get all other thoughts out of your head and single-mindedly focus on squash.
- Game plan: How to develop a game plan; making sure that game plan sticks in your head when you play. Adapting your game plan during the match.
- Think while you play: How to separate the mental from the physical on court.
- Out-think your opponent: How to focus on what your opponent is doing and come up with a counter-attack.
- Impose Yourself on your opponent: Conveying your determination to win.
- Gamesmanship: How you can disrupt your opponent's mental processes.
- Momentum: Use it when's its in your favour; stop it and change it when its against you.
- Moment of crisis: How to succeed at the moment of crisis.
- Confidence: Having the confidence to win.
- Circumspection: How to lose.
|
|
But first — a few illustrative examples:
BEING CONSCIOUS OF MENTAL SQUASH WILL HELP ANY PLAYER, ANYTIME
The first time I became aware of the power of mental focus in squash was in 1972. It was my second year playing squash. I was at Princeton University; and they were holding the US National Championships there in February. It was my first opportunity to watch championship-level squash in action. I watched every match I could, all weekend. It was the year that Victor Niederhoffer came out of retirement to win the championship. I watched him almost lose his first match, and then go out and whip everyone else all weekend. I watched and watched.
Then on Sunday afternoon, after all the action had ceased, I got onto an empty court and started hitting the ball. I had the memory of all that great play in my mind. I aspired to that level of play. Suddenly, I felt my whole squash game, which was by the way terrible at the time, moving upward to a whole new level. I could feel quite forcefully, how the mental imprint of all those matches I watched, affected my own strokes and my own view of what I could accomplish. I set my goals higher.
|
|
ITS A STATE OF MIND
I used to play, almost 365 days a year, with Dr. Denis Bourke. He plays out of Baltimore now, but at the time, in the mid 70s, he held court at the Tennis and Racquet Club in Boston. Denny loves to explore the mental aspects of squash. At all levels.
In those days of course, as today, there was a team of great undergraduate players over at Harvard University. They didn't mix that often with us players over in the downtown clubs, but Denny used to go over to Harvard's Hemeway Gym every so often to get some different competition over there.
|
 |
|
|
Of course most of the Harvard players had no idea who Bourke was, and being the perennial national champions they were pretty cocky as a group. Bourke would go over and Jack Barnaby would set him up to play with several of the Harvard hotshots. Some kid would get on court with Bourke to warm up, with Barnaby in the gallery, and would start out hitting some fancy exhibition shots in warm-up. Bourke would pick up the ball and look over at the kid. "Know who I am?" he would say.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|