Balls to the Wall: A Punctuated Brief to Improving your Squash
“Good morning, Class. Please sit down. Today we are going to be dealing with Punctuation…”
I am sure we all remember this introduction, and, immediately the shutters coming down as we prepared for another boring bother of stuff that was repeated year-in, and year-out in equally as boring spoonfulls (or is it spoonsful?)
Buttakepunctuationoutofyourlife, and you are set for eternal strife! We all need some structure in our lives. Structures require rules, which are necessarily boring. Some of our squash, is sometimes like an unpunctuated paragraph. A mad, rushing, re-active hurly-burly helter-skelter of unadulterated, booming and bashing, punctuated by exclamations into the tin. Maybe, if we add a little structure to our squash, we might find that we have more time, and become far more effective. A little structure can turn this re-active, rush into a more calculated physical chess where your opponent is manipulated around the court and turned into a sweating, panting full stop.
“Pah!!! How can punctuation help my squash? What madness boils in this man’s brain? Has his insufferable desire for Hansas tripped up his senses into a babbled gargle?”
THE CAPITAL LETTER
Two things. Every sentence starts with a Capital Letter.. Every rally starts with a service. Make it Bold. Let your service be your signature. It is the only time when you are in Total Control. Having won the last rally, you are in charge. You are positive and confident. You are virtually on the tee. You can dictate. Conversely, your opponent, having lost the last rally, is down, possibly nervous, and stuck in the back corner. Develop variations of your serve. From the standard, get-ball-onto-the-side-wall, to the high, hanging lob serve to the powered bullet-at-the-heart of your opponent. And break the rules. Chuck in a Capital Letter in the middle of the sentence, to draw attention to the word. Same with your service. Find out what variant works best against that opponent, and Capitalize.
It is considered rude to WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS. It appears as if you are shouting, demanding and unpleasant. Likewise in squash, consider your behavior on the court. We will win some matches and we will lose some, but those memories will fade. What will last, is the friendships that you develop on and around the squash courts. Never under-estimate the power of networking and good communication.
The Comma
The comma gives you control of the pace of the sentence. For the writer, the ability to speed up the passage or slow it down is key. Take away the comma, and sentences become a long, laborious hotch-potch of words.
Pace Variation. Probably one of the most powerful, but least-used tool of the squash player. There is great satisfaction in smacking that little rubber ball into a zingingly hot bullet which thwacks into the wall. And so we do it, over and over again. But, more pace equals less control. As the writer controls the pace of the sentence with the comma, so we should be seeking to vary our pace. Slow your opponent down, as the writer slows his reader down. And then speed it up. Volley. Take the ball early
The comma also signals the reader to wait. Momentarily. And we need to do that on the court too
There is more time than you think and that ball, apart from a dead nick, or perfect length, will come off the side wall or out of that back corner. Wait. Just a split-second longer. If your racquet is prepared, there is still time to make your opponent play one more shot.
Full Stop
Long sentences become tiresome and muddlesome. They lose their emphasis and effect.
Similarly, long rallies become tiring and tedious. We need to look for opportunities to cut them short. There are many half-court, loose shots which go unpunished because we have been drilled into driving to the back of the court. Explore the front of the court. Develop shots, which when used at the right time, will bring an abrupt end to the rally. And give you time to recover.
Use your time in between points effectively. When momentum is on your side, get in to the service box and serve. Speed up the pace in between rallies. Don’t let your opponent settle down. Conversely, when you have lost a couple of rallies in a row, take some time out, dry your hand, tie your lace. Take the control and momentum away from your opponent.
Question Mark
Where Markers and Referees are officiating, you have every right to query decisions, although querying the referee’s decision on a Let/Stroke/No let is actually pointless as he is the judge and the jury. HOW you query is probably more important? Querying politely, allows you a bit of time, to slow down, get your breath, and re-settle yourself. A polite request and a smile often pay in your favour when next a decision is called to be made.
You will win some, and guaranteed, you will lose some matches…unless you choose your opponents very carefully! Seek to spend some time, questioning your game. Watch video footage of yourself playing. You will be amazed at some of the small things that you can pick up which will make a big difference to your game.
Exclamation Mark
Squash courts are often quite quiet, cold and cavernous places. That thwack of the ball-on-wall resonates, almost echoing. But interspersed between those thwacks, will come screams of frustration, yelps of anger and grunts of self-degradation as players curse themselves for rattling the tin or flying their serve out of court. I suppose these are all part of that beautiful self-cleansing nature of a game of squash.
Not often will you hear and exclamation of Self-praise. Now that WOULD help!!!
“Thank you, Class. That is all the time we have for today. Tomorrow, we shall continue with the apostrophe, the colon, and some of the more subtle tools of punctuation”
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz