Tonight's match

I played David F. with the same results as last time. I went down 1-3. Despite the results the games went differently. The first game went down as I expected. 5-11 pretty much says it all. I still use the first game to warm up. This time I'm convinced it is a matter of warming up mentally and not physically. The second game went my way at 11-8. The third and forth games were close at 11-8, 11-8. The telling signs of the last two games pretty much illustrates my problem right now. I rallied from 4 points down to get even, but then went point for point until the end. In game 4, I am ahead 3 points, but loses 4 points in a row. Then it was a point for point exchange until the end when my balls fell short and he closed out with deep cross court drives.

The match was lost over mental toughness. I felt disrupted by some of the let calls and strokes I felt I should've had. I also lost my focus at some key times. When I thought I hit a good shot, I let up and was caught off guard by David's gets or boasts. I lost several points that way. I lost a few points selecting to hit drops and then making errors on them. I made a couple of service errors mainly due to distractions from the disputed calls. The last point of the match was also disputed. David called my ball out on the side line, but I saw it in and immediately called it in. Neither one of us stopped playing, but I was mentally compromised and couldn't focus on my shots. In the end, he prevailed with a short drop I was not paying attention to. I think the biggest cause of lapse in my concentration happens because I feel a nervous jittery stir. The lapse comes after I've hit the ball. It's a feeling like the release of air in a balloon. I feel unprepared to get ready for the next shot. The other lapse of concentration shows up as a blank feeling like I'm standing there and don't know I'm playing squash at all. The other effect of this jittery stir makes me overhit the ball and makes me hit the ball too low.

New focus for my practices:

1) mental readiness after I hit the ball

2) half volley from mid court and back court using the shortened grip and forearm swing

3) hitting at half strength. (This might be the most important)

4) reaction timing

5) seeing my opponents ball and where it hits the floor

Techniques I still need to work on are:

1) hitting wider cross courts and be consistent with the width and depth.

2) changing quickly to the shortened grip for that half volley and digging out of the back corner

3) cocking the elbow and wrist quickly

4) getting to the T after a boast to be ready to retrieve a drop.

I did do some things better than before. I certainly stayed with my strategy of hitting long much more consistently. In game two, I took control of the rallies extending them to make David tired, and then mixing in the short court shots. I executed the forearm swing several times and dug the ball out of the corners and hit good straight drives. I also stayed out of the corner and maintained good space to hit the straight drives and boasts. Aside from a few errors, I was hitting good lengths from the front and back court. The cross courts were the only shots that fell short most of the time, but when they were deep they were not returned.