Essex County High School Championships

 

   Windsor Squash held its 3rd annual Windsor schools championships last Friday. 21 players (15 boys and 6 girls) battled it out in various divisions with the top 4 from each school scoring for their school. The Ontario ranked players were not involved in this one but will be playing in the Ontario high school championships in a couple of weeks.  Everyone played round Robin matches to see which division they would qualify for.  Gina won the girls and Colin Moore won the boys. Vista managed to reclaim the title they lost to Kennedy last year.

Ontario Junior Open

     This for me (David) was a break through tournament in the sense that Windsor Squash really competed in every age group. For the first time we had 7 players make it through the first round (Amin, Usman, Sara, Jagroop, Aparna, Ananya and Natasha). Kabir, Ryan, Aaron, Niki, Manaav, Phil, Luca, Vishaal and Mackenzie completed the Windsor Squash contingent. Luca rolled his ankle in his fist match and was unable to finish the tournament.
Mackenzie lost a tight 5 setter in the bronze U17 final as did Aparana in the U15. Natasha won the U17 cons and Amin made it to the main semis of the U15. 

     Windsor won big as Aparna Maheshwari and Amin Khan won the William Bannerman Spirit of the Game Award.  Established in 2016 by the Bannerman/Crossman family, this award is presented annually to the junior player in Ontario who best represents the values of William Bannerman by playing with the utmost sportsmanship and respect for the game, and who has a genuine love and joy of the sport that is infectious. The award recipient will be a junior player who is likely to play squash for life, encourage and coach others of any level and be a humble and enthusiastic shepherd of the sport. This player is not necessarily someone who has achieved high performance success, but someone who will clearly impact the sport and other players through his or her "spirit of the game". One male and one female will receive a $250 bursary each.  Congratulations Amin and Aparna in representing Windsor squash!

April Update

Good Morning all, Another month has gone and it has been another busy one.  Congratulations to Andrew Dalla Bona (above) on finishing 2nd at the Toledo classic.  Believe me after the saturday night party this was no mean feat! We also had a couple of  home winners at the TTC last weekend.  Tom/Porter and Dean Lansens won the B doubles while Paul Gebrael impressively won the A division playing some great squash!  A Full report can be found on the blog with more pictures. BLOG Lots of stuff coming up so please read on! LADIES MORNINGS - TUESDAY'S 9.15AM TILL 10.15AM This is a growing group and costs $15 per session.  WE are looking at introducing a league in the future.  The picture below shows the sort of stuff that goes on!

SUNDAY EVENING CLUB NIGHT/PICK UP LEAGUE 4PM -6PM Last night saw 12 players come out and join in the first session.  It was a great success and the more people attending the better it will become!  This is a free session for all Gold memebrs and just $10 for everyone else.  The sessions are weekly on a Sunday from 4pm till 6pm.  There is no session on Easter Sunday.  You can register HERE BEGINNERS CLINIC  SUNDAY APRIL 9TH 2.30PM TILL 4PM The next beginners clinic is also this coming Sunday.  This is suitable for beginners up to B level players.  Please register HERE.  Cost is $20 plus HST X BORDER V DAC APRIL 22ND 2PM It is our turn to host our friends from the DAC on Saturday 22nd April.  You may of noticed that the trophy has not been on our wall for 12 months so I am keen to see it return.  Players of all levels are required to compete against the best our American Friends can throw at us.  Please register HERE both singles and doubles.  I am hoping to turn this into a social with a trip down town after we win! SPRING LEAGUES Spring Leagues will start week of 8th May.  I will be sending out a separate email with all the registration forms and dates. CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS Again a separate email will be out this week to register for this.  Finals day will be Sunday May 14th so please save the date!

TIP OF THE MONTH The importance of Solo Hitting: One of the greatest parts of the game of squash is the ability to practice by yourself.  The nature of the game means we can hot lots and lots of balls in a short space of time.  It is this repetition that allows you to make technical changes to your swing and movement.  I think it is important that when you are doing a solo practice you have a clear component you are working on.  When I was younger I would do 3 solo sessions a week. Another benefit of solo hitting is it improves your control and racket head awareness.  Because you are responsible for keeping the ball alive you develop feel and touch. The best way for me to give you more information about this is practically so I am running a Solo Hitting Workshop this Saturday at 5.30pm.  This is completely free workshop as part of this Monthly Update.  To reserve a spot please click HERE. I will cover some basic technical components to practice during solo sessions as well as give you some really good/fun solo drills to do! As always please contact me with ideas and questions.  Have a good Month Graeme

TTC Tournament

 

Henderson vs. Mill

   What a weekend of squash!  130 people participated in the tournament including many out of town players.  The weekend started with the traditional 50/50 draw for the B division.  Entries flooded in and in the end 68 entries were collected.  That meant $340 for one lucky person.  Friday saw many tight matches and a few upsets but for the most part, all the seeds moved on.
     Saturday began bright and early and staying out late Friday night didn't seem to affect most players.  I think this weekend set a tournament record for game 5s, and there were some epic matches.  Luca Dalla Bona was able to recover from a mid-match injury to force Brad Steele into a 5th game.  Game 5 remained tight the entire way.  Luca's retrieving led to long rallies and as the match neared its end, neither Brad nor Luca were interested in risky shot-making.  This led to some of the longest rallies of the weekend.  In the end, Brad Steele was able to hang on for a 13-11 win in game 5.
    In the B draw, Sara Khan battled it out with Andrew Garant.  Andrew returned to the squash scene after a 2 year absence and his style of game hasn't changed.  He chased every ball down, diving all over the court.  This match had big consequences for the 50/50 draw as many people had both of these players winning it all.  However, Andrew's retrieving eventually got the best of Sara in another game 5 extra points win.
     On the other side of the B draw it was the opposite styles of Dean Lansens vs. Usman Khan.  Dean is well-known for his shooting ability while Usman is well-known for his retrieving ability.  This made for a long match that came down to the final points of game 5.  At 11-10, Dean was able to hit one last winner to knock Usman into the consolation draw.  By the end of the matches on Saturday, many brackets were busted.

Open Final

     Sunday started early again.  However, back-to-back late nights out began to show.  Amin Khan and Dan Van Morsel battled it out in the semis of the A and Amin was determined to run Dan around.  Dan however wasn't interested in running and shot the lights out, winning 3-1.  Andrew and Dean met in the semi's with heavy 50/50 implications.  Dean ran Andrew all around the court and had him diving after many balls.  However, Andrew's retrieving got the best of Dean.  On the other side of the B draw, unknown Gabe Boldt from London defeated WSF legend Anis Khan.  This had major implications for the 50/50 draw.  Lee Bissonnette from London had 33 points and had Gabe winning.  Graeme Williams (definitely had insider info) had 33 points and Andrew winning.  Gabe let Andrew run all over the court and just played steady squash, winning 3-1 and helping Lee win $340 for the weekend.
     Doubles matches were close all weekend.  But it seemed liked every doubles match on Sunday was a 5 gamer, causing the doubles court to run way behind.  Rallies were long and points were hard to come by.

A Doubles- Hanebury/Uffleman
B Doubles- Porter/Lansens
Mixed Doubles- Berling/Siedel
Women's Doubles- Guthrie/Elliott

     The Open draw may have been the strongest Open draw we have had thanks to the Western Squash Team.  In the end it was Western #1(David Mill) vs. Western #2(Matt Henderson).  The match saw incredible retrieving ability and great shot-making.  Mill went up 2-0 and had numerous match balls but could not close out the match.  This opened the door for Henderson who won the next two games.  Game 5 was tight and no player could pull away from the other.  Henderson got hot for the last 2 points and finished the match with an impressive cross- court nick.
   
Open- Matt Henderson
Men's A- Paul Gabrael
Men's B- Gabe Boldt
Men's C- Ryan Macvoy
Men's D- Adam Kilner

     WSF juniors were all over the draws.  Some opted to not play in the junior draws and compete in the main rounds.  Their impact was felt throughout all the draws.  Some even showed some promise in the doubles draws.  Vishaal Mehta continues his great season with a win in this tournament.  However, the match of the draw goes to Carter Furmanek and Gavin Chamandy.  At no point were they separated by more than a couple of points.  Extra points was painful to watch as both players deserved a victory.  However, Carter was able to edge Gavin out in the end.  Watching these players rally showed just how good our juniors are.

Complete draws can be found here
50/50 Bracket Challenge can be found here.

Award-Winning Blog

Congratulations to everyone who has contributed to Windsor Squash and Fitness blog over its many years.  The blog has been selected as one of the top 40 best squash blogs in the world by a Feedspot service that rates blogs.

March Update

Good Day All, 2017 is accelerating by.  I cant believe we are already in March.  Lots has happened already and we have much more to come. Congratulations to our own Kevin Furmanek and Andrew Caille who won the B Doubles event at the DAC.  They looked in impressive form all weekend and won the final 3-0 in some style.  Grace Kim won the recent Woman's A Challenge title with Tammy McDowall taking the B division title.  Amin Khan also picked up 2 runners up titles at the last 2 Provincial Events. Thanks you to everyone who brought in their bottles for the Junior Bottle Drive.  We raised $500 which is slightly more than last year and will go along way to helping our juniors with tournament costs or lessons costs. UPCOMING EVENTS: TTC AT WINDSOR SQUASH AND FITNESS 24TH - 26TH MARCH. The deadline is fat approaching for our last tournament of the season.  You can register by clicking on the link below.  We are looking at hosting lots of out of town talent again so why not join in the fun.  Their is a category for all from Beginners to open players.  TTC REGISTRATION BEGINNERS/INTERMEDIATE CLINIC SUNDAY MARCH 19TH 4PM - 5.30PM  $20 PLUS HST The next clinic is set for Sunday 19th March.  You can reserve a spot by using the link below.  It is suitable for beginners and B level players.  BEGINNERS CLINIC PICK UP LEAGUE - NEW PROGRAM SUITABLE FOR ALL PLAYERS Starting Sunday April 2nd we are running a pick up league for players looking to get more games and meet new players.  This is free for Gold memebrs and $10 for everyone else.  You basically confirm your attendance and then are matched with players of similar skill level each week.  If successful we will keep running and maybe add other days/times.  You can register with this link.  APRIL 2nd Pick Up League ADVANCED DRILLS division A3+ I had lots of requests for advanced drills.  I am pleased to inform you these will run on Saturdays from 5.30pm till 7pm.  I need 4 people to make them work.  The first date is Saturday April 8th.  Click Here to reserve a spot.  Again if popular I will carry on running.  ADVANCED DRILLS.  Cost will be $15 plus HST

FIND AN OPPONENT USING GAMETIME This is a cool feature that is a great tool for those of you looking for matches.  When you book your court you simply click "invite players" from the type: menu.  You then add your name and a description of the type of game you are looking for.  You then book and the court will turn orange on the main screen.  It will stay that way until someone accepts it and adds their name.  As a way to get people using this I have booked a court on Wednesday 8th at 4pm.  The first person to accept it will get a free lesson!

LADDERS Not many of you have joined the new ladders.  Please take advantage of this feature.  You can register for the following: SINGLES UK RACKETBALL DOUBLES If you need any help with these let me know

Tip of the month

ip of the month  THE GRIP  for some reason this was missing from the last email!




This month I want to talk about the grip.  I spoke about this many moons ago and just recently in my coaching and play I have gone back to basics.  For me the grip is what connects the racket to the rest of your body and you need an appropriate grip to allow your racket to become part of you rather than something that is simply stuck on the end of your hand.

The grip is what gives us control over the racket face and allows us to control the height/pace/spin and direction of the ball.  Like with anything it takes time to master but I promise if you improve the way you hold the racket you will improve the way you move, the accuracy of your shots, increase your options and also get tired less!!

Movement:  When we walk and run in a natural, relaxed way the momentum from our feet on the ground moves up the body and into the arms.  This results in a rhythmical swinging of the arms.  If you clench your fists or carry a heavy weight in your hands you reduce this arm swing due to tension in the muscles.  If your grip is relaxed then when you move around a squash court you will be able to use this momentum from the floor to help prepare your racket effortlessly and create a better al round flow.  If your grip is tight then you will dampen this momentum meaning you arm is working in isolation every time you prepare to hit.  

Accuracy:  The correct grip will allow you to be more accurate in all the shots that you play as well as open up new shots into your game.  If you are holding the racket correctly your fingers will be the main contact point and this will enable more touch and feel.  You will be able to add more tension when needed as well as manipulate the racket face more when  hitting the ball.  Here is a great video explaining the grip in more detail.

THE GRIP

As always fee free to grab me around the club to go over this further.