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.

Gold #4

      This weekend 11 of our juniors competed in the fourth gold event of the season at the Toronto Skating Cricket and Curling Club.  Friday night was quiet a busy night at the club as they had a doubles Pro-Am, a PSA event and the Junior Gold going on at the same time.  Even Gerry Dee made an appearance.  This event turned out to be the biggest junior event in a number of years as 150 players competed.  Friday didn't end for Windsor until 11:00 because, as luck would have it, Alex Mroczkowski, in his first Gold event, was the last match of the night.  
       After the first round matches only Amin and Luca won to stay in the main round of their respective 
draws.  Luca played a phenomenal first round match against a very tough opponent.   He hung tough in 
game five and kept pressure on his opponent, forcing him into many errors.  
       Day 2 saw matches start early in the morning and we were warned that 155 matches had to be played 
in one day so to anticipate delays.  By the end of the day, courts were over 2 hours behind and again 
Windsor was playing one of the last matches of the night.  The Windsor players played great on Saturday. 
 Jagroop was a tactician on the court, moving his opponent from front to back and side to side and 
dominating much of his match.  However, a few bad breaks in the final game led to Jagroop losing the 5th.  
Aparna showed much improvement by taking an opponent she had previously lost to in 3 to the 5th 
game this time.  Hannah demonstrated great perseverance in her match after going down 2-0 to come back 
and win in the 5th.  Ananya proved that she is not at all out of place in the U13 division as she ended up
winning the consolations.  Phil disposed of his Saturday opponents with his deft touch and retrieving ability. 
Ryan's retrieving and deadly shots caused his opponents all kinds of problems in the U19 division.  Usman
was as entertaining as always as he frustrated his opponents (and sometimes spectators) by chasing 
down every ball and never giving up.  Subhan, while new to gold tournaments, proved that he is ready to 
play at this level.  
       Of course, Windsor had the last match of the night with Sara Khan.  Her 7:30 time turned into 10:00.  It
 was great to see all of the juniors hang around to watch her play.  Sara was up against a formidable 
opponent.  She played great, using her power to move her opponent all around the court.  However, in the 
end it wasn't enough to take the match.  
      Despite the late Saturady finish, Sunday was another early start.  The highlight of the day was definitely
 Amin playing in the U15 final.  It was a great match that had long rallies, great shot-making and amazing 
retrieving.  Unfortunately, Amin's opponent was just too consistent and eventually forced Amin into 
uncharacteristic errors.
     All in all, the juniors played amazing this weekend.  The best part was the support and camaraderie 
that the kids showed each other throughout the weekend.    Final results can be found here.

Diego/Walker Exhibition

This past Wednesday night welcomed a great night of squash with Diego Elias, the 20 year old Peruvian World Junior Champion (fresh off a win over WR #6, Marwan Elshorbagy in the Motor City Open) and Alister Walker (former WR #12 from Botswana). The night started off with the pros helping Graeme and Dave with a junior squash session with the emphasis on their favourite shots (lobs and the backhand kills).  Some juniors had the chance to play a game with either Diego or Alistair!
After that, four of the highest bidders had the opportunity to play softball doubles with Alister and Diego, our pros (Graeme and Dave). The matches were, Graeme/Jeff Derochie vs. Alister/Luca Dalla Bona and Diego/Aaron Nagy vs. Dave/Nick Dimitrijevic. This time, beauty had beaten age in both first round matches which led to a Diego/Nagy vs. Alister/Dalla Bona matchup in the finals.  After many entertaining rallies between the two teams Alister/Dalla Bona managed to win the final match.  
Finally, the pizza arrived and the real fun began. The match between the two pros started with a bang. Tight drives, perfect drops and rolling nicks were being hit from the onset of the match.  With the match tied at 2, the intensity and quality of rallies increased even more.  The amount of shots these two players got to was incredible! Just when you thought the rally was over one of the players would get to a shot you never would have thought they’d get to. In the end, Diego Elias managed to win the match. Thank you to everyone that came out to support this event, and to all the sponsors and to Graeme and Dave who put on this amazing event!
Here is a link to all the pictures.

Bottle Drive

It's that time of year again to drop off your empty bottles at the club for our annual bottle drive.  Bottles will be collected until January 21st.  You can leave them in the room by the entrance.

Bottle Drive

Christmas Parties

     Saturday was a busy day for Windsor Squash and Fitness.  Saturday afternoon saw 50 juniors show up for their annual party hosted by Graeme and Dave.  It is also at this party that the coaches reflect on the year gone by and give out their annual awards.  The emphasis on junior squash is that it is all about the effort so it makes sense that the awards given out were Effort Awards.  This year's winners were Mackenzie Elliot, Subhan Saleem, Wade Masse, and Courtney Furmanek.
     We also did a mannequin challenge on Saturday at the club.  Here it is:

In the evening, 50 or so adults gathered at Lilly Kazilly's for the annual Christmas party.  Thanks to Doug Lovegrove and Graeme for organizing this great night.