OFF SEASON TRAINING

My next event isn't going to be until the end of June or start of July so it's basically just training from here on in. The last few weeks I have been getting into my program and now it is pretty full on. Most days will involve 2 sessions of about 2 hours. Obviously not all on court training - it's usually 50/50 on court and off court training. I find if I do too much training on the squash court it takes it's toll on my joints and also mentally it can make me quite flat and unmotivated.

My on court training at the moment involves drills with a coach - hitting to certain areas of the court, different types of movement, and court awareness. Also just fixing up little things in my swing, whether it's with a coach or hitting by myself, you can never be content!

Off court I've been hitting the weights, trying to put on something which resembles muscle really. I've been doing upper and lower body. It's a good time of the year to get stuck into some weights because there are no tournaments, and it can slow you down a bit on court if you're not playing many matches. Also things like long runs, plyometric training, sprints, intervals... There's a lot of different training which can be done - I really like to mix things up as I find I can get bored doing the same training for weeks on end.

If you'd like to know anything else regarding my training or just squash training in general, feel free to drop me an email.

SEASON WRAP UP

Going off the current PSA calendar, the Canary Wharf Classic was my last event for the season, unless of course something pops up at the last minute. Canary Wharf was won by Palmer who beat Willstrop in the final 3-1. It was a great tournament by the big fella who was in some special form all week.

2008/09 has been a fairly long season, my first event at the start of the season was the Dutch Open back in September. There was the Petrosport Open in June but it was basically in the middle of the players off season training period! From September to December it was really full-on with a lot of travelling. My best event was probably the Hong Kong Open where I made the Quarter Finals, beating El Hindi and Matthew then losing out to Willstrop. I also played well in Saudi Arabia, where I made the last 16, beating Tuominen before losing out to Guiltier 3-1.

January and February were not great in terms of results, though I thought I actually played quite well. My training in Australia over December and January was disrupted by an eye injury but I was happy with how I competed despite this.

We also saw a new World No.1 get crowned in Darwish. It ended the rein of Shabana which he held for about 33 months or so. On the women's side of the game, Nicol David is just dominating the game! Undefeated in 2008 and you could count the number of losses she's had in the last 3 years on one hand!

In my next blog I'll be having a look at what training I'll be doing during the upcoming months.

Cam