No squash at all last week - Rubbish!
My grip issue now resolved i've been winning a fair bit!
I'm into my 9th consecutive week of 3 good weights sessions a week. After successfully completing this week i'll take a week off from structured weights sessions.
Planning to play around with a bit of bodyweight and kettlebell stuff, as well as get more squash played!
After the week break, i'll get back into it and i'm looking forward to some stronger sets of only 4 reps!
Can't wait to find out what weight my front squat and deadlift will be at after 3 weeks of 4 rep work.
Hope yours is going well!
Steve
Showing posts with label squash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label squash. Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Whoops - Thankfully Training Has Been More Consistent Than Blog Posts!
There is nothing like the feeling of getting in a few consistent weeks of good training after being a little more sporadic!
Active - Yes!
Training and games of squash - Yes!
But not quite the dedicated routine of athletic weight training 3 times a week.
This, along with the squash several times a week and the focus of the training journal is what i've been back to. It felt even better after coming back from a couple of weeks with some flu bug i caught while travelling to America.
Each training session, as is typical for me, encompasses the whole body. At the moment though it's even more comprehensive as i'm hitting an explosive lift, both a leg and hip dominant movement, and both horizontal and vertical pulling and pushing.
In previous years i've definitely favoured the vertical pulling and pushing and typically only done either a leg or hip dominant movement - not both.
It's a good energetic session and really more physically balanced than previously. Lastly i'm including far more variety to the movement choices over the course of a week which can only be beneficial.
In terms of squash - my grip seems to have adapted and i'm back to having more fun and winning more games again!
How has your progress been in the last few weeks? Where is your training leading you - both in the short and longer term?
Hope you are being productive and having fun with it!
Look out for a link to a podcast that Pete Cohen did with me recently, coming soon.
Remember - you are an athlete!
Steve
www.sussexbootcamps.co.uk
Active - Yes!
Training and games of squash - Yes!
But not quite the dedicated routine of athletic weight training 3 times a week.
This, along with the squash several times a week and the focus of the training journal is what i've been back to. It felt even better after coming back from a couple of weeks with some flu bug i caught while travelling to America.
Each training session, as is typical for me, encompasses the whole body. At the moment though it's even more comprehensive as i'm hitting an explosive lift, both a leg and hip dominant movement, and both horizontal and vertical pulling and pushing.
In previous years i've definitely favoured the vertical pulling and pushing and typically only done either a leg or hip dominant movement - not both.
It's a good energetic session and really more physically balanced than previously. Lastly i'm including far more variety to the movement choices over the course of a week which can only be beneficial.
In terms of squash - my grip seems to have adapted and i'm back to having more fun and winning more games again!
How has your progress been in the last few weeks? Where is your training leading you - both in the short and longer term?
Hope you are being productive and having fun with it!
Look out for a link to a podcast that Pete Cohen did with me recently, coming soon.
Remember - you are an athlete!
Steve
www.sussexbootcamps.co.uk
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
More Real Lessons From Squash....
Firstly i thought i better bump that last post down, just in case Jonny read the description of a calm, smiling me as his opponent - and spat drink over his computer or choked on some food!!
There have definitely been moments of calm and smiling though - it's just not always been easy to maintain.
Here's why.
I started off learning to play with a dodgy grip on the racket - i was tearing up the grip and cutting my thumb! However i minimised this and managed to improve fairly quickly.
'Problems' began as soon as i tried to hold the racket properly - i started to get worse.
If you have the wrong technique for something it soon becomes a big challenge to unlearn it and do something different - especially if you are always trying to learn in a pressure or performance situation - and that pressure can easily be self imposed.
You can often see this with simple patterns of movement or exercises that people just want to work hard at and not take the time to learn the skill.
This is what happened to me - and i was totally freaked out by the reality of my squash playing situation.
I'd had a pretty bad game, and i'd already been thinking i needed some time just practicing hitting a ball by myself. So after this bad game i decided the time was now!
I couldn't believe it when i found i could basically do nothing with the ball that i wanted to - literally hit it where i wanted between 0 and 2 times on any given attempt. I stuck it out for 25 minutes or so until i could have some basic control for a decent number of repetitions.
Sometimes i think we need to stop and consider if we need to strip something back to its basics so our only concern is what we are doing and how we are doing it - especially when starting something.
I think the grip issue stemmed from the small amount of tennis i played as a child.
Faulty habits can be physical and mental so watch out what you carry forward with you!
Steve
www.sussexbootcamps.co.uk
There have definitely been moments of calm and smiling though - it's just not always been easy to maintain.
Here's why.
I started off learning to play with a dodgy grip on the racket - i was tearing up the grip and cutting my thumb! However i minimised this and managed to improve fairly quickly.
'Problems' began as soon as i tried to hold the racket properly - i started to get worse.
If you have the wrong technique for something it soon becomes a big challenge to unlearn it and do something different - especially if you are always trying to learn in a pressure or performance situation - and that pressure can easily be self imposed.
You can often see this with simple patterns of movement or exercises that people just want to work hard at and not take the time to learn the skill.
This is what happened to me - and i was totally freaked out by the reality of my squash playing situation.
I'd had a pretty bad game, and i'd already been thinking i needed some time just practicing hitting a ball by myself. So after this bad game i decided the time was now!
I couldn't believe it when i found i could basically do nothing with the ball that i wanted to - literally hit it where i wanted between 0 and 2 times on any given attempt. I stuck it out for 25 minutes or so until i could have some basic control for a decent number of repetitions.
Sometimes i think we need to stop and consider if we need to strip something back to its basics so our only concern is what we are doing and how we are doing it - especially when starting something.
I think the grip issue stemmed from the small amount of tennis i played as a child.
Faulty habits can be physical and mental so watch out what you carry forward with you!
Steve
www.sussexbootcamps.co.uk
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
