August Newsletter

Hello Squasharians!

We are less than a week away from reopening! Yes!! Therefore our August Newsletter is falling slightly out of sync with when it usually come out but, we wanted to say hello and give you a few reminders and updates ahead of next week.

I'm sure a lot of you are wondering what it will be like when you get back to squash, how fit you will be and how off your game will be (if at all). Now we here at Shropshire Squash Club are a dedicated bunch of folk and as such I decided to get myself down to a court at another centre in order to Guinea Pig myself purely unselfishly and in the interest of seeing how things have been after 6 Months of no Squash to be able to report back some things you may expect.

Now I appreciate everyone is different, has different fitness levels and are at different squash abilities so what I found may or may not apply to you. Some of you may have even been able to play during lockdown in which case the curve of coming back to competitive squash will be less. This is more aimed for the Squasharian who hasn't played and is curious of what to expect.

So to set the scene I have been maintaining fitness through lockdown with my Triathlon training so my base fitness is good. What isn't good is my top end (VO2 Max) fitness. So I can train and exercise for hours at a low base level heart rate but my top end is poor since stopping squash. I really didn't know what to expect but it felt really good to be putting my squash shoes on again and then stepping back onto court.

I played for 2 hours in total, 1 hour 15 was solo and 45 minutes was with a partner, after which I was tired, very tired. I ached a lot. In fairness I was so excited to get back on court that I forgot the cardinal rule of stretching properly before the session. A few lunges, legs and arm stretches didn't cut it and I should have spent 5-10 minutes more ensuring my body was stretched properly. So first thing I would suggest is to not do what I did and actually stretch properly. Your body will thank you afterwards, my back and hips were sore the next day in particulr from the twisting.

Secondly I was hitting the ball way too hard. 6 Months off repetitive hitting had really loosened my predominant arm up and subsequently I was able to hit the ball considerably harder than 6 months ago. I also found my follow through swing was way off. Either no follow through or I was trying to hug myself. So I slowed everything down and focused on the basics. Again I was so keen to get back on court and get a feel for hitting the ball and moving around the court that I got caught up in it and forgot to focus on the basics. So if you find the same thing is happening to you then slow it down and focus on the basics. When I did this my shots were cleaner, tighter to the wall and went where I wanted.

Next thing I noticed was that when I played a poor shot (which happened a lot) I couldn't work out if it was due to me having played so little recently or whether this has always been a part of my game I struggle with. It suddenly dawned on me that I couldn't remember my own game, my strengths, weaknesses and what I was working on back in March. So something that may help you is to try and look back at what League you were in, who you played and try to remember how those matches went. Try to remember what you were working on in coaching if you had any. If like me you haven't played at all during this pandemic then it's likely you will have many things to work on. I decided to focus on one part of my game that was really off and I spent the remaining session working on my weaknesses.

I'm a big believer in finding your weaknesses and working on them rather than perfecting your strengths but that's my opinion. You may be different. I'd rather be an all rounder than really good in one area and have a massive flaw that players can abuse.

I could go on but I'll keep it at that for now. Main thing was that it was brilliant. It was great to be on court again, pushing myself hard and playing the sport I love again. It may not be the way it used to be but that's the world we live in right now. Nothing is like it used to be and that's the way it has to be until this pandemic is over with.

Reopening

The school and the committee have been working hard to ensure things are COVID secure for when you return. If you haven't already seen it we suggest going over the England Squash guidelines for returning to playing Squash

https://www.englandsquash.com/news/england-squash-coronavirus-statement

The school have kindly arranged for a member of the Sports Facility Team to be available for the first two weeks of opening hence the restrictions on available court time. We have recieved a lot of communication in different forms from members around the recent opening restrictions and new fees. The sports facility manager will be issuing an open letter to members in response to the committees letter so please check you emails for this in the coming weeks.

The school have also made a video on reopening, this will be linked to our Facebook and Twitter pages in the next coming days so be sure to look out for that.

Bubbles

To clarify some points asked of us, there is no need to create a bubble for sides games, these can be played with anyone however, competitive squash can only be played with people from your own houselhold. This is in place until England Squash update /change their guidelines.

Booking Courts

Bookings can be made in the usual way via MyCourts. When signing in you will notice that court times are now staggered. This is to reduce crossover between players in the communal areas. Courts 1, 2 and 4 will operate on slightly reduced hours during the first two weeks after reopening. Court 3 will remain closed during this period. The centre will be closed on Monday 31st August. All 4 courts will return to normal opening hours from Tuesday 1st September.

As ever, all usage must be pre-booked. Members will not need to sign in on arrival at the centre, and may head straight to their booked court.

All members should note that playing time for each booking slot is now 40 minutes. The booked hour should consist of 40 minutes playing time and 5 minutes to wipe down touch points on the court (eg. door handles). Players must vacate the court for the final 15 minutes of their booked slot to allow for air to circulate around the court.

Changing rooms

Members are asked to arrive at the centre ready to play. At the end of their booking, members should return home to shower and change. The changing rooms will be open to allow access to toilet facilities, but we do request that you do not use the showers or changing areas until further notice. Please do not use the benches to store clothing or equipment.

We're sorry, but the communal areas on the first floor, including the bar and sofas, remain out of bounds for now.

We do appreciate that these arrangements are not ideal, but hopefully all members will agree that it is best to be cautious at first, and open the centre in full when circumstances allow.

Coaching

For those of you who are looking to book coaching with Miles, you will be able to pay for sessons via bank transfer in order to avoid the exchanging of cash. Once you have completed a session Miles will give you his bank details in order to process this. Some members have asked if the upstiars card reader can be used for this purpose but the upstairs area is not be used at this time.

Leagues & Social Events

Just to remind you that all Leagues including the internal Leagues are not in play at the moment. All social events are also not operating until things are safer for everyone. Once competitive squash can start again (with people other than from your own household) you will be placed back in the Leagues you were in back in March. We will of course notify you of when this will be but we are governed by England Squash on this.

So that's about it for August. We hope you enjoy it once you are back. Remember to keep safe, social distance, wash your hands and observe the rules we have set at the club. It will be different but I promise you that being able to just step back onto court again will be a pleasing change.

Hope to see you all soon

Scott

12/08/2020