Squash Magazine

By Chris Walker, PSA No. 10

Chris Walker

Question:

I took your course last year at Santa Barbara in the A-B class. I recently played a player who would intermittently scream or grunt on his hits (to the level of women’s tennis). I found this distracting and would stop playing because I thought he was calling a let or was hurt. Is this permissible and accepted? Do I have any recourse or should I just get used to it? Can I call a let or look for him to stop it under intimidation? One of my buddies suggested that I should be happy that I was not married to him and just get used to it.
-Ted Fischer

Anwer:

Ted, this is always a difficult one. A lot of the time a player doesn’t even realize they may be acting in this manner. All they are thinking about is getting to the ball and trying to win the point. You don’t see many lets called in women’s tennis because of grunting and unfortunately you won’t in men’s squash either!

My suggestion to you is to consider it just another part of his game strategy. He may be trying to use it to intimidate you, but if you know that then it becomes useless as a weapon against you. Just play the rallies and accept that it is going to happen, and if you are not sure that he has called a let or not then just keep playing the rally regardless. If he really is asking for a let I am sure he will have stopped and won’t go for the next shot in the rally so the let can be played. I wouldn’t give him the chance to ‘pretend’ to call a let by grunting and then watch you stop innocently, expecting to replay the point. I would play the ball and expect that he will be returning the next shot in the rally, unless it is an obvious ‘let’ called where there is no question in your mind that, that is what he said.

Furthermore there may be the odd occasion when you have played your shot, you are getting ready for your next shot, but he has actually stopped—when this happens you just get on and play the point again. The rest is down to his etiquette and whether he is trying to pull a fast one! Good luck and let me know how the next match goes!

Question:

Chris, I’ve been doing a summer training program for a while, and I’m starting to plateau with my sprint workouts. I started out doing 4 x 400m and 3 x 300m, and now I’m up to 8 x 400m and 4 x 300m. I do the 400’s in 74-75 seconds, but I only rest for 60 seconds. I usually add one more 400 every Monday, but since I started doing 9, I’ve been sluggish, with my 400’s getting slower around the 4th or 5th one.

I was wondering if you had any suggestions as to how I can break through this plateau. I feel pretty fit right now, but I want to see my sprint times get faster. Maybe you could recommend a different workout, or something to help? I do my sprint workouts Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and Tuesday-Thursday I do 45 minutes running or biking. I also swim 50 laps freestyle every morning. Saturday and Sunday I rest. Any tips or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. If you think I’m doing something wrong, don’t hesitate to give me some constructive criticism.
-Brad Corona

Answer:

Brad, thank you for your email. I studied it with great interest. As far as your program is concerned I would say you have been working hard and need more rest to recover and produce better form in your training. For a couple of weeks try downgrading the intensity of the workouts and focus on 100% quality. I would suggest going to the track on Monday and Thursday; do your sprints but give yourself a 5-minute rest (yes, 5 minutes) between each 300m/400m sprint.

This sounds great but at the same time I would expect your times to go down to 68-70 seconds for each one. Quality is the key here; don’t pace yourself for 8 x 400m—sprint as fast as you can for one lap and push all the way. Do up to 8 or 10 sprints depending on how much time you have, and record your times so you can beat them next time. I would do your running or cycling on Tuesday and Friday.

Take Saturday and Sunday off as usual and don’t swim on Monday or Thursday for the first couple of weeks. Maybe swim on Saturday morning if you have the urge. Perhaps do something fun on Wednesday—maybe play, practice, or do some weights on the upper body to strengthen the arms for the running. I hope this inspires you to better performance. I believe it will. You are thinking more quality now! Good luck and let me know how it goes after a couple of weeks.