As promised on the MSW Facebook page, I'll be sharing some of what I learned at Train to Play this summer. I'll kick it off with some simple things you can do to actually warm up before getting on court. Most of us tend to hold up a wall and pretend to stretch cold muscles. Frankly, without actually moving, you aren't going to prepare your body for what you are going to ask it to do on the squash court.
So, try some of this stuff. Ask me to demonstrate. I don't mind looking a little silly.
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Foreward/backward skips. Travel the width of two courts, and make the trip a couple of times.
Foreward/backward lunge walk. Step the right foot out bend at the knee 90 degrees, don’t hunch your back, keep your left leg as straight as you can. For extra credit, reach across your right foot and touch the floor. Switch legs and repeat.
Foreward/backward Crossover skips. Pretend you are skipping on a line. Cross your leading foot over the line by swiveling your hips.
Foreward/backward crossover lunge walk. Same as the skip--cross your lead foot over the center line, lunge and reach across and touch the floor. As you come up from your lunge, balance on the lead leg.
Side-shuffle with big arm swings: Shuffle laterally and swing your arms up and back. This is really silly looking.
Carioca lunge walk. Cross a leg behind and lunge, Reach across and touch the ground. Balance and cross a leg in front. Reach across and touch the ground.
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Now you'll be sweating before you get on court. Enjoy!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
New Artist: UCC Challenge: League Night
I'm very pleased to introduce the new artist: Ann Rutecki. Some of you may know her husband Paul. As you will see, clearly Ann is Paul's better half. ;-) Her oil paintings will be up until some time in August.
In other news, we'll be hosting a team of players from the University Club of Chicago the weekend of July 10/11. Basically, it will work just like the Wednesday League--Many players from beginner to expert. Meet some new players and play as much as you'd like! We'll do some socializing later in the day with the Chicago team. Sunday the 12th will be more squash and then a World Cup Finals party at the club.
More information as the date come closer.
Speaking of League, the Wednesday Night league has resumed, so plan accordingly.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Results!
A great time was had by all at the First Annual WinterFest Tournament. (We might have to come up with a better name for this...) Anyway, we had a small, but enthusiastic group of players including several from Milwaukee and Chicago.
In probably the largest SIZE difference ever to be seen on a squash court, Lara Vojnov (the short) defeated Geoff Garbacz (the very tall) in the 3.5 final. Both Lara's and Geoff's games are improving rapidly and I suspect we'll see them both contesting more matches in the 4.0 division next time.
Speaking of the 4.0 division, Nick Eugenio of Chicago took the 4.0 title from the very game Andrew Bayer of Oconomowoc. Nick, the young Chicagoan is getting back into squash after years of playing high school and college hockey. He's got tremendous fitness and speed and it proved too much for the experienced Bayer.
The 4.5 final was contested by ersatz Madisonian Jeff Hanson and another young Chicago player, Harry Goldstein. Harry did double duty in the 5.0 draw and the 4.5 and spent about 20 hours on court, but it didn't matter in the final here. Just too much speed and fitness for the wily veteran to contend with.
The 5.0 draw was a round robin contested by Sid Singh, Mike West, Harry Goldstein, and yours truly. Sid and I met in the final pairing, with neither of us dropping game previously. In three hard fought games, I came out the winner, making up for my defeat handed to me by Sid the previous weekend.
Next on the calendar will be the Club Championships in April! I'd love to see every club member get involved in this event as we will have 4 full divisions. I'll get that on the calendar soon.
In probably the largest SIZE difference ever to be seen on a squash court, Lara Vojnov (the short) defeated Geoff Garbacz (the very tall) in the 3.5 final. Both Lara's and Geoff's games are improving rapidly and I suspect we'll see them both contesting more matches in the 4.0 division next time.
Speaking of the 4.0 division, Nick Eugenio of Chicago took the 4.0 title from the very game Andrew Bayer of Oconomowoc. Nick, the young Chicagoan is getting back into squash after years of playing high school and college hockey. He's got tremendous fitness and speed and it proved too much for the experienced Bayer.
The 4.5 final was contested by ersatz Madisonian Jeff Hanson and another young Chicago player, Harry Goldstein. Harry did double duty in the 5.0 draw and the 4.5 and spent about 20 hours on court, but it didn't matter in the final here. Just too much speed and fitness for the wily veteran to contend with.
The 5.0 draw was a round robin contested by Sid Singh, Mike West, Harry Goldstein, and yours truly. Sid and I met in the final pairing, with neither of us dropping game previously. In three hard fought games, I came out the winner, making up for my defeat handed to me by Sid the previous weekend.
Next on the calendar will be the Club Championships in April! I'd love to see every club member get involved in this event as we will have 4 full divisions. I'll get that on the calendar soon.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tournament Time
Hi All,
Tournament Time in Madison. Sign up for the Winterfest tournament, February 19th through 21st. We'll have a 6.0 Invitational Round Robin event. We should had 4 to 6 players in our top draw all playing each other in a round robin. Should be good.
Download the Entry Form here!
Tournament Time in Madison. Sign up for the Winterfest tournament, February 19th through 21st. We'll have a 6.0 Invitational Round Robin event. We should had 4 to 6 players in our top draw all playing each other in a round robin. Should be good.
Download the Entry Form here!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Group Art Show
Our current exhibition features the artwork of Kyle Adams, Adrienne Applegate, David Dillinger, Chris Gritzmacher, Devon Hugdahl, Sam Johnson, Grace Lorentz, Stan Poffenberger, Rebecca Sadler, Linda Takaha, and Donald Topp.
The show will be up at the Club for the months of November and December 2009. Opening reception is tentatively set for December 11th.
Most of the artwork is for sale. Please contact Rebecca Sadler if you are interested in purchasing any of the art work. 608-628-0277.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Quarters/Semis/Finals
Sorry to not fill you in on the rest of the tournament...
We've successfully closed the curtain on the inaugural Madison Open Squash Championships. We showed off some incredible squash and this should create some more buzz in the Madison squash community and beyond.
For the record:
We hosted 25 athletes from 13 countries.
Bernardo Samper of Columbia upset the seedings and beat our number one seed Gilly Lane from the US National Team.
We hosted 45 amateurs in 5 events over the weekend.
From the Quarterfinals on our bleachers, which hold 70 people, were completely packed and the bar area was filled with more people watching on close circuit TV.
We really do appreciate the financial and moral support we received from our many sponsors and patrons. It's a lot to ask people to back an event in a small club like ours that doesn't get a lot of press or public exposure. We're hoping to learn from this experience and get more exposure next time around.
Go to SquashSite to get the full write-up and see some cool photos by Tom McInvaille.
We've successfully closed the curtain on the inaugural Madison Open Squash Championships. We showed off some incredible squash and this should create some more buzz in the Madison squash community and beyond.
For the record:
We hosted 25 athletes from 13 countries.
Bernardo Samper of Columbia upset the seedings and beat our number one seed Gilly Lane from the US National Team.
We hosted 45 amateurs in 5 events over the weekend.
From the Quarterfinals on our bleachers, which hold 70 people, were completely packed and the bar area was filled with more people watching on close circuit TV.
We really do appreciate the financial and moral support we received from our many sponsors and patrons. It's a lot to ask people to back an event in a small club like ours that doesn't get a lot of press or public exposure. We're hoping to learn from this experience and get more exposure next time around.
Go to SquashSite to get the full write-up and see some cool photos by Tom McInvaille.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Round One
The level of play went up a notch tonight in Madison.
The longest match of the night saw the young Englishmen Ben Coleman upsetting the higher ranked Bart Ravelli in a 73 minute marathon. Two fit guys, a bouncy ball and a hot court makes for a long match. Neither could tuck the ball away so the points went on and on until Ben finally was able to finish it off in four. They might be still playing had it gone to a fifth.
Contrast that match with the Amr Mansi-Fernando Lopez match that went 5 games and only 38 minutes. Some great retrieving, and a lot of attacking shotmaking that were either winners or tins.
Our other qualifiers ran into some stiff opposition. Anthony Graham, an extraordinarily fit player ran into Wade Johnstone which made for a very entertaining match. More than one person in the crowd tonight commented on how quick Wade's hands were and how clinical his shot placement was. It was a fun match to watch, but it seemed like only a matter of time before Johnstone simply wore Graham down with his precision and pace.
Ehimen Ehalen played Bernardo Samper and afterwards told me that he kept trying to slow Samper down, and just was not able to control the pace at all.
The Madison favourite Mark Heather played Chris Gordon and it looked like this match was going to be something special until an unintentional collision left Mark with a dead leg for most of the first and second game. He gamely played on and took the third, but Chris was able to close it out with some exceptional shotmaking and even more exceptional retrieving. He's not the prettiest mover in the game, but his court coverage is quite impressive.
Mike Corren was hampered by a quadriceps problem so was just not able to move well and lost to Legotla Mosope in three.
Peter Creed and Gilly Lane had routine wins over Wildcard Luke Butterworth and Keith Pritchard respectively.
The longest match of the night saw the young Englishmen Ben Coleman upsetting the higher ranked Bart Ravelli in a 73 minute marathon. Two fit guys, a bouncy ball and a hot court makes for a long match. Neither could tuck the ball away so the points went on and on until Ben finally was able to finish it off in four. They might be still playing had it gone to a fifth.
Contrast that match with the Amr Mansi-Fernando Lopez match that went 5 games and only 38 minutes. Some great retrieving, and a lot of attacking shotmaking that were either winners or tins.
Our other qualifiers ran into some stiff opposition. Anthony Graham, an extraordinarily fit player ran into Wade Johnstone which made for a very entertaining match. More than one person in the crowd tonight commented on how quick Wade's hands were and how clinical his shot placement was. It was a fun match to watch, but it seemed like only a matter of time before Johnstone simply wore Graham down with his precision and pace.
Ehimen Ehalen played Bernardo Samper and afterwards told me that he kept trying to slow Samper down, and just was not able to control the pace at all.
The Madison favourite Mark Heather played Chris Gordon and it looked like this match was going to be something special until an unintentional collision left Mark with a dead leg for most of the first and second game. He gamely played on and took the third, but Chris was able to close it out with some exceptional shotmaking and even more exceptional retrieving. He's not the prettiest mover in the game, but his court coverage is quite impressive.
Mike Corren was hampered by a quadriceps problem so was just not able to move well and lost to Legotla Mosope in three.
Peter Creed and Gilly Lane had routine wins over Wildcard Luke Butterworth and Keith Pritchard respectively.
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