The tournament was sponsored by Black Knight squash who allowed the participants to test out a variety of racquets during their matches. I tested the Magnum M140 and the C2C Red models (C2C Red isn’t listed on their website since it is so new). I enjoyed the C2C Red very much and played two matches with it. The Magnum has a very large head which I found a bit awkward to play with but is great for beginners since it has a very large sweet spot. Both racquets are way out of my price range though at around two hundred each.

In my first game I played a guy named Andrew and won: 9-5 6-9 7-9. It was a good match and a great start to the day. He was quite quick and was able to get to many shots I didn’t expect him to however he didn’t make very many winner shots and won a lot of points through my unforced errors.

My second game was against a guy named Wenjin who was a very strong intermediate player. I lost the match but maintain that it would have been a lot closer if my endurance was better: 7-9 10-8 9-4. He was also very fast and was able to make some great winner shots. Early in the last game we had a long rally which pushed me over the edge into exhaustion. I had nothing left and everything I was able to run down I put into the tin.

The last game of the day was against Walid who is new to the intermediate division so I won: 6-9 1-9 7-9. The last match was a best of five where the previous games were best of three. Winning this match put me in third place overall which I was pretty happy about. Wenjin came in second and another guy I didn’t play was first.

After testing out a racquet players filled out a survey and were then entered in a draw for a new racquet. At the end of the day Walid won the racquet which I figure was worth around eighty to one hundred dollars. I was a bit jealous since I badly needed that new racquet as anyone who has seen my current racquet can attest to. Since the tournament I’ve purchased a new Dunlop racquet which I love, expect a post with some pictures soon.

Next term I am going to be participating in the squash league at the intermediate level with that hope that by the winter term I can move up to advanced. I really need to work on my finesse game as that is where I am currently lacking. See you on the courts.

1. find random interesting topic serendipitously (generally while away from a computer)
2. think over the idea to expand it and test its viability for becoming a post
3. sit at the computer and turn idea to prose (if I do say so myself; god the ego)
4. relentlessly edit content for form and style
5. post

So as you can see there are a number of weak links in the chain that delay blogging despite my best intentions. Thankfully with work and exercise the chain is shorter: find time, do it. I’ve mentioned before that I started playing hockey again. Our winter season is now over and we have to wait a month or so before the summer season kicks off. We ended up doing quite well in league play, finishing fifth out of around thirty teams. Unfortunately, we were put out first round in the playoffs by a team that had a fair number of extremely strong players. We played well, kept ourselves in it and I was proud of our effort.

This season of hockey has shown me two truths about myself. The first is that I am badly out of shape when it comes to short burst stamina. This problem essentially puts me out of the game after the first period. I am trying to work on it by doing sprints in a nearby field but getting myself out of the house is problematic. The second truth is that my hockey skills are very rusty. I am currently playing defense which I was quite good at in high school about ten years ago. Time has taken its toll and my skills are all equally weakened from stick handling to skating and from heads up play to knowing my position. Campus Recreation is offering a hockey skills course this summer and I am planning on taking it. The first course is focused on individual skills and the second (running in the fall) will focus on team skills. I am planning on taking both and hopefully will bring my play up so as to not let my team down in the seasons to come.

The title of this post mentioned an expansion of activities and I will get to that presently. I’ve covered the topic of Parkour several times on this blog and now that it is summer again I will be joining my friends in and around campus once more. However, squash is actually the latest thing that I wanted to mention. A few weeks back a friend lost his partner to an ankle injury which he happened to bring up one day to me. I used to play a bit at Brock but hadn’t in quite a while — even though I have my own racquet and balls — so I offered to partner with him until his regular guy healed. I love squash, so once I started again it was all over. I was recounting how much I love squash at the office and found two more partners. Sergey who I’ve now played five or six times and Mike Iley who I’ll be playing for the first time next week.

This summer is shaping up to be a very active one. I am hopeful that this will be what I need to push my weight loss past its current stall and take me down to my target of two-hundred pounds. What are your summer exercise plans?