A slightly reduced Viking is reporting from beautiful surroundings on the Antilles here in Andorra. Apparently Andorra is somewhat of a Nation of its own, where tax free is a bit of a big deal. Which means I can get Oakleys for 100€... okaaaayyy
Anyway. squash...right
DAY !:
Scheduled to play Scotland at 10.00 in the local mall on the glasscourt just up the street from our "Magic Hotel", we arrive after little sleep as we had a 3 hr drive from Barcelona up to Andorra last night. But early bird catches the worm. (Somewhere here I should put in an Angry Bird reference). We show up well ahead of the scheduled time only to find people still laying the floor of the court. After they finished, the service box on the right hand wall wall spread all over the court. So we imagined where it would be. After they were pleased with the floor, they continued to put up sponsorship logos on it.
1 hour later we are ready to kick off with our no3 players. Sindre is up for our team. He can not see the ball as there are strong lights all around the court which really messes with your depth perception. Scottish players learn to play blindfolded and so Sindres opponent bagged the victory 3-0. Massive disappointment from Sindre who hates glasscourts. Especially after slipping on a loose floorboard almost loosing his foot as the floorboard shot out of court(!) leaving a big hole in the middle of the court.
Next up was me, who have sliiightly more experience on the glass court. Funky indeed, but I did not think about it too much. Same for both of us right. I played Scottish rocket Douglas Kempsell. A steady and fair player that has risen well on the PSA rankings the last year(s)
First game is neck and neck all the way until Dougie sneaks it 11-9. Body feels well enough until I tweak my knee at 1-1 in the second game. For you anatomy nerds out there: My ITB is impinged in my knee. This can cause severe pain, and I had this once before in Malaysia, but then it felt a lot worse and then I feared my squash career was over. However with some experience I treated myself as best I could for 3 minutes before having to go back on court.
The difficulty now is playing through the pain, which I was able to to a certain extent, but with this pain in the back of my head, I found it hard to focus on where to put the ball, and instead was wary of how to tread, so the rest of the match was a feeding session that finished quickly. 3-0 loss. One of the matches I really looked forward to :/
Ronny was up next and struggled just as much as Sindre on the court and could not get into his own game as he focused more on seeing the ball instead of hitting it. 3-0 loss Horrible start.
For someone who cant eat gluten, it was a messed up idea to have croissants for breakfast. The longer I stay away from it, the more I react to it, and today it was bad. At luch I chowed as much meat and potatoes as my body could hold, in hope for the stomach to calm down. Followed by an attempt to catch up with some well earned sleep. Wake up, play.
Next up was Sweden. I hate losing to Sweden. And as we beat them next time, we had honour at stake.
Sindre played a really tight match, improving his performance from this morning, but it was still not enough as the tall Swede got through Sindre 3-0.
Testing the knee with tape, kinesio tape and compression, all physio skills were needed to keep it from acting up.
Thank god the knee held up, and that is a very good sign, as there is a lot of squash coming up the following months. In the first game against Swedens no5 I was well in control and won comfortably. In the second game I wanted to push up the court, but my body didnt want to for some reason and when it does not obey I get stressed and when I stress I boast. When I boast I lose. 1-1
Third game. Up with the tempo. hit halfcourt, Im down 2-1. 4. game, hanging in for dear life as my opponent hits a mix of lucky nicks and not lucky nicks, I lose 1-3. I HATE losing to Sweden.
Although we have a great opportunity here to learn and prepare for the big tournaments, we are still athletes and we never like to lose. Tomorrow at 10.00 Andorra awaits us on court. UNLEASH HELL§!!!!
DAY ":
2-1 loss vs Portugal in the morning. Im still playing consistently... consistently bad
3-0 loss vs Catalonia in the evening. Still consistent. So is the rest of the team. All we can do is laugh of ourselves. Great venue, hotel, food, service, transport and event. But the Norwegian team is at the bottom before our last match vs France. Feel like we should make an own 4th division for us in the Europeans.
After tomorrow the individual part of the tournament is starting. Here is the draw:
http://www.squash.cat/draw-quadre/
I am seeded and will not play until the triple on saturday. Food poisoning and an injured wrist to add to the complaints. Things are looking UP!!
DAY #:
A true week of opposites as we are in a beatiful place, with a great tournament in fantastic venues. The organisation is great and all the players are enjoying the tournament.
However, the performances from the Norwegian team has been under par, although the no2 and 3 string have been playing better each day. Luckily this is not an official tournament.
Personally I have really reached an all time low. Not playing much over the last 8 months is one thing. This week my body has not been happy with me at all. day 1 my knee went bonkers on me, day 2 my wrist got messed up. day 3 I needed to throw my match as the wrist was not working at all. In between my stomach was upset and lack of sleep was another factor. Normally I am not complaining too much, but normally I dont have anything to complain about. I have niggles like all others, but these pass quickly. I had 2 severe cases of an ankle injury in 2012 and 2013, but recovered over 10 weeks. This week the shots have been fired at me quicker than you can say "shotgun" Already at a place in my mind where I feel I am in a make or break situation and everything is going against me squashwise, the timing is really really bad to get injured.
F*******************
There. Get it out.
Our last match in the pool was played up in the Andorra mountains in a hotel/spa complex. In a beautiful scenery from one of the old James Bond movies we enjoyed the fresh mountain air and the Catalonian sun.
Ronny Aasbø, the Norwegian captain but up a great fight against one of Frances top juniors. He was up 2-0, but in the end lost 2-3 in another close 3 games.
Sindre showed us what he can do with the ball against the 3d string French player, but was a bit inconsistent and lost 3-0 in the end.
Sindre not too happy with life either as we all know he can play a lot better. But experience is called experience for a reason. It does not happen over night. If he can hang tough long enough he will be rough, buff with a strong rotator cuff and whooping ass in no time (hopefully tomorrow)
I have now some time to relax where I will rest the wrist, stay off the piste, roast some rice, raise hell, reeses pieces and tape it tight before trying to play again on Saturday.
DAY %:
After resting the wrist well yesterday it felt better today. I tried some movements with the racket without too much pain, but still taped it just to be sure. My opponent for the day was the best Catalan player Ivan Flores.
Even though my hitting was limited I still wanted a good run for my money. Some good training at least.
Mishits, strokes, off target, not moving. SSDD (same shit, different day) Its not getting any better, and its about calling a duck a duck and admit I suck. Even when I tried to run it off my body was not listening. Another quick 0-3 loss for the books and oficially the worst performance I have ever performed.
I know I need to get my life sorted before I can focus on my squash, as my life is all over the place in chaos at the moment. Too bad I do not have anymore time. If I do not play any PSAs now, my ranking will drop so low I can not enter any more tournaments. Plus, I have a commitment to the national team, as our most important tournament comes up in 6 weeks.
......
