European squash championships 2014, Riccione, Italy

Ive been making it a habit to write my blogposts on the plane. Mighty smart idea if I may say so myself. Normally when Im bored outta my brain anyway.

The Norwegian team is finally back in division 2 after 3 years of balubasquash. Last year we performed well and clawed our way from the toughest group in division 3 into the final, only to lose to Israel. But second place also get to move up one division and swapped places with Poland and another nation.

So here we go. One year after being favourites in a division lower, to being under the underdogs in division 2. Division 2 house teams like, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czech republic and Ukraine.

We start our Italian adventoro with the Irish gnomes and the Swedish horseballs in our pool. We are seeded to lose, but in it to win it. The words from national team coach is that Norway has never seen a stronger national mens team. I feel good, Sindre is now playing full time, Edvard sent his girlfriend across Europe to retain focus,  Ronny is 25 kgs lighter and Kristian is floating on the confidence of being king of Instagram and National champion. I think this year will be a good year for the Vikings in the European championships.

First up: Ireland tomorrow at 10.00. I will probably be facing Arthur “Whole lotta love” Gaskin in my first match, unless they show up with a more “cocky” team order. That would be unwise gnomies…..

Day 1:

Playing order was set to 1 and 3 playing first, followed by 2 and 4. Todays team was Me, Kristian, Ronny and Eddy, resting Sindre. 

Ronny was not feeling it today, and lost in 3. In my match I served out(!) twice(!!!!) in the first game. I lost it 11-9 and thats a cheap give away. In the second game the difference in level became more clear as he pulled away to a 11-4 win. I tried in the third game to just focus on one shot at the time. just hit the ball well and the targets will come. It did feel a lot better to hit it, but I noticed the difference when the ball travelled a bit too fast for my usual pace, and then the errors and inaccuracies flew of my racket. Arthur is too good in the front and very hard to read. I should keep him even more in the back, and wait out my chances even more. My own shots did not go in either, and then...game, set, match. I lost 12-10 in the third, but I gave it my all. I truly feel I am back on the right path again and I am just looking forward to playing more.

Edvard and Kristian could take it easy as we needed to conserve energy for the important matches to come. They lost respectively 3-0 and 3-1

Next up: Sweden tomorrow at 10.00

DAY 2:

The message was clear. The level and debth of the Swedish team is higher than ours and the wise thing would be to conserve energy for the most important matches to come. Our main priority this year is to stay in the division, and it is tougher than ever. All the teams we have to beat are really strong and one of them is the team we lost to in the final last year in Amsterdam.

Against Sweden we rested our number 2 player. I started at the same time as Ronny. Ronny took it easy and lost 3-0. I tried to stay sharp throughout the match and hit my targets. I did not use too much energy and still got to practice my shots. I feel  good and ready for our next match only in 2 hours (!) After tournament organization fault. The rest of the team lost 3-0 as well, but they look confident and strong for the next match, which will be crucial.

Bring on Slovakia

After a nice lunch, we basically had to hurry and get ready again for our next match. The playing order was the same, but Kristian was now rested and ready to play again on no2. Unfortunatelly he was so stiff from his match yesterday that he could not move and he ended up losing 3-0 in a very disappointing performance. I did my job on the adjacent court, continuing my string of strong play, winning 3-0 convincingly. We were tied with Slovakia at this point, so it all came down to Ronny and Sindre. They both played tight matches, but unfortunally lost 3-0 and 3-2 in matches that easily could swing the other way. Riccione is a place where the Norwegians are very unlucky it seems. This means that we set us up in a very difficult situation, as we face 2 stronger teams in the remaining pool matches. It is still a battle of survival, and we need to win both remaining matches to stay in division 2. If not we are back down where we started.

Ukraine at 5pm Friday

DAY 3:

After a relaxed morning with some shopping and a nice breakfast we headed towards the 7 court venue once again to take on Ukraine. We did not set ourselves up in a good situation yesterday, so we were all forced to play out of our skin to achieve our goal this year.

The order of the day was: 4-1-3-2, so myself and Sindre started. Edvard rested, but as always, make a great support team alongside Mark, Thomas and Reidun. They are all true team players and it is great to have them here. I went on court with a do or die attitude as I did in the last match as well, not willing to give a single inch of weakness. I must have looked extremely angry on court. But it did the trick. With an average of 1,5 personal errors over the last 2 matches, I did what I needed and won 3-0, completely demolishing my opponent mentally and in the end also physically. According to Mark, Sindre had a tough match on the other side of the wall losing 3-0.

It all came down to our veterans. Ronny did not feel well yesterday, and Kristian still had a sore butt. At this moment we had no choice. We had to win. Both matches were extremely close, and I myself saw a Ronny play more consistent and smart than ever before. He lost the match in 4, but is showing great mental and physical strength. He is back. In Kristians match, the coaches analysis was that Kissa tried to make his fitter opponent run with high tempo and lots of volleying. Towards the end it backfired a bit as Kristian felt the match in his legs and could not keep up in the end himself. A really close battle that ended up with a sour loss.

Our chances are now minimal to stay in the division, but we still have to give it our all against Israel tomorrow. A team win would still mean a lot, as we lost 4-0 against them last year in the final. KOM AN GUTTAA!!!

DAY 4

We were already ready for 3d division next year before our match against Israel, but the Israeli had to give it their all since they already had a chance of staying in the division. We knew they would give it their all, and it was a great opportunity for us to see where we were at compared to last year. The players repping the red white and blue were 1 Killingberg, 2:Solhaug, 3:Aasbø 4: Hegbom AKA Egbom. Against a group of unfair blocking and complaining Israeli we had to stay calm, collected and get the job done.

Myself and Kristian were on first, but during the warm up, Kristian was worried about his Achilles. He did not feel good at all and tried to warm it up as well as possible. It did not work fully and he lost 3-0 with not being able to move well.

The player I played, I played twice last year, first time I won 3-1, and in the final I lost 3-2. This year I continued my run of good form and played the big points well (proud Mark?), working hard, making little errors and frustrating my opponent. The two first games were important and I was able to sneak them 11-9, 11-9. In the last game, I did not give an inch and took it clearly 11-4.

Ronny also continued his good play from yesterday and won 3-0. A very strong performance from the captain. Edvard was on after me, and was ready to leave his guts on court. That is exactly what he did. Although his gameplan did not come through fully, and he was able to win it in the end, he gave us the game needed for the win. 1-3 loss, 2-2 draw, win on games, and return to 3d division. Back to the drawing board boys!!!

Return of the Kim and Tromsø Open 2014

Killingberg is back!

I had 4 weeks of training to catch up 6 months of descending form. At that point it seemed like an impossible task, but I knew I had all the qualities in me. Even though I was never closer to throw away my rackets and say “Im done with this shit”. I convinced myself to get my life back on track first, before making any such decisions. Wise man…

Ive had 3 weeks of good training now, and I am happy to say I am fit, motivated and playing better than I have been playing since July 2013. I don’t know if I am back on that form yet, but I am not far away. I still lack the tournament experience and so this weekend I am travelling further north than ever before to puzzle the last pieces together before the European Championship. The shots and the fitness is there. Now I need to get into tournament mode, practice my preperations, handling nerves, adjusting to hotel food, sleeping away from home, tactics and mental strength.

If Brian Phillips will forward my words of wisdom to the juniors on this bit, the message is as following:

Staying in the own comforts of your home, eating your own food, planning your own days and competing in a known and safe environment spoils you. And yes, you can play your best squash, because you are mentally and physically best prepared. You play an opponent you have played hundreds of times before and you know his game in and out. There are no referees, crowd and you know the courts and the conditions.

Experience is adapting as best possible to all these factors when you are competing somewhere else. The further away from home you go, the more prepared you need to be. Competing in your own country means you can still find the food you are used to, but you might need to sleep on a couch, in a hotel, on a squash court or an air matress. How do you play squash when you are sleep deprived? The courts are colder than you are used to, is your warm up routine adapted to this? Is there even room to warm up anywhere? You need to relate to a referee that barely know what squash is (a standard squash referee) an opponent who is not as fair as your normal training partner and a crowd that are cheering not only for your opponent, but against you. The court has a different bounce and the air is drying up your throat. Got to be prepared kids. There are many tips I can give to help prepare for these things, but I don’t feel like writing it all. We start with one today. A tip given to me by a good friend and squash player Steve Finitsis. To adjust to the court you are playing one, during warm up on court you find your spot on the front wall where you need to hit to hit that perfect 2^nd bounce in the back” dying length. I think that’s a good start J

Now, with that being said, that small digression there, this is why I travel to Tromsø this weekend to play a tournament that might not give me the highest quality matches, but to get into the tournament routine again. Personally I have struggled with over/under adrenalization. I need to fine tune that balance. I need to adapt to hotel sleep and food. I need to get into the system to adapt tactics towards different squash players and to deal with difficult opponents. I need to get “practice mode” out of the system

Plus, I have heard great things about Tromsø as a city and the squash enthousiasm in the city lead by Wiggo Olsen and Hans Christian Ribe. The boys in Tromsø are doing a superb job with sponsors, media, service and the overall tournament experience. In addition to this I am bringing my mum up as well for some quality time on her birthday J Looking forward to it!!!!

What happened?

I won the tournament without dropping a game, and I am very happy with my mental preparation and general professional attitude throughout the tournament. The adrenalization was balanced, and I pushed my gameplan hard down anyone I faced on the opposite end of the court. Which means all points made against me this weekend was well deserved.

I really enjoyed the entire tournament and the setting they have up here. The tournament organizors do a superb job in arranging and hosting this event. By far the most hospitable and enjoyable tournament to play in Norway at this moment.

Thanks a lot to the tournament sponsors (who really help a lot), Wiggo, Hans Christian, Tromsø squashklubb, the volunteers and the crowd who made a great atmosphere. I will return. The sky is the limit boys.

Peace out