Now in effective training for 2 months, I was invited to the national team training in February in Oslo Norway. For the seniors this meant selection training for the European championships. For me it was basically do or die, as 3/5 players are already selected due to good performances earlier in the season. The new coaches from England (Lauren Selby and Emily Ison) have never seen me play before, and although my past performances should be a powerful statement we all have to remember I have been away for 2 years.
The post exercise malaise have been a lot better and I have not felt it in a while. Unfortunatelly the fatigue messed with me for 10 days leading up to the team training, but I still went, hoping for the best.
The first day was directed towards on court work, drills and technique. As we all know, I am no technician, and I am horrible in drills, but it went over all expectation and I slowly found my groove and realized I was not as far behind my old level as I thought. I stayed on the top court and won all conditioning games except one. I had a good chat with the coaches, so they were aware of my situation, and therefore allowed me to set my own pace. I stopped 5 min before the session ended on day one just to be sure I stayed within my limits.
The second day was dedicated to strength and conditioning with a little squash work in the beginning of the day. My good form continued and it went even better then the day before. Continuing my winning streak, now more gameplay, which suits me a lot better. The strength and gym work is naturally my backyard, so that was never a problem, but I did not push myself during the courtsprints. This is where I noticed I was away for 2 years. I still move efficiently enough to complete and win matches but in an all out conditioning test, I come short. However, this is the easiest one to train.
So lets get started
UPDATE! Just got news that I MADE THE TEAM!!!!!
