National team champ 2014!!!

For the 8th time in a row, Hafrsfjord Squash Klubb is national team champs of Norway.

This years team consisted of me on the number 1 spot, Kristian Solhaug on the second spot, strongly followed by Lars Klæning on 3 and our hero, Majken Bie on 4.

We got comfortably through the first rounds, but got severely challenged by Bærum in the final, barely winning by 16 points after equal matches and games.

Thanks to Roddy and beautiful Anette for a great stay in the villa, a great tournament and a good effort from Bærum :)

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

41st Geneva Open 2014

Video blog day 1:

 - The mornings in a squash house

The 41st version (!) of the Geneva squash open is organized by Mr Bob Lincoln, and makes us commmute between the french and swiss part of Geneva(?what) I dont even get it myself. As our hotel is in a mini village on the other side of the airport from the club.

Weather is smoking and the boys are too. I am paired up with the Dutch rookie delegation and wannabe dutchie Kanye West in a kick ass appartment 10 min drive away from the squash courts.

After 5 re draws, I ended up as the unlucky 1st seed in the qualifying ( no main draw). At least I had a bye in my first round, meaning I won't play until the afternoon today against the winner between a local and an english junior.

The other Big Brother house contestants will play at mid day as Ravioli is taking on Sweetie Eric Garson from England, while Kanye will play Marc to see who will be the resident Rookie for the weekend.

The aftershock:

After a night of good sleep, I finally felt better than I have felt the last 7 months. The mental stress from what we like to call life seems to slowly let go. When the head is on right, it is only for me to focus on squash. and that feels fkin awesome!

Today I played "Doesnt give a shit squash" Just enjoying the moment and enjoying playing again. That worked well for 2 games and I won 11-3, 11-8. The next games, I am not sure what happened, but according to people watching I lost a bit of my sharpness. I saw myself, I crossed a bit too much and my opponent started hitting his shots better. Lost the next 3 close games, but I really don't care. If it is only training required to get better. That I can do. Just very glad I hopefully can perform to a certain level in Italy in May which is the next tournament.

Although there is a tiny chance of a lucky loser spot tomorrow. Fingers crossed. I wanna play now! Havent had that feeling for a while. The other boys in the house did well as well. Marc won both his matches 3-0 and played really well. So did Bart, so both of them are in the main draw against stiff competition tomorrow.

LIVE from ANDORRA

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.

......

A small distraction

Whats on Killingbergs mind these days? Well first of all, I have learned a thing or two about social media promotion and networking. So to gain hits, we need to sell it. What sells best? Sex. So Enjoy the photo above that has nothing to do whatsoever with what I am going to write.

I am doing MudMasters this weekend!!! Wohoo. 18 km run with obstacles much alike what we did in the army (10 years ago). Under barbed wire, in cold water, running in tires and carrying logs. In friggin freezing Holland probably during storm. People pay 50€ to join this madness. Not the Pros naturally. The pros get sponsored by Discovery Channel.

With the DH crew we rented 3 luxury Chalets (Castle?) for consumption of liquids and carbs to prepare as professionals do before and after a race of this proportions. Wish Us Luck!