Ups and Downs

Like any athlete in any sport, on experience the highest highs and the rock hard bottom. One of my highlights was playing my first international tournament for the Norwegian national junior team and winning my national titles.

Memories that will never be erased and that will follow me forever.

These last weeks however have been some of the hardest of my life and I felt close to a burnout midway. It felt close to what it was like being overtrained 9 years ago, where it took me 6 months to come back. Only this time it was mentally. There were many factors interfering with this. There is no one to blame for it, maybe just faith for putting it all at the same time.

Pressure from school as the last 2 weeks finishing up presentations and exams, training squash fulltime is something I could have dealt with like I normally do. Sunday 12th of February I witnessed my girlfriend Cigany Sillevis, who is also a professional squashplayer rupture her 2nd achilles in the 5th/6th playoffs in the National championship. Seeing someone you love in pain is bad enough, but when it is your career and life it gets a new perspective. The week was from now on filled with hospitals, waiting, evaluations, idiot doctors, 5 castings in 4 days more waiting, driving back and forth, surgery and more casting. However my girlfriend ended up having surgery at the Bergman clinic which took good care of her and  had luckily no idiot doctors.

In the middle of this I had to play league across the country, and last minute got into a tournament in Belgium. This lead to a lot of driving, very late nights, little sleep and school in the morning. In the evenings I tried to be with my girlfriend and help her out as much as possible. Squashwise, I basically played horrible. I felt physically fine, and did not feel like any excuses. I just did not play well. Not wednesday, not Thursday, not Friday. Which is a shame since they could all be good matches, world ranking points and money. My body told me that enough was enough. I was lucky to avoid what could have been a severe burnout, and I am now taking 2 weeks off, where I focus on finishing school, spending some time with family, friends and girlfriend, before I start preparing for the next tournaments which are Kean closed sattelite in Den Haag in March, Quatar in March and Oslo in April for the National championships.

Got to look up and forward.

Hard to really feel sorry for yourself when you have your girl at home in a cast

To read about her rupture (dutch) follow this link to squashlife.nl:

http://www.squashlife.nl/nieuws/2012/02/14/squashvriendinnen-samen-in-het-gips/

2nd Kean tour win

In this period of finishing up my studies and getting in as much training as possible, I signed up for a smaller local tournament in Hoofddorp at Meersquash. There is no money or PSA points in this tour but it is good for training,  matches and experience. Playing 3-4 matches per day is also something tough that can be good to do from time to time to just exhaust your body.
I am still working hard on my technique, and this tournament held a descent level for me to work on it while I still needed to focus 100%.
In my first match i played Urbano Farro, a descent Dutch player with good reach and good shots. I was struggling a bit during this match, but was able to pul through 3-1. As I was first seed, it was expected for me to end up in the final. I was given a bye (wo) in the first round, so Urbano was my second round match.
In the semi final I played my good friend Thomas de Paauw who has been struggling with injuries the latest years. Focus was better and the first 2 games went really well. In the third game I lost focus and dicipline and had to let it go. I am glad I was able to re-focus and take the last game after some brutal rallies. Quite content with this match all in all.

In the final I played Marc ter Sluis who also pulled through 3-1 in a slightly longer semi final. He is fresh out of juniors, and is training well at the moment. I lost to him 1-3 in league the same week, so I was keen to avenge myself. The first game started of tense from my side with little variation in pace, play and with too many crosscourts. That game was given away 5-11 or something similar.
The second game went better and was decided in a long tie-break 14-12 for me.
The third game was also a tight affair that Marc won. At this point the game started to get really physically heavy for both of us, and i could also sense this in my opponent. The next game I played really well, more patient, closed down the court better and went forward at the right moment. Scoreline something like 11-2.

Marc was not ready to give up and he really gave a big push in the 5th game. We both kept on running, and there were some gruelling rallies  in the 90 minute match. I felt strong and I picked up most attacks he came up with. My shots went in well towards the end, and after 4-4, I pulled away, took the game and match.

Tough one, but good training, a really good final, and my second Kean tour win....out of 2 ;)

Look in the right side menu for article from squashlife.nl

Victoria Rotterdam v Flevoparq Dronten 11/01-2012

The first battle in Dutch Eredivisie for our team in 2012 was away against Victoria Rotterdam, last years playoff finalists. I was put on the number 1 spot to take on world number 7 Peter Barker. His record speaks for itself, and I knew that this would be a close to impossible task. But I still go on there with a do or die attitude, a set gameplan and my goals for the match. It was twice as hard considering this was week 2 after the holidays for me. Peter Barker just came back from playing the Super Series play offs in London.

The first game was defined by the lack of length from my side. Although I have taken major steps in this area, it needs to be even more precise, and consistent against these guys. Some tactical blunders from my side saw me at the wrong end of the scoreboard and Pete read what I had to come with to easily and put me under a lot of pressure both offensively and defensively. Positive points is that I made my own points, and did little amounts of errors. He did 1 personal error. I took 1 stroke and the remaining points I got myself. First game 3-11.

In the second game his tactic was clear and it worked. I can learn a lot from this. He worked me around the court with precise balls to the back until my legs were tagliatelle and then he moved the ball in short where I could not reach it. I still made some weird decisions, but the game got progressively better. Gamescore 2-11. Memo to self: No need to go in short too early against anyone, ESPECALLY not the world no7

Third game: There was not enough oxygen on the planet for me to get into my lungs. The legs were fine but he got me breathing too hard for me to keep up with the pace. A positive point is that I tactically played a lot better and played some good floaters up and down the walls. It was far from enough, and the game ended 

1-11.

I dont think I made (That big of) a fool out of myself. I certainly learned a lot and will put this experience in my backpack of knowledge that will help me progress further.

Thanks to Fredrik Holmberg for support ;)

Now lets see if I can upload a video...hmmmmm

AAawwwwww

Going home from the years last tournament in Tenerife, I passed these little cuties dressing up as yummy little cakemen singing and marching for christmas :D cute little things...looking for the AAaaawww" effect here.

Merry Christmas and  Happy new year everyone...Feliz Navidad, Go Jul å Hæppi Skvett å alt d der. Snakkis på Nyåret ;)

XIII Canary Islands Open 2011 Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Spain

Day 0:
After 90 euros in Taxi bills because Island people can not speak English I arrive at my luxury appartment on the south side of Tenerife. Here I get my tan on by the pool, relax, sleep eat well and prepare for the tournament that starts tomorrow. I am 4th seed in the qualifying and I am playing a local player in my first match in qualifying. Preperation has not been 100% as I had some training arrangements that cancelled on me and I did not get a practice court when I arrived. But maybe a few extra days off will do me some good. Time will show. This will also be my first tournament with my new rackets Dunlop Biomimetic ultimate.

Day 1: After waiting 2 hours for a bus that does not arrive, I finally cross the island from south to north. In Santa Cruz another 30 minutes pass, and after some confusion as I do not speak a word Spanish, I take a chance and jump off the bus and locate the squash/swimming hall from google maps. I have a little hit and get a feel for the courts before I have 2 lunches of the local cuisine. Will begin my warm up in about 60 minutes, to take on the locals ;) I stay at the players hotel in Santa Cruz until my departure on the 20th of December.

Day 2:

Relaxing in the hotel after a nice breakfast on the top floor of our hotel with a terrific view. The player hotel is really nice and straight in the middle of centrum about 15 min. walk from the squash centre.

I won my match yesterday 3-0, playing the hardest hitter in Spain. It was not too big of a challenge and a good test in my first match. I could not ease through, as I had to step it up and move the ball well around the court to get my points. My length did not work too well, but I still kept it to the back and waited for the attack. With 2 personal errors in 3 games, I was pleased with this. I was 2-7 down in the last game before I stepped it up and took it 11-9. This was all about concentration, and I know now what to do in todays match against James Simpson from England. I do not know him or how he play but I know myself, and I will try my best to impose my game on him. This is this years most important match for me, so I am really looking forward to performing well in this one. Wish me luck ;)

Day 4:

Returning to the hotelroom after being on the beach and moping a whole day :P

Disappointed in losing my qualifying finals 1-3 yesterday. In a way its all fair, since I played close to my level, and I see improvement in a lot of things, but my game is not there at the moment. My opponent played well, and hit his targets so I cant take nothing away from him. The disappointment lies in not making the main draw for the ranking points that I really need, but I can not do anything but train now and return better next year. Now: punishment training and enjoying Tenerife. Then: Holiday in Norway which means training camp in my mums gym ;)

For more information comments and photos, see :http://www.squashsite.co.uk/2009/canaryislands2011.htm

New Sponsors!!

After a little period without sponsor, I now got offered a good deal with Wenaas sport, Dunlop sport and ASICS shoes. Wenaas sport is one of the biggest Norwegian suppliers of sportsgear and also sponsor some of the top athletes from Norway.
Dunlop speaks for itself as maybe the biggest squashbrand in the world, and are known for good quality rackets and gear.
I have been working with ASICS for months now in Netherlands developing their 2012/2013 model squash shoe. They along with ASICS Norway have agreed to supply me with top range shoes, and I am very glad for this as they have really marked themselves as leading in world squash. The shoes are very stable, with great grip, endurance and good cushioning.
To check out the gear more, see the Right hand menu.

League Dronten vs Den Haag

This wednesday I had to play league for Flevoparq Dronten as they had home advantage and took on Den Haag. Flevoparq has had a strike of bad luck since the beginning of the season and needed every point in every game of every match to have hope on keeping their spot in the top division in Holland. This round was no exeption as their streak of bad luck continued with our number one Mark Kraijcak having to stand this round out as his car broke down in Luxemburg. Because of this we rented in local hitman Niels Hoevenaars, and myself was moved up to the number 2 spot. Niels pulled off a magical performance saving gameballs and matchballs on one leg in what seemed to be bread and butter for Niels. he won 3-2 at last, and after Sebastian Weenink of Den Haag won 3-0 over Flevoparqs Glenn Keenan it was up to me in the last match against Neeraj Aggarwal.
I lost the first game, as I felt tense and not relaxed at all as Neeraj played much better length than me. He was patient, kept it tight and did not do too much wrong. As the match progressed, I relaxed a bit more, hit a bit better, and found some more juice in the tank to win the next 3 games, even though they were very close. My opponent did not move that well into the front in the last games and I took full advantage of this, even though I felt I did not play well this match at all. Loose or short lengths and TO!MANY!FKKIN!!BOASTS!! This as well as I am changing rackets 2 times a day at the moment makes me a fun opponent to play as half of the time I do not know where the ball is going myself.
But on a day like this it is the result that matters and not necessarily the way I played. The atmosphere was great and Thony and his crew is doing a great job at Flevoparq Dronten. It was enjoyable to play and in front of a lively crowd who seemed to enjoy the matches.

For TV and newspaper coverage see:
http://www.omroepflevoland.nl/Sport/85969/flevoparq-squash-boekt-tweede-winst