Friday, September 15, 2006

Squashing time

I started to go to Carmicheal gym at NC State to play squash a couple of months ago. I last played the sport in early 2003. It was fun just to get back the first few days and play. The way things went I thought I was right back where it started.

In the following weeks, I have had several ups and downs with one main cause of frustration. I had poor control over my shots - a shot intended to come back along the wall would often go to the T on the court. Yesterday, on a whim (or it was my subconciousness working), I googled for squash federation and came across a site with e-lessons on playing squash (http://www.squashclub.org/main/e-lessons/).

I played 3 games last night and used the tips mentioned for E, and D level players. I found that I was surprised at how easy it was to take a step forward in my game. I am going to try to spend about 15-20 mins everytime at the squash courts just working on my game by myself. I hope in the next few weeks I can compete atleast with Lair and Adnan.

I would also like to give a shout out to the NC State squash club (http://www.ncsu.edu/sorc/myOrgs/details.php?id=10) .

Living without TV

I have been contemplating writing a blog for quite a while now. I think I signed up with blogger.com nearly 6 months ago. In the meantime, G has created a blog for herself in which she regularly writes. The delay is a direct result of being lazy, and not finding a topic that interested me. Over the last week though a couple of ideas have come to mind and now I am shaking off the laziness to start this blog.

My first idea was about some anime character that had the name of a indian mythological character but that has been shelved for now. I might pick that thread in another blog. This blog is a result of about 2 minutes of realization last night while I was making pongal to bring for lunch and an article I came across on espn.com

To give you some background, four months ago I moved into a one br and am living by myself. I do not have a TV, a choice I initially made in the hope that instead of staring at the idiot box I would spend time doing other fun stuff like sports, or learning the guitar. Well things are falling into place. Last night , I realized that I am finally starting to spend time playing sports or going to the gym regularly. I currently have the following activities in my weekly routine :
- lifting weights 4 times a week,
- playing soccer 1-2 times a weeks,
- playing squash 1-2 times a week.
- spinning a couple of times in the week.

This morning while surfing through ESPN.com, I came across an article where a better-than-average athlete, Kathryn Bertine, is trying to make the US Olympic squad for 2008 Olympic games in China. She is writing about her experiences in trying out for the team. For those interested, her adventures can be found at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=olympianpart1&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

That got me thinking that I am spending so much time on fitness nowadays, that it would be worth making a chronicle of my experiences. While I do not intend to take part in the Olympics ( not for now atleast), I hope this blog will be a place for organizing the many things I learn as part of this routine.