Back to lacing up the Squash shoes, back to sweaty clothes and sore muscles, back to tournament clothing and New Harrow rackets, back to 2 training sessions a day and pre and post training meals...back to TRAINING and TOURNAMENT PLAY!!
Since I last posted, my foot has made great progress. I have just survived my first tournament back playing in the Australia Day Challenge Event. With only one week of match practice behind me I was unsure on how I was going to go. To my surprise I made it through to the final loosing to Melody Francis 3-1 in the final. I was very happy with my performance where I heavily relied on my squash skills, experience, and just letting what I haven't done in a long time come naturally. I did wake the morning of the final with every muscle of my body aching and I lacked in fitness during the final match.
I'm hoping 2013 will be a fresh start for me. I'm not expecting to "burst back to where I left off" but I am expecting a year of consistent training and a steadily climb of the WSA (women's Squash Association) world rankings. I'm focused on performing my best next year (2014) with the Commonwealth Games and the Women's World Team Championships on, so just plug along consistently. That's the goal.
I wouldn't say my foot is 100% healed but it's definitely getting there. I've just started doing some distance running, court movement and match play. I have to respect the amount of time off I had (17 months) and not be too concerned about how slow I am or how tired I get from what I would normally consider minimal training. One foot in front of the other!
So now my job is to keep moving forward slow and steady. I now have 6 weeks until my net tournament so I have lots of fitness, court movement, and starting my new strength, core, activation and plyometrics program with Nick out at Strength Sports Gym to get on top of things.
Here are a few pictures from the tournament over the weekend:
Results:
Lisa CAMILLERI [1] - Lakeesha RARERE [15] 11-2 11-4 11-2 (0:17min) Round of 16
Lisa CAMILLERI [1] - Samantha DAVIES [7] 11-5 8-11 11-9 11-5 (0:40min) Quarter Final
Lisa CAMILLERI [1] - Christine NUNN [4] 11-7 11-6 11-5 (0:28min) Semi Final
Melody FRANCIS [2] - Lisa CAMILLERI [1] 11-6 5-11 13-11 14-12 (0:43min) Final
