It has been a while since I have written an article and I do apologise for that. This article will be based around changes I have made recently and am continuing to make to better myself as a squash professional.

My last 3 tournaments of 2013 were all in Queensland, Australia. Basically in my own backyard. My performance in those tournaments all seemed to follow the same pattern, me losing in either qualifying or the first round. To say I was feeling down would be putting it lightly. Following those events I took a couple of weeks off to re-assess my goals and to have a good think about what I really wanted not just in squash but also in life. The answer is simple and that is to be happy. No matter what I had been doing up until these past few months whether it be squash or any other job I had, I was happy doing it.

Now I am not saying that squash was the problem because it wasn’t. The problem was that I wasn’t getting any results, and this was due to the way I was playing the game. When I looked back on what areas of my game I had worked on over the past 6 months well there wasn’t much… So I would play a tournament, lose early on and not really learn much from it as I would just go back into training the same as I would have been training before without really looking at the areas that may have led to the bad result. After a few losses my confidence took a knock and that led to me moping around and being angry.

So I had a long think and decided that I wasn’t going to give up squash as I truly believed this wasn’t the problem and that I have not yet reached my full potential in this amazing game. I knew that I had to make some changes and that is exactly what I did. At the end of November 2013 I boarded a flight to England, which was where I decided to base myself for the next few months to work on my game. I got in touch with David Pearson, who I had the opportunity to get on court with briefly last year, and made sure that it would be ok for me to come over and train in Harrogate.

When I arrived and got on court with David for the first time I knew that it was going to be different and challenging as changes had to be made both to the way I moved and to my swing. I had to get rid of my old habits. All of this change was a blessing in disguise as this new training has brought back my passion and excitement for the game. This has been the best decision I have made in my squash career to date. I feel like improvements are being made not only in my sessions but also by watching some of the other professionals and seeing how they interpret the advice given by the coach. For the first time in a long time with regards to my training there is a solid plan in place to see me take my game to the next level.  This new plan has given me a new confidence, which I intend to carry into my matches.

All these changes are now a huge step in the right direction. My motivation and hunger is stronger than ever and I am looking forward to some upcoming tournaments to put all the skills I am learning and improving to use. After all that is what all the training is for. To play and to play well!