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12-6-06; #12 |
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The Exhibition: A Wholly Different Experience
By L-J Anjema © Dec 6, 2006 Laurens-Jan Anjema and SquashTalk LLC
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| Put on the exhibition face ... (photo ©Debra Tessier ) |
NOW TWO PROS playing a fun match with spectacular shots, strange angles and making jokes may not seem like a hard job for two athletes who do nothing else then playing squash all day and every day.
However, let me give you an insight into the difficulties of playing a good exhibition. When the ‘chemistry’ between the players is not right and one takes the match a wee bit more serious then the other, you got a problem.
I had this problem a long time ago when I played an exhibition in England with a fellow pro. We played our second exhibition in a month after he won the first one in a spectacular and entertaining 3-1. The second exhibition was going horrible however as for some reason the chemistry that day wasn’t right. There was no creative shot-making, there were no jokes and there were way too many lets and strokes for a match which was supposed to entertain a crowd of 150… It was like a last round qualifying match on a back court in Pakistan!
After a long 70 minutes of unappealing and ugly squash the score is 13-all in the fifth game and I’m thinking: “Why doesn’t he lie down??” the unwritten rule ‘you win one, I win one’ memorized in the back of my mind. I finally win the match on a stroke (!) and ashamed of the performance, a few hands clapping here and there, we walk off to the changing room where the following conversation took place:
Me: “Wow man, this was like playing a local in Pakistan. What happened? Why didn’t you lie down?”
Fellow pro: “Me, lie down?! I was waiting for you to take it easy!”
Me: “Come on, man. You beat me last time, now I beat you. It’s only fair… Who cares anyway…”
Fellow pro: “I coach at this club, man. Would have been nice of you to let me win in front of my pupils…”
I felt pretty stupid not knowing the fact that my fellow pro was indeed the teaching pro at this club and that the majority of his pupils were there to witness the skill and excellence (and a victory…) of their local hero.
Yeah, that was pretty ugly.
Now we laugh about it.
The other difficult thing about playing a good exhibition is that it’s completely different, almost the opposite, of playing a tournament match where your priority, above all, is winning. Now you suddenly need to ‘open up’ the game to make spectacular shots possible as opposed to playing straight and tight (in a match) to PREVENT your opponent from playing those shots. Now you suddenly need to jump, dive and look good every rally whereas in tournament matches you try to conserve energy for when it matters.
All in all, it’s a difficult and extremely tiring affair but if pulled of right, a very rewarding one.
(Written Tuesday 28th of November,, Philadelphia)
Laurens
Jan Anjema: Audio Interview |
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