Runa Reta - WISPA Squash Pro on Tour on www.squashtalk.com

Runa Reta - back on court this summer after an intense four months in the classroom in Ottawa (Photo © F Borchert)

Have you ever gone into a competition not having prepared as well as you had liked only to surprise yourself with a stunning performance? Why do we sometimes play better having trained less, and can we glean any lessons from this strange phenomenon?

The first week of May, I played in the Canadian Nationals after being caught up in school for the last 4 months and having minimal time to train.

I was nervous about the event since I had played so little leading up to the competition that I wasn’t entirely convinced I could even hit the ball properly, let alone live up to my #1 seeding. Stepping onto the glass however, all the feelings of nervous excitement came rushing back to me; the only difference was that this time, I was able to enjoy and appreciate the feeling of playing in a big event like this. Rather than being overcome with pressure, my state of mind was much calmer and more relaxed. After several months locked up in dingy libraries, it was refreshing to be back on court, playing in front of crowds and enjoying the moment….something that professionals rarely take the time to do.

To my great surprise, I performed really well, hitting with pace and confidence- (a combination that I struggled to find while playing full-time), and fooling everyone into believing that I had been training regularly on the squash court. While I was pleased with this deception (admittedly, it was hard answering questions from reporters who wanted to know how hard I had trained leading up to Nationals-- standard answer: “um yeah, I’ve been doing my thing…staying in the zone…hitting some balls…?!”) it was upsetting that it took me this long to discover such a brilliant plan- train less, perform better!

But was this just a freak coincidence? Did I perform well only because I didn’t feel any pressure or expectations, or was it because the lessened time on court had given me a new vigor and perspective on the game? While the first explanation definitely holds the greatest weight in my situation (as I’ve always struggled with nerves and pressure at National championships), I think that there is something to be learned from changing up training routines to attain optimal performance. In an intensive sport like squash, where there is a never-ending list of areas to improve on, and where all responsibility lies on the individual to synthesize thousands of pieces of information on a daily basis, one can easily get run down both mentally and physically; in such a state, athletes may not even realize that routines have lost their edge, just as they have lost theirs in continually perpetuating the same monotonous cycles. Just like in weight training, where it is recommended to rotate strength exercises every 5-7 weeks so that muscles don’t adapt to a specific form of exertion, athletes too, need to change what they are doing on a regular basis, both for physical purposes (ie. preventing injury or burnout), and to stay fresh mentally. And this can include decreasing one’s workload.

To be sure, I’m not pushing this idea simply based on my one event; experienced players of all professions often talk about how they have reduced the amount of hours spent training, going for quality over quantity. Even though many of these athletes have made this choice because their bodies can no longer take the strain of twice-a-day training sessions, it’s important to remember that less is sometimes more, and that at some point, there is just so much boast and drive that you can do that will continue to serve the purpose of elevating your game; having the confidence that you are sufficiently prepared- physically and technically- is a difficult but important concession for any player to make (while sadly, the same fussiness over preparation does not seem to be devoted to the mental side of the game).

WISPA chairman Andrew Shelley is always telling the women: “practice is over-rated”. While he was never world champion, and nor am I, there is something to be said about training wisely, and constantly striving to find new, inventive ways to switch up training programs that will cater to your physical and mental needs as a squash player. This advice is equally applicable for coaches as well.

I recently spoke to a coach who was explaining the frustrations of having to repeatedly say the same things to his young players, to no avail. Recognizing that he had started to sound like a broken record, rather than continue to say things like “get your racquet up” or “get the ball to the back of the court” he would occasionally comment instead (jokingly): “don’t you think that it would be easier to just learn what I’m telling you to do, rather than have me repeat these same boring lines to you over and over again?!” This example illustrates a simple yet effective way that coaches can work creatively to enhance the learning experience for players, by making changes to the ordinary routine to keep them alert and on their toes.

It’s absolutely key for athletes (and coaches) to be able to step back from their everyday training and evaluate the bigger picture to see what is effective and what needs to be changed to get the most out of what they are working on. For me, having hit a mental slump with my training in 2006, going back to school was a good way to change my circumstances and return with a whole new perspective on the game. I got back on court reinvigorated and able to compete without the same mental anguish of the previous year- and all this from playing less!

That being said, even a positive, fresh mental reawakening couldn’t save me from the walloping that I received in the finals from an opponent who had surely been doing more than philosophizing about the joys of life away from the squash court, as I had been doing throughout the year! This final outcome put a serious damper on my “no training” theory, leading me to confess that this may not be an idea that I could (or should) be selling to kids and coaches. However, I wouldn’t prescribe blindly following the “more is more” method either.

Squash is a complicated, individual, year-round sport; the strain that our athletes undergo on a daily basis is tremendous, and yet this is a reality that often gets ignored or overlooked. Striking the right balance between quantity and quality is the real challenge in sport, and finding this optimal equilibrium sometimes requires throwing old conventions out the window and conceding to creative, counter-intuitive practices like the “less is more” phenomenon every now and again, to ensure the best physical and mental state of a competing athlete.