|
| |
THE BOSS IS BACK
 It’s
nice to see the Boss holding an Eventis trophy at last… But most of all,
it’s nice to see him play at his best, and not to suffer for him thinking
“he’s got to win in three, he’ll never make a fourth one…”.
Last year, I had a long
chat with the man, here in Sheffield, during the last English
Open, where I got the scoop about him retiring after the Commonwealth
games, that, when he stopped squash, he would start living…
But no talk about that anymore… Fit, trimmed, new hair cut, the Boss is
back in training…
So, what happened???
 It
was a slow process, both mentally and physically, which started over
Christmas. Slowly, I changed my training regime, cut down on the going
out, on the drink, and slowly increasing my training hours…
Then, the real click happened at the Super Series Finals in Broadgate,
London. I was fit, everybody else was exhausted after a long season, but I
wasn’t exhausted at all! And then I had that stupid injury to my finger.
And that really really p… me off. The last day of the Super Series, I was
on the track running, and I haven’t stopped running since…
So was it only a physical issue then?
No, it was very mental… For the past three months, I gradually came back
to very heavy training, but I introduced it slowly, little by little, to
allow the mental to cope with the training, to be sure that mentally and
physically, I could cope with it every day…
Do you realise how amazing you are? For nearly two years, with
virtually no training, hanging on in the top 3, and in three months, a bit
of training, and you are killing everybody 3/0!
Well, not when I’m playing… When I’m playing, I just get on with the job.
But after, when I stop for five minutes, I realise that yes, actually,
that was not too bad… And for the first time in my life, when somebody
tells me “you’ve played well”, I replied “Yes, I played well, yes I’m
moving well”…
Talking about playing well, I thought you were quite cruel this
week, you were playing with your opponents like with puppets on a string…
 Alan
Moody, from Mamut, used the right word, he said that I was like a cat with
the mouse… I didn’t want to win, that wouldn’t have been enough, I wanted
to dominate them mentally, to crucify them… It was all about mental
dominance…
But I know that this won’t work with other players, with the top guys who
are much stronger, physically and mentally…
But I also know what I’m doing wrong, I’m playing too short, I’m not
cutting the ball enough, etc, etc, there are a lot of things to be worked
on… But now, I’m more balanced I think…
I’m more focused during a tournament, what is important is to play, and to
play well, winning being secondary, and then, after the tournament, I can
relax and enjoy, I can let go… Whereas before, it would be all one or the
other.. I guess I’m in the process of growing up…
So, retiring, not retiring??
I’m not sure… I’m going to play it by ear… I know that on the timetable,
there is this season, definitely, with the Commonwealth Games. After that,
I will probably still want to play, but at what level, at what standard,
I’m not sure. I may want to stay in top form though, because I love
winning, I love competing…
But I’ll see, day by day how I feel, I will just let it happen
naturally...
 |
|
|
