This week, there was a moment I really needed to keep my cool on the squash court. I was about to go up 2 games to 1 against a very good player, someone I’ve lost to in the past. I hit a winning shot, a boast, and I heard him mutter to himself, “Cover that […]

In my latest two matches — one a league match and the other a practice match — I was focused on just playing the game. This brought immediate benefits to my game. By focus on the point at hand, instead of worrying about my strategy and and tactics and whatnot, I was able to focus […]

During my squash league match this week, I tried to use some of the ideas I’d been working on recently: staying in front of my opponent, and playing a “tidy” game. The results were very erratic. Some points flowed smoothly and I felt in control of the match. Other times I would space out and […]

When I played played squash tonight, I tried to stay in front of my opponent, like I promised in the last post. This was a disaster. My opponent, who I typically beat, was cutting all my shots off early and running me ragged around the court. I lost the first 2 games pretty badly. Thinking […]

When I’m playing my best squash, I’m at the T and my opponent is stuck in the back. I’m quite tall — 6 foot 4 — and it must be frustrating for any opponent of mine to be stuck in the back, trying to dislodge me from the T. I know this because whenever I […]

Welcome to the very first post in my squash blog. My name is Pierre Bastien and I’ve been playing squash since I was about 13 years old. I played on the varsity teams at Exeter and Princeton. These days I play once or twice a week, mostly to stay in shape. I started this website, […]