The little devil on your shoulder. 

In my opinion there is nothing more dangerous to your performance in squash, or for that matter any sport, than complacency.

One phrase that typifies it for me and one that I hear a lot is ‘you should beat him/her’. Why should I beat them? Sport isn’t a foregone conclusion. We wouldn’t bother turning up otherwise. We might as well all give up. Yet if I had a pound for every time I heard someone utter that phrase, well I’d probably have retired from squash coaching by now.

Never expect to win

You should never go onto court thinking you should win. Thinking you could win is an entirely different thing and a very positive feeling to have. Thinking that you should win or that you deserve to win though could be the death nail in your game.

Once you start thinking you should win or that you are better than your opponent, everything starts to unravel. Perhaps you prepare for the game a little less seriously (maybe you even play or go to the gym the same day thinking it will be good to get a proper run around before the match – or both – that was a massive mistake), warm-up half-heartedly and then start expecting your opponent to be so overawed by your quality they won’t get most of your shots back.

You might not be quite so foolish but no matter how hard you try, if you start thinking for a second that you are better than your opponent, you will start to decline. Your concentration and focus of course slip first and this is slowly followed by your shot selection and anticipation. Of course once these start to go, your quality of shots won’t be long after as your opponent will take advantage of your poor choices and you won’t be in as strong a position for your own shot. Once the quality starts to go, you of course start to win fewer points. Very quickly, this can spiral out of control and you can find yourself becoming frustrated, which of course leads to further problems. Eventually, it can all completely snowball and result in you producing one of the worst performances you’ve ever churned out. You’ll quite conceivably lose to someone you should never have lost to and tell anyone who can listen you’re a better player than that.

Make sure you don’t get caught out. Ignore anyone telling you that you should beat someone. If you are playing someone who is supposedly inferior to you or is someone you consistently beat, set yourself a challenge. Perhaps tell yourself you will keep your opponent’s game scores under four points, play with a handicap or be aiming to do something difficult such as taker everything before the back wall. A target like this is a great way of focusing a wandering mind.

You are only as good as your last match. In fact, you’re only as good as your last point. Never forget that. Just as there’s always another day for you, there’s another day for your opponent and this may be their day. All those motivational one liners work both ways.

You can read more about getting focused pre-match and during the match in our page on ‘Getting in the Zone’.