Where there’s smoke there’s fire…

Several squash players at the club read this blog and got upset over what I’d written.

I was amazed. I didn’t think anyone other than my mother had read it. I haven’t pushed On the Mat even though it’s on the web for anyone to read. You have to work to find it. I don’t post regularly. I write it for myself.

That posting was mostly about me and how when the competitive juices start flowing, I can unravel. Many athletes have this challenge – look at Jeremy Shockey.

But he’s a professional. I play squash for fun, and the match referenced in that posting wasn’t.

I’d spoken directly with that player immediately after the game. He apologized and said that he meant that comment as a complement. He’s a nice guy, but he’s got a temper on the court; and what was most unnerving about it, was that I saw myself in his anger. That was what my last posting was all about.

The story of what transpired during that match took on a whole new dimension at the club: what I said, what he said. It’s not worth trying to set the record straight here.

The point of the posting was the fact that I needed to address how I react under pressure during competition. Now the question is: how do I react now that a bunch of guys at the squash club are up in arms?

My knee-jerk reaction is to drop out of the ladder. But it might be good to stay on. I desperately need the exercise and now that I’ve worked my way up to the 2nd group, I’ll get challenging games. Most I’ll probably lose, and that’s okay. I need the cardio and the practice of being put under pressure. This isn’t meant to be disrespectful to players in group 3 and 4, but for the most part, there’s a huge gap between two and three.

The same can be said at the top of the ladder. There are 3 or 4 guys so good; I rarely can win a game off of them, let alone a match.

But I am sorry for the guy that I played, because it appears as if I’ve singled him out here. That wasn’t my intention, and I will apologize. I truly never thought anyone from the club read this. My guess is, most haven’t, but that won’t prevent them from having an opinion about it. Besides, Chuck Morgan helps me write this and often we take his experience and blend it -- that was the whole purpose of the two blogs on blogger.com -- to push the envelope,blur fact and fiction. Sometimes that edge cuts; in this case, it cut both ways...

I guess that’s the way these things work…