BLOG FROM ANDREW MCDOUGALL
Touring Squash Pro

Hello TAC squash members!

Happy New Year to you all and I hope this year brings even more love, success, and well being into your lives than the last year. 

In the last blog post I left you guys, and myself, with the very optimistic hope that I could complete 1000 drops per day for a month.  It turns out that I have not been even close to completing that challenge.  I tried it for a couple of weeks in October, but my body was not able to handle the repeated lunging.  I’m beginning to realize how hard squash really is!  My brain was definitely ahead of my body on that one!  I will still one day complete that drop shot challenge but it will happen a little ways in the future.  

That brings me to the update about how my recovery is progressing.  I was taking anti-inflammatories for most of October and some of November, and that gave me a bit of a false sense of how my body was feeling.  Also, throughout October and November I still had not fully mentally accepted the fact that this was an injury that I could not force my way through.  In essence my body was telling me to yield but I was choosing not to listen!  That is until I had a bit of a breakdown in late November.  On December 1st (I even remember the day) I had a mental shift in perception in regards to how I chose to view the injury.  I fully yielded to it and chose to listen to what was best for my body and mind.  And since that day I have been able to handle the ups and downs of the recovery process with more grace and patience.

I am now getting very close to recovery.  There is still some nerve stuff hanging on and it is very difficult to say how long this will last, and also how much this will effect my progress back to full match play.  I am hoping to play a few tournaments in March and/or April if my body feels up for it, but if I don’t make it back for that time I am shooting for the Nationals in May. 

Also, I would love to give a shout out to Chris Broadhurst and the crew in the Sports Medicine Clinic at the TAC.  Chris, Lawrence and the team are amazing at what they do.  Chris and Lawrence are for sure two of the most knowledgeable and professional individuals I have ever worked with.  They have helped my recovery immensely, and if anyone ever gets an injury I would highly recommend heading downstairs to the Sports Medicine Clinic.  They will fix you up in no time!

That’s it for now.  Keep those competitive juices flowing everyone.  I’m enjoying walking into the squash area and seeing the regulars scrapping it out each and every day. 

See you around the courts!
Andrew