Women's Squash California Training Trip Sucsessful

2014 San Diego Squash Training Trip
by: Zainab Molani

Our trip began with a long plane ride to San Diego directly from the Boston airport. The plane ride itself was uneventful, but allowed some of us to catch up on sleep or Netflix shows. When we arrived at the San Diego airport, we went to the car rental center and picked up four giant Yukon XL cars. These cars were hilariously giant, yet fitting all of our luggage in them was still a challenging experience. However, we made it to the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club without any hitches.

The next morning we were off to the courts! Our training began with drills in the morning and in the afternoon we had our first fitness session which consisted of a 45 minute run around La Jolla. In between sessions, we stocked up on groceries for our apartment-style hotel rooms and also made a stop at Starbucks for some much-needed refreshments. These Starbucks runs became a frequent stop after every morning practice for the women's team. After our first full day, we had a team dinner at a tapas restaurant in town. The atmosphere was really great and it was nice to get dinner with the entire team, funded by our generous Friends of Dartmouth Squash.

The next week went by incredibly fast. Each morning we took part in a squash session at the San Diego Squash Club courts and every afternoon we had a fitness session. One of the best fitness sessions was after a tough few days of practices and came as a much-needed active recovery game of capture the flag. It was low tide on the beach which gave us a lot of room for a field. We played for more than an hour and it was a friendly yet competitive game; one of the teams showed great prowess and crushed the other team with a decisive score.

Our squash sessions were quite intense. The drills ranged from simple boast drive or feeding to drills that required more movement and shot selection. One of the favorite drills of the women's team consisted of two people per side with one person in the back feeding the ball to the person in the front. The person in the front had to focus on precision and hitting her drives cleanly and tightly down the side wall to be able to maintain a good position. The women liked this drill a lot because it required attention to the accuracy and precision of each shot.

During the first week, the entire women's team and some select players from the men's team made the drive to Irvine where we played against some of the locals and a Dartmouth alum at the Equinox club. After we finished playing, the gym had a rooftop workout set up for us. It was incredible to be able to do a boot-camp style workout on top of this facility looking out over the rest of the city. Everyone there was so friendly and the trainers that put us through the rooftop workout were incredibly upbeat. After the workout, we headed back to San Diego, but not before stopping at In and Out for burgers in a true Californian west coast style.

Our next long driving trip was to the famous city of Los Angeles. We all met up on Venice Beach and afterwards we split up in our respective cars to explore L.A. Half of the women's team went to Beverly Hills and the other half of the women's team went to Santa Monica Pier. Then both the men's and women's teams met up at the Hollywood sign to take group pictures. It was fun to see such an iconic landmark. There was even an ice cream truck at the top of the hill where we took the photo! After our photo shoot, we went to the L.A. Athletic Club where four of the men and one of the women played competitive matches against some of the members there. The rest of us made use of the nice facilities at the club to get a good workout in.

During the second week of our trip, we had a well-deserved “off day” to take advantage of the unique opportunities in La Jolla and San Diego. The teams split up to do whatever activity they chose. Some of the men's team went to the zoo while some of the members of the women's squash team decided to go kayaking in the ecological reserve in front of the resort. This kayaking experience was really fun and we even learned that Dr. Seuss had lived in La Jolla cove. We saw some of his inspirations for the children's books he wrote. The trees in The Lorax were based off of the trees that lined the cove; the fish in One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish were based off of a fish that lives in the cove that starts blue as a baby and turns orange; the sneeches were based off of seals that play in the cove's waters. Our tour guides were fantastic and humorous and they made the experience one to remember, as did the sea lion that swam around our kayaks in the water.

After our off day, the second week of training began and we were back to morning and afternoon training sessions. One of the most fun squash days involved a mixed doubles tournament with the men's team and a one-point tournament. This built a lot of friendly comradery amongst the teams and it was a nice change of pace from the drills and match play. We also did a tennis doubles tournament, and Hansi and Theo even played! Theo and junior Tori Dewey ended up winning the entire tournament.

The team went out for a few more dinners throughout the course of the trip. One of the best dinners was at Hash House A Go Go where the portions were gigantic and the source of much amusement. The food was good too but we could not finish all of it, no matter how hard we tried. Another notable dinner was at the Piatti restaurant in La Jolla. This restaurant had amazing Italian food and was a nice treat for everyone. All of the dinners were nice ways to bond with the team and it was always good to sit next to different people every time to get to know everyone better. When we had to go out for our own dinners, there were so many wonderful restaurants in town and one of our teammates, Hanna Balcha, who is from San Diego, knew exactly where to go.

Overall, the trip to San Diego was an unforgettable experience with a perfect balance of fun and hard work. The hotel on the beach was incredible and a nice change from snowy Hanover. The weather was warm as well and we were able to swim in the ocean, we just had to watch out for stingrays! The women's team had a lot of fun on this trip and we grew closer together as a teammates and friends.

Schedules