In Hong Kong, there is a thriving squash community.
If you are not familiar with the fast-paced and healthiest sport in the world, here is a short clip (see 1:22 for the ‘exciting’ bit) of some professional squash.
See the end of this post for the healthiest activity in the world.
When I lived in HK I began playing squash again, after a 12-year break. I had been a top junior player, ranked #2 in Australia. Then, mainly due to a lingering back issue, I let it go.
Because of having trained Wing Chun kung fu for quite a few years, the back issue began to release in HK and I was experiencing more freedom in my body.
So I started playing squash again.
Over the next three years I increased the amount I was playing more and more, and even got to have a hit with a guy I used to play with as a junior, who was then #11 in the world, Cameron Pilley.
Here he is (in blue) going easy on me at a charity event!
During that time I created a squash fitness website, including a YouTube channel.
I was sharing my knowledge of having been one of the fittest guys on the junior circuit with my subsequent background in martial arts, combining all the new exercises & approaches I had learned.
It was a fun & engaging time.
In Turkey, where I live now, the squash scene is quite a contrast to HK – a distinct lack of courts and competition.
While I still coach a handful of hours per week at Hilton Hotel, Izmir, I’ve essentially had to let the game go again.
Now, I’m on a patient stretching adventure.
For this reason, combined with a change in perspective on certain exercises, I haven’t been working on my squash fitness website.
It’s kind of hanging around on the outskirts of my awareness.
Lingering.
In the next month or so, I plan to redesign the site and change a few things so:
- This lingering feeling will clear up; and
- The path might clear to possibly add some more content (possibly).
If you want to be clear to pursue a new endeavor – or adopt any new habit – it’s useful to tie up loose ends.
This doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning anything.
But as humans, we don’t like open loops.
If there is something lingering, we will never be completely free to move forward.
We need to close it so something else can will inevitably open.