Hello and welcome to the English Like a Native podcast. My name is Anna, and today I'm taking you back to the gym. We've been going to the gym all week. And this time I'm going to take you on to the squash court to discover some more fabulous English vocabulary. Now, please don't switch off. I know that many of you listening will not be into squash. Certainly, probably not as much as I am. I am in love with squash. I love the sport. And I understand that many people won't play or at least won't be as into it as I am. To be into something means to be really interested in that thing. But it doesn't matter. Regardless of whether you love the sport or whether you are completely unaware of the sport, there'll be lots of vocabulary that will be relevant for life in general. So stick around and maybe pull out a pen and take some notes. That would be useful. I have five items of vocabulary that I specifically want to give to you today, but as I talk off the cuff, I'm sure that many items of vocabulary will be thrown into the bag. Okay, so when I go to the gym, usually I'm going to play squash. As I've mentioned, it's my sport of passion. I love it. And so I go early on a Sunday morning. I will give up my lie-in. A lie-in is when you sleep longer than usual and just allow yourself to wake up naturally without an alarm, without being prompted by someone else. So I give up my lie-in in order to go to the gym early on a Saturday and a Sunday morning to play squash. I'll also go out late in the evening to play matches with other people. I love squash because it is quite sociable and it's also a very fast-paced sport. There's no waiting for someone else to have their turn. You're constantly running around with your heart racing, the sweat dripping, and you feel like you're really working your body. But also, there's a lot of skill involved and tactics, so you have to really think about your gameplay. So it can be a very mentally taxing game as well. Now, I play lots of different types of matches. Most of my games are friendly, so I go to a lot of socials. A social is what we would call any kind of organized event for sports played in a sociable manner. So if I'm playing a tennis social, then lots of people will come together for a tennis event and they'll all play tennis, but it's not a competition. There's no prize involved. It's just people coming together, playing the sport, having fun. Often there'll be snacks and refreshments available as well. And it's more about socializing with other people who enjoy the sport as well. So there are many squash socials that happen in my area, not just at my usual gym, but at other gyms as well. And I like to get to know my community. So I go to lots of different gyms to take part in squash socials. When I'm playing a one-on-one match, to play one-on-one is uh a single person against a single person, then that match could be a friendly. A friendly match is a match played for fun rather than for any official competition or league. So you might say to me, Anna, you're headed to the squash court. Are you playing a match? Yes, I have a match at 7.30. Oh, is it a league match or a friendly? Yeah, it's just a friendly. Oh, okay. So a friendly is a friendly match played for fun. Sometimes I'll play a league match, and a league match is a match that counts towards a league that you're playing within. Or it might be a team match. Now, a team match would refer to a match where you're representing your club and playing against a team from another club. So it's like club versus club. So that would be a team match. Now, within a match, you would hope to have some fun rallies. You want to be evenly matched with your opponent, and that means that you are of a similar skill level. Because if you're not evenly matched, then the game could be over quite quickly. Someone will be thrashed. To be thrashed is to be beaten severely. You know, I might not get any points if I'm completely thrashed by my opponent, and you don't want that because that doesn't help you when you are completely thrashed. It doesn't help you to improve because you don't get much play. So it's good to be evenly matched, and you want to have good long rallies. A rally is a continuous exchange of shots between two players before someone wins the point. So I will serve the ball, and my opponent will hit it back, and I'll hit it back, and they'll hit it back, and we'll keep running around, keep hitting it back and forth to one another. Not to one another. We're trying to stop the other person from getting the return, but you're hitting the ball, and if you hit it a number of times and you get to run a lot, and it feels like you're really working, then that's a good rally. And you might say, Oh, that was a great rally. Woo-hoo! One thing that I try to do when I'm on court is to think about my tactics. One tactic is to really try to dominate the court, and you should try to do this in every every round because it means that you will be able to work smart, not hard. So if you can dominate the court, then you don't have to run as much. But it's hard to dominate the court. You have to outsmart or outplay your opponent. What do I mean, dominate the court? To dominate the court is to control the game because you're playing much better, but more physically, it means that you're mostly standing in the middle of the court. And that's a perfect place to be when you're playing squash. You want to be positioned mostly in the middle of the court because then you have a short distance to reach any area of the court. A few steps to the back, a few steps to the front, a few steps to the side. You have everything covered. So you want to dominate the court by being in the middle. But of course, you have to play well in order to be able to dominate the court. Because your opponent could just send the ball to the very far corner and make you run away from the middle so that then they can take over the middle of the court and then they dominate the court. So you want to try to dominate in the game. Now, towards the end of the game, when there's only one point left before one of you takes the win, that point that you then play to achieve is called match point. You'll hear this in tennis and in squash, and possibly in the other racket sports as well. Match point is that last point. In squash, we tend to play up to 15 points. So whoever gets to 15 first is the winner. So if the score is 14 8, then the the referee or the marker will call match point and you'll play knowing that this could be the last point of the round. If you're playing well, then you might use the idiom to be firing on all cylinders. To be firing on all cylinders. Cylinders we spell C Y L I N D E R S. Cylinders. To be firing on all cylinders means you're performing at your highest level. That you're full of energy and you're focused and you're doing a great job. So if I feel good on the court, we're having some great rallies, then someone might say, Wow, Anna is firing on all cylinders today. On the flip side of that, if you're having a terrible time, you have no energy, you can't focus, the rallies are short, you cannot dominate the court, then you might apologize and say, I'm really sorry, I'm not firing on all cylinders today. One thing I find interesting about playing squash is how much my mentality can impact how I play. If it's a competitive match and I really want to win, but I'm losing the round and falling behind my opponent, I'll start to get angry and frustrated. And this makes me a more aggressive player. So I will try to push myself forward, I'll try to dominate the court, and I'll maybe also use different tactics or serve differently in order to change the outcome. But in trying to do things differently, usually I end up playing worse by being too aggressive. I lose focus. And so I have to give myself a mental pep talk, as if I were my own coach. Calm down, Anna. Take a deep breath. It doesn't matter that you're behind. We can get this back. Take a deep breath, focus, remember your technique, just focus on getting the ball back. Don't hit it out. So there's a lot of mental preparation that I have to do before a match, and throughout the match, this continual reminder that I just need to focus on my game and not worry about the points. At the end of the day, at the level that I'm playing, it doesn't really matter whether I win or lose. It's wonderful to get trophies and little plaques. I love it. I love winning competitions. I'm very competitive by nature. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that I improve and I feel like I've played a good game. And in fact, sometimes I go to a team match, I play a competitive match against a really good player, and they thrash me, but we had a few good rallies, and I come away feeling good even though I was thrashed. People will say to me, Oh, I'm so sorry that you that you lost. And I'll say, It's fine. I had a great time. I had a good time because I know that I played my best, and I actually played better than usual against a player who is phenomenal. So I'm really pleased with my performance. So I try to hold in mind only rating myself against my previous performance, not against my opponent's performance. And I think that's really relevant for English learning or any skill that you're trying to brush up. Always focus on your own journey. Don't compare yourself to others. Okay, so a recap of the vocabulary that I wanted to give to you today. A friendly, talking about a match that is just for fun. I'm going to play a friendly. A rally being that continuous exchange of shots that eventually ends in a point being one. The rally. To dominate the court, which is to control the game, control the court by being in a strong position and outplaying your opponent. Match point. Match point. That moment in the match where a player only needs one point to win. Match point. And the idiom to be firing on all cylinders, which you can use in any situation when talking about performing at your highest level with full energy and full focus. To be firing on all cylinders. Wonderful. Well, if you've ever considered stepping onto the squash court, then I can advocate for the sport. Anyone can enjoy this sport. You don't have to be super fit. Many people think that it's a game just for the elite, for the athletes, for those who are gym bunnies and have lots of energy. But actually, I've played with 90-year-olds who are hobbling around the court. I've played with complete beginners. And you just have to have an open mind and know that at every level there are people around the same level as you who can give you a good game. You will build your stamina, you'll build your strength, you'll build your agility, your ability to move around fast, and you'll make friends. So I think it's a wonderful sport. I hope you will give it a go someday. Let me know in the comments what your sport of choice is. And that wraps up this week of visiting my gym. I hope you've enjoyed it. Until next week, take care and goodbye.