Despite an intense practice game at the squash court, a barefaced Tweetie de Leon-Gonzalez still looked like a model and much younger than her 48 years.  Squash isn’t just her fountain of youth but also her advocacy.

Over the years, she has been creating awareness for the sport and organizing an annual tournament. The Adidas Celebrity Squash Championship was held recently at the Manila Polo Club.

Gonzalez quoted an article on Forbes.com that said squash was the No. 1 preferred game of Wall Street. In a short time, it provides an extraordinary workout for the heart, lungs and overall body. A thousand calories are burned in an hour. The drawn-out rallies and continuous chasing of the ball strengthen the lower body and improve stamina. The pouncing, sudden twists in the torsos and turns require suppleness in the upper body.

She explained that what makes squash challenging is hitting the ball against the wall until the challenger can’t return it anymore. The ball is permitted to hit the floor only once before each shot. “If it bounces twice, then the ball is dead and you lose the point,” she explained.

However, the ball can hit as many walls as the player chooses.

To meet these rigorous demands, Gonzalez recommends cross-training such as yoga for stretching. “You need a cardio workout for endurance because the rallies can get very long,” she added.

Strategies

“It’s a game of strategies. Sometimes your opponent is quicker than you are, but you can find ways to outsmart him/her,” she said.

This means keeping a calm and clear mind and focusing on the target. Before a game, Gonzalez warms up with exercises for the inner thighs for power and stretching the hip flexors for more movement range.

“Many squash players have nice buns and strong legs,” she noted.

The Adidas Celebrity Squash Championship is also a social sport for the fashion industry, a way to bond and to get friends such as designer Rhett Eala back in shape.

Eala practically grew up with squash until he got busy with work. After coronary bypass surgery, he tried to get back into exercise. “Yoga was a bit painful because of the chest lifts,” he said referring to beginner poses like baby cobra and reverse warrior.

Recovering patients are advised to undertake sports that engage the large muscles of the lower body. “I need to play to get my heart pumping again, but I have to stop occasionally,” said Eala.

Then there are the seasoned players such as businessman Eduardo “Dudo” Vaca and architect Gil Coscolluela, who join for the camaraderie. Vaca said in jest he gets a beating from the formidable Coscolluela. Both men are left-handed.

“We get to trick the opponent because everybody is right-handed. Everybody thinks the ball is going this way,” said Coscolluela. A left-handed player could angle the racket in an unexpected way that sends the ball to its target.

Cardio workout

Coscolluela, who grew up in a family of tennis players, took up squash upon the prodding for friends. “You pack a lot in a short time. In 30 minutes, you sweat like a horse. The strokes are the same as tennis, but the court sense is different,” he said. “In squash, you’re playing within four walls and you use those walls. There is more lunging, moving back quickly, and sudden bursts of movements. In tennis, you hit and run back into your position, wait and hit.”

Lawyer Karen Jimeno, TV host of “Legal Help Desk,” also ventured from tennis to squash. “In tennis, your opponent is on the other side of the court. You don’t get to experience the company. Squash is more intimate…”

Squash has also become the means for members of the Professional Models Association of the Philippines to become acquainted with the sport. Despite not having squash training, Gonzalez’s friends give their full support.

As a child, model-turned-yoga teacher Bubbles Paraiso and her friends practiced their strokes by hitting the wall while their parents played on the courts.

“We called it palo-palo. Squash reminded me of our childhood drills except that we used a tennis ball, which is bigger and we let it bounce,” she said.

After getting accustomed to the slow and sustained movements of yoga, she had to get into the groove of the explosive movements of squash.

Rissa Trillo, another model-turned-entrepreneur and tennis player, said: “Tweetie mixes up people in a team, according to the level. Even if everyone feels competitive and we meet for the first time, we bond together. For us models, it’s a nice way to get together outside of the catwalk or a photo shoot.”

Unlike Paraiso, Trillo and makeup artist Baba Parma who played tennis since childhood,  Phoemela Baranda gamely joins despite her lack of training. “I’m a late player. Car racing is my sport,” she said.

Gonzalez acknowledged her friends’ support. “One call from me and they don’t hesitate. I’m happy that Rhett [Eala] is getting back to a sport which he enjoyed as a child.”