Digital Squash Magazine Not There Yet

I've been trying to keep my yapper shut for a while to give the magazine time to get over the inevitable miscues of a new publishing endeavor. But the time for caution has past.

I have complained about Squash Magazine before, but I was very hopeful that the new arrangement with US Squash, in which the two "merged operations," would benefit both the magazine and, probably more importantly, the website. The magazine, despite being peppered with grammatical and layout mistakes, is demonstrably better, although it still suffers from reportage based on events that have happened too long ago to make for scintillating reading. But there are new elements that have appeared and the overall tone has improved. So, okay ....

The website for the publication, which was nothing short of pathetic before the merger, now is, well, still pathetic. In viewing the site on December 30, I see a series of articles, all of which are dated October 1. There is a column dubbed "Recent Posts," which again lists articles dated October 1. There is the slight saving grace of a column labeled "US Squash News" that does indeed have more recent items, but who is going to bother to look for these few items when the rest of the homepage screams October 1, fully 3 months earlier?! It's a shame.

I had hoped that the involvement of US Squash would include some concern about the website and its presentation, but that is clearly not the case. If so, then please god kill the site. Why have it available when it is an embarrassment? I don't get it. 

The website has its own tile ad on US Squash's homepage, so clearly the organization wants readers to go there, but for what? 

My (unsolicited) advice: Kill the website until there is the time and money to support it.

My even better (unsolicited) advice: Kill the publication, and put all your efforts into a great website.

US Squash: Are You Forgetting Someone?

The other day US Squash announced that they are "seeking Regional Squad Assistant Coaches for the advertising [sic] 2013-2014 season." This is an admirable effort, the purpose of which is to "bring together the broadest base of talent from across the country" so that promising players can train together with like players in their region. The goal is to eventually enhance the National Teams.

There's only one problem. The country has been divided into 7 regions: New England, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, the Mid Atlantic region, the Great Lakes region, and the West Coast.

This nicely accounts for the traditional 'squash states' along the I-95 corridor, and recognizes the Chicagoland area, but completely overlooks Atlanta and the rest of the South, where there has been significant activity lately, and all of the Midwest, Dallas, and Denver and the Mountain states. It also lumps together the entire West Coast, which is one big lump. 

I've heard one complaint several times before about US Squash, whose very name implies a nation-wide organization, and that is this: US Squash routinely overlooks and does not care for squash players unless they are in the customary powerhouse states. 

What about smaller squash communities that can be no less dedicated? Memphis, I know, has a solid core of squash enthusiasts. I've played in Louisville, and they love their squash there. I've played in Dallas and Denver, what about them?

US Squash wants to grow the game, and they work hard at it—a very dedicated bunch of people over there... 

But they have to break out of an old pattern of doing business and pay more attention to the first two letters of their name. Think national, fellas, it's time. (And that's good news, by the way.)

US Squash Wants a Big Final Push

There has been much commentary lately about the chances for squash to finally get into the Olympics, and the commentary seems to boil down to this: Wrestling stands in the way.

But there is no doubt that this time the squash bid to the IOC is a good one, and that getting the sport into the Olympics would make a great difference in terms of worldwide funding for the sport. It means a lot on multiple levels, including for the fans, the elite players themselves, the squash associations around the world, and the Olympic experience. Although wrestling does indeed stand in the way, squash still might be able to pull it off.

Kevin Klipstein, CEO of US Squash, released this video in which he explains the current situation and asks for personal and club involvement to raise the additional funds necessary to make one final big push. I agree with everything he says, and have been impressed during this campaign with US Squash's dedication to pursuing the Olympic dream:



I plan on shelling something out for the cause, and I hope you do too.

I do notice that Kevin looks like such a nice guy in this video, but I actually played squash with this very same man a week or so ago and I can assure you he is not a very nice fellow on the court. He showed not a bit of mercy, which is a fundamental quality of an advanced soul.

As it so happens, I also played squash recently with Bill "Buck-Wild" Buckingham, US Squash's Director of Member Services, who much like his boss Kevin appears to be a nice sort, but give him a racket and all bets are off. He played very well though, upping his game to the point where your reporter was forced to resort to spasmodic lurchings about the court to squeeze out a win. Buckingham seemed to have it out for me.... I have to watch that guy....

And one more member of US Squash I'd like to mention.... Peter Lasusa. Peter and I go way back, back to Columbia, where we both attended college, and even further, as we both knew one another through intersecting personal friendships back in high school. Peter is a very successful businessman who became Board Chair of US Squash. That type of volunteerism is nothing new to Peter, who has been active in a range of causes over the years, including doing work in support of squash at Columbia as well as the University Club of New York. Peter proved so adept at his position at US Squash that they kept him on for a few additional years. His tenure has been an active one, and his counsel has been wise indeed, and is something that Kevin Klipstein and the rest of the US Squash crew will without doubt miss.

Peter and I used to have an active singles squash rivalry, and to this day Peter claims he bested me by at least a few percentage points over the full span of the years. I of course think he is delusional. The important thing is, he can't prove it! Peter then became obsessed with the doubles game, becoming a very good left-wall player, and on that score he did indeed prove too much for the Squashist.

Peter will be leaving US Squash as his tenure, extended though it was, is now up. I can only say to Peter, thanks, from the US Squash community, for an exceptional job. And if you'd like me to beat you in singles, give me a ring.

New York Squash All Abuzz

Here's a development that has gotten the New York City squash community to take notice: A proposed 16-court squash complex in downtown Manhattan, which has recently graduated from 'pipe dream' to 'quite possible.' And the idea is founded on a different model than similar concepts from the past. This club would be a non-profit, in essence a 'Squash YMCA." 

Check out their website for more info.

This could be something big.  16 courts big...., with 14 singles and 2 hardball doubles courts, plus an all-glass show court. Sweet.

 

Chris Gordon Rocks the NA Open

Chris "Flash" Gordon played a monumental match tonight at the North American Open, succumbing in 5 games to Tarek Momen, PSA world #11, a talented front-court player who seems destined for top-10 status. The key game was the 4th, which went well into overtime, with Gordon forcing a 5th decider with a final score of 21-19. But Gordon, who had battled through tough qualifying matches to get into the main draw, finally ran out of steam in the 5th.

Gordon happens to play at Cityview, where I play, and which might well be the best squash club in New York City. As I've noted before, I often play very early. One day earlier this month, there I was, ready to go at 6:30 AM, hopping on court to play Bill Buckingham, the dashing bon vivant who has become the sine qua non over at US Squash. 

Bill, ever observant, despite the hour, noticed that the other court was active, and discovered that on the court was Chris Gordon, already a half hour into an intense solo drill routine. 

That's right, he'd been there since 6 am, working his ass off, alternating between court drills and stepping outside to stretch and do workout routines. 

Kids, that's what it takes to take the world #11 to the very edge. There is a lot of dedication in that guy, no mistake.

I was so energized by Gordon's example of athleticism that I smoked old Bill Buckingham, not giving him a game. It was very unkind of me. Sorry Bill.

Chris Gordon played a great match tonight. He proved he does indeed deserve to play on the all-glass court. 

Gladiatorial?

Everything I've heard about the recent presentation before the Olympic bid committee, on December 19 in Lausanne, Switzerland, has been positive, and the production qualities of the two videos that were played at the bid meeting were great. They featured Ramy Ashour and the stellar Nicol David, who is not only the greatest female squash player that ever bounded across a court but also its greatest proponent. She will receive my vote for President of the World, should that vote ever come up... US Squash should take a bow as it has had quite a lot to do with the increased professionalism evident in this latest bid to the Olympics committee, but most of this work has occurred behind the scenes and, due to the politics of the bid, will remain that way.

James Willstrop was at the meeting and he said two things that I've been hearing a lot lately: "Squash represents the essence of Olympic sport. It’s gladiatorial given that we are the only racket sport where players share the same space, and to excel requires a mix of mental strategy, skill, athleticism and fitness..." 

Two things: First, I would think that racquetball players, whose numbers are still in the millions, might object to squash depicting itself as the only sport played in a box. This description of squash as being the sole boxed racket sport is being repeated all the time now, by various proponents of the game, and it is flat-out wrong. Being wrong bugs me; people should stop saying this.

Another thing that people keep saying lately is that the sport is "gladiatorial." Willstrop is not the first to say this; he is echoing someone in the squash establishment who, months ago, when trying to market the sport, had the word 'gladiatorial' pop into his or her head and the darn word got stuck there! 

When I read that word for the first time in the context of squash I thought, Wow, what a stretch, and how silly! Now, I keep seeing that word and I think, Jeez, enough with the gladiators! 

My point: There are lots of words that correctly describe squash that marketers, whose job it is to puff things up, could use to accomplish the task. When you use a word like 'gladiatorial,' the message gets lost in the medium. People stop and ponder the word, rather than the intent of the word. 

It's a fantastic sport; you'll find no stronger proponent than I. But its not the sole this or the gladiatorial that. 

More Thoughts on Whirled Squash Day

Grumbling from a few squashists about perceived inattention on the part of US Squash towards World Squash Day, including my own humble thoughts on this blog, has led US Squash to provide a list of the things they have done. That story is located here.

Seeing the list, I think they have done a pretty good job after all. I have my quibbles, but I won't bore you with them. 

I think the lesson here is perception versus reality. The reality is the organization had done quite a few things, and for me to say they hadn't was incorrect. But the perception of that inattention was not mine alone, so I think some thought should go into why that perception was out there.

One thing I noticed was this: Much of the activity on World Squash Day emanated from the usopensquash.com site, whose name implies coverage of a sole tournament. Not being able to go to that tournament, I didn't spend too much time on the site. US Squash has, however, put a fair amount of content on this site that is not specifically related to the tournament, and some of that content involved World Squash Day. There was much less going on at the US Squash website  -- hence, my perception was of minimalistic effort.

All that being said, I want to reiterate that I am a strong supporter of US Squash and always have been. I've said as much in several of my blogs. They have done a terrific job advancing the sport in the US with limited funds and with limited personnel. They have many constituents that they must try to help, and sometimes those constituents can't help but feel a bit abandoned. In addition, with the Olympics bid once again heating up, US Squash has done considerable work aiding the worldwide squash community's efforts to get into the quadrennial games. Much of that work has been behind the scenes and under the radar of the average fan.

So, the reality is, good work US Squash.  And my perception has improved.

Thoughts on 'World Squash Day'

World Squash Day was a success, having generated much-needed publicity for our game and providing a great excuse for the squash-infatuated public the world over to get together and play some squash. 

The publicity aspect is very important. Heightening the profile of this often subliminal sport should be the principal focus of everyone who really cares about the game, including local clubs, regional and national squash associations, squash equipment marketers, and those whose job it is to impress the Olympics committee to give squash entree into the quadrennial games. 

There were a lot of clubs the world over who participated, indeed in all continents except Antarctica. It shows once again the universality of this great game. 

But, writing as an American, i was less than impressed with US Squash's commitment to the day. Barely a notice on their website, only one last-minute mention as the day was nearly upon us. 

For an organization that usually gets things right, I was underwhelmed and surprised. I'm not sure what the the motivation was behind the lackluster involvement, but the results showed. There were not a lot of US clubs who participated in World Squash Day, and that number surely would have risen if US Squash had made an effort. Is there something wrong with publicizing your sport worldwide? Please let me know; I don't get it.

Other national squash foundations were also absent or nearly absent, while, fortunately, others were more fully involved. I personally feel that an effort like that of World Squash Day could only serve the sport well, and hope next time national squash foundations will get off their butts and get behind it.

As for my actual squash on World Squash Day, I had an interesting match. I was playing a fellow who closely matched my abilities. We played a tough first game, which he ended up winning 11-9. In the second game i started strong and maintained a lead all the way up to 10-8, game ball to me, but my opponent serving. His serve is a lazy one, well off the wall. In those cases I will often hit a hard shot into the front side wall corner, which sends the ball whipping around and bouncing twice before my opponent can get to it. I hit this shot, and I hit it well. Really hard, just above the tin, no chance to get it, game The Squashist.

Oh no, says he, he heard a bit of tin. What? I couldn't believe it, tin? The ball was hit smoking fast, any tin that might have been hit would have made itself a lot more apparent. Plus the ball's bounce would be deformed. But he insisted. He heard tin. There were about 10 people watching our game. I opened the door and asked, Anybody think that ball was no good? Nobody was willing to say either my shot was definitely good or the shot had definitely tinned. I could not believe it. But I thought, well, this is supposed to be a friendly match, i'm not going to get upset about it, let him have his tin. 

Then, rather cheekily, he takes the point -- not a let, he just gives himself the point -- and serves again to me from the other side. It's a better serve, a little off the wall, so I let this one drift by, thinking I'll get it off the wall. But, lo and behold, the ball hits a perfect backwall nick, and rolls out unhittable. He laughs, as do a few of his friends watching. 

I felt a synapse in my brain collapse, as did the rest of my game. I lost 3-0.  I was as irritated by that match as i've ever been on the squash court. 

Later, after i calmed down, I joined a foursome and, for the first time in probably 6 years, played doubles. Now THAT was fun.

     

Pay to Play ... Well, a Little

I figured SquashSkills.com would be a "game-changing" website and, once again, the Squashist was correct! Truly, I have been very impressed with both its concept and  execution and strongly recommend players out there consider forking over the relatively few bucks to learn from this terrific site. 

Why is it so good? The two principals, Peter Nicol and Jethro Binns, share a ton of very specific information about how to play this devilishly difficult sport. You can go get a pro lesson every week, but for a whole lot less you can get these two great players to share some of their secrets. And everything is covered. They already have a ton of videos that cover many of the specifics, and they will keep going, because there is endless depth to our game and these guys are the masters. 

The site has other pros offering their expertise as well. Two of my favorites: Lee Drew and Chris Walker. I suspect we will see many other pros offering their opinions as time goes by.

They also use a video analysis program called Swing School to illustrate how the player's body moves through space to most appropriately address the ball. It's very detailed and should be viewed more than once to fully grasp the information. 

There is also quite a bit of fitness information, offered up by Peter's girlfriend Jess. I've since done some of her workouts and have concluded that I need help. Desperately. 

Playing squash can be a bit expensive, most notably in finding a good club that doesn't break the bank account. But if you want to play up to your potential, you really need this site.

Indeed, other than Squash Skills, you need to strongly consider two other items that also cost just a bit but return quite a lot. The first is your local squash association. Being from New York, I gladly pay the fee to maintain my membership in US Squash. It is the backbone of the game here in the US; it is the straw that stirs the drink. I also happen to think that you can learn a lot by watching the greats play the game, so paying to join the PSA's Squash TV site is money exceptionally well spent.

In any sport you have to pay a bit to play. With these three sites, you pay a bit to play the sport really well. Go ahead and live up to your potential. If you can afford it, it is a wise investment indeed.

Squash is Dying in the US! Oh Wait, No It's Not....

From time to time there erupts on the squash scene much ado from doom-and-gloomers who are convinced that squash is dying a slow death in the US. They point to court closings (an unassailable fact in cities, alas) and bemoan the old days when clubs abounded. Their conclusion: the sport is doomed.

But my own experience argues against that. I see a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of players. 

So I was interested when the PST's e-zine noted that the Sporting Goods Manufacturer's Association had found a significant uptick in squash participation.

This was a professional, accurate analysis, with a total of 38,172 completed surveys. They found more than 1.1 million US residents had played squash during the previous year (2011), with about 400,000 of these being more frequent, 'core' participants. Most -- 64% -- of these core squashists fell between the ages of 25 to 44, putting a lie to those who say the sport falls off after college. 

The findings show a nearly 40% jump in some squash participation between 2009 and 2011, demonstrating that increasing numbers of folks out there are interested and giving squash a try.

Which is an important point: Whenever I meet someone interested in trying out the game, I always get them on the court and give them an introductory lesson. I make it a point to use the easier beginner balls, and anyone who is a true squashist should do the same: get them out on the court and have a few beginner balls handy. 

The true squashist is a squash evangelist who not only loves the game but makes it a point to transfer his or her own enthusiasm for the game to others.

So get out there and play. And no, chicken littles, the sky is not falling....

Squash in the Fourth Dimension

The 4th dimension is of course Time, and time, in publishing, can throw a wet blanket on things.

I just received, on June 5, the April/May issue of Squash Magazine, the official publication of US Squash. The fact that I received it late, not even within the extra-wide 2-month window of its publication date, was noteworthy. Why would a publisher do that? Well, being in publishing myself, I can guess that the answer is probably related to ad dollars. The publisher and editor, Jay Prince, was probably holding out for a few more ads before he put the magazine to bed. Jay gets some money from US Squash to put the magazine out, but he relies heavily on ad dollars to keep the enterprise afloat.

I can completely understand. We have had to do that a few times when advertisers have turned uncharacteristically impecunious (ie, cheap!). But it is dangerous to do that when publishing a news magazine, because it puts in jeopardy the usefulness of the very thing that constitutes the reason for the publication in the first place: news....

In the April/May issue there are four feature articles. Each one reviews the results from a squash tournament. And all four of the tournaments on display in this issue were from March.

So I received the issue in June, and am to read a series of articles about tournaments from March... In the age of the internet, this is not a winning formula.

The issue has a few other head-scratchers, like an invitation to attend the CitySquash 10th-year party at the University Club in NYC, which had already taken place nearly a week before I received the issue.

Now, this should not be read as criticism of the management of Squash Magazine. I am sympathetic to the problems of publishing under financial duress.

But I think it might be time to change the model. Forget publishing a print magazine; printing and postage costs are too expensive anyway. Prince and his editorial staff can publish the news about squash and run all their feature articles online as quickly as possible so that the information on their website is still fresh. I visit online squash sites all the time, so Squash Magazine's current articles about the US Junior Championships, the adult US Championships, the US Doubles Championships and the US Skill Level Championships were no longer of interest to me -- I had read about them months ago!

US Squash gives Jay Prince money to help fund the magazine because receiving it is a benefit of membership in US Squash, so if the magazine were to resort to an online-only presence, then some significant additional information on the site should be closed to US Squash members only. That could be easily done by setting up a password-protected part of the site. In this section would be additional articles, association news, and enticing visual items, including images and videos from tournaments as well as podcasts, blogs, and other online-only offerings.

The internet is perfect for covering a sport. You can talk about it all you want, include some pictures and diagrams, but actually watching it is always going to have the most impact. But above all, the internet respects the dangers of the fourth dimension when it comes to the dissemination of news. It's time Squash Magazine made the digital leap. 

Time To Can It

I found myself wondering today whether the PST's commissioner and CEO, Joseph M. McManus, may have adult-onset oppositional defiant disorder. This disability is usually diagnosed in little kids, and its symptoms include hostility and open defiance of authority figures. 

Maybe this McManus dude just got his case later than most? 

The idea of No-Let squash is good; the idea of No-Letting-Up criticism of anyone and everyone in the overall squash community is bad. No one likes to hear a crybaby.

The PST sends out a little weekly squash e-zine that I receive, which has featured a few pointed criticisms of squash luminaries in the past, and the animosity seems to be ratcheting up. Not long ago McManus' e-zine poked fun at Alex Gough, CEO of the Professional Squash Association, belittling his financial smarts. The criticism was harshly delivered, I thought, and the reason was obvious: the PSA's ongoing feud with the PST over letting the former's players play in the latter's events. Concern over financial matters is not a one-way street, however, and after this little diatribe I found myself wondering about the PST's finances. I remember something about offering $100,000 to the first top ten PSA player to bolt and join the PST. But when David Palmer did just that there was no mention of his winning the promised windfall. What's the story with that? And if he didn't get the 100K, what did he get? And what do the players earn at these PST tournaments, anyway? There is never any mention of financial prizes at these events, so out of curiosity, how much do they get? Are there appearance fees given for the stars, and what are they? Which players qualify, and how might other players earn qualification? What do the lower-ranked losers get for their efforts? How sound are the PST's finances? Dunno, but I found myself wishing I had more information. 

Then, more recently, the McManus e-zine thought it would be funny (I guess) to refer to Kevin Klipstein, CEO of US Squash, as "napoleonic" and the association's "little general," apparently in reference to Klipstein's height. While no giant, I've met the man and he doesn't qualify as notably diminutive either. Again, McManus is upset with a CEO in the squash world and has decided to take it out in petty, defiant, bullying ways. Apparently US Squash has some legal action against PST over wording of one of their tournaments. I am actually the one tasked with overseeing copyright legal matters at the publishing house where I work, and believe me, companies everywhere are concerned, often rightly, when another company in their industry starts using, and branding, language similar to their own. I don't know the facts behind this legal skirmish, but wouldn't it have been better to argue this away from the public eye instead of embarrassing yourself and your organization with childish name-calling? 

I don't get it.

Mr. McManus, I think the no-let concept is a good one, but advertising yourself as a crybaby who lashes out at other squash organizations, and the people behind them, does nothing for your product, and may even provoke antipathy towards the PST in general. Focus on your product; it's a good one, make it better! The other stuff: It's time to can it.

The Future of Squash Is Egyptian, Yes?

Egyptians have just won 7 of 8 titles at the British Junior Open. A great achievement, with a clean sweep for the country denied only by one determined Pakistani, who won the boys 15 and under.

Above, Marwan El Shorbagy lets out a roar after winning the boys 19 and under, and you can bet he will make his presence felt on the pro tour soon. 

But I worry for Egyptian squash. There is already news that squash is not receiving the political support needed to keep funding at recent levels, and we are increasingly seeing great Egyptian squash players opt for other locales -- often, the US -- as they segue into teaching pros. 

That's great for US squash, but I would hate to see Eqyptian squash whither away from political disinterest. Egypt is too important as a squash nation, and their players are too great, to welcome something like that. Squash needs Egypt. 

But at this juncture, will Egypt be able to win a similar number of championships at next years BJO? I think squash pundits would have to say, 'No, quite possibly not.'

What a Mouthful!

I'm on record as saying that the DailySquashReport.com site is a nice addition to the squash world's relatively paltry offerings for news. I make it a point to visit "the Report" after first checking out SquashSite. I definitely recommend lovers of squash bookmark both sites....

The Report does, however, have its quirks. The daily news is posted in the morning, so anything newsworthy that happens during the day will not appear until the next morning. So when Willstrop won the Punj Lloyd PSA Masters tournament, and thereby ascended to #1 player in the world rankings, there was nothing on the Report's site until the next day. But okay, fair enough, I'm sure the folks putting the Report out have other things to do during the day, and aren't sitting around a desk waiting for squash news to come drifting in. 

Another quirky thing about the site is the writing of Rob Dinerman. I've never met the man, but having read his articles over the years you can draw a few firm conclusions: he is a hardball fanatic, is not a fan of US Squash (probably because of its embrace of softball), and is not a fan of the common period.

He writes enthusiastic reviews of professional doubles tournaments, in particular those played under the ISDA banner. He also recently picked what he considered the most important squash performances of 2011 in an article he wrote for his site, and of the 8 players highlighted, 5 were squash hardballers -- a disproportionate number, surely. But again, to each his own. If the Report wants to be mainly a venue for original articles about squash doubles, that's fine, although certainly limiting.

But of enduring interest is what appears to be Mr. Dinerman's antipathy towards the period -- a/k/a the full stop. He doesn't seem to like them, sometimes going to seemingly extreme lengths to avoid their use. Here is a wonderful example, from his recent article about the ISDA tour:

When Manek Mathur and Yvain Badan posted sequential victories over first Damien Mudge and Ben Gould (rupturing their 46-0 skein) and then Matt Jenson and Clive Leach, the top two ranked teams on the ISDA tour, in the final two rounds of the Briggs Cup, the last and most lucrative pro hardball doubles tournament in calendar 2011, they completely upended the prevailing status quo, generated the most noteworthy accomplishment in the nearly nine years since Leach and Blair Horler dethroned reigning champs Mudge and Gary Waite in the final of the April 2003 Kellner Cup (on a daring Horler reverse-corner at 14-13 in the fifth), became the first team in the 12-year history of the ISDA to win a tournament in which they faced match-point-against in the third game of their semi and culminated a meteoric ascent from having to hack their way through the qualifying rounds as recently as this past January to winning an event of this magnitude less than a year later.

When I first read this paragraph I searched desperately for a period, but only at the very end of the paragraph, spent and exhausted, did I find one.

It's clearly Dinerman's writing style, which he has honed over many years. I am a writer and an editor, and frankly I wouldn't write that paragraph that way, but clearly Mr. Dinerman is just exercising his own artistic license, and I'm all for artistry. 

I was curious, though. There are ways of judging the difficulty in a written sample, and it has become something of a science. I am occasionally called on to write at a 6th grade level, for example, because I need to convey in layman's terms rather complicated things about medicine that need explaining, but big words cannot be used. Well, there is a site for figuring out grade-level reading abilities. WordsCount analyzes text through various means and can estimate the level of education one must have in order to understand it. So by copying the above sentence-paragraph into the readability calculator, I was able to get an approximation of the grade level one would need to understand the text. 

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was 65. 

Not 6th grade, but 65th grade. What the hell is that, anyway?

Another Home Run for US Squash

One of the interesting things about the game of golf is the fact that the scores are inputted following the round of play and one's handicap is calibrated accordingly. It means that a player knows exactly where he stands in relation to the rest of the golfosphere. That level of accuracy has always been missing in squash, until now. 

US Squash -- or USQ, as they like to be called -- has just instituted what I view as a game-changer in the world of squash, which drags our great sport into the modern era, kicking and screaming, so that we can also know in real time exactly where we stand. 

As part of USQ's Play Squash initiative, everyday club matches can be inputted into the association's website computer, thus influencing one's rating and ranking. If I play the same group of 3 or 4 guys 90% of the time, which I do, why not use those games to create a more accurate accounting of my level of play? Now I can do that.

If you were to look up my rating you would see only a handful of games, all played in 2009 during a time when I had an ongoing ankle problem (that eventually required surgery). My ranking went down and down through 2009, and that is where it has stayed, remaining idle because I have not played any sanctioned tournaments since then. But I've recovered since 2009 and played a lot of matches with friends, so my ossified rating now reflects the problems I had 2 years ago, not the present-day me. 

With the Play Squash initiative, that will change. I will start inputting all of the matches I have with players who are USQ members -- it doesn't work for non-members. And as I've opined before, if you are not a member of USQ then you are not supporting the sport and helping it advance -- with programs like this.  

Both players have to agree beforehand that this match will count -- and I bet the intensity level will ratchet up a notch or more because of that. The only other requirements are that the match must be best 3 of 5 and the approved Dunlop ball must be used.

So next time you are out on the court, ask your partner to play this match for real. No kidding around. Results go straight to your ratings, and from there on up to your ego. 

Professional Squash in America: Growth, or No?

The Boston Globe's Alex Beam wrote an irritatingly snarky column recently discussing the PSA-PST lawsuit, in which, after poking fun at the sport itself, making the obligatory reference to the vegetable, and generally attempting to dazzle the reader with his wordplay, he quotes PSA board member and lawyer, Richard Bramall:

“We are well established in other parts of the world, but in many ways America is the most important market for the PSA, because we want to grow in the US, and we are continuing to grow in the US.’


So that raises an interesting question, just how much has the PSA grown in the US? If you go onto the PSA's website and click on Calendar, there you will find the facts—all the tournaments and their purses through the years. I went back 5 years, to 2006, and compared the data. I reviewed all the numbers, separating out USA-based matches with those held in the rest of the world.

This tedious exercise proved two things: One, that I apparently have nothing better to do and my life is pathetically boring. And two, that the PSA's efforts in the US have not been particularly impressive. Here are some of the facts:

To be fair, one should keep in mind the economic duress of recent years, but even with that factor, it is hard to argue that the PSA's efforts in the US have been particularly stellar. Another way of looking at the data is to compare US purses with World purses over time:

This analysis shows that the total purse for the rest of the world has grown 48% between 2006 and 2010. During that same time period, the US purse has fallen 14%. The number of tournaments in the US has barely nudged upwards, while the rest of the world has many new tournaments. (The one mathematical oddity is that, with precious few tournaments in the US, the average player purse in the US is higher than the rest of the world. Oh, thanks.)

The stagnant growth in the US is one of the factors that has led to the alternative Pro Squash Tour, to help squash professionals in the US earn a living. They can't do it with the PSA alone, at least not with these numbers.

Kvetches

Sad to report, but SquashZAG really is down and out. There are a few additional last-minute postings on the site, but I can confirm that the site is truly shutting down. This is another blow to what could and should be a vibrant online community of squash enthusiasts, but for that to happen we really need more sites like SquashZAG. The ZAG was a very good site, and had a lot of offerings that kept people coming back to it daily. But to do that consistently, these sites need support. 

I've already kvetched about SquashTalk.com, and I notice today that this site is once again on hiatus, not having posted any news since Aug. 19. But I can sympathize, because that site suffers from the same thing the ZAG suffered from, and that is minimal staffing (which is a nice way to say, only 1 person) and minimal support from squash companies. 

There is still SquashSite.co.uk, a very nice site and the squash world's leader, but I would like to see some diversity out there. When the Olympic Committee, filled with money-obsessed nincompoops, analyzes the sport of squash and sees only one decent squash site, what does that say? To them it says, Let's move on, shall we?

I would love to see an English-language site from some foreign squash power, like the Australians, or even the Egyptians, since many of their squash players know English. But the most likely source of another site would likely be the US. Hell, didn't we invent the damn internet? Can't some slightly wealthy (that rules me out, sorry!) squash enthusiast bankroll a site that forces the squash firms to take notice? Or what about Squash Magazine, the minimally updated website for the print publication of the same name? The printed magazine is one of the benefits of membership in US Squash (now nicknamed USQ to the cognoscenti), but knowing what I know about the high cost of printing and distribution, couldn't this publication do more and better by focusing on the web, while ditching the printed publication, or perhaps publishing only an annual for the benefit of USQ members? Dunno, I'm just kvetching, but that smells like an opportunity to me.

In the U.S. at Least, Onward and Upward

I was recently at a meeting about squash in the U.S. when the talk turned to the sport's fortunes elsewhere. Someone said the situation in Australia was bad, as real estate pressures have caused many clubs to shut down entirely or convert large squash courts into fitness centers. The same is true, to a somewhat lesser extent perhaps, in the U.K. Someone else complained that clubs were closing down in Canada, and the national squash organization there seems too disorganized to do anything effective about it. 

Bad news, then, on several fronts. But the good news, at least for us in the U.S., is that squash is on the ascendancy. The US Squash association, under Kevin Klipstein's remarkable leadership, has in the last 5 years ratcheted up membership by 80%; doubled the number of national championships to 20 and increased participant numbers to 5000; spearheaded the US High School Championships, now the largest squash tournament in the world, with 125 teams and 1000 players; and increased junior squash participation numbers by 88%. And in what I predict will be a continuing trend for the foreseeable future, the Men's and Women's national adult and junior teams are making steady progress in world rankings.

The US Squash organization has also improved its own governance significantly and has demonstrated its desire to hear from as many voices as possible on how best to further the U.S. game. The association will host the inaugural U.S. Squash "Annual Assembly" this October 1-2 in Chicago, which can be attended by any interested player and will include a keynote address, the presentation of programs for the 2010-2011 season, topical breakout sessions on various programs, and constituency breakout sessions covering districts, pros, coaches and referees.

All in all, great news, about which the US Squash association should be proud. That there are still those out there who don't see the value in forking over a couple of bucks to support their sport's association remains a puzzlement.