'The Let Has Evolved from a Courtesy in a Gentlemen's Game to a Strategic Weapon in the Modern Era -- It Outlived its Usefulness.'

The Squashist has been an early proponent of limiting lets in pro play. The idea was advanced by Joseph M. McManus, the commissioner and chief executive of the Pro Squash Tour, which tested the hypothesis, liked what it saw, and then decided to go whole hog and chucked all lets, period. Not one is allowed. A gutsy move, whose impetus was to put the fan experience first and foremost in order to make top squash exciting and easy to understand for all types of fans. Predictably, there was much fretting, hand-ringing, gnashing of teeth, gaseous bloviating, and unsubtle orneriness from the sidelines. Still, they played on. And you know what? It's a great idea! 

Here now an interview with Mr. McManus:

I notice that you are now referring to the brand of squash that you offer in your Pro Squash Tour as "Point Every Rally," highlighting the difference with "point a rally" (ie, PAR) matches, which don't always end with a point since a let might be called. What has been the overall feedback from fans?

Everything we do at the PST is geared to entertaining our fans. Removing the traditional let from the game is only one improvement we've made, but it certainly has gained the most attention. 

The immediate feedback to our "Point Every Rally" squash has been magnificent. Since fans have been subjected to endless lets throughout their squash experience, it was hard for them to envision this new, more exciting game. Fans that have attended our tournaments can't imagine going back to the old style of play. It is simply more entertaining. (Note that we have posted fan feedback online here.)

Your reference to PAR squash not always ending with a decision is gentle to the point of being misleading. At the 2007 World Open Championships, there were 1,917 points played throughout the tournament. 959 (50%) of them required a referee's decision. Of those 959 decisions, 706 times (74% of the time) the referee chose a let (ie, do-over). Source is here.

The let has evolved from a courtesy in a gentlemen's game to a strategic weapon in the modern era. It outlived its usefulness.

Have there been any traditionalist fans who have voiced the opinion that they would prefer the standard PAR format over your "Point Every Rally" format?

Traditionalists preferred silent films to “talkies” and the horse and buggy to automobiles.

What about the players.... Do any pro players explicitly prefer the "Point Every Rally" format?

Yes, please go to our homepage or visit YouTube to hear their feedback.

I spend a great deal of time listening to players. And I listen closely. Certain areas of the game we have been able to fix immediately. Others require a longer term view. But they know I am listening. My partner in this effort is David Palmer. I regularly call him for advice and feedback. We all know him as the world’s most dominant player of the decade. Off the court, I know him as a trusted friend and advisor. John White and I are also on the phone regularly. As a former World #1 himself, he knows the game as well as anybody. He was also an early voice amplifying “Point Every Rally.”

How are the pros educated on how to play using this new format, which tactically must be very different from PAR? Is there a video they can watch, is there on-court instruction?

We tell them two things. Don’t hit a shot you can’t clear, and if you can play the ball, play it. It really is not much more complicated than that. The world’s best squash players are magnificent athletes with elite fitness, balance, hand speed, and hand-eye coordination. They don’t need me to tell them very much.

 

The pros tell me that there are some subtle changes to how they play, but that our innovations have made the game more fun on court. We are building a video library to help train referees and players. Also, whenever a player asks us to review a call, we do so and report back to that player on whether or not the correct call was made.

A lot of the early naysayers have worried about possible injuries with the "Point Every Rally" format. Have injuries been a problem? Has any player been injured at all in a Pro Squash match, and if so, how?

 
Actually, I find our squash matches to be cleaner. Since PST requires pros to clear their shot, we see less contact than on the other tours. 

We did have one player catch a racket on his forehead. He came off court, got a band-aid and returned to play and won the match. I don’t think that rises to the level of calling it an injury, but it happened.

The World Squash Federation has made no move to adopt the no-let format, but they are clearly interested in its development. Has the WSF formally contacted you for feedback on your innovation?

Andrew Shelley (CEO of WSF) and I spoke briefly. He is a very talented man with the challenging job of balancing constituencies who are invested in the traditional game. I will leave the politics of world squash to him and his staff.

We are singularly focused on our fans and growing the game.

What about referees? On the one hand I would think this makes the ref's job a little easier, but on the other I can see how it would be harder. How are refs faring with the "Point Every Rally" format, and what is their attitude to it compared to the PAR format? Do they prefer "Point Every Rally" or PAR?
 

I don’t think in terms of making referees jobs easier or more difficult. Rather, I focus on preparing our referees to be ready to preside over these matches.

All referees became referees because they love the game. In my view, however, they have historically been treated poorly. They deserve better. When I asked Mike Riley to serve as our Director of Officials, he and I spent a great deal of time discussing the game, its past and its future. In my view, he is the best in the world at what he does, and as someone who has played the game at a high level, he was uniquely qualified to address the problems we were trying to fix.

Although Mike was the first to lead PST in this direction, Bob Hanscom has been lobbying for this idea for a lot longer than any of us. All that is to say that some top referees were also lobbying for this change.

Has there been any interpersonal friction between players during no-let games that can be blamed on the no-let system? Are players clearing better now that fishing for lets has been taken out of match play?

I should define these terms for the reader. “Fishing” is a term used to describe a player who doesn’t want to play the ball, usually because his opponent hit too good a shot. So, he creates unnecessary contact with his opponent to ‘fish’ for a let from the referee. “Blocking” occurs when a player doesn’t get out of the way of his opponent or clears slowly and causes his opponent to run around him. In our system, fishing results in an “appeal denied” call from the referee and blockers lose the point.

In fact, we are very tough on blockers. Under the traditional rules, a player only had to make every effort to get out of the way. This is not acceptable in our game. We actually require players to clear their shots; making every effort isn’t sufficient.

We saw fishing eliminated from match play immediately. Blocking, however, will be a constant battle. We will continue to remind players that they shouldn’t hit a shot they can’t clear. However, in game 5 when players are tired and their legs are heavy, they’ll block. Our referees need to hold the line here even more vigilantly. Blocking is not a part of our game.

One last question: Should "Point Every Rally" matchplay be considered for amateurs at the club level, or do you see this innovation working only at the pro level?

It’s advisable for pros and amateurs to play with different rules.  Amateur baseball players use metal bats, while the MLB uses wood bats. The 3-point line is different in college basketball than the NBA. NFL and Division 1 football teams play with a plethora of different rules. Your readers, I am sure, are coming up with their own examples to add to this list.

Pros can simply do things with their rackets, the ball, and their bodies that amateurs cannot do. As always, I encourage fans to send me their comments and suggestions here.

Mr. McManus, thank you very much. I think the best way to judge this new format is to check out one of the Pro Squash Tours' events. Their calendar is located here.

Playing Sick

Yesterday I played a great squash match. I have had a series of nagging injuries that I have slowly been able to rehab, and I'm happy to say I am almost back 100%. I have a hamstring pull that is still a bit bothersome but I've taken to wearing a brace and it doesn't bug me in a game anymore. 

So for the first time in nearly a year I am back playing pretty damn well. I am trying to adopt a slower, more thoughtful, less physical game since the mortal clock is ticking and I finally realized I better adjust. So I am still hitting hard rails and laser cross-courts, but I'm also trying to work on a much slower rail that ends in the corner and a mid-speed cross-court that seems to catch opponents off-guard. I'm also going for more drops from the back court, which was heretofore used sparingly by me. Every now and then, when you notice your opponent has taken his eye off the ball, it's worth going for. 

Yesterday, however, I woke up for my early morning game and knew I was not feeling well: a cold, with a bit of a runny nose and a stuffed, fuzzy feeling behind the eyes. This was this week's best game, however, and I felt, what the hell, I have to play, it is too good of a match. And I also had in the back of my head an old sports truism that sick players sometimes play better.

I'm not sure why that is, but I believe it. Not really really sick, of course, but a bit off. I was sick enough that I fully concentrated on my game and let all additional thoughts disappear. I was running well, shooting very well, and staying in the moment of the point better than I would have been if I were also thinking extraneous thoughts in the back of my head like the workday I faced after the match, how my son is doing, what's planned this weekend, etc. I only had enough in me to worry about the game, and that's what I did. 

And I did well.

Of course, there was a price to pay. As I explained in an earlier blog (here), my squash match resulted in further reducing my post-game immune system, and now, here I sit, a box of Kleenex at the ready, sipping down my NyQuil, a mild cold transformed into a big-time headache. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Eyes Wide Open

Forgive me, but this blog has nothing to do with squash..... Last night I had the great good fortune to take a plane from Chicago back to New York City, flying into Laguardia Airport. I've flown a fair amount in my day and one of the things I've noticed is the difference in behaviors as a plane approaches its destination. There are three basic types. The first type of passenger stares out the window, watching the approaching earth as it glides by, perhaps pointing out a landmark or two. Another type sits and fidgets, a necessity because this type of passenger is a nervous flier. The final type is the road warrior, who has been in a plane a million times, is not interested in watching the city below him for the 100th time, and would rather continue his paperwork, or his novel, or whatever else has occupied him during the flight. 

But as we descended last night I was really struck by the virtual unanimity with which all the passengers stopped what they were doing and looked out their windows as this great, gorgeous, vibrant, remarkable city inexorably drew closer. 

For some reason I felt proud.

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.

A Re-Primer on the Dubs Game

Peter Briggs got in touch and was pleased that some of his squash doubles wisdom was disseminated via the blogosphere. But he thought that a few changes would optimize his primer on the game. I have made those changes in red, and are available for viewing here.

On another matter, it does indeed appear that SquashZAG has unfortunately folded. It is a very tough job to do a full-time website largely by oneself, and it can prove expensive as well. The pressure eventually became too much. Too bad!

ZAG Down

Don't know why, but SquashZAG is down again. I hope it's nothing permanent. We need good squash sites on the web!

You Go, Datuk!

As an unabashed fan of Nicol David I was obviously happy to see her win the CIMB Singapore Squash Masters title again, which makes it four times straight. Is Nicol tough or what?

She beat back a very strong Alison Waters, and though the game score was 3-0, observers saw a tight contest whose first game went 18-16. I think Ms. Waters is peaking and I suspect she will be playing career-best ball in upcoming tournaments. She will be very tough to beat in the months ahead.

You occasionally read squash journalists who suggest that Nicol David has been so dominant over the past few years because, compared to Sarah Fitz-Gerald, she has faced a less talented crop of opponents.

I don't buy that for a second. That demeans the toughness of the Grinhams, Natalie Grainger, Vanessa Atkinson, a determined bunch of hungry Egyptians, and a score of up-and-comers like Ms. Waters. 

Nicol David is the best women's squash player in a very long time. Period. Sarah Fitz-Gerald ranks a very respectable second place, but Nicol is the best.

You go, girl! You go, Datuk!

On Mediocrity

I just got back from a conference on custom content, a term that encompasses a lot but implies editorial or other 'content' that is created specifically for a sponsoring company. An example would be a magazine paid for by a pharmaceutical company that has a series of (hopefully informative) articles and, oh by the way, some of those articles refer to the company's products. It's a type of marketing that seeks to engage the consumer more enthusiastically than a simple ad could ever do. 

There are a variety of custom media nowadays, and many of the speakers spent considerable time opining on the benefits of using social media like Twitter, Facebook and the blogosphere as part of a custom media marketing plan. The point was also made over and over again that we are living in a world where the sheer volume of information about everything under the sun has multiplied algorithmically, and will continue to do so. 

In fact, one opinion leader sagely decreed that nowadays 'everybody is a publisher,' with the profusion of blogs and tweets and chats and ramblings threatening to clog up the internet. Someone in the audience wisely asked, 'If that's so, what is the effect of all this 'content' -- some of it is not going to be any good, so how do we know the difference?' The speaker's answer surprised and pissed me off. He said that although the content on the web varies in ability, it is by definition 'just good enough', and maintained that big media companies aren't looking nowadays so much for quality writing (he cited The New Yorker) as they are looking for opportunities for engagement. It doesn't so much matter if the writer's grammar is dodgy so much as it is lively and engaging.

This conversation reminded me of my war against the word 'content,' which I have most emphatically lost. Early on in the advent of the internet people started calling the editorial that was to be found on their site 'content.' The word 'content' is such a nondescriptive, throwaway word for what should hopefully be editorial that is thoughtful, well-crafted, and artfully presented. 'Content', for me, an editor, was a disgraceful put-down. It sought to make the medium—the internet itself—more important than the message to be found in the words themselves. 

So now I go to a meeting and listen to a thought leader who admits, yeah, 'content' can be pretty bad, but big media doesn't care that much. Here's an example from the squash world of lousy content—editorial that deserves the damning sobriquet 'content.'

What does this have to do with squash? Well, not much, but the internet's insatiable thirst for whatever it can get to fill its trillion pages is a recipe for mediocrity. I'm happy to say I haven't met too many squash players who are mediocre people, I've always found something special about the people who play this game. We are all editorial people, not 'content' people. Thank heaven for that!  

Nike, Sports' Leviathan, Is Listening!

Not too long ago I decided to send a link of my blog's comments on Nike, about the opportunity that they are missing by ignoring squash, to their corporate office. Just for kicks.

So I experienced a little flutter of excitement when, a week or so later, I received a note in my in-box from Nike itself. Whoopee, I thought, this is great, finally I can start a conversation with the many-headed hydra of sports marketing!

But it turns out the email was from their 'Outside Idea Submissions Team,' and was a computer-generated response to my original email.

You are receiving this automatically-generated message because you have requested a copy of Nike's Outside Idea Submission Guidelines and Agreement. If you have already received the Idea Submission documents and have a question that is not answered by the Idea Submission Guidelines, or if you have a question about a pending submission, please reply to this message, type the word "Question" in the subject line, and type your question in the body of the message. You will receive a reply within ten business days.

The email then goes on to warn me that ideas submitted to them should have a utility patent or one pending. Uh, thanks for the advice, Nike.

Wake Up, Man!

SquashTalk.com was an early presence of squash news and commentary on the web, and for that it should be praised. It is also a one-man show, so generous leeway should be extended when evaluating its convoluted layout and sluggish frequency of updates. But when the last update to be found on SquashTalk is nearly 20 days old, the response is just to shake your head and walk away. 

The U.S. is the country where much of the forward progress of squash is happening right now, so for SquashTalk to be the principal source of web-based news from the US is, at this point, embarrassing. Those interested in what's happening in squash have two main choices: www.squashsite.co.uk, the leader in information about squash, and www.squashzag.com, the top aggregator of squash commentary. In the U.S., one should also check out the US Squash site, both for its association news but also its links to World Squash News and player blogs. 

But someone out there, some U.S.-based, aggressive, web-savvy, squashist techie, should put some energy into creating a web presence for US squash players we can be proud of. C'mon, man!

'A Primer on the Game of Doubles Squash' — Peter Briggs

Some new edits in red...


Overall Strategy

1. The most important and critical decision in playing winning doubles is to pick a good partner and to practice with him or her regularly so you know what they do under pressure and what shots they like to hit, so you can position yourself accordingly for the opponents' counter-shot.

2. There are four corners in the court and only two people on a team. The simple goal is to split the team on the diagonal and hit to one of the open quadrants.

3. Always hit deep before you shoot short. 

4a. Attack cross court to open up the court.

4b. Move laterally on the red line, not in a box step, when rotating with your opponent so you don't get blocked out.

5. Center your attack on the weaker player on the team and be relentless.

6. There are three attack and strike zones that correlate with the three red lines on the front wall.

Front-court attack zone, focusing on the lower red line just above the tin. All of these shots should be executed with an elliptical spin to lay the ball down (i.e., hit the inside or outside of the ball to make it spin elliptically).

a) Straight drops

b) Reverses

c) Roll corners
d) Three-wall nick

Mid-court neutral zone, aimed at the middle red line on the front wall and hit from the middle red line on the floor.

a) Hard rail

b) Hard cross-court

c) Three-wall nick

Back-court defensive zone, aimed at the upper red line on the front wall.

a) High rail

b) Cross-court lob

c) Skid boast

7. The number-one attacking shot is the reverse corner because the opposition usually has to play the ball back cross-court to your partner and they should be ready to attack on the volley. They can't go down the line because they risk a stroke call.

8. Volley every ball you can touch!! This is the Golden Rule of Winning Doubles. If the opposition's strategy is to push you to the back wall, don't go willingly. Volley! Visualize the ball walking at you and cut the legs off the ball with an open racket face, thereby assuring a margin for error on the tin.

9. When you pass the opposition on a cross-court don't try to hit the ball through the opposition. Instead, hit the ball high, hard and wide on the side wall and make one of the opponents go to the door; then either play a backhand or forehand from the back-court. Look at your cross-court opponent as having four targets. Vary your shot selection and don't hit the same shot or angle all the time. Remember that the attacking angle on an opponent will change according to how deep or shallow in the court your opponent stands. Aim your cross-court drives at your opponent's right or left shoulder or break the ball off the side wall at their right or left knee.

10. When defending, cover the shot that beats you, not just the shot that continues play.

11. Attack down the middle sometimes!!

12. Vary height and direction.

13. When defending a ball hit hard at you just block the ball with a fore-swing, do not take a back swing or full swing. If you do you will hit the ball out of the court or miss altogether.

14. Drop your back foot when digging balls out of the back corner.

Serve and Return

1. There are four different attacking serves. Practice all four serves before the match to get a feel for the temperature of the court and how high on the front wall you must hit the ball:

a) Lob to corner

b) Crisscross serve for a sharp angle

c) Chip serve to the side wall looking for a nick

d) Hard serve straight to the back-wall nick.

2. To return serve, stand one step's reach to the side wall.

3. Volley all service returns.

4. Rotate the back shoulder to opposite diagonal on cross-court returns of serve to assure good width.

5. Any returns of serve hit down the wall should be hit really low or really high so the opponent cannot block you out and attack the front corners.

6. Always have the racket up and stand with your weight on your toes and with knees flexed. That way, gravity helps you go to the front wall with a quick first step.

Preparation, Warm-up and Communication

1. Beforehand, do active stretching, speed volleys, and practice serves.

2. Talk with your partner. Decide what each of you will hit when covering for each other—usually a high lob down the rail.

3. Always have a plan.

4. Move on the court in sympathy with your partner. Always follow your opponent to the front wall and stay positioned on their outside hip because there you can cover more of their shot choices.

5. Always roll corner when the opposition hits a three-wall.

6. When deciding to hit a short shot to the front or a reverse take the pressure off your stroke production and just aim for the corner or intersection; then, either shot will be effective if the opponent is vulnerable -- front-side or side-front.

7. Motivate yourself by the thrill of winning rather than the fear of losing. Create your fate by your own hand. Take risk when there is a reward!

8. Visualize yourself volleying and attacking. 

9. Play at least five length balls before going short.

10. Breathe on all your short finesse shots and exhale as you stroke; it will relax your forearms.

11. Good squash shot-making is enabled by the threat of the shot you didn't hit.

Have fun! Doubles squash is a life-long endeavor! --  Peter S. Briggs (October 20, 2007)

The Secret Handshake of Doubles Squash

I've had the good fortune to be in regular contact with Guy Cipriano, a well-known hardball and doubles squash player and aficionado. He and I don't always agree on all matters related to squash, but I have definitely come to respect and look forward to receiving his musings on the sport. We both hold to the same core belief: namely, that squash is a fantastic, wondrous, multi-layered game, and that we are privileged to play it.

Guy is the capo di tutti capi of EI Associates—an architecture/engineering/planning/construction firm that has done large and small projects all over the place—and is one of those smart guys who effortlessly graduated from Princeton. (I interviewed to get into Princeton, but my rejection slip was waiting in my mailbox by the time I got back from the interview!) Since Guy is a big mucky-muck in both the world of business and the world of squash, he knows people, and one of the people he knows is this fellow named Peter Briggs.

Briggs is a well-known savant in the world of squash. I've never heard anyone say a disparaging thing about either the man or his squash knowledge, and I never will.  Briggs runs the squash program at the Apawamis Club in Rye, New York, widely regarded as one of the very best, and has coached an astonishing number of kids who have gone on to captain their college squash teams—over 70!

But Briggs also knows and loves the game of hardball doubles squash, and I have the document to prove it. Back in 2007, Guy Cipriano, master builder and master squashist, built a doubles squash court in one of the buildings he owns in New Jersey. On the occasion of the court's opening day, Peter Briggs gave his friend Guy a printed primer on the most important points to consider when playing doubles squash. For anyone interested in this great version of squash, this is must reading. 

According to Guy, Briggs "has so much doubles knowledge it defies description—he's like Yoda, or maybe Moses. This document emanated directly from the Burning Bush on top of Mt. Sinai!" I read his email to me and thought, Nah, no way, it can't be THAT good! But then I read the primer and agreed, this IS great stuff. As Guy put it in his note to me, "Congratulations, you now know the Secret Handshake of Doubles Squash."

And you, dear reader, will too. But you have to wait until my next blog ....

Aging and Squash

One of the arguments lobbed against softball squash has been that it is physically more demanding than hardball, and so older players, often starting in the 50s, gradually get shunted aside as their body's aches and pains can no longer deal with the sport.

Since hardball singles is now largely dead, most of the old codgers out for a squash game have gravitated towards hardball doubles, a great game in which an older player can still hold his own, particularly if teamed up with a younger player who can go fetch the drops up front.

But what about those older athletes among us who don't want to play doubles, or, more likely, don't have access to a doubles court?

For them I propose racketball and squashitball. 

• Racketball, a game played in England, involves using racquetball rackets and balls on an international squash court. The tin stays where it is, and the ceiling is off limits. Everything else is pretty much like the American game of racquetball. Because the ball bounces more there is less running, and since the tin stays where it is, there is no front-wall nick as you would find in racquetball. Players have good long rallies, get to exercise their love of court sports, and get a good, but not paralyzing, workout. For some reason this option has not been popularized in the US, but I think it should be, as it is a nice game for players who want to get out there but want to spare their knees for another day.
• Another option is squashitball. I'm not sure if anyone ever plays this or not -- I just made it up -- but it might also be a good option. Instead of using a shorter racquetball racket, the player uses the longer squash racket, thereby avoiding bending down if at all possible. The players play with a racquetball ball, so the bounciness allows them to avoid too much running and lunging. 

I see the progression as singles squash, racketball, and then squashitball. And then table tennis....  And then arthroplasty....

"And I'd Like To Thank 'Nike Squash' for All Their Support!"

The finals of Wimbledon have just been played and Spain's incomparable Rafael Nadal has, somewhat predictably, beaten Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. But I thought Berdych played damn well, and the difference between winner and loser came down to Nadal converting his chances at break points, while Berdych, though having those chances, never was able to do so. Thus game, set, match to Mr. Nadal.

One thing I noticed in the final was the Nike swoosh that appeared on both players. Berdych was wearing a cap with a black swoosh, Nadal a form-fitting bandana with a blood-red swoosh. Every time the TV camera focused on either player, there was the firm's well-known logo. They had a guaranteed 3 hours at least of uninterrupted TV airtime. Nike, the sports giant, was going to be a winner no matter what happened on the court today.... 

Nike is an international phenomenon, with its tentacles in all kinds of sports in all kinds of places. All over the world. So it continues to baffle me why a company like Nike would overlook the demonstrably international sport of squash. 

Squash has wide appeal -- as demonstrated by the fact that the sport is played in about 190 countries -- but does not have the penetration in individual countries to attract their attention. Apparently.

But times are tough, and Nike managers must sit around their conference room table thinking of ways to increase sales worldwide. They must! If there ever were a fat target for them to go for, it would be for a relatively under-served sport like squash that needs a corporate champion to take it to the next level. Nike could sell hundreds of thousands of Nike-emblazoned apparel, shoes, and those hats that Nadal and Berdych wore during today's final, and the sport of squash would finally have its first big-time corporate sponsor. Everybody wins. 

Thank you, Nike Squash, thank you so much!

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.