by Will Gens
SQUASH AND LIKE THE GREAT TIGER...I hope it isn't "over" as Mr. Cipriano stated, I really do! because I could equate it with the dwindling and threatened extinction of the great tiger. It is up to us adults whether you be coaches, players, parents of juniors, husbands with wives who once played to ward off squash extinction. I have voiced many opinions why our squash species is endangered, much of which revolves around promoting this game as a way to gain acceptance to an "ivy" school or tier 1 schools. This promotion which is supported by many is not quite accurate and is very misleading. The game should NOT be promoted as a way to get into college because what then after college? We need data, scientifc data, and monitoring of college bound players to figure out why they drop the game and when tand why they drop the game. If you simply say that the Tiger is there and not threatened with extinction is really detrimental to its survival. When people come out and say there were 1 million tigers and now there are 500, sit up and listen, because you see 5 in the local zoos doesn't mean this isn't a serious threat. Because you can massage the figures into nice graphics and state that 4 tournaments have increased participation when 50-60% of the local tournaments have disappeared is VERY misleading to our game and those of us who have a genuine concern for its survival and growth. Because this is happening in the UK as well provides even less comfort, a downward spiral only accelerates as time goes on just as the disappearance of a magnificent species like the Tiger rapidly approaches the brink. Yes, I do equate this most magnificent sport of ours with the Tiger as one of natures most magnificent creations...Put aside egos and do whatever it takes to bring this sport back, to rekindle interest, to put the enormous effort into making sure this sport doesn't reach a brink of extinction. Who would have ever thought hardball squash would die? There were signs that were there...it happened to have been replaced by something to many is a superior game....if we had the foresight at the time to study how many hardballers converted to softball we might have been able to do things to promote the game to ex-hardballers. If college squash is so vibrant that is great, but that is only one segment of a squash player's life and what about those that don't go to college, or don't play college squash? If the CSA comes back to me and says that of the 1000 ranked collegiate players, 80% are still playing actively beyond the age of 30 then that is a meaninful statistic. And if US Squash can say of it's whatever number of junior players play college squash or just play squash and what percentage of them are still playing into young adulthood and beyond, those are figures that matter. Alan Thatcher's comment to this issue and the state of squash in the UK should be an alarm, a serious alarm as well, and I hope no one comes back with statistics championing all that their organization does....study the statistics objectively and proactively and without judgement let the statistics speak for themselves. In terms of exposure to the game and generating interest in the sport to those who have never played...Mr. Thatcher's efforts, tireless as they may be, do make a difference. But what difference can that make? That I'm not sure. But along those lines, I'd like the promoters of Tournament of Champions to provide a survey of all those thousands who have passed through Grand Central each day during the tournament, of those how many have pursued or shown interest in squash? Are there any statistics? Those are important numbers, because if they reveal that very very few of those passer bye's actually join a squash club and play, then take that aspect out of the equation, the public exposure isn't the answer. As a long time squasher who still even in my most frustrating moments of this game still wants everyone to play it...I am most humbly asking address the issue at hand and consider changing the mindset of those who promote, coach, support and foster a passion for this game, is this game, and its participation in it, healthy and growing and prospering and if not what can we do at the grass root level to ensure that it does. We need more PST type organizations in this game or variations thereof, those who challenge the status quo, promote squash for the sake of squash and not as a self-serving means to an end.
Interesting observations. For most collegiate players their senior year is best they will ever play and the fittest they will ever be. Then they graduate, get a job , stop training 2 hours a day, and they inevitably get worse. Who wants to play a game at which he/she is getting worse? So they drop it and go on to something else.
ReplyDeleteThat's just human nature. It happened to me with soccer. I was getting worse , so I took up squash- a new challenge. I started getting better, it was new and fun, and I was hooked. Doubles provides a related, yet new and managable, squash challenge. You can hit skid boasts, phillys, hard serves, three walls, reverse corners, lobs, drops, it's fun and you don't need to be a fitness fanatic to compete at the elite level if you an handle a bat.
The masterminds who killed hardball are now reaping the results of their actions. Does anybody give a damn about the Pan American Games team? No. It's just six kids who fly off to Caracas and get their picture in a magazine.
I'm going to chime in with Guy. We knew softball had peaked in many countries as a recreational sport and many people feared the same thing would happen if we switched. You wrote, Mr Gens, that people left hardball because they couldn't get a good workout with the new rackets. This is a comical revision of history. Softball was pushed through by a group of prep-school and college coaches, as well as by foreign club coaches who had come to a country where squash was still growing rather than declining. Many coaches love soft-ball because it's far more predictable, the progress of hard-working players is steadier, and it tends not to reward risky play as often. In hardball the brash fifteen-year-old could fire a few quick shots just above the tin and maybe win a game- then wink at his coach who had insisted he play for length. I said, jokingly, to a prep school coach in '94 that he and his cohorts had pushed through softball because it was a game in which the coach was always right. He completely missed the irony and responded, "Yeah, isn't it great? Now they realize that what I was saying last year is true!"
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct, though, Mr Gens, in your argument that the college admissions selling of squash is both dishonest and very bad for the game. Young players need to play sport for sport, and not for some ulterior, semi-professional motive. Many U.S. juniors play in drab, drill-like way intended to produce wins at the junior level that they believe will help their college prospects. They take a game (which I think is already less fun than hardball was) and turn it into a chore. No wonder they quit after college.
The group for whom softball is clearly superior is beginner adults without racket experience. They can learn to strike the ball and to react to it far more quickly. It was not foolish to sell the softball game to them at the club level. Kids, however, loved the zippy hardball, and they had time to learn to play long rallies with it , unlike the adults who wanted to be crafting points right away. Once someone really learned the game, they tended not to quit, and many continued to play competitively after college, hence the 6% steady growth.
I love softball, although there's no opportunity to play where I live now. Nonetheless, the results are in- we made a mistake in our perception that a ball switch would introduce massive explosion in the game, instead of the 6% steady annual growth we had enjoyed. I don't think there's any going back, but we should at least have a clear picture of the history.
Yours, Sasha
Interesting, but I think you're wrong about the death of hardball. If you remember they started playing on the bigger courts because the rallies on the smaller court were endlessly boring and predictable. It's a bit ironic because glass court squash reminds me quite a bit at the pro level the ball is so fast, but luckily PAR scoring 11 makes it a bit more exhilirating than hardball. I also the like Tae Bo, Zumba, Yoga and so many fads the squash hardball games of the late 70's into the 80's was typical of a fad, it died out. But at the pro level it died not because it was a fad because the racket technology changed the game. In terms of beginners and softball, not sure I agree with you. It is a bit easier but the fitness level required is dramatically more than hardball, and the skill level to play well is much greater. No one dropped in hardball (except if you were Jahangir with those hands and deft touch) and you certainly didn't cut the ball off and you didn't have to contend with dying length. To revive hardball they had to come up with a cavernous doubles court for players well past their prime who play only half the court -- which is okay. I'm sorry you can't play softball anymore, I know a pro who really honed his game with softball on a narrow hardball court.
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