When Ted Gross first threw out the gauntlet for us to speak our minds
on any subject relating to squash, I had just finished a tournament
here in New York and had plenty on my mind, some good and some not so
good. A few weeks went by, and my thoughts were not as well
organized as they were on that particular day. This and this
piece has evolved into more of a rant and rave stream of
consciousness. Here goes, from personal experience:
I love the initiatives of US Squash with respect to refereeing and
education on rules --- we need much more of that. With the
tournament director’s blessing, a recent New York tournament had a WSF
referee in attendance. What a great idea! A
roving professional to mentor the amateurs. I think he
struggled at times to balance the line between helping and actually
calling the matches. BUT, he moved around the facility and
offered pretty good advice, especially to the new and younger crowd and
especially when they seemed to hesitate in making tough
calls. I particularly remember him saying to one young
lady, “what did YOU see,” when she was flustered with a
decision. He quickly helped her to reason through a
difficult call and everyone was better off for it. The
confidence in her face after that discussion said
everything. I’d love to see more of that.
Same tournament, adults behaving badly. When I first
started playing squash in college (thank you, Gil Mateer, for being a
great freshman RA and for introducing me to this life-long sport;
I’ve waited 38 years to publicly say this), it was truly a gentlemen’s
(and ladies) game. When I came to New York in the early
‘80’s (and I’ve certainly had my own John McEnroe moments), it seemed
pretty civil. A recent article about squash legend
Peter Briggs should be required for every player in the game for how to
conduct one’s self on the court and I’ve attached a link at the end of
this piece. I read it last year and it has transformed my
own approach to calls and on court behavior. There
should be a zero tolerance policy for bad behavior. The
problem is how to enforce it and I don’t have that answer.
No discussion should really go beyond asking the referee or your
opponent anything more than “are you sure?” and there should be a less
than a zero tolerance policy for racquet abuse (a participant was
inadvertently injured by a thrown racquet that day). Maybe
I’ve just gotten a bit wiser in my later years but it all works out in
the end and I’m way too old for some of this stuff.
I’d also like to see more of the right level referee for the right
level match and not just the loser required to referee the next match
on that court. I’m a 3.5 player and make calls like a 3.5
player, some good, and some not as good as they should be. I
refereed a 6.0 match last year and honestly, it was beyond my pay
grade. I made a really bad call of “let only” early in the
match. With hindsight, it should have been a stroke
call. Fortunately, it didn’t affect the outcome of the game
or the match but I was certainly sweating for a bit. As to the
player I wronged, he put his hands on his hips, did a mini eye roll,
smiled at me and moved on, all within two seconds that for me seemed
like an eternity. He sent me a message without saying
a single word and did it with class. I ran into that player
several weeks later and asked him about that call, which he remembered
as well as Tiger Woods remembers every shot taken during every round of
golf he plays. I was always taught that you raise your
racquet into the ready position when you want that stroke. For
me, that’s shoulder height. The ready position, as I
now know, can also be at your knees if the ball is passing by your
opponent when it’s twelve inches off the floor.
The state of squash is a frequently discussed topic and in my humble
opinion, it’s once again on the rise here in New York.
Where I play in New York, we have more adult clinics than ever before
and our professional staff has grown from two full time professionals
to two full time and six part time teaching professionals who book
every open court. We also have more junior players on the
courts than ever.
There are plans on the board for a new squash center here in New York
and rumor has it that Cityview in Queens will be adding more courts in
the next year or two. US Squash recently started a grant
program to assist in converting racquetball courts into squash
courts. The number of squash players in this country is
about the same as the number of racquetball players but there are ten
times as many racquetball courts as there are squash courts.
Squash courts aren’t inexpensive so the demographics must be there.
Lastly, to US Squash, I say thank you. We don’t always appreciate
you. When the rankings come out next week, I will jump 66
places to be #30 in the country in my age group. My friends
and family will all be very proud of their Alan. The only
question I have is if I need to tell them that you moved me into the
over 55’s on my birthday.
See you on the courts and here’s the link to the Peter Briggs article.
About the Author: Alan Goldberg is a squash
enthusiast and accountant specializing in high net worth tax and family
office services in New York City. He is a National Board
Member of Maccabi USA and was the playing captain of the United States
Maccabiah Squash Team that won the gold medal at the Pan American Games
in Uruguay in 1991. He is also on the Board of Overseers of
NUSEA, the National Urban Squash and Education Association, which is
the umbrella organization for our country’s urban squash
programs. NUSEA has 15 member programs in 14 cities
that enroll year-round more than 1,400 elementary, middle, high school
and college students.
Alan requests that if you can relate to, liked or didn’t like what he
said, that you consider a donation to NUSEA to help to our urban squash
programs in honor of the Daily Squash Report.
