I consider myself fortunate indeed that I can make my living teaching the sport that I love.
But that love is not blind and over my thirty-seven years as a Squash
professional I have been exposed both to the strengths and weaknesses
of our sport.
Every once in a while one of our strengths becomes one of our weaknesses.
After World War Two, once people in the free and modernized world
realized that there would be enough food to go around and that they
weren't going to have to go off to face machine guns and bayonets, folk
started to consider the concept of leisure once again.
Of course, depending on which nation in which you found yourself, the sport of choice varied.
In the United States, participation fell upon sports like pick up
Basketball, Hockey (the Ice version not the Grass - for readers from
the British Commonwealth) or Softball in the park. In the UKs Soccer, Cricket, Field Hockey and Rugby were the eternal passion.
However by the late sixties, ordinary folk were discovering lifesports like Tennis, Golf and of course Squash.
These sports became the ideal focus of a breed of men and women who
emerged from the Blitz and rationing and Churchill and Roosevelt's
development of national character. I call them the Self Starters.
Nothing deterred these people and they stepped up as Club Secretaries,
Team Captains, League Secretaries, County Captains, Club Chairpersons,
etcetera etcetera.
Under the helmsmanship of this extraordinary breed, more than one
generation of youngsters were encouraged to 'do the right thing' under
pressure and to volunteer for the good of the club or team.
This was particularly true in Squash. I well remember in my youth
seemingly endless numbers of ' Big personalities' who stepped up to
lead our sport.
The hay-day of the Self Starter varied slightly from sport to sport and
from country to country, but broadly speaking in Squash the period from
about 1970-to 1990 was the purple patch.
But in the early nineties something went drastically wrong. It was
likely a combination of factors - a vastly wider selection of leisure
choices as jogging, wind surfing, martial arts, aerobics, rock
climbing, skateboarding, etcetera etcetera became more accessible, the
economy tightened up and leisure time became less available as the
daily grind took its toll.
Whatever it was, it seems to me those 'Big Personalities' faded into
legends and Squash desperately tried to hang on to those glory days
when it wasn't a question of being able to find a Squash court but
rather of whether you could book a court seven days in advance because
of the number of players.
In those days National Governing Bodies were busy just trying to keep
up with demand and coach education programs were full to bursting, with
junior and adult players desperate for training.
Those days are gone and sadly most of the National Governing Bodies
have failed to adapt in my opinion and are still churning out level one
and two coaches to minister to a demand that is sadly non-existent at
the club level.
Today I had a very pleasant surprise as I ministered to my charges at
Meadow Mill in Baltimore. About a dozen players between the ages of 35
and 60 were playing a tournament. So what, you might say, masters
tournaments are increasingly few and far between but not that uncommon.
Aha! Is my reply. But this tournament was organized and run by the
players themselves!
In a sport that consistently fails because of a lack of organized
animation, a dozen guys had the wherewithal to organize a very
successful afternoon of Squash for themselves.
I am sure that it happens from time to time all over the place. My
point is that this used to be the Modus Operandi of Squash the world
over and this was what gave NGBs their Raison D'Etre. Volunteerism was
the rule not the exception.
Are we seeing the return of the age of the 'Self Starter?'
Probably not I suspect - most of these efforts fizzle as people realize
what is entailed in driving a Squash program. But if we encouraged more
of this behavior, we might see a contagion.
Oak trees are Self Starters. As long as they have fertile ground to
drop their little acorns on. Or if someone makes sure the ground is
properly prepared.
Richard Millmanis
an international lifelong squash professional - and husband, dad,
grampa, writer, coach, player, referee, innovator, maverick, mentor,
team player, thinker, listener, promoter, developer, retailer - who
lives squash.
What's On My Mindis a column by rotating authors. Contact: DailySquashReport@gmail.com
