With Regard to the Wild Card by Richard Millman April 24, 2015
With
regard to the Wild Card, every wild card in a US-based tournament
should go to an American who is trying to develop his or her game to
compete at the highest level.
We can't change 100 years of college tradition overnight and schools
rightly provide a bright path to the future for perhaps 99% of college
Squash players. But the insistence on playing and practicing Varsity
team Squash to the exclusion of professional training and
tournaments has held us back.
We have now (and as far as I can see have always had) as much if not
more talent than any other nation. But the simple mathematics of a 17
year old athlete who plays 15 hours per week for four years attempting
to compete against a similar 17 year old who plays 50 hours per week is
always going to result in the college athlete falling behind at the
most crucial developmental stage of a Squash career.
In Sweden and Egypt - both of which have a college academic tradition -
more perhaps than the UK which has always had greater numbers going
into the workplace rather than college - there has been a very
successful pathway for players who have alternated a semester of
college with a semester of PSA or WSA. Without the limitations placed
by having to only play and train for team Squash this has allowed some
academically minded professional players to get their degrees over 5-7
year periods and to rise to lofty heights in the World Rankings.
In my view we need to adopt a policy of actively encouraging US Squash
players to play a minimum of 7 PSA/WSA tournaments per year and to
create a possible pathway for semester on /semester off players
to attend college and play team Squash.
Both in Tennis and Squash the US has failed to see the big picture and
has hamstrung itself with traditions that have damaged the capacity of
the nation to evolve in these sports.
Couple this with the fact that coaches are forced to live by their
win/loss records, there is relatively little energy going into trying
to develop the players that leave the junior ranks and go into college.
It is more that players of a known quantity are maintained rather than
improved - as will always happen when you segregate all the top players
to practice with players less than themselves and only allow them to
come out to play against other top players occasionally. There is of
course some progress - even remarkable considering the limited
circumstances, but still stunted as compared to what could be possible.
Imagine if all of the top US players could practice with PSA/WSA players on a regular basis while still studying.
I believe we would see at least 20 US players in the World top 100
within five years and 40 within 10 if we allowed this program to be
implemented.
And would it be so terrible if of all the college players 15 or 20 of
them graduated after 7 years instead of 3 or 4? If they had a world
class Squash career behind them I think it would actually enhance their
value to society as mature and balanced people capable of competing
globally.
It is hard to break honorable and well loved traditions. But if we
didn't do so then we would still be worried about sailing off of the
edge of the world.
