2017 Canadian Nationals Recap

I just got back from competing in the Canadian Nationals. I missed playing it the last few seasons because of knee problems, so just to be back on court and competing was a win for me. Unfortunately I had trouble backing up a tough match and lost in the finals of the 35+ 3-1. Anyways, this isn't a post about me so let's move on.

Today I'm going to talk about the men's and women's open events. Here's a link to all the draws if you would like to check out the full results: http://squashcanada.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=984B9FE1-9DAC-427F-A4BE-76D48ABFBF60 Being around squash for my whole life you get to know almost everyone and you get to see juniors rise up and become some of the best players in the country. Canada has had some success on the PSA circuit over the years and we all look up to the footsteps of Jonathan Power (who for the record did not play this year). There was a good blend of some competitors around my age who are nearing the end of their careers and others are just beginning. Shawn Delliere and Shahier Razik have both won a number of the mens' titles over the years and Sam Cornett was back after missing last season due to injury. Cornett has had lots of great results on the PSA tour since her comeback so most people were favouring her to recapture the title. Hollie Naughton was the defending women's champ and Andrew Schnell was last years champ on the men's side.

The women's draw is the most competitive I have ever seen. Canada has a number of women ranked in the top 75 in the world (I believe 5) and there are others playing close to this caliber. Although the women's draw was smaller the caliber and competitiveness was good. It was encouraging to see a couple of the top local juniors in the mix.

The women's semis were set with the top 4 seeds and both matches were incredibly tight. Unfortunately both ended with bad calls by the ref. Down 10-9in the 4th and 2-1 in games Cornet had the momentum, but Letourneau was awarded a stroke for a simple let and the entire crowd gasped in shock and was vividly not happy with the call. I was thinking as watching this that if Cornett had won that point she was going to win that match, it was that critical. Shame when you see something like that. In the other semis (which I didn't see all of) I heard there was a wrong call at 9-9 in the 4th against Nikki Todd which gave Naughton match ball. I was worried about the refing from my very 1st match when I was awarded a no let when I hit my opponent during my swing which caused my ball to hit the floor. I don't know if the refs have got a new set of rules they're using. I don't like bringing up this topic again, but anytime a ball was hit lose it was either a 'no let' or a 'stroke.' It was really strange and you never knew which was coming regardless of the amount of impedance of the swing. There was no consistency with these calls. In my semis my opponent and I agreed to change poor decisions twice and the ref got angry and asked if we even wanted him to ref. I realized quickly it was not worth arguing or getting upset about any calls, you just hope they didn't occur in big points and unfortunately for the women it did happen in big moments in incredibly exciting and well fought matches. Moving on.

After Letourneau had caused a big upset and taken out Cornett I felt it was going to be very tough for her to mentally and physically back that up in the finals against Naughton. Letourneau was up 2-1 in the finals when you could see she was getting a bit fatigued and forcing the ball short too early and from defensive positions. Somehow it's kind of encouraging knowing the top players struggle with the same things everyone else does at times. Naughton went on to win in 5 and is the defending champ. But with the depth and caliber of the women in the field this title will be up for grabs every season!

On the men's side there were also plenty of upsets. The defending champ, Schnell lost in 5 to Mike McCue while less surprising was Nick Sachvie who beat Shawn Delliere in 3 straight. Sachvie has been climbing up the PSA ranks quickly and cleaned up during the weekend without dropping a game. Watching Sachvie play I felt like he has less obvious areas to work on than the other guys do. His movement and court coverage is unbelievable and super efficient. It would have been nice to see him tested and to see how he handles the pressure of tight matches. He definitely has the ability to continue cracking on up in the men's rankings. It's all going to come down to the tactics and mental game. He's got the movement and the racquet skill. If he can get out on court with some of the top pros I'm sure it would help him continue his rapid development. That's the challenge here in Canada when you become the best. Since the NSA has closed their doors there is no set place and team for upcoming pros to go train. Currently a group of them go to club in Toronto and work with a couple of the coaches there, but it doesn't have the draw or appeal of a place like the NSA and JP did.

I thought they caliber of squash was very high in the men's too. It will interesting to follow the men and women as some careers are winding down and others are just getting going. The top 4 Canadian women all have the ability to crack the top 30 and there's a few after that who aren't too far behind them. Sachvie seems to have the clear cut edge in how far up he can get up the rankings. I could see him making top 30 or even 20 in a few years, but at that stage you need to be getting regular hits with the top guys and on the glass court. Schnell is extremely fast and an amazing athlete and has already had some success getting into the top 60 and winning last years title so convincingly. We all know Razik and Delliere have already reached impressive previous career highs a few years back. I believe Razik got to the low 20's and Delliere around 30. Neither could find success on the glass court against the top players so let's hope our next crop of players can do better at this transition.

It's a shame that Squash Canada doesn't have a stepping stage or funding for juniors to the PSA for the top kids. It's tough to stay motivated and on the right course for year after year unless you happen to get a great team in place on your own. Even then, managing this financially is a major struggle. $1,200 for winning nationals barely covers expenses if you don't happen to live in Toronto. Other countries have paid pro leagues, more national funding and plenty of coaching and training available for their top players. If I was a top up and coming Canadian pro I would definitely need a lot of help, but would be afraid to ask for it and wouldn't know where to turn. Going to a good university program seems the simplest really. Other than that I say go abroad. If you want to keep our top players in Canada try and help get a PSA event at your club or reach out to sponsor 1 of these amazing athletes. And how about trying to get a glass court set up somewhere permanently in Canada? I'd be happy to make some space for it on the west coast :)

Did you watch Nationals is person or on the streaming? Let me know your thoughts. And if you haven't already checkout out the new Serious Squash film, The Secrets of Solo Hitting has now sold almost 100 copies to people from all over the world. It's a 64 minute advanced instructional video on how to solo hit most effectively. Pick up a copy at SeriousSquashShop.com/collections/coaching-videos and if you'd enjoy it I will give you a full refund!

Analysis Of The British Open: Glass Court Issues

Watching the British Open this week, I've decided that today I'm going to discuss some of the great parts and not so great parts of the 4-wall glass show court. The glass court is much superior for viewing, both on TV and live. It is also incredibly unforgiving if you are missing your targets. While on the flip-side it can be equally rewarding for well executed shots.

As I've been watching the British Open this week, it's evident to see the difference of people with more experience on glass courts. Of course there have been a number of upsets on the women's side, but most of those have been on the traditional courts. I've watched at least parts of 5 or 6 women's matches on the glass court and this is what I've decided to discuss today.

As I mentioned above, the glass court is not very forgiving. If you're not hitting your targets the ball will be squirting out loose. And I've noticed that for the most part in the women's game that this has happened very early in the rallies; often after 2 or 3 shots. The challenge here is that once the court is opened up I find that in the women's game the rally is rarely ever reset. The women are too good at finishing off the points and in general the women aren't as explosive as the top men to make up for a poor shot. So I've found a number of the women's matches thus far to be one sided. I've felt embarrassed for some of the women out there. They are top 20 or 30 in the world and losing games in 5 minutes or less. It must be quite frustrating and a blow to their confidence.

In one first round match between Nicol David and Tesni Evans this trend seemed to be continuing, at least for the first 2 games. As Evans adjusted to the court she really played some excellent squash and pushed David to 4 games and it was highly entertaining. It demonstrated that the slightly lower ranked women can adjust and compete with the top ranked women and in the end entertain us; which of course is the objective for us watching. We don't care if it's men or women if we see good, hard fought rallies.

So how can the WSA improve the quality of their glass court matches? Obviously the biggest thing is experience. The women that are lower ranked have to battle through qualifying and rarely get a match on the glass court. I'd estimate under 10 matches on a glass court per year for women out of the top 15 or 20. If you compare that to David, she probably gets 50+ annually and also gets more practice on one back in Malaysia. Imagine if Evans has the same luxury? Imagine if all the women had that luxury? Certainly that's part of the experience that is so valuable on tour. The game is much different on a 4-wall glass show court.

In the end, the WSA, (well now joined with the PSA) is a business. If they want to improve their product they need to make glass courts more common place for all the women. This may mean making a push to have glass courts in countries where all the top women are from. This may mean not overlapping men's and women's events so that all of the matches (including qualifying) are played on glass courts. This could at least be done for major events. They could also have 2 glass courts at major events. I know it's getting expensive now. But I feel some of the matches so far on the glass courts have been pretty poor quality. I know the women are super talented, but they aren't able to play to the best of their abilities on the biggest stage (excluding the top few). It's a shame really.

You see this with the men as well. Canadian legend Shahier Razik is a perfect example of someone that as always struggled adapting his game on the glass court. The difference is that Razik can at least get more balls back and have some rallies even if he does go down.

I think glass courts are the future of the game. Hopefully we get more permanently built into squash clubs in the world. Surely if someone wanted to play professional, they would benefit from spending extra time on these types of courts. But of course they first have to make it through smaller tournaments to get a high enough ranking to play in the big events which have the glass courts setup.

I'd like to think the better player will win regardless of the court, but we can see from the first round upsets in the women's draw that the court does make a bid difference. I highly doubt there would have been as many upsets in the first round if all the matches were played on the glass court.

I think as we get further into the tournament the caliber of the women's matches not the glass court will dramatically increase. David and any top Egyptian is always an entertaining spectacle. I want pro squash to look like pro squash. I know it will improve with time and experience, I just hope it doesn't do more damage than good for some of the women that have been steamrolled thus far.