Women's Squash Week
The twelfth annual Women’s Squash Week will be held September 16-22 2024 in approximately 50 locations across the US.
Open to women of all ages and skill levels, the Week is “…an international campaign that aims to celebrate and raise the profile of female squash,” according to the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Foundation.
“It’s a highly social time,” explained AJ Copeland, Vice President – Women, for National Capital Squash in Washington DC.
Copeland said that the Week began many years ago in New York when a couple of accomplished female squash players realized they wanted to compete in a more relaxed setting. They invited several other women to join them, and the Week was born.
Squash Week is free for participants. Which is probably a good thing, given the difficulty of mastering the sport. “It’s a hard game,” Copeland stated, “not as forgiving as racquetball.” (Our In House Critic confirms this sentiment.)
England Squash has more about the Week, and what’s happening on their side of the pond.
Older players?
Copeland noted that players at her club tend to have a “barbell distribution”.
The life cycle appears to be that a competitor begins the game as a youth, playing through college, let’s say. That forms the first barbell bulge.
Then, marriage, kids, careers, and other things become priority, and play drops dramatically, or ceases, creating the connecting bar.
Once the person reaches her 50s, however, there is renewed interest, and that forms the second bulge. For example, Copeland and a group of friends have played for years, even though they are all retiree or near-retiree age.
Formal statistics on squash player demographics are difficult to find. But I did note a couple of interesting rankings on the US Squash website that confirm the applicability of the sport for Age-defying Athletes:
· There are three “ranked” female players over age 75, plus one at 80+
· For the over 85 year old men, three are ranked
· And, astonishingly, for men 80+, 23 are ranked!
The World Soccer Federation recently concluded its World Masters tournament in Amsterdam. Playing categories in the Masters ranged from singles for men and women aged 35 through women’s 70+ and men’s 80+.
East coast Meg
Many, many thanks to East Coast Meg for tipping me off to Women’s Squash Week, and also for introducing me to the game of squash, period.
Meg, 58, is a member in good standing of the Age-defying Athlete Project (ADAP) community.
Hers is a terrific story.
When growing up, Meg says that she did sports “…not at all. I wasn't good at anything. Not a ton of sports activities for girls back then. Besides, I was afraid of the ball.”
She overcame this fear, and went on to play “… squash in undergrad and grad school. Have always been into fitness, however, [doing] aerobic exercise since college.”
Executive Director of a Not-for-Profit Organization, Meg had been seeking a dining club to which she could bring clients and prospects.
“I joined a social club in [city] for work reasons. Very convenient to my office. I had played squash [decades before], so I was happy to get back into it,” she explains. “They have ladies round robin, it's social and I can find people to play with.”
Graduate school was about 30 years ago, which may have been daunting to some. Not for Meg. Since she wanted back into squash, she laced up her shoes, grabbed her racquet, and immersed herself in the game again – including playing in tournaments with her two sons.
“Squash” – unusual name for a sport
Brings to mind zucchini and butternut tossed against a wall? Not really, but you wouldn’t be far off.
The sport actually began as “rackets” and was played in London prisons where it no doubt made that sound frequently, probably to the delight of inmates and the annoyance of wardens.
Then around 1830, students at the Harrow School discovered that if a punctured ball squashed against a wall, it set up a variety of challenging shots.
What about today’s squash ball?
According to Racquets4U.com, “A squash ball is hollow inside and the air in it helps absorb energy and convert it into heat that leads to expanded rubber and the ball becomes bouncier as the game goes on. This is, in fact, an important aspect about squash ball that it needs to be warmed up nicely before it starts bouncing as much it’s supposed to.”
No wonder it’s so difficult!
WIIFY?
Friendship, shared interest, fun, moving around, chasing the unpredictable – Age-defying Athletes are all about these virtues.
You can be, too. Don’t pass up a chance to move to the bulge-y end of that barbell.
How? Check out a completely new sport on YouTube or ask friends of friends about their leisure activities. You never know what sort of racket you will make.