By Kevin Klipstein
I started playing squash when I was 11 years old. My father, who had played recreationally in college, introduced the game to me and quickly got out of the way. We were fortunate that Carol and Fred Weymuller had just moved to the area, after launching the famed Heights Casino program, and were teaching squash and tennis at our club. I took a few lessons and participated in some junior clinics and, before long, I was playing at a decent level.
I had played tennis from an early age so squash was easy to pick up. I also played soccer in the fall and hockey in the winter. While certainly not a star in any of the sports, I was an active and enthusiastic participant. I competed in my first squash tournament at age 12, and despite never climbing higher than 29 in the national rankings (published once a year back then), I went on to be named second team All-American and co-captain of my team at Cornell.
Two seasons ago, US Squash introduced a three-tiered competitive tournament structure called Gold, Silver and Bronze, and encouraged plate draws for consolation losers to guarantee a third match. The moves created meaningful, fun competition for junior players no matter what their level of play (the joke in the office is we did this because I was scarred from my early experiences of being knocked out of tournaments by Friday afternoon). We’ve seen a surge in junior participation (over 40% in the last few years) and our ranking system has progressed rapidly as well.
To manage the growth in junior squash, and to further guide structured play to be fair and fun, US Squash has introduced the Under 11 (U11) age division rankings this season. Squash Ontario recently started to offer U11 rankings and the Scottish Open now offers U11 divisions for boys and girls. We had also noticed that more U11 divisions were being hosted locally, and one of the primary challenges for tournament directors has been to seed tournaments properly due to a lack of rating information for younger players. With the U11 division ratings, our tournament software now provides automatic seeding for these players.
“Early skill building in many sports, while nurturing a love for the game, allows players to enjoy the sport for his or her lifetime, as it has for me.”
In making this decision, we have considered the game from the broadest perspective and taken the history of junior rankings in squash and other sports into consideration. Initial studies seem to indicate that squash is not an “early-specialization” sport, meaning playing at least one other sport up to 14 or 15 years old is likely a great benefit. Children develop physically and mentally at different rates and age is just one attempt to level the playing field for competitions.
In the end, the rankings are as meaningful as members of the squash community make them. Their purpose is to increase the fairness of play and to provide feedback on performance to those players that find it productive, entertaining and helpful. We’d all be well served to keep this in mind and in perspective as the sport continues to grow. Early skill building in many sports, while nurturing a love for the game, allows players to enjoy the sport for his or her lifetime, as it has for me. Every time I get back on the court, and it’s not as often as I’d like, I am reminded of how much I love the game, and how fortunate I am that my father introduced me to it.