Will's World

While at Yale, Will played number one on the squash team for three years and earned three first-team All America and All-Ivy honors. He went on to become a world-ranked squash player on the men’s professional touring circuit (where he achieved the highest world ranking ever by an American man), won the U.S. National Championship and was the United States’ #1 ranked player in 1990 and 1995. Will has won three national championships, has competed in the World Championships and the Pan Am Games and has marched in the opening ceremonies in two Olympic Games.

Will has almost twenty years of sports management experience, serving on the Executive Committees and Boards of Directors of both the US Olympic Committee and the US Squash Association. He also served on the Athlete’s Advisory Council on the Olympic Committee for two terms. He has been the back-page columnist of Squash Magazine for the past twenty years, and is a world-renowned Master of Ceremonies for four of the largest major professional squash tournaments.

By Will Carlin

Sequencing

By Will Carlin In 2007 I was working for a client with a very cool technology platform. NeighborhoodScout had built an incredibly comprehensive database of over 600 characteristics that they used to create a neighborhood profile for every single address in the United States. While you could simply search the database...

WOOP: Planning to Fail

By Will Carlin The build-up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver saw the focus fall on one athlete more than just about any other. Already considered one of the best skiers in history, Lindsey Vonn had just won three consecutive World Cup overall championships (2008, 2009 and 2010),...

Making Lemonade

By Will Carlin Keith Jarrett was not happy. The legendary American jazz and classical pianist had arrived at the Opera House in Cologne, Germany, late in the afternoon on a dark, wet and cold Friday in January, 1975. He hadn’t slept well in several nights, he was wearing a brace for...

Ramy’s Allure

By Will Carlin At the 2014 Windy City Open in Chicago, the best player in the world was seeded number three. After winning the 2013 British Open in May and the NetSuite Open in October, Ramy Ashour had not lost in forty-five straight matches, winning nine tour titles along the...

Will’s World: The Fine Print

By Will Carlin There is a trope that medical researchers use to explain why it is sometimes impractical or unnecessary to perform a full randomized controlled trial: there’s never been one for parachutes. Such a trial would be silly and unethical because it would involve randomly assigning test subjects either a...

Have Heart

by Will Carlin In August of 2013, an Egyptian beer magnate, Ahmed Zayat, was in upstate New York to sell a horse. Zayat was attending an auction of one-year-old horses in Saratoga Springs, and he wanted to unload his own yearling and perhaps buy a few others. He was looking to trade...

It’s About Time

By Will Carlin Howard Armitage is about to hit his third off-balance shot in a row. He has been on defense since his backhand return of serve caught the sidewall and landed about halfway between the front wall and the short line on the right side of the court. He...

Will’s World: The Bull

By Will Carlin Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist, lived most of his adult life in France. Even during the Second World War, while the Germans occupied the city, Picasso remained in Paris. When Adolf Hitler became Germany’s dictator, his personal artistic preference was given the force of law, and Picasso’s...

Will’s World: A Wolf at the Door

By Will Carlin It was early morning, and the stands at the Tournament of Champions in Grand Central Terminal were empty. Below the bleachers, despite echoes from the commuters on their way to work, it was fairly quiet. But the lone exercise bike was humming. Nick Matthew, known as the...

Forget it

By Will Carlin It was a tough moment for Roger Federer. He already was down a set in the final of the 2017 Swiss Indoors to Juan del Potro, and he had just blown a second-set break point opportunity at 2-1 by making an error on a relatively straight-forward backhand...

Will’s World: The Fade

By Will Carlin Ten years ago, I had a conversation with James Willstrop—the future number one player in the world. James explained how hard it is for spectators to really understand a squash match between top pros, that the game had so many levels of subtlety that even good players...

Mr. Weymuller

By Will Carlin When I was eleven years old, I thought that wearing a Captain Kirk uniform to school was pretty cool. I was sure that stealing Jenny Durst’s shoe would get her to like me. My favorite sandwich was peanut butter with raisins, Red Hot cinnamon candies, and sprinkles....