Two pretty cool surveys crossed my path this week.
One is from my cousin Ben Collier who is doing a masters thesis at Columbia on urban squash programs. Fill this out and be groovy: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/squash
The other comes via Ben. It is a pretty interesting, conventional-wisdom busting on-going survey:
RealTennis.tv is on the move.
They are fundraising in the modern, crowd-sourcing way, in order to broadcast more court tennis and racquets this winter. Very worthy cause.
www.pleasefund.us/projects/realtennis-tv
This weekend they are streaming live from the French Open in Paris. Right now I am watching another installment of the Riviere v. Virgona rivalry:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/french-open-2011-paris
And then next weekend they will be broadcasting some of the matches on the most unusual and until recently obscure courts in the tennis world, three pelota courts in southwestern France:
http://www.tennisandrackets.com/Editable/UploadedContent/20010-11%20Season/Te…
A month ago I got a nice tip from Josh Easdon, the filmmaker and squash coach, about a story on Toronto television relating to Jonathon Power and a Pakistani woman pro, Maria Toor Pakay, ranked 179 in the world.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/article/1039040–squash-prodigy-flees-taliban-to-toronto
Brett Erasmus has well-dissected this story:
http://www.brettssquashblog.com/2011/08/power-of-one.html
Interestingly, it is her coach not herself (Maria hasn’t played a WISPA tournament since May) who has been making news lately. Power played last night in the Showdown at Symphony in Boston and also found himself in a bit of hot water after getting outed for testing positive for drug use while playing squash in Italy.
http://www.insidethegames.biz/latest/13942-exclusive-squash-stick-by-new-amba…
http://www.insidethegames.biz/latest/13996-squash-drops-drug-tainted-former-w…