Conduct on court/behind the court/being a coach/parent/spectator!

What is this article is all about you may ask? I’m going to put down some basic do’s and don’ts for squash players, coaches, parents and spectators. There have been some situations come up in the past six months and I’m not sure all people know what they should and shouldn’t do in sport. We’ve all seen instances of the hockey parent going nuts or just last night on the news there was a father who tried to run over his daughters opponents. Then there was the Norwegian cross country ski team coach who handed the pole to one of our athletes. Luckily, 99% of the time we don’t go to the bottom of the spectrum.

Squash BC started an initiative last fall to try and keep our sport fair, competitive and fun for everyone. We started out by sending information to all the top players in the province asking them to abide by the rules, code of conduct, and expected behavior of the game. There have been some very positive situations happening and we think most players are starting to understand what their responsibilities are on and off court. This initiative is not intended to be used as a vehicle to get rid of people you don’t like. It is intended to EDUCATE ALL so we can be proud of our sport.

Squash is a sport that seems to bring out the base personality in people. You can meet the nicest person in the world and think, wow, he/she really has it together. Put that person in a squash court, under a little pressure, and the incredible hulk will immerge. Things happen very quickly out there and situations arise that look much different from inside the court then they do from the outside. There are two people, on display for all to see, and usually those two people are very competitive in nature. Stuff will happen.

Gamesmanship is one of those grey areas in all sports that can cause the most controversy. It’s not breaking the rules of the sport but it’s not being very sportsman like either. A player can do all sorts of things that could be termed gamesmanship. Staring at your opponent just before you serve could be one form. Pointing to the nick where you’re going to hit the ball could be one. When you do hit that nick, faking a yawn/boredom could be another. Talking to your opponent between points can sometimes be very annoying. Some people call gamesmanship entertaining, some call it getting inside their opponents head, others call it cheating???

Squash is a game where everybody expects the players to try their hardest when they play the game of squash. Just by walking through the door, a player has told the world that he/she is 100% ready to go and your opponent is going to have to play 100% to beat you. (How many people like to hear excuses why a player lost?) You should be friendly and courteous, but competitive. You should be gracious when you win and gracious when you lose. Everybody has to learn how to lose, nobody should like it, but it will happen. Until you are number 1 in the world there’s always somebody out there that will beat you.

Coaching squash is a fairly difficult endeavor. Coaches should always coach their athletes to win. There aren’t very many situations in squash when it is more advantageous to lose a match, but the spirit of the game is “play to win.” The best two players/teams should make it to the finals. Anything else would probably be viewed as “not in the spirit of the game.” All coaches should read through the “Coaching Code of Conduct” you received when you took your first coaching course.

When coaching kids especially and most adults, we all have to be aware of what’s happening with their feelings. They are on display in that court. I always think of this young woman who walked into a club where a tournament was going on. She had never seen squash before and had a few to many before she arrived. The first thing she said was, “Wow man, a people bowl!!” Squash is an individual sport and there’s nobody else to blame. Athlete’s feelings are always just below that surface of a calm exterior. Learning to control those feelings is one of the great life lessons squash teaches us.

Parents/spectators are a group of people who also should act within the spirit of the game. Generally speaking there is usually no whooping, hollering, whistling, noise makers etc. There are often other matches going on that would be disrupted by all the noise. Loud out bursts do happen when something remarkable happens and the other players will have to live with it. Parents/spectators should not get involved with the flow of the game in any way. Commenting on calls made by officials is very rude to say the least. Talking to the players while they are on court is not acceptable. The only people a player should be aware of when playing is the opponent and the official. Everybody else should be like those Charlie Brown grown-ups, all legs and background noise.

All of the areas mentioned above have been talked about forever. None of this is new but as a sport organization we can do little about it except to educate everybody on what is the normal fair play. If a coach or a parent sees a situation that they don’t agree with and their athlete is there, may I suggest you use that situation as a learning experience. Talk about it and ask them if they thought it was funny or a good tactic and would they like it if it were done to them. By talking to them about it, when these situations do happen to them, they will know how to react accordingly. A player has choices, they can let it bother them and lose the match, or they can use it to win the match.

May I suggest you all read the rules of the game so when you see something you don’t like, you will know if it is in the rules and the rules can be used to punish that player. This of course mainly applies to Officials of the matches being played. There are a lot of GREY AREAS in squash from the difference between a stroke and a let to, was that good sportsmanship or was it cheating? Squash BC will never be able to have enough rules to cover every situation, nor should we. A lot of situations are basic moral judgment calls on an individual’s part. What is a sin in one person’s eye probably isn’t in another.

Please look at this article as a whole. There may be sentences or situations that you think are wrong and would like to take me to task over. To summarize what was said above, remember what you learned in kindergarten, be nice to the other kids!

Kevin Kydd