By Mike Dale
There was a stark statistic being thrown about on social media this week that “90% of first-time squash players never come back.”
Although the source for this data is highly nebulous (a conversation with a representative of an unnamed Polish court booking system, I’m told), it’s impossible to ignore its sharp contrast with padel’s equivalent figure, which we can state with rather more confidence: it is 8%.
The fact we can be certain of padel’s statistical reliability is down to the huge market share of its dominant court booking system Playtomic.
Armed as they are with the participation statistics of an estimated 80%+ of the padel-playing population and clubs, Playtomic’s database wields huge power and potential. It’s no surprise that the brand’s annual Global Padel Report is devoured by the sports industry, who marvel at its latest staggering growth indices in almost all developed and developing nations in the world.
The social media post about squash’s lack of ‘stickiness’ as a leisure pursuit prompted plenty of suggestions about how we could mould our sport into a product better able to attract and retain players, as padel is doing so successfully.
One response (credit to Rob Ellis, @robshootssquash) caught the eye — and it puts Playtomic at the heart of what is an ingenious and intriguing blueprint for squash’s stakeholders in ongoing efforts to resuscitate the sport at grassroots level.
Rob’s suggestion is to link together three important elements of the amateur squash-playing experience: booking a court, finding an opponent and using the right ball. Let’s look at those in turn:
1. Firstly, encourage all squash clubs to allow booking of their courts via Playtomic (which has squash as well as padel and tennis functions). The ease with which it allows finding a court and opponents is game-changing.
In just seconds, app users can browse nearby clubs for available courts, and select an evenly-matched opponent who is either known or unknown to them. Once the selected opponent receives a request to play, they can assess the requester’s rating, and either accept or dismiss the offer. Not unreasonably, it has been compared to a dating app.
Squash currently has no pre-eminent court booking platform, with many clubs creating their own bespoke systems or using white label products which are not connected from club to club (US Squash pushed for the world to adopt Club Locker, but uptake was not universal).
Once widely adopted, Playtomic (or an equivalent product) would offer squash players far greater ease in setting up a match, but also the chance to be more nomadic, play against a wider variety of players, and help to keep more provincial facilities vibrant, rather than sticking to a ‘home’ club.
A rise in customer choice might also help reduce complacency among many old-school squash clubs, who haven’t changed the carpets, cleaned the courts, changed coaches, encouraged new members, fostered social connections or engaged with their local communities in decades, if ever.
Outdated membership models (which dominate in the UK and US markets) naturally force squash players into committing to one club. It’s not long before that club starts to take them and their monthly direct debit for granted. Committees (run by members) are reluctant to increase prices, so facilities stagnate.
In padel, operators are nervous of replicating this membership model, because their customers can’t always get a court due to high demand, so they want to be able to look elsewhere too. They don’t want to be locked in; they want choice — and Playtomic is giving it to them. This raises standards across the board as clubs improve and diversify to become more attractive.
2. Integrate a player rating system within the court booking process (as Playtomic does)
Squash already has its own player rating system, Squash Levels, which is being adopted in an increasing number of the world’s squash-playing nations as its team agrees partnerships with national, continental and global federations.
Squash Levels is hugely popular, a source of fascination and motivation to thousands of players. It stimulates deeper player engagement, increases participation, competition and court bookings. Last week’s launch of Squash 57 Levels will no doubt have further galvanising effects.
Rob’s suggestion was to simplify how Squash Levels quantifies players’ respective standards. Instead of every player having a figure between 0-100,000, he proposes adapting to Playtomic’s more digestible 0-7 scale. This would be far easier to understand for beginners and make it easier to compare levels of prospective opponents.
When linked with the court booking system, this new player rating scale would offer the same blissfully easy process of setting up matches as in padel, thus driving participation, court utilisation and creating a vibrant ecosystem.
3. Now we come to perhaps the cleverest part — linking court booking and opponent-finding to one of squash’s biggest problems: using the right ball.
Squash Player has covered this issue in great depth, and World Squash and Dunlop have banged the drum in recent years with their ‘Right Ball’ campaign. And yet the agonising sight of beginners unwittingly attempting to hit a dead double yellow dot ball around the court as it barely bounces above ankle height, persists.
What if there were a framework linking players’ Squash Levels ratings directly to the type of ball they should be using?
For example, if market-leading ball brand Dunlop rebranded their balls according to Playtomic’s 0-7 system, it could look something like this:
0+ – orange junior ball
1+ blue dot
2+ red dot
3+ single yellow
4+ double yellow
Not only would this simplify the incomprehensible-to-beginners coloured dot system, it would also remove the problem of less-skilled or ageing players stubbornly playing with an inappropriate ball due to their egos. If they want to play against opponents in their rating bracket, they’ll have to use the right ball!
Food for thought, at the very least…
