One by-product of the launching of our new podcast, Outside the Glass, has been that a couple of people have asked me general questions about squash in the digital age: what else is out there? I have told them that besides our podcast, one of the few places where there is some form of an actual conversation about the game online is on Reddit.
The subreddit on squash, /r/squash, isn’t super powerful, but there are many very engaged people who enjoy talking about the game there. It is a digital locker room: gossip, idle chatter, misinformation, people looking for help with their gear and training (what strings to buy, what to eat before a match) and people pointing to amazing shots and bad lets. (And the logo is slightly unhinged and I like that.
One was about where would a at-his-peak Jansher Khan be ranked today. Brilliant. It is the kind of spitballing that we all do in person.
There are also stickied threads for tournaments that serve as a sort-of underground chat box. The recent British Open got eighty-four comments, for example.
A favorite recent one was about Ramy Ashour. The person wrote that “having a Ferrari power-train mated to a Trabant chassis can only go so far—something’s gotta give when cornering at high speed or during rapid acceleration/deceleration.”