I had the opportunity to go to Mayfair Lakeshore this past Friday and Saturday to watch the 2017 Canadian Squash Championships. What an incredible 2-days of squash. Having 2 athletes we sponsor in the semi-finals made it pretty exciting for me. We sponsor Mike McCue and Samantha Cornett. Mike was facing Andrew Schnell in the semi’s and Sam was facing Danielle Letourneau.

Although spring time usually marks the end of squash season and beginning of activities not confined to four white walls, the schedule this year has worked out such that I will be playing my biggest string of tournaments in these warmer months. There were no PSA tournaments I could realistically play during the winter; my last tournaments were in Saskatoon and Edmonton back in November. There have been other tournaments in between, but frankly they were a string of disappointments for me. However, the last 10 weeks have been a good training period, fueled by the motivation of this upcoming tour.

I have been using the Asics Gel Blast now for a couple of years and I am so used to wearing them that when asked why they are so good I simply said they are the best shoe I have ever played squash in.  While that is true it was probably not the most thorough explanation!  There are really a few key points that make these shoes great.

Jonathon Power is giving back to the Canadian Squash Community.  He along with Jamie Nichols and Gary Waite are in the process of creating the National Squash Academy at Downsview Park in Toronto.  I am lucky enough to be in the area and am definitely looking forward to visiting the facility.

Having such a facility in the city of Toronto is great for the local squash community.  There are definitely other good clubs in the city of course but this is geared towards being a high performance center.  To quote the information below it is a "center of squash excellence, combining all of the necessary elements of Long Term Athlete Development to grow the game and it’s athletes from playground to the podium"  Clearly the focus is on training competitive athletes.