20 July 2010

NINJA SQUASH: JOHN WHITE v. RAMY ASHOUR

Well, John White just had that deep predilection for the dives (click on his name in the 'featured players' tab to see the most famous one against Peter Nicol if you haven't seen it yet). I am not sure there was anybody else in the history of squash spending more time on the floor than White.On the top of that, the man is really tall (6'3"), so to stand up each time is not the same physical effort as for example for an Aamir Atlas Khan who is 5'8". In the below rally the floor-choreography receives a new element, due to the contribution of a then very young up-and-coming actor, Ramy Ashour, who produces, at 1:16 that nice Ninja-jump above the head of great John White. And this is the point, this is what makes squash such a great sport (even if people don't realize it): it can be played on top levels in such spectacular fashion; it is of course above all a racket-sport, but it is dance, it is geometry, it is Capoeira too.