Streaks Dont Come Around Often, and You Should Know That!
We all try to relate to excellence, whether we achieve it, aspire to it, or observe it. Streaks, in sports, typically, are most appreciated when they end. Strangely, the longer the streak, the more it is taken for granted, until it is over. When UCLA, led by John Wooden, won seven consecutive NCAA basketball titles, coupled with an 88-game winning streak, in the late 60’s and early 70’s, instead of inspiring awe, there was much more of a “so what” attitude, as if those Bruin’s teams didn’t have to practice and play extremely hard every single day and every single game to keep winning, but that they were just “better” than everybody else. If you have ever watched March Madness, with all the close games and dramatic finishes, where just a bounce of a ball and fractions of inches decide outcomes, the fact that UCLA did not lose a game for nearly four full seasons is staggering to the point of not being believable.
Since I have been following squash, ( post Jahangier Khan) the most famous streak has been Trinity College’s 292 dual match and 13 consecutive National Championships. During the streak, when it seemed, at times, that it would never come to an end, the attitude was that all Trinity needed to do was show up to each match and they would win, the impression being that they didn’t have to work as hard as other teams—they were better, and that was that. We all know, of course, this was not the case, and, that if anything, the pressure on these young men to keep the streak intact was an added burden that forced them to work harder, due to the bulls-eye on their backs.
This past week saw another squash streak reach historic heights. Mohamed El Shorbagy surpassed Nicol David’s long standing record, celebrating his 770th week inside the top 10 of the PSA world rankings. 770 weeks! The last time MES was outside the Top 10 was was November of 2010. To appreciate how long ago this was, the Ipad had just been invented and Instagram was less than a month old! In many ways, individual streaks are more impressive than team oriented ones. In team sports, a player can have a bad day, week, or month even, and have teammates pick them up. In a sport like squash, there is only you on the court, and with the demands on the body and mind more stringent than ever, for an individual to sustain that level of excellence over such a long period of time is something we may never see again. To put this in even more perspective, the two most dominant individual sport athletes in recent times, Rafael Nadal and Tiger Woods, spent 912 and 736 consecutive weeks in the top 10 of their tours respectively. Seeing the toll these streaks took on their bodies, (not to mention their hairlines!), the fact that Shorbagy is still competing at such a high level is remarkable. During recent on and off court interviews, Mo has hinted at his impending retirement. Before the inevitable occurs, I urge you to tune in on Squash TV, or if you have the opportunity, attend one of his matches in person. Appreciate greatness while its happening. As Crash Davis famously said “streaks don’t come around that often, and you should know that”!
BB
