I was out playing squash over at the St. Lawrence Community Recreation Centre (video above) over the weekend with a few other sportaholik squash players. There has been a huge debate over which squash ball to use. I’ve always used the “double yellow” and one of the guys insisted on the “blue dot” because it’s fast.  Not that I am anywhere near pro level but I’ve always been told that the “double yellow” was the ones that experienced players use and the “blue dot” is for beginners. It also seems to be the only ball that is used in recreational tournaments and games I’ve been involved with at any skill level.The simple reason that the blue dot ball is fast is because it’s extra bouncy to allow beginners to rally back and forth as it sits up better and gives the player enough time to return the ball anywhere on the court.Of course for the “double yellow” ball to be effective, one must warm the ball up by hitting it hard back and forth a number of times before actually playing. I find this works well and makes the ball pretty fast as well.  What do you sportaholik squash players play with? Feel free to comment and let us know! 

Some more information on squash can be found here:

• Squash on Wikipedia
• How to buy squash balls

sportaholik.com soft launched more Canadian cities over the past few weeks: Now recreational sports players in Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa can meet up with other sports players via sportaholik.com. Enjoy!

Yes, we’re well past the mid of the Toronto winter (most would say that’s a good thing!), but we’re launching our Toronto skating rinks map regardless. There’s still time to get your skates on and enjoy the outdoors. There are more Toronto skating rinks than you see there in the default view of the map. If you don’t live in the core of the city simply zoom out our drag the map to another area that is off the map (for example, north Etobicoke or north Scarborough). The yellow pins refer to rinks that offer skate rentals (at the moment this is just Nathan Phillips Square and Natrel Rink at Harbourfront). My personal favourite, between those two, is Harbourfront. It seems less crowded usually. Of course there’s always something special about skating at Nathan Phillips Square, especially when the Square is decorated in Christmas colours! I’ve skated at a few others as well: Ryerson’s pond (Lake Devo), right on the Ryerson University campus, offers a unique experience as you skate amongst hunks of rock that protrude from the lake. That rink is also a minute or so walk from Dundas Station, so it’s easy to get to. You could even follow up some skating with a nice meal from the nearby restaurants, or grab a pint at the area pubs. Late at night when the lights go down, you’ll see Ryerson’s rink it turn into a shinny game featuring people of all ages - usually those living nearby, including the Ryerson students in Residence. A bit further up Yonge (Yonge and College/Gerrard) is another small pond (Barbara Ann Scott) that seems to be rarely used, at least any time I’ve walked by. This is likely a good alternative for some quiet, reflecting skating without the worry of running into people. Of course, they’ve built a zillion condos around there lately so that may have changed for this winter. Along with the Toronto Skating Rinks map, we also mapped the rinks that allow for shinny at certain times of the day. Check out the Toronto Shinny Rinks map for a shinny game near you. Years ago I used to play at Campbell Park (Landsdowne & Dupont) which always had a good game on shinny on Sunday mornings. Check toronto.ca/parks for current shinny times. Enjoy!

Attention all Toronto shinny hockey players: We’ve put together a Google map of Toronto shinny rinks for you to easily find shinny rinks near you. From Etobicoke to Scarborough, Lake Ontario up to Steeles, we’ve taken a list of City of Toronto rinks that offer shinny and placed them on an easy to use map. Note that most of these rinks have special times that shinny is played (as they are shared with pleasure skating times). Also, many of the time slots are for certain ages, gender, or skill levels. We thought about including all of this data, but decided to link instead to a resource that has it, ensuring accurate information going forward. Find a rink that’s near you and then click through on the link to the City of Toronto Parks site that provides you with schedules for each rink. If you are looking for more detailed information about the rinks themselves, try cityrinks.ca, which has a crazy (crazy good!) amount of information about each rink. Enjoy!