Sedrak Kalashyan is an entrepreneur who grew up in Armenia and Russia and lives in Manhattan, now. A long-time member of Open Squash, he recently convened the first Armenian round-robin at the center in New York’s Financial District.
“I really like Open Squash, and its ethos resonates with my own beliefs about building community,” he said. “I really appreciate the place, and I wanted to see if there were other Armenian players out there who might like to come along.
Armenia has a long and complex history over more than 2,000 years bordering Turkey to its west, Georgia to the North, Azerbaijan to the East, and Iran to the South. It was part of Soviet Russia from 1920 until declaring independence in 1991 and is home to about three million people. The Armenian Genocide perpetrated in 1915 caused many Armenians to flee around the world, creating the Armenian Diaspora, which is actually larger in numbers than the country itself, with about seven million Armenians worldwide, including such famous names as Kim Kardashian, Charles Aznavour, Andre Agassi and Cher, as well as the world’s most successful art dealer, Larry Gargosian.
“Most Armenians you talk to will tell you that they have relatives everywhere,” Sedrak said. “Like I have relatives here, Los Angeles, France, Russia, you know, even one random uncle in Australia.”
Sedrak discovered squash a decade ago when he was living in Russia.
“Two close friends of mine, they'd been dating for three years, and they wanted to spice up a relationship with something new, do a hobby together,” he said. “And it became squash that they both got into. And they invited all our friends, and I would show up once a month to play with them. When I moved to New York seven years ago, my friends got me a gift certificate for a pack of lessons here, and then I started to play more and more. I’m the only one who plays actively nowadays, but I owe them the introduction to squash.”
Sedrak used to organize Armenian events back in St. Petersburg, Russia. The organization hosted Armenian ping pong tournaments, backgammon games, volleyball, tennis, and also cultural events, too, related to language, literature and music. He had a lot of experience organizing such events for the diaspora, and he wondered if there were more squash players in New York of Armenian heritage. He found a list of 20 Armenians playing squash, “mainly by looking at their last names”, he said, and four people came to the first round-robin, kindly hosted by Open Squash FiDi. About a dozen more expressed interest in coming along in the future, “and so we plan to do another round-robin in a few months,” he said. “And so hopefully it will grow. Maybe we will get some Armenian food in because everyone was asking me, ‘are we having dolmas afterwards?’”
In addition to having squash as a common hobby, the players also enjoyed talking about their shared history.
“One of the guys was telling us the story of how he grew up with his grandparents, cooking food all the time, discussing politics, and singing & dancing. And I was like, ‘this is the way I grew up as well.’ Having these past experiences really helps us to bond. Plus, we’re all squash players, so there are just so many things to talk about.”
Sedrak, whose rating is around 4.6, lost his match against FiDi member Leon—but has learned to bring more mental focus to the game over the years.
“It's not just skill and physicality. Every good squash player will tell you it’s all about mental strength and mental focus, and I do struggle with it sometimes,” he said. “I remember realizing that you have to keep repeating to yourself what you're supposed to do. It’s about constant mental focus, and I never expected to be such a big part of a game.”
That focus is also important in your day-to-day life, too, Sedrak said. He founded an advanced language-learning application called Climb, which helps non-native English speakers build their vocabulary. It helps people become more fluid and eloquent in speaking the language.
“I worked in tech for about ten years, and I was like, okay, I want to do something myself and bring more value to people,” Sedrak said. “And I had this pain point myself, I realized there is no product out there to help me truly expand my advanced vocabulary so that I can freely express myself. Rooted in a rich tapestry of ancient resilience and cultural heritage, every Armenian embodies a profound ethos of innovation and altruism, driven to elevate the human experience and foster global betterment. So, I just went for it and created Climb.”
If you’re in New York, and Armenian, and play squash, you can get in touch through info@opensqash.org, and join the Armenian Round Robin!
“You’re not guaranteed to win, even if you feel you should,” she said. “And I was feeling this expectation just for myself, really. And so, I had to step away from that. And that was freeing. And I was able to get much better performances in the second half of the season.”
Nicole continues to write blogs rounding up her match experiences, and has a healthy Instagram following where she writes about results and how the tour is going. She has written a lot about improving her fitness, but lately, has also focused on the mental game.
“I realized in the fall when I was losing because of mental reasons,” she said. “I just didn't have much confidence in in my abilities. You know, I was stepping on court, and I wasn't really sure what I was trying to do, as silly as that sounds. So, I did a couple things. I introduced a couple new people to my coaching staff, like Amr Khalifa, who works here. He's been great. And taking a different approach, which has been really helpful”
She has been trying to get more aggressive on court in a way that suits her personality.
“A lot of people have told me over the years, you need to be more intense,” she said. “You need to be mean. But that is not what I enjoy about sport. It's not about killing the other person or crushing the other person. I enjoy the competition and the fight, but it's really more about a personal satisfaction than it is about feeling like I'm just better than someone, you know, it's more about me than it is about them.”
Sometimes, that’s been to Nicole’s detriment, she concedes.
“Working with Amr, he's been helpful to try and help me spin this, for lack of a better word, aggression or this or this purpose and intent in a more positive way that makes you feel like you're being proactive rather than, so defensive, which is how I was feeling.”
She’s also worked on having a gameplan before stepping on court. She focused on having three things, ‘x, y, and z’, before stepping on court.
“I think x was be tough to beat, right? Which encompasses a few things, right? If you're going for cheap shots, you're not making yourself tough to beat, right? If you're not chasing every ball down and trying your hardest to get the ball, you're not making yourself tough to beat, right? Going for a crappy shot off the serve. It encompasses like a few tactical things, I think, into one that might mean something else to something different to everyone else. But for me, those are the main components.”
The second thing was to get in front of her opponents, visualizing where she wanted to be on the court, and having some flexibility in terms of which shot she wanted to hit to get there.
“Then the third thing was about picking my opportunities and being gutsy and trusting myself to take the ball,” she said. “And if it's there, you take it in and accept you're going to make a couple of mistakes. But keep doing it.”
She beat Mariam Metwally at the Florida Open in five games. “That was a big turnaround,” she said.
Canada’s national coach, Graham Williams, helped Nicole a lot with the mental part of the game.
“At the Commonwealth Games, even when I was going through this rut in the fall, I had this peak at the Pan Am games where I actually performed really well,” she said. “And he was there and I realized, okay, I need to, I need to get more of that. So after that, I started speaking with him more and he's in Philly. So, it's not even like we get on court very often. But you know, we just check in and we talk before matches and he helps me keep up to date on what I'm working on. And yeah, he's phenomenal.”
Over the coming years, Nicole wants to continue focusing on the business.
“I have discovered I quite like digital marketing and copywriting and the aspects kind of fall under that umbrella,” she said. “So I'd actually like to help other sports coaches be able to develop and perhaps market their skills online.”
She also wants to become the number one squash player in Canada—she beat Holly Naughton in January in “probably my best match I’ve ever played, but then she beat me in nationals a couple of months later, so obviously I can’t rest on that. But it’s certainly a challenge.”
Thanks for sharing your perspectives with us, Nicole!