I like numbers.
I like maps.
I like to understand how many of a thing there are, and where they are.
I spent a few minutes this evening looking at USA Racquetball’s list of Certified Referees. I took the number of certified refs for each state, by gender, and put them all on a map.
BatchGeo has an excellent mapping service, that will let you set a number of items onto a location and then see them on a map.
View USA Racquetball’s Certified Referees by State in a full screen map
The greatest acceptance of the referee certification process is in North Carolina and Texas, with 29 and 26 certified referees each. Twenty states have 0 players that have become certified. Twelve states have 1 player certified. Six states have 2 players certified. Three states have 3 players certified. One state has 4, two have 5, and one has 6. Three states have 11 players certified. There are 141 certified referees on the list today (July 4th, 2016), with 21 women and 120 men.
Do you have any feedback on why these numbers are so low?
Process for certification from USA Racquetball’s website.
Walk-thru of the screens you see as you register and take the test.
I also took a look at the certified instructors lists from both USA Racquetball and AmPro-IPro. I’m much less confident on the validity of these numbers, as contact information is haphazard and no longer current on the AmPro-IPro list.
View States with Certified Instructors as of July 5, 2016 in a full screen map
I used BatchGeo in 2015 to see where players attending the United Healthcare US Open were coming from. Those maps are still available. USA / Multinational
For racquetball courts, I like a bit more precision, so the list of Georgia courts and the list of Alabama courts have a lot more detail. (Let me know if you play on a court that I missed!)
