Paul coll: An All Black squash player, now with an all black squash racket
After a week of teasing his new squash racket, ‘Superman’ Paul Coll has finally announced his new sponsor – Head! From December 2020 onwards, Paul’s signature squash racket will now be the Head Graphene 360 Speed 120 Slimbody, combined with Head Reflex 1.20 strings. As well as this, he’ll be wearing his very own line of clothing on court – IWI Athletica.
The move to Head will no doubt come as quite a surprise for squash fans – Paul was the figurehead for Eye Rackets over the past few years. It’s not too often you see top-5 players switching sponsor. While the details are unclear behind why Paul’s made the switch, it’s going to be exciting to follow his progress with Head and to see what products come out under his endorsement.
A meteoric rise to success for Coll
For those who who’ve paid close attention to Paul Coll over the past few years, it’s been an incredible rise to success for the Kiwi superstar. It’s fair to say Paul is one of the most improved players on the PSA. Just four years ago Paul sat outside the top 30, now as of December 2020 he’s worked his way into the world #4 spot. This is his highest ever ranking and places him closer to some of the greatest New Zealand squash players of all time.
On top of earning the monicker of being the ‘fittest player on tour’, Paul has undoubtedly put the hours to refine his technical skills. This has made him one of the world’s best all-round players. His traditional style of play, focussing on tight drives and punishing rallies is in stark contrast to the Egyptian ‘attacking’ style of play that currenty dominates the sport. It’s great to see different styles of play make their way into the top world rankings. It’s going to be really exciting to see how Coll develops the next few years as he no doubt enters the prime of his career.
A look at Paul Coll’s new squash racket
The Head Graphene 360 Speed 120 Slimbody was one of the first rackets to feature on Squash Gear Reviews, and to this day is one of the favourite frames we’ve tested.
It’s a lightweight racket, with a slightly head heavy balance. It has a fairly sparse 12×17 stringing pattern – this gives the racket large sweet spot and a forgiving feel. These attributes make generating power a breeze. For me, I found this to be one of the easiest rackets to ‘pick up and play’ with.
For those looking for a little more control, Head has designed this racket to allow you to use a 16×17 ‘fanned’ string pattern – a really nice feature.
This racket also has one of the sleekest looking paint-jobs on the market. The all black design is both understated and eye catching, and is well fitted for Paul Coll’s Kiwi heritage.
The only slight issue I found with this racket is long term durability. I and a number of players I know have found cracks in this racket within a year of regular use. Unless you’re making contact with the walls regularly however, you should get a decent lifespan out of this racket.
Read the full review of Paul Coll’s Head Graphene 360 Speed 120 Slimbody squash racket here.
Introducing Paul Coll’s new clothing line – IWI Athletica
The move away from Eye means that Paul will now also be able to wear his own clothing brand – IWI Athlecia. From following Paul and his team on Instagram, it’s clear they’ve invested a huge amount of energy into product development.
While details on IWI Athletica products are currently a little sparse, it’s clear the clothes have been designed with top level athletes in mind. We’re looking forward to seeing Paul wear this brand on tour and wish him all the success when the clothes hit the market.
Images courtesy of Head.
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