Team Street Racket

Marcel Straub

Founder, Owner, Director

Raphael Paglia

Owner, CEO

Jan Kandziora

Project Management, Events, Media

Robin Straub

Project Management

How It Started

A family who wants to take a break in 2015 (before their first child is starting kindergarten) decides to use this special time to do voluntary work. Based on their backround they agree to support "Sport Aid Dominica" by introducing table tennis (as requested by the government in order to increase racket sport activities in the country) to the beautiful island of Dominica in the Caribbean. 

Arriving there with 13 suitcases of donated material and three little kids they realize very soon that there are almost no table tennis tables in this country and so Marcel Straub (former international squash player for Switzerland and back then in charge of the physical education department in Zürich) starts to draw the outline of those missing tables directly onto the ground with some chalk. This idea will need some adjustments in the months to come but still, it works just fine. So the Dominican sports teachers start playing some kind of new racket sport on the floor.

The first form of Street Racket was invented and there was a lot of excitement from the very start - as the setting was so simple but yet effective. No one knew it as this time, but it was also the start of a life changing adventure for a family of six and many people in the process ... 

www.straub-dominica.blogspot.com

 Back in Switzerland, the thought of being able to play racket sports with no infrastructure (the courts are drawn  in a few seconds onto the ground) fascinated Rahel and Marcel and they developed the idea further until they found the perfect shape and systems of the courts, the fitting rules and the ideal equipment to put it all into action. Street Racket was born! And it quickly grew bigger and bigger, it moved more and more people until the day arrived where it all became too big to handle. Next to the regular (well paid) jobs and the (amazing) family life the big question now was: “are we in it for real or do we quit this amazing idea because it's too risky to build a life on a dream"? .

“Be courageous and follow your heart, live your dream and don't dream your life” is one the main principles of the Street Racket founders Rahel and Marcel. And so they quit their (beloved) jobs and are since then working full time for their own movement concept Street Racket!

Street Racket wants to promote healthy activities and well being, but it also wants to bring people together in sport and help build up integration as well as self esteem for all the players involved. Street Racket reaches out to all, no matter what age group or what playing level - and it can be enjoyed everywhere. There is so much potential to move all generations - especially since the simple but different rules make sure that everyone is even in the many game forms the concept has to offer ... find out for yourselves and rock the street with us!

With whom we work around the globe