Today I played in the monthly women’s round robin in Tipp City. I had a new partner so I decided to try a few new things. I still went in with a game plan but it was much different than my previous plans.
- My first change is to ditch the post-game notes. I was doing that because we typically had time between games and I thought adding some mental to-dos in the moment would be helpful. I definitely left the events knowing what I needed to work on based on my comments but I want to see what it is like to play and not stress about improvement. I wasn’t able to fix anything in the moment by keeping those notes but I was getting hung up on things by taking them. So that’s out.
- Rather than focus on making certain shots (or not missing certain shots) my plan is to trust my shots. If I am making repeat mistakes, evaluate and fix. Otherwise, trust the practice and effort I’ve put in to have the shots I have.
- Since I am playing with a person I’ve not played with, and I’m a little intimidated by her tournament experience and the level she regularly plays, I want to make sure I’m a good partner. I don’t want to get down on myself and bring negative vibes to the court by doing so. I’m going to do my best to make some kind of connection with my partner after every point, which is a big change for me. Whether it’s reassurance or celebration, doing either should prevent me from overthinking what I’ve done wrong and help me just play.
- I know in the past I’ve taken what feels like forever to get warmed up so I want to do a little extra and not need 3 games to get going.
- Knowing my partner is a strategic player I want to make sure she knows I’m open to feedback and suggestions and I want to connect with her in advance on the foundation of how we will play (stack, no stack, target players or proper shots, etc.). Then if we have to pivot, we pivot.
My game plan played out nicely. We finished in second place, my first time earning the chocolate medal (chocolate goes to the Top 3 teams). We finished 8-1 overall and beat some strong teams fairly handily. I’m not sure either of us expected the performance we put out so it was nice to be rewarded with wins.
The team we did lose to didn’t get much of a challenge from us. In fact, they smoked us. But I can come up with some positives. For me, I got one of the “Oh no, I forgot she’s left handed” winners. I’m really good at messing those up so it was nice for the winner to actually be a winner. For my partner, she pulled off a sweet Erne that shocked me and the opponents. That was about it for that game. The loss was to the team that finished in first and went undefeated.
The wins we had were great. I don’t think I went wrong with my game plan at all so I was really happy. We talked in advance and decided to do a half stack with signals, the signals being to stay. We may have only switched 6 times the whole day – and that guess is likely exaggerated. I definitely put in the effort to make some kind of connection between points and I think I did a pretty good job with it. I don’t know if it made much of a difference but I know I wasn’t putting my head down thinking about things I need to fix, potentially giving off an inaccurate vibe of disappointment. We both made mistakes that we were upset about in that moment and then we both let it go.
As far as my play, I was able to turn on a couple of my roll shots. My partner definitely set me up for put aways and I think I had more success than I had failures with those. She and I communicated well enough that when she saw things I could do differently she told me, I did it and it worked. There weren’t any ATPs for me today but most of our success came from the drop and attack approach so it’s not super surprising the opportunities weren’t there.
Overall, we both played solid and our effort was unified. She took over when she got the chance, I did my best to be an effective, reliable partner. It was a good day.
