It's How You Play The Game

Set 83 (of 365): Stuart vs. T at Northwest Park. Winner: Stuart 6-2, 4-6 [these two sets played earlier at Pharr and also to 2-2 in the third set], 7-5.
Ladder Match #7

My Mojo: Overconfident Until I Dropped The Attitude, Though Serving Poorly, Then Steady Enough

When we last left our hero, he was tied to the railroad tracks...No, seriously...

Ever since we left this set where it was earlier, I had been thinking, "Man, I am going to WIN this match." Every day, when I thought about it, I just thought that winning was just a sure thing. I mean, I had challenged a guy 10 rungs up on the ladder and beat him pretty easily in this same round. And last night, I beat a guy who was more than 15 rungs higher than me, though just barely. But as I've been told, there is no barely. You either win or you don't. It feels more complicated than that to me, though. Sometimes I squeak out a win and it really takes a lot out of me. And sometimes I lose but still feel powerful.

So I had all this confidence coming into this match. It really didn't turn out as easy as I thought it was going to be, and I probably only won by dropping my misplaced overconfidence. Starting off the day, we were already at 2-2, and I won the next two games. So far, all was going according to my plan. One problem was that my serve was not working well, so I had to work around that. And that made everything a little harder. And it got worse as the games progressed.

Then, he came back and did just about everything right and won the next two games, to tie it at 4-4. I started getting really perturbed. What is going on? I'm supposed to win. Oh yeah, I have to earn it. But my serve was still not getting power or placement.

So I tried to back off of my frustration and just be in a calm space. Also, I just started hitting serves with the intention of getting them in rather than to gain an advantage. These things helped me win the next game to get to 5-4. Then I got back to misplaced thinking and fixated on how I just need to win the next game. But it didn't happen. I tightened up again, and flubbed most of the shots. So now it was 5-5.

At that point, I just kind of gave up on thinking that I would win, and just started accepting that if I lost, it wouldn't be the end of the world. That helped me get to the one-point-at-a-time calm demeanor that won me the next two games, and the match. Both games were terrifically close for a while, and then I just won the last two points. So how can I beat people way higher than me and then struggle like crazy against someone at my level? That's just life, baby. Ya wins some and ya loses some; I guess it really is how you play the game.