Friday, April 21, 2023

Recovery and persistence

Adam beat me today 6-4, which was important to him after I had dominated him last time we played (though, of course, he had crushed me the time before that). It was a good set though. I had some important realizations.

We had a long game when he was up 4-2 and I was serving. We probably had 8-10 deuce points before I finally pulled it out. Somewhere in the middle of the game I realized that I was having a difficult time with mental stamina in longer points after there had been an initial adrenalin rush when I thought I had hit a winner and he got it back, or maybe I got to the net and he lobbed me but I kept it in play. After something like that I was invariably flubbing things because I wasn't able to reset mentally within a point.

Once I had that realization I tried to apply it and not just give myself a gold star for introspective insight. I won the game, which was great, then he closed out the set. He had already been up a break, after all, and he was motivated.

Which reminded me of how last night I realized what I was going to have for breakfast and I was describing my thought process to Mary and she goes: "Sorry, I zoned out. I really don't care about how you determine what you're having for breakfast." But you, gentle readers, you are a much more forgiving lot than mean old Mary, simply by virtue of coming back. As always, you have my deepest gratitude.

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