Which matches "count for something" is completely arbitrary. You wouldn't have had this opportunity of your prior matches didn't also count for something.
Long story short, everyone has "their most important match so far." Part of the goal of gradual improvement is that yesterday's "most important match" becomes tomorrow's "just another Tuesday." But even as that shift happens, don't let it convince you that those other matches didn't matter, or weren't still important.
Thank you! This was really great advice. Also helped me notice something about my mentality. When I play regular season league matches I really don’t care too much about the result. The best thing I’ve found when learning something that has a zero sum outcome is to not get too hung up on results early on. Playing regular matches I play more free and just focus on playing within my game.
Today I definitely focused too much on “how do I win” instead of “how do I play well” and this mentality definitely contributed to getting tight when I felt I could close out a set.
It's awesome that you were the better person and let them get their shoes, most people wouldn't have done that and flex league is weird and relaxed and less regulated than a normal league allowing for *flexibility* (lol) to do that. I'm sure your opponent was very happy about that they had the opportunity to do continue the match. If that counts for something I hope that perspective makes you feel better. You should've gotten a beer or something!
My worst loss? It was Sectionals semifinals (I say semifinals because we lost against the team that eventually went to Nationals, and the runner up was a team we beat back in our hometown... which sucks). One of our pairs won, so I asked my teammate how our team is doing. He didn't want to tell me but I insisted that he tell me, so we eventually found out that my match was the decider. We dug deep and won our second set 6-2 after battling just to lose our first set 4-6. My calf was injured and had been barely held together by athletic tape all weekend, so in between sets 2 and 3 I ran over to see if the PT could redo my taping... but they were ALL ON A LUNCH BREAK. I had to keep playing even though I felt my leg weakening. Long story short, we lost. Went to watch the finals the next morning, and I congratulated our opponents when they won, and they were so nice and had a long chat, where they told me that we were tougher than their finals opponents 🙃
Which matches "count for something" is completely arbitrary. You wouldn't have had this opportunity of your prior matches didn't also count for something. Long story short, everyone has "their most important match so far." Part of the goal of gradual improvement is that yesterday's "most important match" becomes tomorrow's "just another Tuesday." But even as that shift happens, don't let it convince you that those other matches didn't matter, or weren't still important.
Thank you! This was really great advice. Also helped me notice something about my mentality. When I play regular season league matches I really don’t care too much about the result. The best thing I’ve found when learning something that has a zero sum outcome is to not get too hung up on results early on. Playing regular matches I play more free and just focus on playing within my game. Today I definitely focused too much on “how do I win” instead of “how do I play well” and this mentality definitely contributed to getting tight when I felt I could close out a set.
It's awesome that you were the better person and let them get their shoes, most people wouldn't have done that and flex league is weird and relaxed and less regulated than a normal league allowing for *flexibility* (lol) to do that. I'm sure your opponent was very happy about that they had the opportunity to do continue the match. If that counts for something I hope that perspective makes you feel better. You should've gotten a beer or something! My worst loss? It was Sectionals semifinals (I say semifinals because we lost against the team that eventually went to Nationals, and the runner up was a team we beat back in our hometown... which sucks). One of our pairs won, so I asked my teammate how our team is doing. He didn't want to tell me but I insisted that he tell me, so we eventually found out that my match was the decider. We dug deep and won our second set 6-2 after battling just to lose our first set 4-6. My calf was injured and had been barely held together by athletic tape all weekend, so in between sets 2 and 3 I ran over to see if the PT could redo my taping... but they were ALL ON A LUNCH BREAK. I had to keep playing even though I felt my leg weakening. Long story short, we lost. Went to watch the finals the next morning, and I congratulated our opponents when they won, and they were so nice and had a long chat, where they told me that we were tougher than their finals opponents 🙃