Playing against a better opponent

One of the benefits of playing sports competitively is that you will play against a wide range of opponents. Normally, systems are put in place to match you up against similarly rated players. For my pool team with the APA, this naturally happens. My team puts me up (I’m a skill level 6), and the opposing team puts up another player. It is similar to a trading card game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectible_card_game). We each have our skills which allows a certain prediction in the event of the match. So when the team I was playing against put up a very good nine (the highest level attainable in the APA) I was pretty sure that I knew what the result would be. I also know that my teammates were not very confident of my abilities to take down this extremely good player.

Going into a match that most people expect you to lose can be a terrifying prospect, at least it can be for me. I’ve found that I have been ingrained with that American ideal that it is possible to do anything given then willpower and the patience. While I may tell myself consciously that this is a match that I shouldn’t be able to win, I still feel deep down that I want to win badly, and if I lose I still feel depressed afterwords..

To this end, I suggest that the strategy for playing these matches is different. You cannot just go into the match like any other night and hope for the best. These are the matches where you must go all out with everything that you have. In other words, treat these matches as if they were part of a big tournament that you are playing.

For the match that I played, I focused on keeping calm and in control. By focusing on these things I kept my mind from worrying about the break and run that my opponent had. Or the shots that he was able to make. Instead I was able to focus on my own game in a way that truly released my capabilities. My muscles were relaxed, my strategy was at top form, and my shots were doing what I visualized them doing.

This is when things can get dicey. I’m a believer in always knowing where I stand in any match, tournament, or life. And because of this I realized halfway through the match that I was on course to win the match. And not just by a few balls either. My teammate who was scoring gave me a little pep-talk every time I came over to check the score. I was able to use this confidence booster, plus my own knowledge of what happens when a player who is ahead in a match and thinks that they have the game in the bag, and how oftentimes the unexpected happens and that player who was ahead, loses the game.

This time I didn’t let the unexpected happen. I doubled down my concentration and focus. I slowed down physically and continued analyzed my game to the best of my ability. and because I took this extra effort, and made sure to keep track of any mistakes that I was making and correct them immediately, I was able to prevent any problems from creeping up. The end result was that the game kept on playing in the same way that it had been, and I won!

Looking back I realize that the lesson is to never count yourself out, no matter how the odds are stacked against you. And if you do find yourself winning the match, never relax, there is no such thing as “in the bag.” Simply continue playing the way that you have been so far. It got you this far, it will get you across the finish line.

Game vs Sport

There is a tendency to call anything that involves hard work a sport, and everything else becomes a game. Hence I was participating in the sport of surfing, while normally I play the game of pool. I don't agree with this mindset though. I believe that a game is something that you do for fun. Sure we learn a lot from games too, but the primary reason that we turn towards games in the first place is that they are fun. Even difficult activities like paddling can be fun in the right context. So does that make it a sport or a game? For paddling, or surfing in general I would say that it wasn't either of those options, but rather something else entirely.

That got me to thinking about why I feel safe in saying that I play the sport of pool. It is the competitiveness of it. When there is something on the line, and it is being played competitively, then it is a sport. Otherwise it is something else.

Taking an activity to the competitive level requires a certain dedication that is not usually seen by the casual player. The required focus, practice and dedication is monumental even for amateur of the sport. Bringing it up to the professional level is something completely different. That requires a passion that I'm not going to write about today.

But the next time you load up that game consider what kind of benefits you could gain by turning that game into a sport for yourself. The true benefits from a game are only gained when it is taken seriously.

My History with Gaming

I was introduced to the world of gaming at a very young age by my parents. They loved (they still do but I'm trying to keep the tenses pointing in the same direction) to play a wide variety of games. They were not socialites however, and didn't have very many friends who shared the same passion. Therefore they did what any normal gamers would, they created two gamers to play with them!

All joking aside, that is one of the reasons that my parents brought me and my sister into the world. The number of kids were carefully thought out as well (two); most board or card games are best played with four people. This should give you an idea of what it was like to grow up with my family.

Early on board games were the only games available (besides the card games, but we didn't play many of those because my family is horrible at betting. I mean, with fake money I bet more than 10, and everybody else is moaning and groaning about how I'm ruining the game, and then they all fold. But I digress...) to us, so we played them a lot. Monopoly, the Farming Game, Risk, Backgammon, Mahjongg. The list goes on and on. We may have thrown more games away than most families ever play in their lives.

Not only did we play these games, but we respected them. Most of them had lots of small pieces, delicate boards, and often were works of art themselves. My parents taught us kids to treat the games and all of their parts with care, to never lose any pieces. When friends would come over to play they games, they would be amazed at the idea that young children would be so careful with the 'adult' games.

It was this reverence towards games that shaped my future, in a way. When my family purchased a computer, we all experimented with video games. And for my sister and my Dad, they were something to play with for a few years, and then go back to the old ways. But for my Mom and myself, the computer stuck. It even worked its way into my real life. I became a systems administrator, somebody who fixes the computers that I learned how to use by playing so many games on them.

I don't have a 'type' of game that I play. I enjoy them all. But there are certain genre's that I tend to gravitate towards. And I always have a main go-to game that I play if I'm not sure of what to do.

Happy gaming