SPUTTERING TO THE FINISH LINE

Summer League round 5~~

It’s always a good idea never to panic when under pressure, or when things get tight, or when deadlines are approaching and tasks need to get completed. However, in this case it may be time for a couple of the teams to start doing exactly that!

Only seven matches were played yesterday and none of teams appear to have much desperation to get as many results in as possible. There are only 3 weeks left before the cut-off date (July 12), and that includes the Independence Day holiday weekend where I am sure many of you will be away on vacation.

The top 2 teams seem to have their finals berth secured, and the “Court Jesters” in 3rd place are probably pretty safe as well although not too comfortably. The other 5 teams will be tussling for the last play-off spot and even the last placed team “Alcoballics” who are averaging less than 7 points per round have a fighting chance to get there.

A couple of nice results for the players yesterday included James Van Dyke’s (“Hit Me With Your Best Shot”) 3-0 win over Patrick Petz (“Court Jesters”). All three games were very close, and James had to crawl back after falling behind in each of them. Patrick was of course disappointed with the score as he failed to close out the games he very well could have won and even though fitness played a part, I am sure it was a mental block too. We have all been there – it is easy to get defensive after building a lead rather than to continue on with the same attitude and game plan that got you there in the first place. It’s a hurdle we all need to overcome at times. Mental toughness needs to be practiced just like your racquet skills.

Another tough match was Jeff Jardine (“Court Jesters”) and Brian Schrage (“Hit Me With Your Best Shot”). I managed to record the last half of the second game as you can see below. Brian won that game but went down in the other two. There was a lot of scrambling around the court!



So two weeks to go. Three weeks to do them in. Start organizing.