Never underestimate the value of proper warm up.

I learned the hard way tonight about the value of proper warm up.

Club meets weekly from 5-10 pm on Sundays. I got to club around 6:30 in the evening directly after church. Being 34, I know the value of warming up & stretching. Ideally I try to spend at least 10 minutes stretching and warming up. Once I’ve done that, it’s time to begin warming up the strokes. That didn’t happen tonight and I paid for it.

Showing up at the time I do, generally players have already been there for a while and are in full compete mode. My partner and I were being challenged to a doubles game no less than two minutes after I had walked in the gym. I stretch for about 30 seconds, walk over to the table and ask them if we can warm up for a bit. They agree and sure enough, 2 minutes later we begin the match.

You can guess what happened next. In a best of five, they won: 3-1
8 - 11 (I was ice cold.)
11 - 7 (My partner caught fire mid game.)
10 - 12 (Credit to one of their players who upped his game in key moments. #Clutch)
6 - 11 (A stomping as again I was cold. Service errors, you name it.)

These players we lost to I know my partner and I can and usually do beat. However I did not play close to the level I should and it was a quick match.

This loss started the night off on a bad note and seemingly set the tone for the rest of the evening. I was battling the negative thoughts from playing so poorly and my partner was dejected from losing as well. It only snowballed the rest of the night with more losses as we both played poorly.

I don’t believe one bad match could or should carry over into the rest of the evening. Nights like this one can still provide value. You can practice gutting out wins in a night where you don’t have it. That’s a valuable skill to have and a good teaching moment. Having said that, having to practice overcoming an off night was completely unnecessary. Why put yourself in that situation if you don’t have to. It all could have been easily avoided had I gone through the process of proper warm up. It helps prevent injuries and gets your mind & body ready to play.

Consider this night as a hard lesson learned.