2014 Lincoln Open Recap

Last Sunday I competed in a local tournament called the Lincoln Open. I competed in two events. Open Singles & under 3000 doubles with my partner. People have asked me how it went and I have to honestly say I played average with good & bad moments.

I started out playing in the singles. The first session is a round robin classifying stage where the groups are broken up into A, B & C class. All together I played 5 singles matches and won only 3 of them. A disappointing result.

Next were under 3000 doubles. I actually switched blades from my Cpen duel inverted setup to another Cpen of mine with Inverted/short pips (no sponge). Switching blades in the middle of a tournament would probably not be something to recommend but when you're off as I was, I figured why not. Turns out I got lucky and it worked. Ben & I played pretty well finishing 4-2 with a couple of those wins being extra satisfying beating players who beat me in singles.

Overall takeaways from the Lincoln Open

• I still struggle with modern defenders. 
• In singles I lost badly to a modern defender who pushed ball after ball at me and I could not loop a ball in to save my life.
• I play better against your standard attackers most likely because this is what I am use to at the club. 
• I played a much closer match against the player who ended up winning the A class open singles, who was an attacking player, compared to the modern defender. Go figure.
• After watching the video of several of my singles matches, I could not believe how many easy balls I was hitting long just giving away points. I must have been tight is the only thing I could think of why the execution was off. I had the point I wanted a fair number of times only to blow the put away shot.
• What is interesting is leading up to the event, my wife asked me how I was feeling. And I replied "I feel good. Feel ready." That was the truth. Yet when it came time to complete, I didn't have it.
• I think more tournament experience is needed to practice being in those pressure situations that is hard to replicate during club play where generally I am more relaxed and easy going.
• There must be a fine line in "wanting to improve" and place well vs "simply going out and having fun". Sometimes I feel like it's a one thing or the other with me.
• I'm a better combination bat player than a duel inverted player.
• There was a situation in a doubles match where this one opponent was getting me with his serve. Credit to him as he was disguising it well. We were in danger of dropping this game in what turned out to be a close match. I twiddled to returning serve with my hardbat short pips side and it worked. Not only was I not making errors or his partner was getting easy 3rd balls to put away, I heard his partner say after an error on the 3rd ball "Ah tricky... I hate pips." Talk about a strategic & psychological advantage. You can bet I'll remember that next time we play.