A very subjective look into AWFC

The ability to recover from a heartbreaking defeat is something that I will always be impressed by. Impossible to state all the reasons but one of them is the fact that it jolts my mind trying to comprehend the exact moment when something goes wrong and the totality that is getting to that point in the first place, by taking into account every single experience that got us there. That duality of thought is so challenging to comprehend that I don’t even try because my head would explode.

This past Sunday I played at my second ever pickleball tournament. My partner and I worked a lot, played a ton of matches the weeks before and overall felt very confident. We got to the club very early, with plenty of water, snacks, all of our gear was on point, including yours truly wearing a DVD Netherlands shirt. All the teams met up and we heard about the rules and the courts we were using. As soon as we realized something weird about the format my mind just got distracted. I hadn’t even hit a ball yet and I was thinking about how the format could not be advantageous for us.

But we started great… beat 3 teams in a row, we were flying… both of us playing really well, confident, solid, communicative. Then it all went to hell. We played a couple who wasn’t anywhere near as good or strong as us but we took the foot off the gas and played too clever and ended up losing by 1 single point, which is part of the format change that we didn’t like. Normally you have to win by 2 points and that is what we are all used to, so mentally we weren’t ON. I sure wasn’t and thought we could get another stop, but we didn’t. We went on to have a 5-2 record, tied for 3rd and we thought we could get a medal but the tiebreaker was a head to head situation which meant, and you guessed it! the team we lost to ended up beating us for 3rd.

It sucked. We felt so defeated, in every way. We did have so much fun and had no expectations and all that great stuff but we would’ve liked to win. We played GREAT and got nothing, but we learned a lot and I loved every single minute of it.

But when I got to my car, the first thing I thought about was our AWFC girls. And I wasn’t feeling sorry. This isn’t about “oh those poor girls had to suffer REAL defeat” hell no… they are elite, incredible mentality monsters. Of course I don’t want them to suffer, ever but what this pickleball situation showed me, not that I needed proof, how far advanced these women are. I was bummed for days, still am actually. Every time I think about it I wanna scream into a pillow.

There is not doubt in my mind that the girls will come back stronger, better, smarter and more focused. Until it happens again and the process repeats. There’s no giving up and if they don’t give up, the ones that actually do the work, how the hell are WE going to give up on them from out couches?

d ❤

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