Alas….my tennis team did not win the city championships. We had a great season and got beaten by a great team.
I won my match even though the team lost (it went 3 sets). I haven’t felt that kind of pressure in a long time. I was so stressed the whole match (my neck was killing me afterward). It is the city finals; my partner and I were the 1 line; and there were probably over 50 people sitting there watching everything we did, every time I missed, every mistake I made.
Nerves tend to snowball too. If you start playing badly, you think about it, which makes you more nervous, which makes you play worse. It is very hard to recover. Tennis is a precise sport too; very small variations in your swing can make you miss, and pressure produces those small variations.
Basketball was a bit easier. Effort does not decrease when you’re nervous. You can use the nerves to make you hustle even when you’re tired. Shooting does become hard though, since it is precise like a tennis swing.
I played pretty well….certainly not the best I’ve ever played, but I didn’t choke. I played about average, which in this situation was good enough. I watched all of our matches and just about everyone played a little worse than they usually do….which is sort of expected under those conditions.
I liked it to be honest. I enjoy the pressure. I don’t really get that anymore.
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