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Dripping with irony

Posted By: Robert Wachtel
Date: Monday, 16 January 2012, at 9:00 p.m.

In Response To: Dripping with irony (Casper van der Tak)

I agree. Although I get the general idea (keep focused, don't let bad luck discourage you) a tennis link something like this one, with particular respect to points 6 and 8, would have made more sense to me: http://www.juniortennis.com/Science/fullarticle.php?articleid=72

To be sure, it's absolutely vital for anyone who wants to compete at the highest levels in tennis to wipe his mind clean of negative feelings after every mistake, to reset and focus exclusively on the next ball as if it's the first one you are hitting that day. This is a technique (like most tennis techniques) which is highly unnatural and therefore best acquired in childhood. No one does it better than Nadal, though even in his case (and Djokovic's) it takes him an annoyingly long time between points to clear his mind and organize his thoughts. He is fantastically disciplined -- a true robot -- but does this really make him such a fine model for us recreational players?

In every sport, especially if you don't have a coach (or in backgammon, if you are not recording your match), it is also important to learn from your mistakes -- which requires that you at least acknowledge them as they happen. If you felt no pain at all after you blundered ... well, the lesson might not be imprinted strongly enough for you to learn it. So I think it may often be useful, even over the board, to briefly grieve.

To be sure, we can all agree that chronically feeling sorry for yourself is counter-productive to backgammon success. And yes, we can, to some extent, train ourselves not to be crybabies. But not everyone has the eye of the tiger -- or, to shift metaphors, is cut from that kind of steely (Danish?) cloth. Those who are not probably recognize that they will never be champions, but continue to play for other reasons: among them the camaraderie that results from sharing intense experiences with others. And since gambling inevitably creates ecstatic highs and terrible lows, it's only natural for people to tell one another, like primitive warriors around a campfire at night, the hair-raising tales of their adventures.

Messages In This Thread

• The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
  Stick -- Saturday, 14 January 2012, at 9:11 p.m.
  • Dripping with irony
    Chuck Bower -- Saturday, 14 January 2012, at 10:22 p.m.
    • Dripping with irony
      Casper van der Tak -- Saturday, 14 January 2012, at 10:39 p.m.
      • Dripping with irony
        Timothy Chow -- Sunday, 15 January 2012, at 5:47 a.m.
        • Dripping with irony
          Casper van der Tak -- Sunday, 15 January 2012, at 8:52 a.m.
    • Dripping with irony
      Robert Wachtel -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 12:24 a.m.
      • Dripping with irony
        Stick -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 4:36 a.m.
        • Dripping with irony
          Timothy Chow -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 4:58 a.m.
          • Dripping with irony
            Stick -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 5:28 a.m.
            • Dripping with irony
              Casper van der Tak -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 9:09 a.m.
              • Dripping with irony
                Christian Munk-Christensen -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 10:28 a.m.
                • Dripping with irony
                  Casper van der Tak -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 1:06 p.m.
                • Dripping with irony
                  Steve Mellen -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 2:52 p.m.
              • Dripping with irony
                Robert Wachtel -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 9:00 p.m.
  • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
    Mislav Kovacic -- Saturday, 14 January 2012, at 10:28 p.m.
  • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
    Bill Riles -- Sunday, 15 January 2012, at 3:23 a.m.
    • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
      christian munk-christensen -- Sunday, 15 January 2012, at 8:20 a.m.
      • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
        Bill Riles -- Sunday, 15 January 2012, at 3:11 p.m.
        • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
          Dmitriy Obukhov -- Sunday, 15 January 2012, at 10:57 p.m.
          • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
            Bill Riles -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 1:05 a.m.
            • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
              Christian Munk-Christensen -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 1:07 p.m.
              • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
                Bill Riles -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 7:09 p.m.
                • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
                  christian munk-christensen -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 9:56 p.m.
                  • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
                    Victor Ashkenazi -- Wednesday, 18 January 2012, at 12:00 a.m.
                    • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
                      Christian Munk-Christensen -- Wednesday, 18 January 2012, at 7:38 a.m.
                      • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
                        Casper van der Tak -- Wednesday, 18 January 2012, at 11:50 a.m.
                        • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
                          Victor Ashkenazi -- Wednesday, 18 January 2012, at 4:24 p.m.
                      • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
                        Victor Ashkenazi -- Wednesday, 18 January 2012, at 2:05 p.m.
          • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
            Stick -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 4:38 a.m.
            • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
              Bill Riles -- Monday, 16 January 2012, at 7:18 p.m.
  • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
    Daniel Murphy -- Sunday, 15 January 2012, at 5:15 p.m.
    • The Golden Rule of ..... Backgammon?
      David Rockwell -- Sunday, 15 January 2012, at 5:43 p.m.