It sometimes amazes me how there are life lessons you need to learn over and over again in life. When I was in high school, our biggest nemesis was Plains. We hated them. They were always good and always had new uniforms. From the time we started playing them in rec sports during elementary school, we had this mental block that Plains couldn’t be beat.
When I started playing varsity volleyball in high school, Plains took fourth in the state that year. So you can imagine our apprehension at playing them the next year. Finally something clicked, we got over the mental block, and didn’t lose to them again that season and went to state ourselves.
All this to say that it’s funny how some things get into your mind, like that Plains can’t be beat, and they stick there and you’re intimidated by that forever. Last night at my volleyball game, in a league not comprised of young spry teenagers, we played a team that was new to the league. They all had on their old college volleyball shorts touting the college they played at as well as their college shirts. They had the perfect warm ups and looked pretty impressive in hitting practice. I'll admit to not being 100% sure we were going to win. My team wears whatever is handy on the floor before we leave to make it for the start of the game. Usually running shorts and a t-shirt that does not match. Our warm ups suck, as half the team isn’t usually even there until about two minutes before the game. Our pre-game ritual was so unimpressive that it caused a girl on the other team to mumble loudly enough for us to hear, “nice warm ups.”
Which is why I took great pleasure in kicking their ass. I was a little worried that we were going to get killed, but before I knew it we were up 12 to 3. They were by far one of the better teams we’ve had to play, and while they gave us some points on their errors, we outplayed them. I think you play up when you have a tough team and tend to play like crap when the opponent isn’t as skilled. Volleyball is a very mental game and momentum switches in an instant. So it’s always gratifying to play so unexpectedly well that your opponent is thrown off and is frustrated to the point that they can’t seem to make anything happen. Especially when they expected to walk all over you.
Between the first and second game, it suddenly dawned on us, that this team was younger than us. In this league, we tend to be one of the, if not the, youngest teams. So when the momentum was not in our favor at a crucial point of the game and they were gaining ground, we decided that as we were the old ladies tonight, it was time to pass on some lessons from the other old ladies of the league. We pulled out an ugly old lady move that is more likely to be seen at a back yard barbeque than a competitive match, but is effective in a city rec league. And took the second game to win the match.
Would we have been upset if we had lost? Not really. It’s a rec league, it’s not life or death. But it is oh so gratifying to beat a team soundly that expects to beat you based on your ragamuffin warm ups. And it’s so much fun to beat a team that is good. Twenty-four years of playing competitive sports, and I still really, really, really love to win.
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