Racquetball Nationals 2015: Day 1

I had no games today, so today was just a day of watching my team mates, scoping out the competition, and getting some work done.

We woke at 7:45am, ate breakfast at the hotel at 8:15am, and arrived at the gym at 9am.  I watched our team play in the morning, and saw my room mate Natalie win her first tournament game ever!  After watching a few of my team mates play, I found a place to sit in the business school and worked until 2pm.  During this time JT brought up the fact that I was unfairly seeded in my bracket, so I looked into it more and built a case.  I emailed this to the tournament director using the proper appeal process, and they updated my seed (and the bracket) after conferring with the entire rules committee.  At 2pm I went back to the gym and ate the provided pizza lunch with a girl from Utah (who actually ends up being the girl I'll play tomorrow in singles).

I watched a few more team mates play before heading back to the business school for an hour more of work.  I came back to do a short 20 minute workout and watch a flury of games, including one that determined who I will play tomorrow night.

Overall, our team did excellent today.  We went 11-2, only losing in #1 mens and #5 womens.  Taquito, the little sports club gnome, must be giving us good luck.  He watches each game from just outside the back-wall glass.

After our entire team was finished for the day, we walked to Raising Cane's for dinner.  It's a place JT and I really like in Austin, so I was very happy with that choice for dinner.  After dinner we walked back to the hotel, and I choose to shower and get in bed.  Some of the guys are staying up tonight and drinking, but I really just want to sleep.  Plus, I have a doubles game at 10am and a singles game at 7pm!  It will be a long day tomorrow!

In watching the games today, one thing was extremely apparent: racquetball requires a certain mental toughness.  I saw multiple people give up in games today, because they let their emotions get the best of them.  Because they actually began to believe they would lose.  I'm going to go into my games, especially singles, with the mental attitude that I'm in control of the game.  I tend to play a lot better when I adopt this attitude.

 Taquito watching Jordan play