Checklists - The Danielson Series, Nov 2017

Danielson and I were chatting a couple of weeks ago and we both mentioned that all of these learning lessons are really awesome, but too bad we can't go over things right before a tournament, instead of learning after each tournament. 

Tournaments have 3 main parts:  Pregame, the game, and post game.  And yet he and I really only focuse on the post game.  How did you do?  What happened?  Why?  And what can be learned?

He said, "Yeah, before the tournament starts, it'd be cool to go over things to remember...what to guard yourself from...play to your strengths...a little pep talk...kinda like what a football team would do."

As soon as he said that, I announced, "Blog topic!"

Poor guy - instead of telling him what he can do to pump himself up before a tournament, I make him wait to read it in this blog post, lol.

And here it is:

First of all, I can't be like a mouse in his pocket and give him a pep talk before every tournament.  We'd have to start to discuss payment options for that specialized service!  lol.

But, he does bring up a very good point of something I still do to this day that is just as helpful:     Checklists!

I am a huge fan of writing down reminders.  There is SO much we need to try and remember before our tournaments, that it can make our head spin.  And sometimes in the throws of the moment, we forget things.  It's normal.  You've been in high stressful situation and all of a sudden you can't remember your email password or pin to check your bank account, right?  It's a very surreal, sometimes scary moment.  But, if we can review many of the key things we have learned (and need to remember), we are prepared for things that may be thrown at us during matches.

In a post from 2012, I wrote about a match preparation checklist.  I wrote about this again in 2014, and shared that I reread my notes before I won BCAPL Texas State singles event.  :)

I am a huge proponent of match preparation checklists, reminders, pool prayer, whatever you want to personally call it.  It will go a long way.

Here are some examples of lists I wrote throughout the years:

Shown here are 8 checklists!  And you can see some were written on hotel paper - which means I was out of town for a tournament and going over my reminders and wrote them down to take with me to review before each match.

So, everyone, get your pin out and write your own personal reminder checklist!