You see, she has only been to a team Nationals tournament twice. The first time she went, the whole experience was very, very new to her - traveling that far, hadn't been to Vegas, and hadn't played on such a big stage before. Her team was an okay team, but not a super star team, if that makes sense.
But this time around, her team was a much higher-caliber team. The members played better, had more experience, and I believe some members might have won a title or two in team events before (not 100% sure about that though). But, the team dynamics would be very different from the last time she went, so I was anxious to ask her about it.
I figured she would have much more confidence because she was on a stronger team.
Yikes.
Boy I was wrong! lol.
I asked her about 100 questions (or so), all related to confidence. Did you feel more confident because of your teammates? Did you feel more confident because it was a good team? Did you feel more confident because of how well they played? etc, etc.
She kept saying no.
What?
I was so confused.
"Well, how did you play?" I asked her.
"I think I played pretty good," she shared timidly.
"Well, why?" I prodded, ready with pen-in-hand to have notes for this blog post.
"Well, I felt more comfortable, had more fun, and felt less stressed because it wasn't my first time in that big tournament. But, I felt more confident because *I* was more confident in my game. I mean, it was cool the team was strong, but to be honest, my own confidence has gone up because I am playing better. "
Well, shit. She makes really good points!
It wasn't her teammates, it was her own improvement and therefore that natural consequence of the confidence in herself as to why she felt better, played better, and felt comfortable and confident.
I was trying to lead her to answers I thought she was going to say... and instead she led me down a completely different path that completely made sense!
Ahhh, I love learning!
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