Saturday Versus Sunday Noise

There's a lot of things a Tournament Director handles that many of the players don't even realize.  And, by the way, this is just fine to us!  We would rather you all focus on just playing and not worry about anything related to running a tournament or the nuances of running a tournament.

One of the things players don't really realize is the noise level difference between Sunday play and Saturday play of a 2-day tournament.

Saturdays are JAMMED PACKED with players and spectators.  We are trying to whittle down from a field of around 100 to 24 (or less) the next day.  So, the majority of the players are there all day on Saturday wall-to-wall with only a handful of players left on Sunday.

Tiger Woods recently dealt with (again) a fan yelling during his swing.  You can read about it here.  

Golf is like pool on Sundays.  It's very quiet on Sundays of a pool tournament, less hustle and bustle and less players.  However - the crowd of golf is like a pool tournament on Saturdays.

Okay, let me get to my point before you all go leave me to go read the National Enquirer.

The point is, on Saturdays Tournament Directors are mostly focused on running the tournament smoothly and efficiently.  On Sundays, though, because there are less people around, less matches playing and less fans watching, the room is much more quieter - which means noises are more of a distraction on Sundays.  And that directly relates to a TD being more active to ensure there is less distraction for the players on Sundays.

Hear me out (of the irony of noise lol).  There is so many people around on Saturdays, literally elbow to elbow sometimes, that a full event seems like one big non-stop noisy atmosphere.  If someone was to fall off a chair, most of the room may not even know that happened.  But on Sunday it is so much quieter, more open spaces, less people, fewer matches, and that all leads to less noise.  And that person falling off the chair on Sunday makes the entire room suddenly look around because it was so quiet.

The article I referenced went on to talk about the tradition of golf and the quietness of that sport.  He asks, what if that changed, though?

The guy said, "Noise isn’t the enemy here. Silence is."

And that reminds me of Sundays of a pool tournament.  We get less distracted in a room full of people while we play our matches on Saturdays.  On Sundays, though, there is so few people and it's therefore so quiet, the poor, innocent guy who is just trying to place a food order gets under our skin because he seems so loud!  lol.

SuperStar Teammate

I'm not really a basketball fan.  I mean, I have been to some Spurs and Mavericks games, but that's normally only because whichever boyfriend I had at the time wanted to go see them.  The Spurs game I went to in the 90s, they were playing the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan looked RIGHT at me, even if I was delusional from the bleeder seats.  It was awesome how our eyes connected.  The few Mavericks games I went to, were mostly playoff games because it was the hype as I lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

So, I don't know who Rodney Hood is or his background story.  But as I have pointed out before, when I read articles I usually relate them to pool.  And this was just the exact case when I read a short article about Rodney Hood and his recent struggles going to Cleveland.

Basically, Rodney was a star basketball player for the Jazz and was a top scorer for them.  Then was traded to the Cavaliers.... and he wasn't played as often.  Why?  Well, because of superstar LeBron James.

LeBron is the top player of the team.  He is played most often, has the ball the most, is normally the top scorer, etc.  Sure, it's a team effort, but Rodney is no longer one of the top players of his team like he used to be.

In the article, he states:

"I was playing at such a high clip when I got traded,” Hood said. “And then, this is my first time having "Did Not Play" (DNPs) in life. The first time shooting two times or five times in a game. Having to adjust is the toughest part. It’s a part of my growth. I’m not going to always be in this state."

I admire that he realizes it's part of his growth, that is difficult to do, as he's got to be frustrated.  I doubt he's sitting on the sidelines all happy about not playing and having low-scoring games because of his super-star teammate.

Many of us have been on both ends of this.  We are on a team that wins, but we are surrounded by better players who get played more often because they perform better.  On the other hand, sometimes we join a new team and find ourselves the top player of a team.  While that is surely a "high" in our life, that also has a domino effect on others on the team.  Those who used to play more, don't get played as often because you joined as their new superstar.  Rude!  j/k :)

What do we make of all this?

Well, it's just part of our pool journey!  Sometimes we will be the LeBron James and sometimes we will be the Rodney Hood (be a top player but not getting to show our talent because of the team we are on).  It's all part of the process and works out in the end.

I have learned through my pool journey that being on different teams provides different opportunities.  And while you may not understand the path you are currently on, eventually you will see every decision points you to the track you were meant to be going on on your pool journey.

You will see.  I promise. :)