In Reply to: Could it just be... posted by orkids on March 16, 2001 at 23:59:21:
: That you're too good for that club now?
No.
I'd say I'm the best they have, but there are 3 there that are a legitimate threat even when there's little tile discrepancy, and an additional 6 or 7 that could pull out an easy enough win against me if my drawing was pretty horrible.
As I've said before... the players here are, IMO, underrated. A lady whose NSA rating is all of 891 finds the natural bingo FLATIRON a couple weeks ago. Wait till the Minneapolis ratings are processed... the Winnipeg contingent will probably average a 20 or 40 point gain.
I learn something new in almost every club game, particularly against the stronger players. Sometimes the learning comes later, when I check over certain board positions and racks at home. And there's the psychological/tactical aspect that demands live practice also... reading body language, etc. And the reverse case, learning to recognize when YOU'RE giving certain unintentional cues to the opponent, and controlling that. Then there's the need to improve tracking precision... seems every other game I find myself trying to cross out a B or whatever, only to find my tracking sheet somehow already has both B's eliminated.
So... as long as I'm still learning and improving my game... and losing fairly regularly in the process... my club and its level of opposition suits me fine. And on the other side of the coin, don't I have some responsibility to try to drag the level of the club up a little?