Last weekend, a couple of my students made big mistakes at the Newgy Cincinnati Open.  I asked Hesam about his strategy against Tapabrata Dey in the open quarterfinals.  He responded with, "Oh, I think that it will be easy.  I won easily last time and even Ali has beaten him twice."  Without thinking strategy, he went out and lost 3-0.  Tapabrata had been thinking strategy and played excellent the entire match.  Hesam was shocked and couldn't perform at his best.
 
Prior to the tournament, I asked Blake what he would do against Karen.  He responded with, "The same as last time."  However, Karen adjusted her strategy and played different than previously and won the match 3-0.  After the match, I asked Blake, what happened.  He said that she surprised him with a different tactic than before.
 
The BIGGEST MISTAKE in tt is underestimating your opponent, by thinking this time you will have an idential match to last time.  Here are a few things you must remember...
 
#1 Respect your opponent
#2 Start with the same strategy as previously
#3 Re-evaluate your strategy point-by-point
#4 If your strategy is not working, be willing the change
#5 Stay calm, think clearly
#6 Throughout the match, remember your mistakes to correct them and remember your strong points to continue using them
#7 Learn from both wins and losses
 
 
By the way,  Hesam and Blake are 2 of my favorite students.  I'm not writing this to critize them.  I'm writing this to show that they learned valuable lessons, I hope that you too can learn from these lessons!!!!!!!!