IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD
 
GS JADE BARRETT
 
We all know the frustration we experience when our team is having a bad day. They come back +170 instead of 620, or they forgot which keycard they are playing and bid a slam off two aces, perhaps they misdefended a doubled part score and failed to set it. Everybody has days like that.
 
Practicing our good teammate skills, we commiserate as best we can: "Unlucky", or "Things will go better next match" or best yet, saying nothing at all when things are truly terrible. One of my regular teammates back East, Satellite Stew Mackiegan (I will save the story of his nickname for another day) starts talking about our dinner plans whenever our partners have just been buried in an afternoon match, and that helps all of us get past the distracting thoughts of the painful loss. Evening losses beget sports talk or if the match was truly silly, which bar to visit becomes the immediate topic. All in all, a fine team member.
 
While consoling our teammates is a fine action to take, it is not our greatest responsibility to them. After the most horrendous loss, we need to be the strong players they expect us to be. We are not responsible for carrying them, in fact just the opposite. We need to play as if they are the best players in the room. We need to play our game.
 
 Many teams have lost national or world championships by coming apart after a bad set. It is a particularly bad situation if the best pair has generated the poor result. They often feel the need to get it all back on the next set, taking risks they would not generally take. By taking this approach they stop playing in the manner that makes them strong to begin with; they are less than they could be.

Your teammates picked you for your game. You owe it to them to be the partnership they chose to play with, nothing more, nothing less. A truly good team is one that weathers the occasional losses and celebrates its successes. As long as the party does not prevent them from a similar performance the next day.