REFLECTIONS...is losing badly nothing but stupid?

Recently I listened to a podcast and felt a bit disturbed afterwards. It was mentioned that some folks lost a doubles set 6-0 and would have been stupid if they did not change their tactics for the second set. The idea of "if you keep doing the same thing you will get the same result" is a sound principle. But there is something also to be said for sticking to a plan, keeping the pressure on, and waiting for your opponent to cool off.

I don't think I could ever refer to someone as stupid for playing hard but losing a match. Shortsighted might perhaps be a bit more of an accurate term. Of course, without knowing how close a set might have been, 6-0 might be misleading. It is not appropriate, in my opinion, to refer to the winning team as "embarrassing" their opponents by a score of 6-0 when we really do not know how close the game points were. How many of the games went to deuce for example? Was the other team just a little bit better at playing the big points well? Were their other factors involved that we do not know? I think we need to be careful when analyzing how poorly one performed without really knowing the details.

Let's face it: no one likes to lose 6-0. But there is something to be learned from every set that is either won or lost. Don't let someone else define how you should feel about it. If I played a good, solid set, hit my strokes well, but was simply outplayed by a more skillful challenger, then I know more work is ahead of me if I want to win some games against this person in the future. And I would not take kindly to being ridiculed for the lack of games won marked on the scoreboard.