Chattanooga and Daytona Regionals

Once again, the insanity has won out and I have not updated this blog as much as I would like.

The last several of weeks have been very exciting. I played in two successful Regionals with two of my students. First, I played in Chattanooga, TN with my star "young" student from home (Tallahassee.) We did not have any prearranged teammates and just set things up as we arrived. The tournament was a wonderful experience and I was very proud of my partner -- he played well throughout the week and grew and developed each time he faced new situations. Notably, we reached the finals of a bracket 1 KO and won a bracket 2 KO -- totaling about 55 Masterpoints.

The next week, I played in the Regional in Daytona, FL with a new student out of Jacksonville, FL. The tournament was filled with top level teams and many world champions. In spite of this, my partner and I managed to have good success. My partner and I had very little experience playing together, but she did a great job adapting and learning. I attribute much of our success to partner striving not to make the same mistake twice. In a new partnership with a relatively inexperienced player there will always be many mistakes and misunderstandings, but not repeating the same mistakes is a great predictor of success. We won over 32 Masterpoints and my partner is now shortly to become a Life Master. I was also very proud of her!

I am now off to Boston for the Fall NABC. Exciting updates from the Nationals will follow shortly!