Are You Fooling Yourself? Life (as you know) is not always perfect.

Shuffleboard life, too, is frequently imperfect.

Recently, in a “Club Doubles Game”, my partner and I had a 43 Point lead, — and “Kitchened” it away, and lost.

What motivates a player, with that lead, to come “fat” on the board, on the opponent’s Hammer, — ignorance, or “Shuffleboard Stupidity”?

It must be “Shuffleboard Stupidity”. A “Shuffleboard Smart” player, once he saw that he was being “out-kitchened”, would change his game.

Coming “on the board”, on your Hammer is certainly (to say it politely) “Poor Playing”, however, to do it when your opponent has the Hammer simply “Shuffleboard Stupidity”.

Whether the game is “12 Frames”, or whether it is “75-Points”; coming (or going) on the board when you are ahead is “Very Poor Playing”.

Apparently, “everybody” thinks that they are the “World’s greatest Kitchen Player”.

However, if you live by the Kitchen, you will die by the Kitchen.

After the game, my partner came to the Foot (I don’t walk to the Head anymore) and said, “Well I blew that.”

Years ago, I would have replied, “I did not play well, either”; of course, I did not really believe it —I was just trying to be “nice”.

Now I am not as “nice”, and because I have proclaimed myself, the “Guru of Shuffleboard”, “The Instructor”, “The Guy Who Wrote The Book”, and self-appointed resident “Shuffleboard Expert”, and the fount from which all “Shuffleboard Wisdom” flows — I agreed, and said, “Yes, you can’t play kitchen when you are ahead”.

The indignant reply was, “I was not trying to kitchen, I was trying to clear”.

After thirty years of shuffleboard play, I know “Kitchen Play” when I see it. I would have to be “Shuffleboard Stupid”, to not recognize it.

“I was not trying to kitchen …”, did not fool me.

Partner, any “Clearing Shot” that drifts away and stops in the Kitchen, is not a “Clearing Shot”; it is a “Kitchen Shot”.

Although it did not fool me, it did, however, show how players, with the ability to win, rationalize and fool themselves into believing that their losing play was the correct play. Having convinced themselves that their play was correct, they continue to “blow it”, and lose repeatedly.

Analyzing your lost games, to determine why you lost, is a step toward “Winning Play”. It is not always your partner that “blew the game”; believe it or not.

When you accept that your play is not “perfect”, you are on your way to developing a “Winning Game”, and becoming a “Winner”.

When you rationalize that you made the correct play, the possibility that you will win consistently is bleak.

Wilbur, The Guy That Wrote The Book