Now that we are two weeks away from competing at the national level carrom tournament, we need to have a crystal-clear understanding of what a ‘competition’ is in the first place, without which you are bound to return home disappointed as always albeit the carrom skills you may have mastered recently. Let’s reset our minds for a second and get to the root of why we COMPETE.

Man is a social animal; psychologically he cannot survive without being recognized by others. As an example, social media shows how much we crave recognition with every post or comment we make. The more recognition you get, the more elevated our perceived social status will be. Your ‘status’ in society is the result of recognitions you may have gained over a period of time.

The carrom community (people who care about carrom) operates no differently than general society. Being a sports community, you are evaluated in tournaments for standings/seedings, prize money, trophies, playing for the nation, etc. These recognitions build you a status that determines how you may be regarded within carrom circles. You must compete with others to be recognized as special. Competition fundamentally is a pursuit of social status through recognitions. Competition therefore introduces the element of evaluation as a process for recognition.

“Tournaments become the battleground of evaluations... Winning in fact has nothing to do with your game, but has everything to do with your concern for status.”

Therefore, tournaments become the battleground of evaluations. You are subjected to a process in which you are being evaluated for determining your relative social status among people who care about carrom. Who wins has an impact on your social standing among such people. Not only are you being evaluated for keeping track of the standings, but you are also being evaluated directly by your opponent on every play you make on the board.

Knowing that you are being evaluated and that your standing is determined by the outcome of the match could in fact raise your level of play. On the other hand, if you believe that you are unlikely to match the standards of evaluation, your performance suffers. Therefore, the effects of competition on our play is relative to the standards of evaluation vs. effective confidence. The pressure of competition is the pressure of establishing your status.

In this regard, it is important to note that ‘knowing’ is not the same as ‘understanding’ in matters of the mind. Therefore, you will need to be utterly attentive during moments of pressure to understand it closely of how and what pressure does to you.

Winning is a worthy goal. But it cannot be your main goal all the time. It is only a competitive goal. Pleasures of playing the game cannot be relegated to be secondary. You must remind yourself of why you started playing carrom in the first place.

There could be other kinds of pressures during play which can be easily tackled with proper practice and technique. But competitive pressure can only be relieved by having a basic understanding of your concerns for social status. By simply and consciously becoming aware of your desires for status, you directly dilute undue competitive pressure. Hope this helps. Good Luck for CA Nationals!