Should I Let the Guy Win?

Off Topic
1

The president of my company has a personal/professional “coach” (who I have been mooching free advise & consultations from). Anyway, he is an avid racquet ball player and I used to be a racquetball player. A couple months ago we started playing when he comes to town. So far I’m undefeated having won all ten of our games.

I mentioned this fact to my wife after the last time and she said “Oh Kelly you need to let him win.” My response of course was “huh?”. He is capable of beating me. He’s pretty athletic and able to work me by keeping the ball in play. He’s come close to winning in about three of our games so I think eventually he will pull out one on his own.

Considering he’s my bosses mentor and I get good advise from him a well, should I save his ego a bit and let him squeak out a win every once in a while or just wait until he pulls one out on his own? He doesn’t seem embarrassed or anything, I actually think he’s kind of enjoying the challenge.

2

Nope. He’ll know if you’re purposefully tanking the game.

Play your hardest. If you win, you win.

3

[quote]on edge wrote:
The president of my company has a personal/professional “coach” (who I have been mooching free advise & consultations from). Anyway, he is an avid racquet ball player and I used to be a racquetball player. A couple months ago we started playing when he comes to town. So far I’m undefeated having won all ten of our games.

I mentioned this fact to my wife after the last time and she said “Oh Kelly you need to let him win.” My response of course was “huh?”. He is capable of beating me. He’s pretty athletic and able to work me by keeping the ball in play. He’s come close to winning in about three of our games so I think eventually he will pull out one on his own.

Considering he’s my bosses mentor and I get good advise from him a well, should I save his ego a bit and let him squeak out a win every once in a while or just wait until he pulls one out on his own? He doesn’t seem embarrassed or anything, I actually think he’s kind of enjoying the challenge.[/quote]

If he could, let him work for it.

If he is a good sport, letting him win would be an outrage.

If he is a bitch, let him win and feel soiled.

4

Let the Wookie win.

5

Your name is Kelly? Was this a male name 60 years ago?

6

Oh and considering he’s a grown mature man, I’m guessing he’d rather have a challenging loss than you allowing him to win.

If he were to find out you were holding back, that would hurt his ego considerably more than losing a competitive game.

7

[quote]ishinator wrote:
Your name is Kelly? Was this a male name 60 years ago?[/quote]

It was.

As were Tracy and Lauren and Meredith and Sandy and Lindsay and Carol and Ashley and Whitney and Adrian.

8

[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:

[quote]ishinator wrote:
Your name is Kelly? Was this a male name 60 years ago?[/quote]

It was.

As were Tracy and Lauren and Meredith and Sandy and Lindsay and Carol and Ashley and Whitney and Adrian.

[/quote]

9

[quote]roybot wrote:
Let the Wookie win. [/quote]

HAHAHAH

10

[quote]ishinator wrote:
Oh and considering he’s a grown mature man, I’m guessing he’d rather have a challenging loss than you allowing him to win.

If he were to find out you were holding back, that would hurt his ego considerably more than losing a competitive game.[/quote]

11

Yeah I would let him win, say once every 10 games. If the wife mentioned it that’s a red flag and he is probably on the verge of feeling bitter towards your games/you. She might also be making disparaging remarks when he comes home and reports the score.

Maybe to make it more realistic get shithoused the night before or eat like crap then try your hardest on the day?!

At best I would coach him in the post-game locker room chat and tell him what he needs to do to beat you ie. ‘your backhand needs a lot of work, you shots down the line are too shallow, I can always see your drop shot coming’ etc

12

You never know. He might be thinking to himself “Should I keep letting him win? If I shut him out like I would everyone else it might damage his ego and make me look bad to my client…”

13

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Yeah I would let him win, say once every 10 games. If the wife mentioned it that’s a red flag and he is probably on the verge of feeling bitter towards your games/you. She might also be making disparaging remarks when he comes home and reports the score.

Maybe to make it more realistic get shithoused the night before or eat like crap then try your hardest on the day?!

At best I would coach him in the post-game locker room chat and tell him what he needs to do to beat you ie. ‘your backhand needs a lot of work, you shots down the line are too shallow, I can always see your drop shot coming’ etc[/quote]

I can let him win without him knowing I held back. In each of the three times we’ve played he’s had one game where he went on a run and got way ahead of me. The last time he got up on me 13-2 but I dug deep and came back and won 15-13. All I have to do is wait for one of those games and then not dig quite so deep.

LoL at eating like crap before hand. Before two of our matches my wife made me salad for dinner. First of all, that made me late both times because it takes me forever to get down a giant salad. Second, I hate doing sporting stuff with a huge amount of vegetation sitting in my gut.

I’ve coached him a little bit but don’t want to push that unless he asks. My approach to playing is very obvious and I’m not sure why he doesn’t try to imitate it. He continues to hit low probability shots and continues to be out of position. He does keep the ball in play so its fun for me. I get conditioning in which I never get otherwise. I also get lots of practice on my kill shots. Having not played in ten years I miss a lot but since he keeps it in play I get multiple tries every rally. LOL

Btw, It’s not his wife who said I should let him win, it was my wife. My wife would never say anything remotely disparaging even if they had met.

14

[quote]on edge wrote:

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Yeah I would let him win, say once every 10 games. If the wife mentioned it that’s a red flag and he is probably on the verge of feeling bitter towards your games/you. She might also be making disparaging remarks when he comes home and reports the score.

Maybe to make it more realistic get shithoused the night before or eat like crap then try your hardest on the day?!

At best I would coach him in the post-game locker room chat and tell him what he needs to do to beat you ie. ‘your backhand needs a lot of work, you shots down the line are too shallow, I can always see your drop shot coming’ etc[/quote]

I can let him win without him knowing I held back. In each of the three times we’ve played he’s had one game where he went on a run and got way ahead of me. The last time he got up on me 13-2 but I dug deep and came back and won 15-13. All I have to do is wait for one of those games and then not dig quite so deep.

LoL at eating like crap before hand. Before two of our matches my wife made me salad for dinner. First of all, that made me late both times because it takes me forever to get down a giant salad. Second, I hate doing sporting stuff with a huge amount of vegetation sitting in my gut.

I’ve coached him a little bit but don’t want to push that unless he asks. My approach to playing is very obvious and I’m not sure why he doesn’t try to imitate it. He continues to hit low probability shots and continues to be out of position. He does keep the ball in play so its fun for me. I get conditioning in which I never get otherwise. I also get lots of practice on my kill shots. Having not played in ten years I miss a lot but since he keeps it in play I get multiple tries every rally. LOL

Btw, It’s not his wife who said I should let him win, it was my wife. My wife would never say anything remotely disparaging even if they had met.[/quote]

Haha, yeah don’t say ‘you only lost bigboy cos the missus gave me rabbit food’ :slight_smile:

Ok, misread that about your wife. Yeah you don’t want to patronise him, just nudge him once in a while towards getting into better position.

I would still let him win soon and then crush him the following 10 games.

15

I think it’s an integrity and sportsmanship thing. Generally, if you let someone win in sport you insult them and yourself, even if the other person never knows. It’s a lie whether you get away with it or not. I think that’s important. There may be a tactical advantage to allowing someone to think they are winning while you set them up for an endgame they don’t see (i.e. rope-a-dope), but this is generally not the case in a friendly sporting contest.

The main exceptions I can think of are kids and/or people you are coaching. When I was a 6 or so my dad taught me to play chess. He took his Queen out of play as a handicap and then he played to beat me while allowing me the space to make a few moves and learn a few things before he did. When I finally got the old man, it was legit and it was a big deal. That said, you do need not crush the 8 year old next door at street hockey just because you can. Everyone else, especially grown ass men whose ability is comparable to your own… no prisoners, no mercy.

Disclosure: I do not work/socialize/exist in corporate culture so I have the luxury of basically ignoring all the political crap that goes along with that. Your mileage may vary.

16

Don’t let him win. This isn’t AYSO and not everyone gets a trophy.

Where would this country be if George Washington felt bad for the British and decided to let them win one? Or what about the Nazi’s? Did we let them win one so that we didn’t hurt their faciest feelings? What about the Harlem Globetrotters, huh? Do you think they said “hey guys, lets just let the generals win one game. What could it hurt?” I don’t think so.

Your both grown adults with families and careers. May the best man win.

17

[quote]gregron wrote:
Or what about the Nazi’s? Did we let them win one so that we didn’t hurt their faciest feelings? [/quote]

We actually let them win quite a few before enough was enough.

18

[quote]Diddy Ryder wrote:

[quote]gregron wrote:
Or what about the Nazi’s? Did we let them win one so that we didn’t hurt their faciest feelings? [/quote]

We actually let them win quite a few before enough was enough.
[/quote]
I wouldn’t say let… But lets not go ruining a good rant by letting facts get in the way.

20

Why would you let him win?

He’s a grown man and you’re a grown man, correct?