“I was very excited to play a game against Joemanji. I've learned by talking to him online that he's got a good intuitive sense of the game and an excellent head for both probabilities and pattern recognition, and I figured that I'd learn something from Joemanji the coach in our first BB encounter. He did not disappoint, beating me 1-0 in a thrilling game.

I don't feel bad about this loss, even though I feel like I got beat. I learned a lot about what I need to learn. I shut down his offense at the point of attack (I needed crazy dice on T7, but hey, AV9...), and also forced a quick score when I turned over the ball in the second half. I needed some crazy dice to do it. A deep kick and a failed pickup didn't do me any good, and neither did my awful armor rolls nor the fact that my opponent failed maybe one probable roll the whole game, letting him keep the OSPT game going, and stopping my 6-turn drive (ok, clicking "blitz" with the wrong player on Turn 16 and then handing off to the wrong player stopped my 6-turn drive). Still, it was Joe's excellent coaching that let him salvage a win after the crazy play that ended his first drive with the ball.

After 10 games, here's what I'm doing right:
* I know the dimensions of the game. My cages advance well except against the best OSPT games. Even against those guys, I'm not bad at bobbing and weaving.
* I'm a better blocker than anybody I've played yet. I have a feeling that will change sometime soon, but I'm now confident that my blocking skills are tourney-ready.
* My SPP distribution skills are almost as good here as they are in tabletop with the guys.
* My risk management may not be perfect, but my risk analysis is top-notch.

Here's where I'm getting better:
* I'm finally starting to differentiate one player from another, at least on my team.
* I'm not fast enough, but I'm definitely getting faster. Sometimes I go over 4 min, but my first few games were much worse.
* My rookie FUMBBLitis is starting to fade. I lost this match partly on a pair of misclick, but it was the second misclick of the game. I made gobs in my first few games.

Here's where I need to improve:
* I still take too many risks. I don't risk easy rolls, but if I've got a TRR left then I might RR a push on a key block. I know better, but that's what I do.
* My sense of the pitch is good, as is my understanding of the flow of the drive, but my ability to visualize the next turn is perhaps a little lacking.
* I still make some FUMBBL mistakes, and worse, I tend to make them at critical times. I have to remember that the process whenever I start an action with a player involves looking at the text block to make sure it's the intended action.
* AG5 kicks my patootie. I'm too much of a screener. Getting some Guard or a carrier with Dodge, that's the only way I can think of it.
* I'm still too slow.

Here's what I'm not worried about:
* My #1 Thrower is not picking up 8/9 of the balls. He's getting more like 2/3. This is annoying.
* I suffered a disproportionate number of early casualties. I still maintain that cost me my first game. It seems to have leveled out.
* My Undead deal all the damage, my Orcs just push or fail to break AV. I think this is partly opposition, and partly chance.

Here's what I'm not attributing to any skill on my part:
* My Undead have positively terminated their first two opponents. I feel good about forcing scrums and winning the block war, but 5-0 (would have been 6-0 had I not been greedy) was just chance, and the first two games had come against softer elf teams. I'd like to play them against a bash team now.
* My Orcs seem to have learned about Stickum. They catch everything thrown their way. And as bad as the Thrower is on pickups, his passes have been superb. I don't expect that to last. That's okay; he has the two skills I need the most if I'm not passing so much.

Here's what I'm going to focus on:
* Playing more games will lead to faster play and fewer mistakes. This will come with experience. To augment this, I will focus on visualizing, not only how the opponent will respond to the main threat of the turn and to each additional situation (at that, I'm fine), but how I intend to play out my response to whatever happens.
* I've been watching a lot of "tape" of the top coaches, but now I'm going to start focusing on their risk management. The overall strategy, I have down nicely.
* I need to put together some playbooks. I'm not used to the speed of play here, and setting up some basic formations will help. I'm going to start with Orcs, because those are the ones who need help.
”