Rising to the Occasion

It is none of my business but there are people in our table tennis club I get concerned about.  There are people on their way up and improving at every opportunity.  Others are on their way down.  They maybe have reached their pinnacle and although they may resent it, they are on their way down.  Then there is the majority of us who turn up each week and play to the best of our ability.  If they are like me, I would like to be better but am not willing to pay the price.  Our primary goal is to play to our ability and enjoy ourselves.  Win some, lose some.
The ones I get concerned about are those who rise to the occasion to beat better players once, but seem to have trouble with those they should account for without a problem.
I played someone in a tournament once who was way better than me.  He should have wiped the court with me.  Instead he spent a good bit of the match looking at other games.  Like he was not interested in the one he was playing.  That worked in my favour a bit as I was miffed.
Merril asked me recently about something and I told her I used to get angry.  How angry she asked.  I told her as a kid I would get blow my top angry.  She asked what made the difference.  I can honestly say I think it was God that did.  I have not been angry like that in decades.  I have stewed but never blown my top.  There is a saying I like that says, “beware the wrath of a patient man.”
Anyway, I knew I could not beat this guy, but I was angry.  Not blow my top angry but miffed and wanting to get his attention.  I determined the best way was to win a game.  I did and he proceeded to wipe the court with me as he should have done from the start.
The English have a saying that has been a guiding principle for me.  “One swallow does not a summer make.”  If I beat someone once that does not make me a better player than them.  They may have been really crook, or injured, or have a heap of other things on their mind.  I remember the first time I beat dad at golf (he had been off a handicap of two.)  The day I beat him he had left his glasses at home.
The ones I get concerned about are the ones that should beat me but take it almost as a given that they will.  I have found that as sure as eggs (what makes egg so sure I do not know) is if I have beaten someone last time, or they have never beaten me, they are out to get me.  A saying that has come alive to me in recent times is “it’s not over until it is over.”  It does not matter how much someone is ahead by, they can be reigned in until it is over.
I guess I went down this track as I was thinking about “rising to the occasion.”  I personally want to start from a high base.  If I do. then I can generally rise higher.  If I start at a low base then my rising may be good for me but the impact is way less than it could be.  To me a high base is measured by consistence.  In table tennis that means consistently beating those I should.