Mental part of the game.............

genomachino

genomachino

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Coming off shoulder surgery I have had a chance to reset my game a little and really work on my aim and other aspects of the game.

I'm way ahead of schedule. Doc said no pool for 4 to 5 months. Should feel pretty good in 7 to 8 months. Hopefully pain free and pretty normal in 10 months to a year.

Well, I'm a pool player. We don't listen very well sometimes if you know what i mean.

I started playing again as soon as I could get at least a 2 inch stroke. Still couldn't get a fork even close to my mouth. That was after about 5 weeks. Shoulder surgery is no joke especially if you had alot of work done.

After 10 weeks I was out trying to win the weekly tournys in Minneapolis and have won 4 out of 5 that I entered.

Then I played a young man that plays pretty good. I would normally give him 2 or 3 games in a race to nine but he offers to play me even because he knew I was still pretty rough.

I got rolling pretty good. the break was weak but i didn't miss a ball hardly for 5 sets. I was plenty sore the next day but my therapy guy said it was a good sore.

Then the real test came. Looking for someone to play I called Jimmy Wetch at Jimmy's Pro Billiards. Jimmys not playing like he used to but he can still play. He offered to play some 10 ahead sets for an ok wager. I told him that i would not play more than 8 hours because I'm diabetic and he was ok with that. We could always finish a set the next day if need be.

The table is a diamond 9 footer with extreme shimmed pockets. Everything went fine. If any of you have ever played Jimmy you know you have to put up with alot of whining. He didn't get to do too much the first set because he didn't shoot much. I won the first 10 ahead set. Jimmy only won 2 games. I ran out from everywhere.

Then the real whining started. He wants to bet more money. I'm just trying to get my wings back after a 10 week period of no pool. But I have been playing pretty good so I reluctantly agreed to raise the bet 1/2 of the original wager.

What happened next i guess I was not ready for. A total all out mental war. We are racking the balls for each other and he starts complaining about the rack. The table racks kind of bad. the 2 balls in back of the head ball are real tough to get froze together. There is about 15 players watching and I feel kind of bad because no matter how hard I try to freeze the balls he just keeps complaining. To me now the plan is obvious to me. Break my focus.

After beating him silly the first set one of his customers there wants to make a side bet. I turned him down. I've only been playing for 2 weeks after surgery.

Then he starts punking me out about not wanting to bet more money. I have to listen to: I can't believe you don't want to bet more money after that first set in between each game along with the balls are not racked right.

I finally blew a rod. I told jimmy to rack the balls himself. He did and I checked the balls and the gap between the 2 balls was the same as when I racked them. I pointed the gap out and he denied it without looking.

I lost my cool and soon realized my game had also lost it's cool. Jimmy was not only a professional pool player but also a proffessional whiner and knows exactly what he is doing to take someone out of their game.

I'm not going to be able to change how players like Jimmy operate but I can do something about the way that I react to what they do. Try to keep my cool and keep focused no matter what is going on.

It will be good for me to play Jimmy again but with the mind set that it will be a battle to keep my focus. The only time you can practice keeping your fucus in these situations is when you are there.

Sometimes you have to get down in the trenches to get used to playing in the dirt. For me it's not a good part of the game but it seems it will always be there.

We need to learn how to deal with it............. or get beat by it over and over.............
 
Last edited:
Great points. I feel fairly comfortable with my fundamentals and whatnot, but I know my mental game is a gamble to show up and stay. Talking/arguing is a pretty common way to get people off their game, and I hate that I fall for it sometimes. It's not always negative, sometimes it's the guy asking about your cue, tip or whatever - then complaining about how he doesn't like whatever it is you're using. lol That last one happened to me just last week. It wasn't until after I missed the next shot I realized he wasn't asking because he was curious. :/
 
Gene
I am glad to hear your recovery process is coming along good,and as far as the whining goes you are right.The only way to overcome it is to subject yourself to it,no matter how agonizing it may be.Good Luck and thanks for your help with my game,your experience and knowledge are priceless in my book Peteypooldude
 
I am at the point in my pool game where I am just learning to avoid this kind of stuff. Man is it difficult. It is easy to get into a conversation or let someone get in between your ears and you are done. I think that is why ipods are so popular.
 
The sad thing is it will always be there. Tournament,league or gambling.

Somehow we have to overcome this and keep focused because if you don't the results are not fun.........
 
Gene brings up a valid point. Ninety percent of the games we play is in a comfortable atmosphere. If your not used to that other ten percent then you cant expect to play well. So if you want to play seamlessly your gonna have to get into the pigpen and learn to like it.
 
Glad you're able to shoot well again, Gene.

You mentioned that you had a chance to work on your aim and other aspects of the game. I wonder if you could tell a little something about those "other aspects?" I'm not asking you to reveal any secrets you might want to keep, I'm just curious about what you think is important to practice on a regular basis.

Roger
 
Gene:

Four years ago I ruptured my L5-S1 disc to the point where I had unbearable sciatic pain down my right leg. I opted for the surgery and my doc said, "No driving for a week, no pool for a month, take it REALLY easy and do a lot of walking."

The day of my surgery, I woke up and was 1000% cured. I felt better than ever. After day 3, my new (at the time) Lambros cue showed up and I drove (haha) to the pool hall to try it out. Long story short, I re-herniated my disc and was forced to get a 2nd back surgery. After the 2nd surgery....whatever that little twurp said... I did and then some.

Moral of the story: To avoid surgery #2, listen to the geek in the white coat.

Dave
 
genomachino said:
What happened next i guess I was not ready for. A total all out mental war. We are racking the balls for each other and he starts complaining about the rack. The table racks kind of bad. the 2 balls in back of the head ball are real tough to get froze together. There is about 15 players watching and I feel kind of bad because no matter how hard I try to freeze the balls he just keeps complaining. To me now the plan is obvious to me. Break my focus.
........
Click to expand...

I would have bet this was going to happen! Head games, some people will do anything to win....
 
genomachino said:
Coming off shoulder surgery I have had a chance to reset my game a little and really work on my aim and other aspects of the game.

I'm way ahead of schedule. Doc said no pool for 4 to 5 months. Should feel pretty good in 7 to 8 months. Hopefully pain free and pretty normal in 10 months to a year.

Well, I'm a pool player. We don't listen very well sometimes if you know what i mean.

I started playing again as soon as I could get at least a 2 inch stroke. Still couldn't get a fork even close to my mouth. That was after about 5 weeks. Shoulder surgery is no joke especially if you had alot of work done.

After 10 weeks I was out trying to win the weekly tournys in Minneapolis and have won 4 out of 5 that I entered.

Then I played a young man that plays pretty good. I would normally give him 2 or 3 games in a race to nine but he offers to play me even because he knew I was still pretty rough.

I got rolling pretty good. the break was weak but i didn't miss a ball hardly for 5 sets. I was plenty sore the next day but my therapy guy said it was a good sore.

Then the real test came. Looking for someone to play I called Jimmy Wetch at Jimmy's Pro Billiards. Jimmys not playing like he used to but he can still play. He offered to play some 10 ahead sets for an ok wager. I told him that i would not play more than 8 hours because I'm diabetic and he was ok with that. We could always finish a set the next day if need be.

The table is a diamond 9 footer with extreme shimmed pockets. Everything went fine. If any of you have ever played Jimmy you know you have to put up with alot of whining. He didn't get to do too much the first set because he didn't shoot much. I won the first 10 ahead set. Jimmy only won 2 games. I ran out from everywhere.

Then the real whining started. He wants to bet more money. I'm just trying to get my wings back after a 10 week period of no pool. But I have been playing pretty good so I reluctantly agreed to raise the bet 1/2 of the original wager.

What happened next i guess I was not ready for. A total all out mental war. We are racking the balls for each other and he starts complaining about the rack. The table racks kind of bad. the 2 balls in back of the head ball are real tough to get froze together. There is about 15 players watching and I feel kind of bad because no matter how hard I try to freeze the balls he just keeps complaining. To me now the plan is obvious to me. Break my focus.

After beating him silly the first set one of his customers there wants to make a side bet. I turned him down. I've only been playing for 2 weeks after surgery.

Then he starts punking me out about not wanting to bet more money. I have to listen to: I can't believe you don't want to bet more money after that first set in between each game along with the balls are not racked right.

I finally blew a rod. I told jimmy to rack the balls himself. He did and I checked the balls and the gap between the 2 balls was the same as when I racked them. I pointed the gap out and he denied it without looking.

I lost my cool and soon realized my game had also lost it's cool. Jimmy was not only a professional pool player but also a proffessional whiner and knows exactly what he is doing to take someone out of their game.

I'm not going to be able to change how players like Jimmy operate but I can do something about the way that I react to what they do. Try to keep my cool and keep focused no matter what is going on.

It will be good for me to play Jimmy again but with the mind set that it will be a battle to keep my focus. The only time you can practice keeping your fucus in these situations is when you are there.

Sometimes you have to get down in the trenches to get used to playing in the dirt. For me it's not a good part of the game but it seems it will always be there.

We need to learn how to deal with it............. or get beat by it over and over.............
Click to expand...

Good post! A great example of staying centered and, thereby, minimizing the effects of outside factors, be it the whining you noted or myriad other distractions: noise, movement, etc.
 
SpiderWebComm said:
Gene:

Four years ago I ruptured my L5-S1 disc to the point where I had unbearable sciatic pain down my right leg. I opted for the surgery and my doc said, "No driving for a week, no pool for a month, take it REALLY easy and do a lot of walking."

The day of my surgery, I woke up and was 1000% cured. I felt better than ever. After day 3, my new (at the time) Lambros cue showed up and I drove (haha) to the pool hall to try it out. Long story short, I re-herniated my disc and was forced to get a 2nd back surgery. After the 2nd surgery....whatever that little twurp said... I did and then some.

Moral of the story: To avoid surgery #2, listen to the geek in the white coat.

Dave
Click to expand...

24 years ago I was in for a vasectomy. The doctor told me.....well......nevermind :eek::D:D:D.

Maniac
 
Glad you asked...........

Roger Long said:
Glad you're able to shoot well again, Gene.

You mentioned that you had a chance to work on your aim and other aspects of the game. I wonder if you could tell a little something about those "other aspects?" I'm not asking you to reveal any secrets you might want to keep, I'm just curious about what you think is important to practice on a regular basis.

Roger
Click to expand...

Hi there Roger,

Once a player learns to have the head and eyes exactly in your preshot routine where they need to be, you can practice anything you want and your getting the most out of it.

My son is pretty hard headed. Typical pool player. Sometimes we like to think we know it all. We miss things that might really help our game.

It took me 3 months to teach him Perfect aim. After telling me repeatedly after I showed him that; I already do that Dad; he finally said one day: WOW dad that really does work.

One month later he won the BCA Wis AA tourny. And shot bad and still won it. But when it came down to crunch time he knew where he needed to have the head and eyes on that crucial shot.

He said without knowing he would have been a goner. He had 2 hill-hill matches.

Now I'm going through the same thing with him with my new info. It went from I already do that to , I used to do that, to finally he is really listening to what I'm telling him and really applying it to his game.

This happened last night. We played about 7 sets. Races to 7. Loser breaks the first game of each set.

The better he plays the more he pushes me.

His finally listening to me has come at a price for him. I have worked and taught all his buddies in the Eau Claire area. Their games have taken a great big jump. There is no poolhall in Eau Claire so they have formed a house league. My son has been getting his butt handed to him by all the guys he used to walk right over. He was getting pretty frustrated. But it just seemed like he wouldn't listen until he finally realized these guys are actually shooting better and it is a direct result of how they are aiming.They play a race to 7 8-ball and a race to 7 9-ball. He has been holding his own but he has been splitting alot.

Now he wanted me to show him how to put on a tip that will play great and not break down. We did this before we started playing. After our 4 hour session the tip was not frayed or mushroomed at all. It looked exactly like it did when we started. He looked at it and just shook his head and said amazing.

It's the Perfect way to put on a triangle. I tried to tell players on here how to do it and I'm thinking about making a little video to show how to do it.

The important part about Perfect Aim is once you know where the eyes need to be to see the shot the best your practicing it on every shot you are shooting. You won't want to stop because the minute you stop doing it you will see some of the shots won't look quite right.

Now no matter what you are doing you are improving the ability for your eyes to give the most correct information that they can to your brain. Now your brain can coordinate the info to your arm. The rest is history.

Still waiting for your call. I'm working on the New Perfect Aim Complete everyday. I can't wait until it's done.

Then I can get back on the road again.

Thanks Roger 715-563-8712 Geno.........
 
I lost but it took 3 hours.

getsome01 said:
well how did the 2nd set go?
Click to expand...

The first set took about 45 minutes.

He called me today and appoligized. Not about the complaints about the rack but about one of the insulting things he said. I tried to tell him that it was the whole package of whining and complaining. When you play someone of his caliber it would be nice to just play.

JUST DO IT !!!.

I replied by telling him it would be nice to just play with no mental warfare.

it was one of his friends that told him he was out of line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top