Yep. This shot is the only shot that counts - shooting it perfectly is your only job.
pj
chgo
Truth about winning
- Thread starter CocoboloCowboy
- Start date
pj
chgo
That’s why I don’t count other peoples money
Good post cowboy
Have actually met the guy who posted his advice 30 ++ years ago.
He was someone I would list as in my top 10 most interesting people whom I met in life.
Guy was first NCAA DIVISION ONE ATHLETE with for bad limbs.
Now he makes living do motivational speeches to most of the Fortune 500 companies.
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Yes and no. This is sound advice for most players but the reality is that not everyone is nice and there are some very bad winning players out there who look down on others and can't stand to see others win even when they themselves have played their best on the day and finished second or third or wherever. They are just as winning as winners with the "right" attitude.Friend just sent this worth watching if your brave.
Also, you can be mentally strong when you are the biggest fish in the pond, but try another pond and your head falls apart.
And then there's the rolls ..... that time I beat the head-and-shoulders-above player in an early round of a tournament that I went on to win could easily give me a false belief (but on the plus side add more confidence and resilience to my "winning mindset") that I was by far the second best player in the field.
Nobody ever performs perfectly, even when it appears that they do. For example, a player runs slightly out of their intended position on their key ball during a runout but they make the runout anyway. They, in the moment, forget about this as soon as it happens. Those watching who are knowledgable about the game assume subconsciously that the player wasn't playing for precise position, and consciously they see it as perfect play. On another day in the same situation they dog the next ball - and then they beat themselves up about position on the key ball. Whether or not you should beat yourself up is another question but the reality is that if people call you a sore loser then you are a sore loser because it's how you react externally to/in the presence of others that determines this trait. People don't misunderstand you, they observe your behaviour and respond accordingly. This is not a criticism - if being a sore loser turns you into a winner and that's important to you then make it work. But the greatest players in all sports are those that win again and again but are humble when they lose.
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Yep, that's my experience.
dquarasr
Registered
I may have overstated it. Maybe sore loser in the usual connotation is the wrong term. Let’s call it “disappointed loser.” I always congratulate the winner, sincerely. I do internally beat myself up BUT in the last six months or so I have really made progress in taking losses for what they are - inconsequential. I tell teammates when they get down on themselves “a hundred years from now this won’t matter.”
This, we can all agree on
Depends on how much you bet…..This, we can all agree on
P.S I just would like to emphasize something. Here I am not speaking about low-level players where the gab difference in skill is big. I am only speaking about top-end players, the speed of pros or a little lesser than pros by a small margin. I don't want to put letters for grading here because the last time I did we had issues because people scale things differently.
But yea I am speaking about the top players here. --- Obviously, if one guy is a top player playing a very very low-skilled player he would beat him every time.
Those who excel at winning work hard at winning like their sport is full time job.
Tiger Woods was workaholic in prime.
Tiger Woods was workaholic in prime.
This is the biggest piece of nonsense that I have ever read on this site. Seriously, you believe that at the highest level of sports performance, that luck is the most deciding factor in winners vs. losers? Why would anyone bother to try and become great at a sport if luck was the biggest deciding factor when they meet other pros in competition?
By far, the MOST deciding factor when great players meet in competition is not luck, it is almost always who performs at their highest level most consistently at that time.
Well people who compete in Olympics are not getting there with luck.
Many devote their life to a Sport, and still don’t preform well enough to make the team.
Lot of very talented people playing AAA Baseball, but if there no place to move up to.
Again they never make it to majors, and big bucks.
Sometimes being in right place at right time, or having an in, or a chance is not luck.
Again if your not talented no one is going to notice you.
Kurt Warner is exception to the rules, working in grocery store. Then WB of NFL Team, then win Super Bowl. But guy had the talent.
Many devote their life to a Sport, and still don’t preform well enough to make the team.
Lot of very talented people playing AAA Baseball, but if there no place to move up to.
Again they never make it to majors, and big bucks.
Sometimes being in right place at right time, or having an in, or a chance is not luck.
Again if your not talented no one is going to notice you.
Kurt Warner is exception to the rules, working in grocery store. Then WB of NFL Team, then win Super Bowl. But guy had the talent.
LOL you know nothing about pool.
And Yes to the question you asked at the beginning of that paragraph. Yes at the highest level of sport performance, luck is the most deciding factor. I know its sad but it is true and probably most people who love this game so much will never see it. The break & layout & rolls & situations that happens in each rack decides the winner. All players at that level can runout they just need everything to go their way. And this is exactly why you see a pro v pro where one beats the other 9 to zero, then they go to the loser bracket play each other again and the guy who was ZERO will win the next game 9 to zero again, it happens a lot and if you have just a slight of logical and critical thinking you'd see that these two pro's did not develop a new set of a skill all of a sudden, its all happened in the same tournament! What made one pro beat the other 9 to zero, then in the same day the other dude beats the other guy 9 to zero? Its all about the layouts, breaks, rolls.
Alot of incidents of this sort happen in pool, to name one Johnny archer beats Bustamante in a gambling match, he ran 13 racks on him and beat him 13 to zero. Guess what happened next? Bustamante said to Johnny lets play again double or nothing, guess who won the next one, Bustamante beat Johnny...apparently first set was cake-easy layouts for johnny and he kept making balls on break AAAAAAAND getting a shot after the break. Apparently, that did NOT happen the next set and he kept getting hooked whenever Bustamante misses. Dude its all about luck but you need probably 50 yrs to realize this fact. I saw it in just a few yrs, it's all clear to me.
You want more? Alex was playing crazy one tournament, even the commentators said he is a COMPUTER and not a man. He won that match, everything laid perfect for him to win it. Next SET he played an unknown and he kept getting out of position due to layout issues (8ball tournament). The unknown beaten alex next set.
One more, Shane Van boening was playing real good last world championships, he ran 7 racks in a row in two SETS. The 3rd sET against a player who isn't a caliber of him but he's still a pro. The other guy got every roll and every layout. The layout is huge in the game of pool if its easy even ur grandson can run out. Then what happens, Shane who ran 7 racks in a row two different sets has lost to a player who isn't as good as him. Its not suddenly SVB lost skill, right? its just the table decided that he has to lose this time.
kanzzo
hobby player
it's like hearing bad beat stories in poker. Your stories prove, that luck is a factor in pool. You are right about this. And this factor is bigger, if skill level of the players is closer, if game is 9 Ball instead of 10 Ball, if races are shorter, if equipment is easier.
But Bustamante knows the role of luck and I guess he knew, he is a favorite gambling with Archer. He saw the way Archer won first set and knew he is favorite to win it back and more if they continue gambling.
Between Auschan, Filler and Shaw luck might be the most deciding factor, who will win the tournament, since they are so close in their skill level. But your weaker pro will have no chance to win a tournament against these three.
But Bustamante knows the role of luck and I guess he knew, he is a favorite gambling with Archer. He saw the way Archer won first set and knew he is favorite to win it back and more if they continue gambling.
Between Auschan, Filler and Shaw luck might be the most deciding factor, who will win the tournament, since they are so close in their skill level. But your weaker pro will have no chance to win a tournament against these three.
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That's funny!
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
Yeah, I figured that out years ago. I could find ways to lose a 6-1 lead if I perceived my opponent to be a good player.
I discovered this when I started playing foosball tourneys. I thought I was okay at foosball, but found out that I could play my absolute best and still never win a game against the other players. Liberating. That freed me to play my best without worrying about anything. Eventually I could win a few and give most a challenge. When I started playing pool again, I didn't fear what would happen if I beat great players, because I figured out that nothing would happen, they would still be great and I'd be whatever I was.
Believe it was great Football Coach Vince Lombardi who said something like, Winning is not everything, it is the only thing.
I felt like I hit a really huge milestone a few weeks ago.
Playing a saturday tournament with an unsual format. You start with a preset amount of lives. You get paired with an opponent in a race to 1. Loser loses one of their lives.
Messy table and I spend about 3 minutes checking and rechecking to make sure the 8 ball was on for the corner pocket off a stripe. I then proceed to run-out solids and shoot the 8 in off a stripe.
It goes into the heart of the pocket. My opponent has enough time say "Nice Out" before the 8 ball hits something inside the rail system and shoots back out onto the table...
It was a huge moment because... I just sat down, didn't say a thing and didn't feel upset.
I ran a good pattern, knew I was playing well and that was enough.
It meant I was starting to see runouts as not really special and just a normally reocurring part of the game.
The only thing I thought about was that I could of gotten away with hitting it softer. I had decided that I was going to give it pace becase it was aimed just to barely clear the left side of the pocket. I didn't want it to roll offline into the horn.
Other than that split-second though, I was right back into focusing on the game.
Playing a saturday tournament with an unsual format. You start with a preset amount of lives. You get paired with an opponent in a race to 1. Loser loses one of their lives.
Messy table and I spend about 3 minutes checking and rechecking to make sure the 8 ball was on for the corner pocket off a stripe. I then proceed to run-out solids and shoot the 8 in off a stripe.
It goes into the heart of the pocket. My opponent has enough time say "Nice Out" before the 8 ball hits something inside the rail system and shoots back out onto the table...
It was a huge moment because... I just sat down, didn't say a thing and didn't feel upset.
I ran a good pattern, knew I was playing well and that was enough.
It meant I was starting to see runouts as not really special and just a normally reocurring part of the game.
The only thing I thought about was that I could of gotten away with hitting it softer. I had decided that I was going to give it pace becase it was aimed just to barely clear the left side of the pocket. I didn't want it to roll offline into the horn.
Other than that split-second though, I was right back into focusing on the game.
I remember that one... People tend to forget that SVB had his chances and put the ball into the rail on a couple of occassions. Of course that's what happens when someone speaks to an SVB performance on the world stage...lol. Guess the other guy was just lucky that SVB missed when he shouldn't have and that the tourney switched to the wooden rack at that point.
Classic
I don't mind people being ultra competitive but I can't stand people throwing tantrums or mumbling about how unlucky they are, acting all dejected and then lighting up when their opponent misses.
I despise playing people who think they won because of their skill but lose because their opponents got lucky.
This is not directed at you at all, but it just reminded me of a pet peeve of mine
I consider hissy fits, throwing cues or complaining as an attempted form of sharking.
And if you unscrew your cue during my shot, I'm assuming we're done and will be going to shake your hand.