Best sports psych. book ever. Another that applies to pool is 'Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect' by Bob Rotella. Just have to have a real solid PSR and don't worry about the outcome. Look, the worst that can happen is you lose a game/set of pool. Enjoy being nervous, your opponent is going thru same shit.
Compete without fear
- Thread starter SeniorTom
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While I have not thought of the fast and shallow, probably because it just happens. I do force the slow and deep by puffing out the cheeks while pursing the lips to restrict the exhale.
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In the current snooker Saudi event, The post match interview with Slessor touches on his mental switch. The frame of mind and outlook change allowed him to prevail against Mark Williams.
As Yogi Berra said, "Half the game is 85% mental."
As Yogi Berra said, "Half the game is 85% mental."
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cueball2010
Active member
Turn fear into anger. Let fear feed you. But be careful because doing this will make both fear and anger disappear from your game. You will need to find new fuel for your game. At that point you will have to look for loud mouths to play.
I miss my friend fear now. He rarely comes to me these days. But when he does... IT's ON. Fuel for anger and razor sharp focus. I feel like hulk and the more you poke me the bigger I get.
Bet higher. True story.
I have just read this one article. It is short and should give a good understanding of eustress if it is fairly accurate. Odd that I don't remember the word or haven't ran across it in much reading about the mental game. Managing eustress is the game changer especially when playing long brutal matches or gambling sessions.
Managing even good stress is a must. High levels of stress can burn huge amounts of energy. Once I had to run twelve perfect laps on a 3/8 mile track, ten faster cars behind me. I ran the perfect race, climbed through the window of my car and both knees buckled when my feet hit the ground. It took a couple minutes before I could support myself and walk away from the car! I don't have a great understanding of what was going on in my body, a huge adrenaline dump while I was racing or was adrenaline continuing to dump and that was making me weak?
I have ran a table under considerable pressure, not a fraction of the pressure I felt running that race though.
Chopdoc, all I can do is offer you a very sincere thank you. You made me aware of a term that will let me narrow my search in an area I have had an interest in for almost my lifetime!
Hu
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Eustress is the Good Type of Stress You Didn't Know You Needed
Eustress is the type of stress that comes from exciting events and positive challenges. It can be inspiring and help you develop resilience.
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
It's probably good we don't live near each other, I have a feeling we would be good buddies but the next morning might end up being rough!
Probably about 3 shots of whiskey. Of course your coordination may suffer. You kind of want to get to that point where you wish a fella would.
It's not a good solution.
CJ Wiley said something to the effect he would imagine himself loosing before a match, then he could play without worrying about it.
You basically have to get to a point where you DGAF. It's different for everyone. Pride and ego or just wanting to do/play good can seriously kill a pool game. You want to just be in the moment and shoot every shot as if it were the only thing existing in the world. Not thinking about perfection, just becoming the game. Sounds woo woo but it's basically the zone. The zone is elusive but not exclusive.
When "In The Zone" I have devoted all my facultys to the immediate problem. One shot at a time. I have on a couple of occasions had a player compliment an early shot in the run out. I just say, "thank you" and have no memory of any shots other than the last. I even had a comment regarding my shooting the game ball left handed. I had to look down to confirm that the cue was indeed in my left hand. I mean I remembered the shot but the choice of which hand was automatic and dictated by the lay of the shot.
Well after the battle is over and a cool down period I can remember (sometimes).
Ben Hogan said:
The most important shot in golf is the next one.
I say the most important thing is whatever is in front of you.
In pool, you can know the game, you can have excellent pattern recognition and planning, but none of it will matter if you can't pocket the one in front of you.
Focus is a skill to be cultivated, practiced, refined, and maintained.
We'll continue to talk about this forever, but I think most of it just comes down to internal wiring. Some of us just get really nervous, and others are just lifeless robots. I think all us nervous guys can do it play more and make sure our routine is solid. All the rest is fun to talk about, and even tinker around with, but in the end you'll probably end up back at -- playing more and working on the routine.
Big Thumb Up.
Practicing the process, trains the focus.
Going from practice to competition charges variables and adds distractions. By practicing the process it becomes habit and all my focus can be directed to the desired results.
A favorite quote is, "I shoot so good I could get a Nun to take her clothes off. Heck I could get a whole convent to take their clothes off. "
The desired result.....in the beginning that was abdesired result. 
So when shooting a drill I still enforce StrickT adherence to the process. Can however move quickly through the plan while standing at parade rest. The Big Eye is in charge while standing and surveying. Imagine the shot. As long as what I see and feel as I drop into stance is good, proceed. 20 seconds per shot is practice pace. (Slowing with age
)Pace is variable in competition. Based solely on the time spent at each station. Can't skip the stop but can expedite it.
Take up some kind of martial art - from for real clubs. There's a competitive energy that's requisite in these struggles. You'll see.
I often recommend that, or yoga, or things like Tai Chi, as well as meditation. The people I work with have extremely little time available, so they need to get the maximal benefit from minimal investment of time.
Anything that can improve discipline of mind and body, as well as coordination.
I teach a number of techniques to break stress and fatigue and regain focus in the moment. They are all based on things I learned in nursing, medicine, psychology, and the martial arts.
Getting in touch with and understanding what your mind and body are doing is critical and primary, then learn to control that. And it's an ongoing dynamic process, it does not end.
It's precisely that mental field I refer to. It's very different than the simple self awareness and discipline players develop for one simple reason; In a match, there is a conflict of wills. That's all I'll say about it.
Always a little tricky trying to explain. The trick is to stay in the present, no past or future, but the present can cover a lot of ground. I always tried to make the entire inning the present. I thought out the entire inning standing, then the goal was not to think again until after the inning. Out of practice now but this was highly effective for my play and discouraging for my opponents who tended to assume I gave no thought to the run when I had worked it out in detail before I bent over the first shot.
The physical flow from shot to shot was intimidating, deliberately so when I found out it rattled some people when all shots were shot with roughly the same pacing, hard or easy. Nothing to think about or second guess myself about when the planning had already been done.
Hu
The physical flow from shot to shot was intimidating, deliberately so when I found out it rattled some people when all shots were shot with roughly the same pacing, hard or easy. Nothing to think about or second guess myself about when the planning had already been done.
Hu
Friend of mine went through submarine school some basic seal training included; passed. Some of the "rigorous" stuff, all he would say was "weird". 
i got a mental image of Buddy (rip) while reading this post
he was the most intimidating player i've seen when he got in "roll and stroll" mode
he also seemed to strike whitey with the same apprx force the majority of time
big "chang" (rip) reminded me a of this to a degree, i also like how Fedor gets around the table
Buddy always looked like he had a plan when he walked in the front door. He seemed as inevitable as death and taxes.
When I first met Buddy he was a long lanky guy with just a small beginning of a beer belly. I could have got in action with him then or many a time in the coming years. Somehow it never seemed like a good idea!
Hu
If and when I made an extremely difficult shot, I would immediately think, "if I don't get out that shot didn't happen."
For me it was all too easy to celebrate the shot when the goal is not yet attained. It's such a bitter taste to miss the easy one after making the difficult one.
For me it was all too easy to celebrate the shot when the goal is not yet attained. It's such a bitter taste to miss the easy one after making the difficult one.
I just stumbled upon an article about a person's inner thoughts. Kind of tangential to the topic but interesting.
Mental password tech
the password part reminds me of certain words I "think" to keep my focus.
The "thrill of victory" experienced too soon can lead to, "the agony of defeat". (A favorite Wide World of Sports lead in).
Focus is what I want to control. Be Here Now is a favorite book. The Here and Now of the cueball departing my cue tip is my last chance. So I try to focus on the path of the tip through the cueball.
A favorite compliment I overheard while playing in a pool tournament at the rec room in FOB Kalsue was, "He command his cueball ". . I so dominated the field that I was asked to stand down to allow somebody else to win the weekly free tournament that awarded a t-shirt.
Mental password tech
the password part reminds me of certain words I "think" to keep my focus.
The "thrill of victory" experienced too soon can lead to, "the agony of defeat". (A favorite Wide World of Sports lead in).
Focus is what I want to control. Be Here Now is a favorite book. The Here and Now of the cueball departing my cue tip is my last chance. So I try to focus on the path of the tip through the cueball.
A favorite compliment I overheard while playing in a pool tournament at the rec room in FOB Kalsue was, "He command his cueball ". . I so dominated the field that I was asked to stand down to allow somebody else to win the weekly free tournament that awarded a t-shirt.