Totally agree with you here. All your attention should be on the table and what's happening there. It's almost like meditation, block everything else out. As soon as you engage in conversation or smile at someone on the sidelines you've broken the spell, and you've distracted yourself. I like the way you said it above.
Jimmy Rempe was the best ever at staying focused. Even while sitting in his chair he would sit dead upright with his eyes on the table and his opponent. He wanted to see everything! He always looked like a vulture, ready to pounce.
Interestingly enough the same holds true when playing poker. My game would fall off a bit if I engaged in conversation at the table. I had distracted myself from focusing on the game. I did my best when I stayed silent and played mum.
Your comment regarding meditation is interesting, as it lowers your heart rate which in turn lowers your anxiety level,
I did something similar to meditation which is taught to Navy Seals. It’s called boxed breathing and it lowers your heart rate significantly. The deep slow rhythmic breathing also adds more oxygen to your red blood cells. This has the added benefit of making your vision sharper and clearer.
Boxed breathing works, I confirmed that by wearing a chest type heart rate monitor called the Polar H 10. It’s 99.95% accurate. With their app my my I phone I can watch my heart rate in real time. I use it on my indoor bicycle trainer to judge my health level and have used it playing pool.
At 73 my max is supposed to be 150 bpm, I’ve pushed myself to 165 bpm and rode my trainer one day for 90 minutes and the average was 138 bpm.
Boxed breathing, meditation are one in the same regarding the benefits to your pool game and are valuable assets in lowering your stress level during high pressure games.
Honestly I loved the pressure cause I liked to show off my level of play and loved to see the opponent when they realized that bitten off more than they could chew.
Another interesting point is how your brain interprets what you see and how you see it. The brain is linked to your subconscious mind and if you listen and react to your mind the outcome is quite surprising.
Try staring at a door knob for 60 seconds. It’s just about impossible to do because your brain knows what a door knob looks like and wants to move on to anything. Scott Lee and I played many times and had many great conversations about eye patterns. He was an extremely talented teacher of pool fundamentals, it was a great loss when he passed.
How many times have you thought I know I’m going to miss this shot then shot it anyway?
That’s the subconscious mind telling you to stand up and reset cause if you don’t your going to miss that shot.
I have a noticeable pause in my backstroke that allows me to adjust the shot if my subconscious mind knows I am out of line. In the forward half of my stroke I can redirect onto the correct line. Without the pause I cannot make that redirect..
These are just some of my random things that helped me over the years when I played regularly. They were all beneficial to me and one time or another…
