I think it also matters how long you have been playing, if you have been playing at least 20 years CONTINUALLY you probably are not working on your stroke, I was away from the game for about 10 years and I am just STARTING to feel comfortable with my stroke after 4 years, It’s like night and day from just starting over again and better than before, I'm working on postioning and landing on the right side of the cueball now and consistency.
Why Your Skill Doesn’t Matter in Matches - Just in Practice
- Thread starter Sharivari
- Start date
You need to be able to play under pressure. Usually that means gambling …. BUT that doesn’t mean you have to play for money.
I remember a place my friends and I would play that had live bands on the weekend and a dance floor. The bet? Whoever lost had to approach the ugliest girl in the room, picked by the winner, and ask them to dance. Seems silly now but that was a LOT of pressure then!
I remember a place my friends and I would play that had live bands on the weekend and a dance floor. The bet? Whoever lost had to approach the ugliest girl in the room, picked by the winner, and ask them to dance. Seems silly now but that was a LOT of pressure then!
Skill is a huge percentage of everything but you can't say that without understanding there are a lot more skills required than just pocketing balls as a beginner often thinks. As you advance you keep adding things to what constitutes "skill". One major skill is shutting down the conscious, the part of the brain that thinks in words. Even trickier, you don't want it to shut down completely. I picture it as having an overview from nearby. It isn't jabbering all of the time but if it needs to step in and provide a little guidance it will. Likewise if something goes seriously wrong it will regroup and put together an entirely new pattern if needed.
Jumping to something attributed to Mark Wilson, I have to question the seventy percent performance number. If he said it I would like to see the context. Over ten thousand people compete in the olympics and not considering injuries very few of them don't come within five or ten percent of maximum performance at a guess. The timed events quickly show that the athletes are at very near maximum performance in competition, certainly no 30% fall off.
Far from falling off significantly, I expect my performance to improve in competition and it does. That doesn't just apply to pool, it holds true for half a dozen different sports or games.
Hu
I think that’s the optimum stimulus idea. Maybe from the Bassham book. You need the right level, more than practice less than overwhelming. Can’t remember exactly where I saw that discussed, but performance often improves with the right amount of pressure. I’ll have to find that.
Consistently pocketing balls is everything, possibly the only thing.
There is no substitute for pocketing balls. When you pocket the ball you stay at the table. Not pocketing the ball relinquishes the table and you sit down and watch. Getting shape is easy. Getting perfect shape every shot is very difficult but when you are in the zone of pocketing balls then you can take what the table gives you because you know that you are going to make the ball.
uk_9_ball_convert
Active member
Not sure you can compare to athletics, running 100m adrenaline will improve your performance. Playing pool where there is a mental aspect to the game, adrenaline can have a negative effect on a player's performance. Think it depends on personality, experience and confidence whether adrenaline is a help or hindrance.
Actually, a better title would be, "Skill ALONE, isn't ENOUGH".
Circle track racing in cars or on motorcycles seems to be mostly mental. I have still burned so much adrenalin in a ten lap, few mile race, that I collapsed trying to get off a bike or out of a car. My muscles were fried! Fifty years ago I read of chess players losing seven pounds in a day.
Pistol competition burns a lot of calories, benchrest rifle competition too. I put in three eight hour days of rifle competition just sitting at a shooting bench or reloading bench. I drove two miles back to the official hotel and I was so exhausted I couldn't roll over in bed for eight hours after the third day. Most of the energy was burned with mental energy and vision.
It is hard to compare things but that doesn't mean they don't burn a tremendous amount of energy. I wonder how much energy a fighter pilot burns in a dogfight?
I had to take thirteen certification tests years ago. I deliberately prepared just like I would have for a competition event. I was the only person I knew of that passed all thirteen tests without failing some and having to retest along the way. I had prepared for all thirteen both mentally and physically like heading into a major competition.
My opinion, for most things you have to feed your brain and body. There is a lot more to the olympics than running. There was a man in the biathlon, which combines snow skiing and shooting. The man had fast time for the skiing sections two olympics in a row, Was winning the shooting with a perfect score when he crossfired on somebody else's target with the last shot, two olympics in a row! Shot a perfect score to win on his third try.
How much energy does our mind use? How much our body? I would guess that if we were playing someone like Efren in his prime in a world class event they would both be burning tons of energy!
Hu
As a friend used to blurt, "Eets a domp !!"
Srsly, that happens?
I lost two pistol matches on the last shot after everyone else had written off the match to me! One match I was shooting six shots into five targets in an inverted V configuration. I was fast, I was clean, until my pistol locked back one shot early. I was shooting one shot, one shot, double tap, one shot, one shot, when my slide locked back one shot early. After the double tap in the middle I double tapped the next target too. I never have remembered doing that, two holes in the fourth target told the story though! last shot of the match by anyone. She-eee-yit!
Another time I was shooting eight inch steel plates at ten yards. Last person up and others were putting away their equipment. Everyone was sure I had won. I had a knew race gun I had built myself and that thing was a snake. Quick and accurate! Nice draw on the final set of five plates, I was riding the recoil from plate to plate and confidently broke my last shot with my sight an inch inside the last plate. After the trigger breaking I relaxed. The plate still stood. Titanium and other high speed and lightweight action components but that is when I learned that the muzzle can move an inch or more between the trigger breaking and the shot leaving the barrel! I went from winner to way down the list on the last shot!
I have had things happen playing pool but for the most part I forget those things. A girl decided to sidle her ass up on the table while looking the other way as I shot the money ball. It was the early seventies. She saw the miss but didn't realize she had caused it. "Smile, God loves you." I literally shook holding back the desire to smash a house cue across a pretty girl's teeth!
Hu
SlopCounts
New member
"Competitive practice" is the best practice. Always play/practice with other players for something, even small.
Competing with other people is a part of practice. The issue is that when you are focusing on winning you are focusing on the shots and patterns you are comfortable with. You need to practice the things you are just learning too and that generally means practicing alone. Neither form of practice completely covers the ground that needs covering so a little of both is needed.
Hu