Don't Name That Dog!

[gregcantrall]

things I say to myself at the table.

My self to self talk can be powerful. My favorite outcome came playing for the point in a big 2 day bar box 9 ball event. I had never made it that deep in a big event with a large gallery. I kinda seized up and time after time got to the 7 or 8 and Missed. As I racked my final time down 6-2 going to 7 my talk was similar to the movie Tin Cup. Self says, "Don't worry about looking helpless. You've already done That! This is a big event and perhaps he has never been on the big stage Either. How about if You, I, We just quit handing him the game and see what happens. " Somehow the inevitability of the loss removed the tension and I performed beyond my wildest imaginings....And won 7-6. The only shot I remember is the final combination on the 9 ball.
Success breeds confidence for sure. In a Northwest regional event I went down by a big margin in similar fashion. I don't recall the self to self, just the confidence that I felt when I caught up with him to go hill/hill. I just knew I could make any shot or safety if I got to the table . It was alternating break and he snapped the 9 ball!!!

 

[Frosty]

I’m of the opinion “self talk” is a colossal waste of time. A mentor of mine in my early years was of the belief that the “little voice in your head”, that which does the “self talk”, is the conscious mind. He believed the conscious mind had no business anywhere near a pool table. That if you want positive results, to “see the picture” in your minds eye of that which you desire to execute, and to stuff a sock in the mouth of that voice in your head.

 

[gregcantrall]

a colossal waste of time

Well there's a time and place. My time and place is when in my chair or even when chalking the cue and making the plan.
When I am At Address the talk is done. If I get down on the shot and self throws out a nother thought, it's time to get up and start over. The time for action is a quiet time in my mind. Kinda like a trance when doing the dance I just flow. Thinking about the steps of the dance is for practice time. When in competition....with the flow is the way to go.
It's called, "In the Zone".

 

[DeeDeeCues]

I’m of the opinion “self talk” is a colossal waste of time. A mentor of mine in my early years was of the belief that the “little voice in your head”, that which does the “self talk”, is the conscious mind. He believed the conscious mind had no business anywhere near a pool table. That if you want positive results, to “see the picture” in your minds eye of that which you desire to execute, and to stuff a sock in the mouth of that voice in your head.

A couple of things.

First, easier said than done.

Second, I'm not talking about while playing, I am talking about personal post-game analysis and practice.

 

[straightline]

According to Carlos Castaneda, strange things happen when you shut down the internal dialogue.

 

[gregcantrall]

Self analysis while in the chair is critical for me.
First is to figure out what happened to put me in the chair. Sometimes it's a simple solution, kinda like, "oh sh*t I did it again. " Then I catalogue it and clear my mind just in case I get another shot. Other times it can be mysterious and no clear answer comes to me. Those times it's hard but I just file it as unknown and put it behind me and endeavor to return to the fray with no mental baggage. Ahhhh Hummmmmmmmmmmmm. You know the uh Yoga method.

 

[Frosty]

A couple of things.

First, easier said than done.

Second, I'm not talking about while playing, I am talking about personal post-game analysis and practice.

Actually it seems hard when you first start trying to do it because that little voice LOVES to talk.

May I recommend meditation when away from the table as a good starting point. Focusing on the breath and visualizing yourself at play in detail. It’s kind of like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. It’s worth the effort.

 

[ShootingArts]

I set a record other people had been chasing for fifteen years. I had been chasing it for about a year. This was in a pistol match so I used the starting buzzer as the trigger to go into the zone. Even if I hadn't hit the zone I would have still hit the trigger point for verbal thought to shut the hell up!

Playing pool the key to shut up is the first time I address the cue ball in an inning. I made the plan for the whole inning before I bent over, nothing left to think about unless I blow shape in which case I will stand up and regroup. After creating a new plan, I will shut up again as I start to bend over. The thinking part of your brain, the verbal surface part, can be trained to shut up. It gets between your unconscious and your body and at that point should be accomplishing nothing other than creating a distraction.

Learning to put that verbal mind up in a corner to sit there and shut up unless it sees a trainwreck is very important as is trusting it will kick in if it needs to. The great thing is learning to quieten the verbal mind transfers from one form of competition to another. You don't have to start from scratch when moving to something else. I visited a friend of a friend to look at a rifle while traveling. He broke out a $1500 bb gun, an olympic ten meter pistol. You shoot this thing duelist style, one handed! Not the way I normally shoot a pistol. Crap!

That pistol weighed about four pounds when we started, about forty when he decided it was time to stop about thirty minutes after we started. The bullseye was a tiny dot about the size of a pencil lead. I had matched him shot for shot. My pistol shooting skills had helped but my competition skills carried from a half-dozen other forms of competition are what kept me matching him shot after shot with my arm on fire. I made a note to not fight any duels in the grove on the island!

No way I could have hung with Max without my suite of competition tools carried over from pool and other things.

Hu