Scratching my head once again...

Well that's why I stopped gambling. I was on a winning streak for a very, very long time. Then I was on a losing streak also for a very long time. I quit while I was ahead. Get it a head? Your not a quitter. It could be you're being punished but I kind of Fing doubt it. It all comes out in the wash. I only wish bad things on bad people. That's just how I live now.

Shit happens.

That has to be part of any attitude, I'd think.

"Establish the proper Attitude" is ingredient number 1 in my shot recipe. The attitude follows from my goals, so whatever shot I'm shooting at the time is integrated with my overall goals. So, a practice shot has a different goal than a competitive shot, for example. The first, to over-learn specific behaviors; the second to make the shot on the way to winning the game.

Luck happens, if one uses that term. Shit happens. How I react to shit is determined by my attitude and that is determined by my goals.

As a player gets better and better, ingredient #1 becomes THE focus more and more.




Jeff Livingston

Your subconscious is getting in the way ......
How many times have you thought "if I am here I am Ok, if I am here I am Ok, if I am here, I'm screwed...." then you shoot the shot and end up screwed...
You believe you constantly have bad luck and are gonna end up bad....so that is where your subconscious takes over and you execute accordingly.
I have seen it many times and had it happen to me as well...
Work more on position shots in your practice sessions and build your confidence....then when you get down to shoot the same shot in a match stay focused... if you start to lose focus or thinking about getting screwed again....stand up and reapproach the shot.

Bad rolls happen to everyone... you can't control the bad roll your opponent leaves you with.....but 75%of the time the bad roll you get when you are shooting is ultimately your fault.

This is the nature of the game, it will happen both ways. Best not to keep that stuff rolling around in the head, keep it cool.

Here's the difference. Some people don't need luck. They play the proper shot, play proper position and do what they're supposed to do. Some people don't, and when they screw it up, they play a shot, and sometimes it goes in. That's luck, but a percentage of the time its going to happen. Play your best, and if someone gets lucky, so be it.

Tommy-D said:

Can someone explain to me how a player's so-called "attitude" is really supposed to affect the rolls one way or the other?

Click to expand...

You're looking for, "The Abridged PhD on Psychology in Sport", in a time when three sentences garners, "TL : DR".

1) Nothing you think only in your mind will affect your opponents shot-making.
2) No one, despite what they've read on the internet, can actually multi-task.
3) You get what your mind is looking for, good or bad.
4) Your brain thinks in pictures, not words.
5) Practice makes perfect


1) Unless you're an unknown talent, no one has successfully demonstrated psychokinesis. Nothing in your mind has the ability to influence the external world. You may have an angry thought, make a face or a gesture that sharks your opponent, but the thoughts themselves won't change another persons ability. They can, and most often do, affect your own actions and degrade your own ability however.


2) If your mind is busy thinking about possible outcomes while you're shooting, you won't have enough bandwidth left to properly execute your shot. Try filming yourself playing a game of ping-pong (or something else you're not familiar with) and while playing describe the exact sensations of the day you met your wife/gf/partner for the first time. Was it warm? Cold? Was the wind blowing? What did the air smell like, and so on. If you watch the tape later, supposing that you put effort into returning your opponents serve, you will see that you stutter or stop talking when you are about to strike the ball.

Another way to see this is a person talking while a glass is knocked off the table. As they reach down to catch it their speech will stop. The mind is not physically capable of carrying out two independent trains of thought at the same time. You can drive a car and talk because driving, for the most part, is a learned set of responses. It doesn't require high-level processing.


3) If you're having a bad day, and you start to think about it, more bad things tend to happen. People talk about, "not bringing your personal problems to work", and then there's, "leave the work at the office." Your bad day tends to reinforce itself and some people get caught in a vicious circle between bad thoughts and bad happenings until they have an outburst. The trick is to stop the self-talk and just say, "Okay, bad stuff happened, I can't fix it, and let's move forward." Harder to do than write, but it's a learned method of thinking.

An easy example is seen in that people are gregarious by nature. We seek out the people we have things in common with. Angry people tend to have angry friends. Happy people tend to surround themselves with happy people. When you have a bad match, can't get the rolls, everything goes wrong you start to spiral. You have to mentally say, "I can't fix the past, so let's do better now."


4) "Mechanically", so-to-speak, when you're having that bad game your mind is focused on playing carefully. You poke at short shots, you hammer in long balls, and the intricacies of excellent play fall apart. When you see a difficult position you know you have to hit a certain speed or you'll be stuck and so you do exactly that. Sometimes we say, "I knew that was going to happen." You're using all of your mind's ability to form negative words. Nothing is left over that allows the subconscious to do what it does. Act. Purely.

Try concentrating as hard as you can while driving on keeping your wing mirror perfectly lined up with the center line. Your speed will go up and down, you will over correct, and it will just turn out poorly. Another easy example; people who are lost or looking for a particular street sign will turn down their radio to read the signs better. Why? Because your mind is fixated on that and any distraction causes you to miss the obvious.

Human beings evolved to hunt and survive long before we had any words. Before even click-language we could manage to throw rocks and spears and take down the prey we needed to survive. It was just pure action. Talking comes from a different spot in the brain and since we can only concentrate on one thing, if it's self-talk you're not letting your body shoot the shot. You're too busy talking about it to get the speed right.


5) Practice is learning how things feel so that when the time comes you can be perfect at it. So spend time feeling how a shot feels. Now that sounds awkward but how many times, right after you made a mistake did you think, "It just didn't feel right but I did it anyway." Spend some time learning how a good shot feels. The cloth, your stance, your balance, the stroke, etc.

The next time you are playing badly, think about how it's feeling. If you've practiced a lot, you will be able to feel what's wrong. Is my stroke crooked? Am I leaning too far forward, or back? Am I lined up? Is the cue hitting my ribs? Is my grip in the right spot?

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...pvt=oh+what+a+lucky+man+he+was+song&FORM=VDRE

I danced to this song.

Scratching my head once again

I have a very good friend who says he is cursed because he seems to be getting bad rolls all the time. The fact is his cue ball control isn't very good. He likes to get the ball rolling by attempting precise shape but in fact his stroke is to too wide open. Trying to get shape within a cue ball or two is extremely difficult. Here is what I try to do when I play and it seems to work well for me.

1. In rotation games I always know how I am going to run out the entire rack before I shoot the first ball. If there is a problem ball I decide how I am going to break it out or how I will play safe on it before I shoot the first ball.

2. Stay on the correct side of the line (I will settle for a longer shot to make sure I don't get on the wrong side of the line).

3. When I am playing shape I always look what the "acceptable" distance from the object ball will be. This distance (short and long) is usually 2 to 3 feet and I play the speed of shape IN THE MIDDLE of the acceptable distance. This way if I am a short or long I am still going to be in line and run out. Trying to get a foot away from the object ball is hard to do. The pros can play precise shape because they play 30 or 40 hours a week but we can't consistantly do this since we play much less.

Try these 3 things and I think the bad rolls will go away.

Tommy-D said:

Can someone explain to me how a player's so-called "attitude" is really supposed to affect the rolls one way or the other?

For example,I have went into EVERY match for over 20 years now with the mindset that regardless of any mistakes or bad rolls I've made in the past,that the chances of those exact things happening again are remote,and I surely can't be that unlucky again.

Yet somehow,the worst possible result seems to appear out of nowhere when it comes to getting a good roll when needed.

In most situations,I know exactly what is the best case scenario,as well as the worst,and something in between. Don't ask me how,but I find myself far too often winding up exactly where I didn't want to be,or miss by such a small amount that despite my complete attention to the task at hand,that my opponent is gifted yet again.

I've played 12 matches in the tournament I go to in the last 3 weeks. I'm not bullshittin',I've lucked in exactly 2 balls and both times,I was hooked and had to either kick or jump again.

I've lost to the same guy 2 weeks in a row now where out of the 10 games he has won to beat me twice,he lucked in at least one ball during his run 9 times. In the 14 games I've won,I've gotten out with an open shot 10 times and ran a full rack. If my cue ball wasn't within a couple inches of where I tried to put it,I was either 1/4 inch on the wrong side of it,or several times,hooked by 1/16 and had to jump or kick. The tiniest errors tend to cost me HUGE.

I honestly can't remember the last time I missed a makeable shot,and got lucky by having the ball wind up in a tough spot where my opponent was forced to shoot to kick or jump.

My misses seem to perpetually wind up where it just about can't be missed,or all they have to do is make the ball and position is automatic.

I constantly tell myself that good things are coming my way,that there is no way I can get hooked here or whatever,yet when the balls stop rolling I feel like I'm lying to myself unless I hit the shot perfect.

Am I sitting around and wishing hateful shit on my opponent while they are at the table? No,but damned if it doesn't feel like I'm being punished for it.

It's pretty bad when 3 diff people in one night all agree that I have the worst luck of anyone they've ever seen,and it's not like I'm wishing bad shit on myself so what gives?

Unlike this Cheerios commercial I keep hearing on the tv,good does NOT go around and around when it comes time for me to get my share. Tommy D.

Click to expand...

Blaming rolls is an excuse for making mistakes.

Have you ever had an opponent sulk at your good roll, while ignoring the sheer dumb luck they've had throughout the match? I see this all the time and to tell you the truth, I view it as a weakness in my opponent's game.

We are the authors of our own bad rolls. The greater the skill, the greater the opportunity. Generally over time, skill prevails.

Helping Good rolls:

- Confidence

- Play precise position. Plan it simple.

- Practice...a lot. Practice patterns, angles, pathways and speed control.

- Develop strategy to escape by kicking, jumping or tying up balls, banking and two way shots. Learn your defensive options.

- Play more safeties on a difficult layout.

- Play position to open areas. If you do bump balls, bump them no harder than necessary.

- Learn all the scratch shots including side pocket scratches.

- Don't shoot harder than necessary.

- Try not to move balls around from a layout. Take out the problem balls even if the shot is not the easiest.

Helping Bad rolls:

- Nerves, the yips

- Not thinking through your inning.

- Unintentionally bumping into balls, which messes up layouts, tying up the cue ball and maximizing scratching.

- poor speed control

- playing to areas where there are blocking balls

- unintentional English

- shooting too firm or too soft. shoot only as firmly or softly as necessary

- shooting low percentage shots

- Not being able to escape from hooked positions


If you develop these skills and mindset, you will still get bad rolls, but you will deal with them more effectively. Keep an open mind. This would take months to practice but you will make your own rolls and have escape skills if your opponent gets a good roll.