breathing techniques
- Thread starter opcoog13
- Start date
Today I was eating french fries. when it was my turn to shoot i stopped chewing until I completed my shot.
I don't vary my breathing unless I have a shot where the cue ball is frozen on the rail and the object ball is far away. then i take slow shallow breaths so as to keep the stroke as smooth as possible.
I don't vary my breathing unless I have a shot where the cue ball is frozen on the rail and the object ball is far away. then i take slow shallow breaths so as to keep the stroke as smooth as possible.
What McP said.
John
John
This is something I have been trying to add to my preshot routine. Just like shooting a rifle. I breath out during my approach and aiming, when it's time to stroke the ball I'm not breathing. I think about it when practicing but it's not automatic yet. I'm hoping it will help nerves during competition.
I agree with the held breath during the execution, however, for a billiards stroke, I think it's better to take a breath and hold it rather than release the breath and hold during the stroke.
The reason is having just breathed in air, you have just sent a fresh load of oxygen into your body and brain which I believe is helpful in executing the billiard stroke.
Doing the opposite --- Having breathed out, you would be stroking the shot with a depleted oxygen supply.
I also find that it's easier to hold my breath after taking in air as opposed to after releasing it.
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Too much thought is going into this. Concentrate on keeping the head and torso perfectly still with slow smooth warm up strokes and you will automatically breath slow and shallow. It only really makes a difference if you have the cue snug against your chest anyway, anyone that doesn't wont see any difference whilst breathing in and out during a shot.
Breathing
What may be more important than when you breath in and out is HOW you breathe.
Your diaphragm should be relaxing when you breathe in and contracting when you breathe out. Sedentary life styles encourage relaxing the diaphragm all the time, and contributes to a weak core and submission to gravity...the pear shape and eventually things like constipation and worse.
This is why proper breathing is so essential to the study and practice of yoga, Tai Chai and martial arts.
What may be more important than when you breath in and out is HOW you breathe.
Your diaphragm should be relaxing when you breathe in and contracting when you breathe out. Sedentary life styles encourage relaxing the diaphragm all the time, and contributes to a weak core and submission to gravity...the pear shape and eventually things like constipation and worse.
This is why proper breathing is so essential to the study and practice of yoga, Tai Chai and martial arts.
I think you shouldn't look at it as holding your breath, but instead look at it as shooting during the natural pause in the breathing cycle, as the article suggests. Holding your breath puts pressure on the diaphragm. Not breathing, which is slightly different, does not.
Try breathing really slowly, and see how your intake still transitions to breathing out quite fast, but then after breathing out completely, you have a longer pause before breathing back in. This is why you shoot after breathing out. You are never really holding your breath, just exhaling, shooting, then inhaling again.
good posting donny
I'm OK with pressure on my diaphragm. I'm not ok feeling the urge to want to breathe in while shooting the final stroke.
I disagree. I think it's a good idea to figure out how you're breathing while stroking. There are many little things that players do that might cause them to miss their target, unwanted movement is a big issue --- even the slightest movement.
Physically tell your self to be still and make a conscious effort to do so at first and the rest will follow, including having a calm soft breathing technique.
Hey, I don't have a problem being still when I shoot. I simply made a recommendation to the OP and commented on a non- instructor's remark. After all, the OP did ask a question of the instructors here in this 'ask the instructor' forum. I gave my response along with other instructors here.
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That's a fact. And your response included medical knowledge relating to a fresh burst of oxygen, blah, blah, blah. Are you also a MD? No? Didn't seem to deter you from offering an opinion based upon medical knowledge.
Back to the OP. Mark Wilson has some excellent advice regarding breathing in his book.
If you time it right, you won't feel the need to breathe. The window is roughly ten seconds. If you miss it, then you either start over completely, or start the breathing cycle over.
I played around with this yesterday at the table. I would put my transition between exhaling and inhaling at around 5 seconds. Smoking might have something to do with it. Concentrating on breathing cycles really calmed me down through a string of balls when usually I would accelerate until I miss because of something stupid. I also think my shooting was better for having being more still. It is hard to force yourself to wait another cycle though if you aren't ready. Practice should take care of this.
Funny, I didn't find myself screaming for air at all the entire time.
IMO if your at the table getting ready to shoot and worried about your breathing you have the cart in front of the horse. I monitor my breathing techniques during the time I am waiting for my turn to shoot not while I am shooting. I use that time to do controlled breathing exercises to calm my heart rate, and provide more oxygen to my blood. This also clears up my vision and keeps me calmer in a stressful game. When I am at the table I concentrate on the layout not my breathing. JMO!!!!