Leveraging your subconscious (read: don't let your conscious get in the way!)

Sean,

I happened upon this a fine thread of yours that simultaneously highlights the road to, key requisite of, and very unique satisfaction of, playing 14.1 well: Sustained Excellence.

Arnaldo

Is this the same as freestroking?

This was a great post. I was particularly glad to see it because over thinking isn't usually my problem at the table, in fact not thinking at all would be a better way to describe me at times!

Honestly though, I really liked your post. One of the hardest things to do is find that line between over analyzing and maintaining consciousness.

But the best thing about your post.....it made me think!

Just to let know how seriously I took your post, I copied these two paragraphs, enlarged the text and I am going to print it on a piece of 1/4 styrene at work and put it on the wall of my pool room as a reminder to myself to just get out of my own way and play the game the way I already know how. The title will be "Playing like crap? Try this."

"Continuing to engage your conscious mind 100% of the time is short-circuiting / end-running that part of your brain that was specifically designed and intended to store that information -- the subconscious mind. What we should be doing is let our muscle memories and the subconscious take over. Many folks don't realize it, but after a couple thousand hours of playing pool, we've built-up a pretty considerable storehouse of information to tap from. Every "made" shot, every "missed" shot, every perfect position, every missed position, etc. -- like the famous spaghetti sauce, "it's in there!" We just need to know how to tap into it.

The secret? LET GO. Stop letting your conscious mind get in your way. Stop analyzing and scrutinizing every shot on the table. Just let go. Shoot the shot in front of you. Without talking to yourself (this is key, for when you "talk" to yourself, you're engaging your conscious mind!), just shoot the shot. Let it happen. If you miss, stay down, let your mind absorb what you did wrong (i.e. over cut it? undercut it?). Then, get up, pick out your next shot, and shoot it. Same thing -- stay down, and "absorb" the experience. DON'T TALK TO YOURSELF. And, don't engage your emotions, either. Don't curse yourself because you missed. Just notice what went wrong, and DISCONNECT. Move on to the next shot. Trust me on this, when you're doing this correctly, you're storing information that you will use IMMEDIATELY. If you play like this for about an hour, you'll notice an amazing thing start to happen -- you're making every shot on the table, and you're not even thinking about it. After you practice like this for a couple days, you'll notice that you're also making every shot on the table and you're getting position as well!"

I will put your name at the bottom giving you full credit of course.:smile:

sfleinen said:

The secret? LET GO. Stop letting your conscious mind get in your way. Stop analyzing and scrutinizing every shot on the table. Just let go. Shoot the shot in front of you. Without talking to yourself (this is key, for when you "talk" to yourself, you're engaging your conscious mind!), just shoot the shot. Let it happen.
-Sean

Click to expand...

This is very nicely put, Sean. Overanalysis is a big danger in 14.1 and gets in the way of a free-flowing run with peak performance.

I have long thought that one of the worst things that some teachers teach new 14.1 players is to reevaluate the table after every shot. This is a big threat to superior performance, cluttering the mind with irrelevancies. Ever see a player who checked the same combo in the pack five different times even though the rack had not been disturbed during the successive inspections?

No less an authority than Irving Crane, more or less, saw it your way. Crane, however, had a different way of stating his philospohy. He used to say "make a plan and stick with it until something unexpected happens. Then, and only then, should you re-evaluate things." Some would suggest that this is flippant, even lazy, but, in his case, it meant that his play would be more free flowing due to superior management of his "conceptualization time."

Most of the best 14.1 players, I believe, do a good job of managing their conceptualization time, enabling themselves to maintain a good playing rhythm, which in turn opens the door for superior performance.

Thanks for a nice post.

Thumbs Up

Sean:
Did you really write all these posts or did someone else write all this ????? I never would of thought in a million years that such good writing could come out of you after all the endless amounts of jokes that you have posted......... LOL........ Now....., I am only kidding! Great read my friend. A lot of great information in your comments. Really a great Thread.
My Thanks.

After all these yrs of mental breakdowns not being able to stay focused if and when I hit the zone it was only one distraction away from disaster weather it was a missed or bone head shot or some fox standing in the corner , it did not take much ,,
I had had some limted success with books and tapes but it would soon wear off,, I posted a thread about visiting a sports shrink and it got very little play,, I posed the guestion to a couple of good players I know that know me well where they thought my mental game was compared to my physical game both said mental game was my down fall and if I ever got proberly focused I would be a solid player,, I felt the same way,

I had got on a masters team rite at playoff time because of some circumstaces and we had won the local qualifers and we had a shot a vegas in a couple of month later Im 52 dont play league anymore so this might be my last shot

So I booked a trip to the sports shrink ,,

I give him a quick run down of my problam staying focsed and how it turns into anxity and anger soon after

First thing he points out that my breathing is probaly out of wack because of yrs of contact sports so he shows me how to proberly breath

Then he asks me what I do while I am sitting in the chair , I reply usualy I focus in on the table sometimes I get distracted at something in the room and my eyes get drawn to that.

He tells me you cant focus in on the table the whole time , you may do that a game or two but after a long period of time you will burn out because your mind burns out faster than the body and you cant replenish it near as fast,, so he says glance around not stopping more than a split second or 2 on any one thing so the brain does not have time to shift into the thinking process,, then when you get to the table your mind is clear

Next he asks me what I do when things start going array well thats a loaded guestion could be any number of snaps,,
So he says ok you need a routine for negitive quick anger before it festers
So we come up with wringing the stick like a wet towell one time and no more go back to glancing around

Then He teaches me how to focus my eyes in when my breathing so when I shoot the ball my eyes and breathing are in tune,,
He had me bring my cue and he was a player back in the day so he knew the game so we incorperated and simulated my preshot routine

A few more words of advice off I go

I saw results right away in a couple of turnys I used for practice before the masters vegas round ,, I told several poeple I know how what I did and got the usual snickers ,cracks and stares , untill 2 weeks ago when that day came when I came with the most focused pool of my life
In one match I backed up into a spectator they moved over but not far enough so he moved again but left his case my foot hit that . i stood back up for the third time set back down and drill a long rail to rail shot on the money ball,,
A good friend of mine owner of Big Daddys Rick Molinaro who knew about my vist came over to me after that macth and said he could not believe what he had just saw and that while he was playing his match watching me calmed him down,, the bad news for my next 2 opponets is my best pool was yet to come knocking off a 2nd place finisher on the action tour in our 1 side loss and coming back on Sun with a even higher level of play and winning the paid slot to vegas ,,

They laugh no more!!!!


Now what I have drawn from this and the zone,, is that the zone I was in was a controlled conscious zone after one macth I told a team mate I thought I could dial in on a nats eye ball , he said funny you mention that becasue we were talking about how well you were seeing,, every time I came to the table I was locked if I missed a shot never blinked a eye , 100% focused next trip up

This was far differant than the unconscious zone that you fall into where you dont think at all every pattern is just there and you need not even aim it just happens then when it goes its gone ,,

It will be interesting to see if I can hit that zone again but if I dont
Im glad I made the visit and learned the things I had it was by far the best $300 I ever spent on pool


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