Don't play as well when competing?

It's all in your head son, BTW, welcome to pool, that's where it's played.

I suspect you may be thinking more about the outcome, and not thinking about your shots. Every time your bridge hand hits the table, your only focus should be on making the shot in front of you. Hopefully, you did your thinking and planning of the shot before you get down to shoot it It's almost impossible to think and shoot at the same time!
Steve

I hope you find your way out of it.

But there are athletes in every sport that look great in practice & just disappear in real games...

& then there are those that just do not look that good in practice but seem to always play well & come through in games...

they're called 'Gamers'.

I think you need to find something for which to play for besides yourself.

I play my best when I have a partner or team mates because I do NOT want to let them down.

When playing alone, I do not want to let my Dad, my Mom, or God down.

I would not be here if not for them & they gave me so much that they deserve my very best effort.

Anyway, just an idea.

I sincerely hope you find YOUR way out of that.

Best Wishes for You & Yours,
Rick

PS Have you seen the movie about the boxer James Braddick?
When fighting in 1935 during The Great Depression, when times were really bad & he was making a comeback after a series of hand injuries that forced him to work odd jobs & on the docks, a reporter asked him for what was he fighting for this time. He answered, 'Milk'. He had a wife & 3 children during those extremely hard & difficult times. He was fighting for his family. He won the World Light Heavyweight Title against the mauler Max Bear who had already killed a man in the ring.

Johnboy73 said:

When I play by myself I can run balls, and have OK control of cue ball etc. Once I start playing someone else, I don't play nowhere close to my best and lose control -- scratch a lot and snooker myself. We wont be gambling and I still can't play against someone as well as I can play when practicing.



Any help will be appreciated.



P.S. I have plateaued.

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Did you know that most players lose 30% of their game when they're in competition? The pros know how to hang on to that 30% and not let it slip away from them. They do this by finding their rhythm as early in the match as possible.

Unfocused play = chaotic rhythm.

Find your rhythm as early as possible, and then stick to it.

Bank it said:

It's all in your head son, BTW, welcome to pool, that's where it's played.

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ohhhh not that i havent known this for years.....but i like how you worded your lines man!!!

hat tip,
-Gryghost

Practice with pressure

Johnboy73 said:

When I play by myself I can run balls, and have OK control of cue ball etc. Once I start playing someone else, I don't play nowhere close to my best and lose control -- scratch a lot and snooker myself. We wont be gambling and I still can't play against someone as well as I can play when practicing.

Any help will be appreciated.

P.S. I have plateaued.

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This is part of the "any help". Totally no professional but it works for me. I practice methods which put "game style" pressure on myself. One simple way is having to do something a certain number of "times in a row" vs. a total of 10 or something. If I just have to do it ten times with unlimited tries there is no pressure. But if I have to do it 10 in a row or start over the pressure builds as I get close to the 10th shot. It is the same kind of psycological pressure as wanting to win. No one wants to start all over again.

Another thing that really helped me was a message from one of my many cds and I can't remember who to credit, that nervousness can be a good thing. Accept you are nervous and use that to help you focus. What I am saying is don't "dread" being nervous, realize it is normal and use that to help you increase concentration.

skipbales said:

This is part of the "any help". Totally no professional but it works for me. I practice methods which put "game style" pressure on myself. One simple way is having to do something a certain number of "times in a row" vs. a total of 10 or something. If I just have to do it ten times with unlimited tries there is no pressure. But if I have to do it 10 in a row or start over the pressure builds as I get close to the 10th shot. It is the same kind of psycological pressure as wanting to win. No one wants to start all over again.

Another thing that really helped me was a message from one of my many cds and I can't remember who to credit, that nervousness can be a good thing. Accept you are nervous and use that to help you focus. What I am saying is don't "dread" being nervous, realize it is normal and use that to help you increase concentration.

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Nervousness can be a good thing opposed to going numb and shutting down. But the best place to be is calm and relaxed and alert.

There are some techniques that you can use that will help you get past this.

First thing is you are putting unwanted pressure on yourself when you are playing someone else because of your competitiveness. Nobody wants to lose, so this causes us to become focused on the "Outcome" of the match!

learn to become "Process" focus and not "Outcome" focused. Process focused is following your PSR from Step 1 to Step 10 on every shot. When you do this the "Outcome" will happen. The better the "Process" the better the "Outcome"

Don't assign meaning to a shot I.E. hard or easy, good or bad, if you miss just evaluate did I follow my process if you did then great if you didn't then try to make the next one better. There is only 2 reasons a person should miss a ball and the is you "Aimed wrong" or you Aligned up" on the shot wrong providing you execute a great stroke with perfect speed and you don't hit chunks of chalk on the table surface.

Practice with the same intensity that you play the game. This will cause you to always play seriously and not practice incorrectly. Throwing ball on the table and running them off is not "Practice" that is playing, Practicing is setting up drills that will enhance your skills I.E Drawing a ball, Jumping, Breaking, Position play, ETC. each practice session should be only 20 minutes or less per drill before you take a break and move on to something else, this will keep you from becoming fatigues and bored which may cause bad habits to creep in.

Try this and see if this helps. play in the moment and enjoy the moment ATTITUDE is key! Good luck:thumbup:

Johnboy73 said:

When I play by myself I can run balls, and have OK control of cue ball etc. Once I start playing someone else, I don't play nowhere close to my best and lose control -- scratch a lot and snooker myself. We wont be gambling and I still can't play against someone as well as I can play when practicing.



Any help will be appreciated.



P.S. I have plateaued.

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You are not alone. Keep playing. It'll get easier. Stick with it.
I play in a senior 9ball doubles league. I consider myself one of the stronger shooters. Warm up time I'm fine. As soon as the game starts I tense up miss easy shots, get frustrated and I'm done until that passes. Match ends I'm right on target. I was putting way too much pressure on myself to perform. I'm starting to overcome that. I was getting reluctant to compete. I do not gamble. Might play for coffee or time.
Relax and believe in yourself. Confidence is everything. You know you have the skills. Tell yourself that.

2nd thought

I just remembered another concept that helps me not tense up or punish myself.

No one is 100% on any shot, no matter how simple. For each shot we miss one out of every so many. So let's say you are shooting a shot you are actually 80% on. Instead of thinking of it as an "easy shot" understand sometimes, even in practice you do miss this shot. Accepting that helps you realize when you miss it in a game it is a normal event that happens in practice too and that is part of your 20% miss rate. It doesn't mean anything "special" that you missed.

People don't count their misses in practice because there is no consequence. Therefor they have a false impression of their play. It is the same thing in golf. "I hit perfectly on the driving range". No they don't. They just don't pay any attention to the misses so it seems like they play perfect on the driving range. Getting up off the chair and hitting your first ball correctly is harder than hitting a shot multiple times until you get it right. Gary Player is famous for saying about golf "any fool can do it the second time."

One last thought I have become more aware of as I compete more. The other guy gets nervous too. The other player will make more mistakes in competition, just like you do. It will even out and the best overall player will ultimately score better over time. If you stop "thinking" about choking up as something unique to you, you will put less emphasis on it and less pressure on yourself.

Play more tournaments. You just might need seasoning. Always always always try to match up with players better than you. I find when I begin to go south it is one of two things. Either it is because I have moved away from my PSR or I've stopped trusting my stroke. In the first case I have to consciously go through my PSR and in the second case I concentrate on my elbow, wrist, and hitting through whitey. PSR removes doubt.

I got past my mental game by putting side bets on matched I played. Got used to having something on the line and then it makes you nervous, then you learn to control that. Then when you play other people for fun or money you have that under control. Good luck

Bdub1987 said:

I got past my mental game by putting side bets on matched I played. Got used to having something on the line and then it makes you nervous,

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Does not work for me...Then I'm frustrated and broke.
Best bet is keep playing. Block everyone out. Play the table. Full concentration on the current shot. Nothing else. I was in a tournament yesterday. Race to 5. Won 3 straight... needed to 2 more. Starting thinking about how nice it would be to win the match. Next thing I know it's 4-4. I did win but got lost for a moment. I started out with the nervous tingle but got passed that quickly. For a while the edginess lingered for the entire match. I'm getting through that from playing with stronger players lately. Players that are all business. Watch how they operate. Sometimes I simply enjoy listening to them talk and what's on their mind as a player. Or their attitude in general. Talk pool with a stronger shooter. Learn from listening. Everything helps. Keep playing. If you are good at pocketing balls...you'll get to the next step. RELAX. The world is yours. So is the table.

It is all in your head

greyghost said:

ohhhh not that i havent known this for years.....but i like how you worded your lines man!!!

hat tip,
-Gryghost

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40 years ago Ronnie Allen challenged a room full of pool hustlers to play for $100 a game. That was big money at the time. They tried to get him to play for less but he refused. When asked why he replied "I know I can make a ball for $100. I don't know if you can."

So..... I play in my Div 1 singles match and win the round robin. Beat the 2 strongest shooters in the league. Move on to the League championship. Play a round robin with the Div 2 + 3 winners. I play like a real jackass(maybe I am). These guys are both weak players. I mean weak. I lose. Should have been a turkey shoot. I did everything wrong. I played the players not the table. I was more concerned with losing than winning. Set a record for scratching. Very humiliating and embarrassing. Felt like tossing my cues. I rushed. Poor PSR. Did not pause on the backswing. Slow stroked/rolled and blew easy shots. Let a bad roll or scratch frustrate me instead of staying current tense. Put a lot of pressure on myself to perform. What a horrible experience...and not the first time. I think to alleviate a repeat will be to compete more and get use to the setting. My shooting is not bad for my class. It's the mindset. To be worked on....and fine tuned. Practice, competition and informal play are not the same.

GoldCrown said:

So..... I play in my Div 1 singles match and win the round robin. Beat the 2 strongest shooters in the league. Move on to the League championship. Play a round robin with the Div 2 + 3 winners. I play like a real jackass(maybe I am). These guys are both weak players. I mean weak. I lose. Should have been a turkey shoot. I did everything wrong. I played the players not the table. I was more concerned with losing than winning. Set a record for scratching. Very humiliating and embarrassing. Felt like tossing my cues. I rushed. Poor PSR. Did not pause on the backswing. Slow stroked/rolled and blew easy shots. Let a bad roll or scratch frustrate me instead of staying current tense. Put a lot of pressure on myself to perform. What a horrible experience...and not the first time. I think to alleviate a repeat will be to compete more and get use to the setting. My shooting is not bad for my class. It's the mindset. To be worked on....and fine tuned. Practice, competition and informal play are not the same.
Johnboy.... start with weaker or equal level players and get used to performing. Pocket balls and gain that confidence.

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Yesterday I played in a league match. I watched most of the better players lose to the "lesser" players and moan and groan. I played really well and got some incredible position in some difficult situations. Overall I played really well. I also missed a straight in 1/2 table 8 ball shot.

My point is all of this is natural. Experience helps you take it in stride but it is also a conscious decision on your part to stop analyzing every thing you do and beating yourself up. I work with a young guy who was torturing himself. Once he realized everyone misses shots and it isn't always the nervousness, he misses them in practice too, he started playing at a much higher level in competition. He now has a lot more confidence and everyone talks about how much he has improved.

It is sure nice to hear "I played a safety and rolled a little too far and Donald beat me". Instead of "I will probably miss a straight in shot and lose".

Relax and enjoy the competition. You will lose to some poor players because they shoot above their head, get lucky rolls, or you miss shots you don't normally miss. But you will also beat better players for those same reasons. Let them go home and beat themselves up.

If it aint' fun, why do it? They don't pay us to play at our level. Your idea to compete more is solid. I was playing one night a week, now I play a tourn on Mon, league on Tue and League on Wed. I simply play too much to get real excited about anything and I laugh at all the "I should have beat that guy" type comments. Yeah you should have and maybe next time you will but not today and that is OK. :smile:

I found two ways to combat the "I practice better than I compete syndrome."

1. Play with a the killer instinct derived from hating the opponent during the match. You can always like them afterwards.
2. If it is a league situation tell yourself your ready to show off for everyone so they can see just how good I can play. When you pull this off it intimidates the opponent and builds confidence.

Both mindsets create confidence and help you to play your best pool, IMO..
Never approach the table in a negative mindset, it makes winning that much more difficult.