Here is the deal, you have IMHO a Potty Mouth, so I don't want you to think I am igoring your comments, I want you to know I am ignoring your Potty Mouth.:angry:
How I broke through my toughest plateau
- Thread starter Tin Man
- Start date
Here is the deal, you have IMHO a Potty Mouth, so I don't want you to think I am igoring your comments, I want you to know I am ignoring your Potty Mouth.:angry:
Most of the time, you'll think that you play bad because those few mistakes seem to be determining of the outcome of the set. "If only I hadn't made that mistake, I probably would have won." An objective onlooker would have seen that that particular mistake was not more important to the outcome of the set as several other things that happened.
Also, as a general and obvious rule: stuff that happens to you is of course far more impressive than stuff that you see happening to someone else.
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distorted thinking
Thank you uwate. You are spot on about distorted thinking. During a match you experience a lot of strong emotions, and those emotions generate a lot of extreme thoughts. Not only do we think our average performances are terrible, we also tend to exaggerate our performances at times. How often do we hear about someone that 'played perfect and never missed a ball'? Funny how we don't see that ,more than once a year even among pro highlight reels.
Unfortunately these thoughts impact our performance. When the thoughts are despairing it dismantles our performance in every way. We shoot without confidence and use poor shot selection almost ensuring we reproduce the negative results we expect. And thinking distorted positive thoughts aren't much better. They create a tremendous pressure by creating false expectations that create fear of exposure.
Being aware of this opens the possibility of managing it. While my brain still generates extreme thoughts and emotions I don't take them too seriously or give them total run of the show. When I find myself starting to be impacted I implement some safeguards. I know from experience when I'm likely to start making poor efforts or decisions. For example, in one pocket I am most vulnerable when I am way behind on ball count, or when I had my opponent in a dead trap and they did something stupid and almost sold out but got really lucky and got away with it. In the first case I feel hopeless and desperate, in the second case I feel entitled and frustrated. But I have been here before and have devised ways of handling this.
For example, if I'm feeling desperate I may add a question in my pre-shot routine: "If I try this and it doesn't work and I sell out the game, will I feel like an idiot walking back to the chair?" If the answer is 'yes' I look for something else. This is a technique that has been responsible for some memorable wins. As for them getting lucky, I've learned I often try to force something because I feel I deserve to be running balls. Through painful mistakes I've learned to do something really, really simple after a horrible roll and not give myself the opportunity to spew. Even if I give up a little equity on the shot selection it's important that I don't compound the problem at that moment.
In the end if you can have an outlook that minimizes extreme emotions and thoughts, and a plan in place to manage those you have, you'll do well. You won't 'play perfect sets' as often, but you'll be just fine.
Thank you uwate. You are spot on about distorted thinking. During a match you experience a lot of strong emotions, and those emotions generate a lot of extreme thoughts. Not only do we think our average performances are terrible, we also tend to exaggerate our performances at times. How often do we hear about someone that 'played perfect and never missed a ball'? Funny how we don't see that ,more than once a year even among pro highlight reels.
Unfortunately these thoughts impact our performance. When the thoughts are despairing it dismantles our performance in every way. We shoot without confidence and use poor shot selection almost ensuring we reproduce the negative results we expect. And thinking distorted positive thoughts aren't much better. They create a tremendous pressure by creating false expectations that create fear of exposure.
Being aware of this opens the possibility of managing it. While my brain still generates extreme thoughts and emotions I don't take them too seriously or give them total run of the show. When I find myself starting to be impacted I implement some safeguards. I know from experience when I'm likely to start making poor efforts or decisions. For example, in one pocket I am most vulnerable when I am way behind on ball count, or when I had my opponent in a dead trap and they did something stupid and almost sold out but got really lucky and got away with it. In the first case I feel hopeless and desperate, in the second case I feel entitled and frustrated. But I have been here before and have devised ways of handling this.
For example, if I'm feeling desperate I may add a question in my pre-shot routine: "If I try this and it doesn't work and I sell out the game, will I feel like an idiot walking back to the chair?" If the answer is 'yes' I look for something else. This is a technique that has been responsible for some memorable wins. As for them getting lucky, I've learned I often try to force something because I feel I deserve to be running balls. Through painful mistakes I've learned to do something really, really simple after a horrible roll and not give myself the opportunity to spew. Even if I give up a little equity on the shot selection it's important that I don't compound the problem at that moment.
In the end if you can have an outlook that minimizes extreme emotions and thoughts, and a plan in place to manage those you have, you'll do well. You won't 'play perfect sets' as often, but you'll be just fine.
Thanks for another great post Tin Man.
While your post is full of a lot of great information, I've been considering writing the opposite post for a while -- Accepting your lifelong B Player status. As a player, I'm sort of in this limbo state where my solitary table time always comes with a choice -- work on my weaknesses, or actually have fun just playing the game. More and more, I just want to play and I imagine for most as they get older, they just want to enjoy hitting some balls.
The funny thing about the rich benefactor magically appearing into our lives is -- almost none of us would change our actual practice habits! Sure, we would buy our dream table and fly around the country to play more tourneys, but when the dust settled, we would still just do what we do.
At this point, it just seems like pool is so binary. You can either devout yourself totally to improving OR you just have to have fun with the game. Trying to get better in nightly 30 minute increments just doesn't work. Or at least not for this guy!
While your post is full of a lot of great information, I've been considering writing the opposite post for a while -- Accepting your lifelong B Player status. As a player, I'm sort of in this limbo state where my solitary table time always comes with a choice -- work on my weaknesses, or actually have fun just playing the game. More and more, I just want to play and I imagine for most as they get older, they just want to enjoy hitting some balls.
The funny thing about the rich benefactor magically appearing into our lives is -- almost none of us would change our actual practice habits! Sure, we would buy our dream table and fly around the country to play more tourneys, but when the dust settled, we would still just do what we do.
At this point, it just seems like pool is so binary. You can either devout yourself totally to improving OR you just have to have fun with the game. Trying to get better in nightly 30 minute increments just doesn't work. Or at least not for this guy!
Agreed!
Thank you for writing this!
We're actually not as polarized as you think. There are two different questions: 1) Are we pushing to improve, and 2) Are we enjoying the game each time we play?
You are discussing people that don't have the opportunity to improve for any number of reasons, and how it is important they find joy in the game even when the dream of future achievements diminish. Yes! Correct! But the same way, people that are working on improving are in just as much danger of losing enjoyment of the game, because they are conditioned to think they need to wait for until they are better to find joy. In reality there is nothing ahead that is different than what is in the present, so if we don't learn to love each session then it's going to be a sad journey.
To your point, if there's one thing I try to share with lower level players is while they may not be as technically skilled as a professional, they have the exact same opportunity to enjoy the game. If you've ever played where you've really wanted to win, you've been nervous, and routine run outs started looking like a series of trick shots, but you've gone on to rise to the occasion and got the job done...well, this is as pure as pool gets. Your dead stroke is just as rich as SVB's dead stroke. He may run more balls or racks, but the state of mind is available to all of us and it is just as meaningful. So there is no reason to ever deny yourself the joy of this game because you don't feel you deserve it or thinking you're missing out on something further down the line. There is zero reason your session today can't be the best of your life.
I think this is so, so important that I might want to make this my first discussion I include on the next podcast. Why do players beat themselves and deny themselves joy? It may provide motivation for them to get to higher levels of play, but what's the point if you never enjoy yourself at any point? Is this strategy really sound? Where do we learn it? Does it result in higher levels of play that reward this self abuser in the long run? Are there alternatives that allow for both motivation and enjoyment? How do you begin to change your mindset?
Thanks for the positive replies and comments. I've got a lot of strong views on this because I was the worst and sentenced myself to Hell for 5 years until someone I trusted forced me to look into the mirror. Since then I've had more success and joy. So this is very close to home to me. But to your original post, improvement is not a requirement to enjoy what you do. It can lead to rewarding experiences and I believe it's important to do our best with what we're given, but if our resources take improvement off the table it takes a truly wise person to accept the loss of a dream and still celebrate the experiences there for the taking. In many ways the true heroes of our games are not just SVB and Filler, but the person who's game is slipping and instead of despairing about the talent lost they focus on and celebrate the shared table time with a friend and that sublime state of mind available to all of us.
Thank you for writing this!
We're actually not as polarized as you think. There are two different questions: 1) Are we pushing to improve, and 2) Are we enjoying the game each time we play?
You are discussing people that don't have the opportunity to improve for any number of reasons, and how it is important they find joy in the game even when the dream of future achievements diminish. Yes! Correct! But the same way, people that are working on improving are in just as much danger of losing enjoyment of the game, because they are conditioned to think they need to wait for until they are better to find joy. In reality there is nothing ahead that is different than what is in the present, so if we don't learn to love each session then it's going to be a sad journey.
To your point, if there's one thing I try to share with lower level players is while they may not be as technically skilled as a professional, they have the exact same opportunity to enjoy the game. If you've ever played where you've really wanted to win, you've been nervous, and routine run outs started looking like a series of trick shots, but you've gone on to rise to the occasion and got the job done...well, this is as pure as pool gets. Your dead stroke is just as rich as SVB's dead stroke. He may run more balls or racks, but the state of mind is available to all of us and it is just as meaningful. So there is no reason to ever deny yourself the joy of this game because you don't feel you deserve it or thinking you're missing out on something further down the line. There is zero reason your session today can't be the best of your life.
I think this is so, so important that I might want to make this my first discussion I include on the next podcast. Why do players beat themselves and deny themselves joy? It may provide motivation for them to get to higher levels of play, but what's the point if you never enjoy yourself at any point? Is this strategy really sound? Where do we learn it? Does it result in higher levels of play that reward this self abuser in the long run? Are there alternatives that allow for both motivation and enjoyment? How do you begin to change your mindset?
Thanks for the positive replies and comments. I've got a lot of strong views on this because I was the worst and sentenced myself to Hell for 5 years until someone I trusted forced me to look into the mirror. Since then I've had more success and joy. So this is very close to home to me. But to your original post, improvement is not a requirement to enjoy what you do. It can lead to rewarding experiences and I believe it's important to do our best with what we're given, but if our resources take improvement off the table it takes a truly wise person to accept the loss of a dream and still celebrate the experiences there for the taking. In many ways the true heroes of our games are not just SVB and Filler, but the person who's game is slipping and instead of despairing about the talent lost they focus on and celebrate the shared table time with a friend and that sublime state of mind available to all of us.
^^^^^^^^ was a response to BasementDweller's comment, not mine.
TinMan, your post above is extremely up close and personal to a vast majority of us that have reached a certain age, have health issues or as we discussed earlier, have responsibilities that keep our pool to nothing more than weekend warriors at the table for only an hour or so a week that is spent with a family member or an old friend.
Like lots and lots of people I know and have known, your knowledge is beyond your years sir.
Enjoying the read.
Jeff
Not the years, it’s the mileage
Thank you Jeff. In all fairness if we measure not with years of age but rather how much self inflicted pain it takes before we try a new approach I may actually have been a pretty slow learner. But even though it’s obvious to those who understand this, that’s not where most of us start and there are many still going through the vicious circles of perpetual disappointment and self abuse when they play. And it’s so important it almost trumps everything else on the forums because no pool game is worth that price. I think I’ll reflect and share a bit more about my back story, what changed my course, and how that played out. I’ll let you know when that time comes. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the time you have.
Thank you Jeff. In all fairness if we measure not with years of age but rather how much self inflicted pain it takes before we try a new approach I may actually have been a pretty slow learner. But even though it’s obvious to those who understand this, that’s not where most of us start and there are many still going through the vicious circles of perpetual disappointment and self abuse when they play. And it’s so important it almost trumps everything else on the forums because no pool game is worth that price. I think I’ll reflect and share a bit more about my back story, what changed my course, and how that played out. I’ll let you know when that time comes. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the time you have.
I too think your post is spot on. I believe it's true for far more people than some may think.
In my experience, most people that truly love pool that also have a very limited amount of time/energy are as you said, "stuck".
I've known a few people that certainly had the potential to be a professional player but, circumstances didn't afford them the chance without risking things FAR more important than their love for pool regardless of their talent.
Having said that, I've never, not even once heard even one of those individuals say they regret the path they chose.
On the other hand, lol.....I've heard a few older pros and even a couple younger pros say "I wish I had chose a different career while I had the chance".
Good post sir!
Jeff
Like most everyone on AZB, I'll be looking forward to reading your backstory.
Thanks for taking the time to share your personal experiences and thoughts.
Jeff
I've often believed if I practiced an average 2 hrs a day I could only get to my a - a+ game. I also believe that we are able to get to a certain point of expertise, no better . Shane and Efrin have a natural talent paired with the ability to practice long hours
8 ball is the gateway drug 14-1