Caffeine - good or bad for your game?

ktrepal85 said:

I usually stay out all night drinking and then wake up early for Saturday tournaments(not good, I know) and then I drink coffee all day waiting to play. I can't decide if the extra caffeine is good or bad for my pool game. I have definitely been a little shaky, especially when the nerves kick in, but I think I play even worse when I'm dead tired.

Obviously I just shouldn't be a dumb ass and stay out all night lol. Anyways, caffeine...good or bad?

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It's good, then bad. Gives you jitters if you overdo it after a bit of time passes.

I have a cup a night during a tournament after work.

If I have alcohol, I'm toast, even one beer. Don't know why, it's almost a guarantee that if I have anything alcoholic to drink, I lose, league match, tournament set, whatever it is.

Caffeine is a proven performance enhancer. A cup of coffee, or a regular soda, and you will have improved coordination, focus, and so forth. There are a lot of studies on this.

5 cups of coffee, or a few Red Bulls, and your nerves don't take it well.

If you can "find your mixture" as they say, your game is better.

As long as the alcohol is still in your system and you're tired, your game will suffer. So basically, what you're asking is if caffeine will help bring your game up to half-speed.

Yes, maybe it will help bring you up to 50 percent. Sure, you may even have a moment or two when you actually can fool yourself into thinking you're just fine. But it won't last.

When I drink coffee during a tournament, I drink roughly 4-6 cups during the day. I drink it only when I feel tired, but I only drink like one third or one fourth of a cup at a time. That equals maybe a total of a cup and a half during the whole day. I get the benefits of the reduced fatigue plus I don't get the jitters. I'd suggest trying that.

One cup of coffee (about 12 oz.) doesn't seem to bother me, but two cups does.
Two cups of Joe effects my putting on the golf course, as well.
I would imagine it all depends upon the individual. Kind of like booze and body weight. :smile:

I think it depends on you. Personally, if I'm feeling good I'll eat or drink what ever I want and keep it in moderation. There's nothing worse, to me, that trying to play on an over stuffed belly, I'm uncomfortable, I have to burp, I just want to sleep. The caffeine, if coffee or a cola sounds good it likely won't have a negative effect as long as I don't over do it. If I think that cold water sounds I'll go with that. If I'm beginning to panic because I know I'm playing a monster that I have never beat before cold coffee will usually help even me out, migraine strength acetaminophen has a similar effect, I guess because it has caffeine. But what ever sounds good, that's what I'll usually go with

"Caffeine - good or bad for your game?"


Coffee (any caffeine) or not, doesn't affect my game.

I find coffee and pop give me a jittery, uneasy feeling while playing. Having just one of either is ok but any more than that I just don't feel comfortable at the table. Redbull is the worst!

coffee for being tired and a shot of baileys in your coffee to smooth over the hangover blues.

Years ago on Sunday morning back for the second day of one of those regional tournaments (Orange Ball in Maryland) I was tired so stopped at Starbucks to get a Venti Java Chip Frappuccino (big cold drink full of coffee, chocolate chip, whipped cream....see pic below - they're delicious).

They made me the wrong one, different flavor, same size though. So they let me keep that for free and made me the right one. So here I had two of these things....one I drank on the way and the other I took in as I warmed up.

I played a guy a few minutes later, had him up like five games, and then all of a sudden those drinks hit me and I became wired up and got some shakes. It was weird as hell.....never been on speed but I imagine that's what it's like. Yeah, I ended up losing that match....and to this day never overindulge on coffee before a match.