Confidence and the Unconscious

Patrick Johnson said:

Is confidence a cause of the success or a reaction to it?

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Great post. I think the answer is that it's both, but it still comes down to which kind of confidence is being considered.

There are those who are confident who really have no real reason to carry the kind of confidence they exhibit. This kind of confidence can lead to insufficient commitment and inattentive, incomplete planning of shots, and this kind of confidence can compromise performance.

Then there's the kind of confidence that is worth its weight in gold. Irving Crane used to say, in rough terms, that the only kind of confidence that has any value at all is the confidence that comes with knowing you are fully prepared to succeed. That kind of confidence is the result of a well balanced practice regimen and a great work ethic. There is no doubt that this kind of confidence breeds success by reducing the mental load one must carry when competing.

As I think you are suggesting, then, confidence is both an effect and a cause of success over the glorious green felt.

Imo knowing how you do what you do elicits confidence and only then can you let it go to perform at the highest level.

Can you imagine just telling someone who doesn't have a clue what they're doing to go out there and just be confident?

Patrick Johnson said:

Unraveling the Potential of the Unconscious Mind
- Neuroscience News

“These striking results illustrate the incredible power of the nonconscious mind and how important our feeling of confidence may be“

Are your shots more successful when you’re confident about them? When I’m feeling confident it seems like I’m more able to “surrender control” to my unconscious, to “get out of its way” so it can do its job.

Is confidence a cause of the success or a reaction to it? Can practicing confidence increase our success?

pj
chgo

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Dunning-Kruger...

Confidence is easy when you don't grasp the whole reality. Hence my signature line... When simple people play what is in essence a simple game, in a simple manner. Confidence is only a single successful shot away.

When the initiated play a simple game, in a complex manner, confidence is earned over time.

At some point in our development as players, we make this game difficult to obtain a higher level of proficiency. At that point we confidence is the byproduct of experience. Be it practice, or in competition.

sjm said:

Great post. I think the answer is that it's both, but it still comes down to which kind of confidence is being considered.

There are those who are confident who really have no real reason to carry the kind of confidence they exhibit. This kind of confidence can lead to insufficient commitment and inattentive, incomplete planning of shots, and this kind of confidence can compromise performance.

Then there's the kind of confidence that is worth its weight in gold. Irving Crane used to say, in rough terms, that the only kind of confidence that has any value at all is the confidence that comes with knowing you are fully prepared to succeed. That kind of confidence is the result of a well balanced practice regimen and a great work ethic. There is no doubt that this kind of confidence breeds success by reducing the mental load one must carry when competing.

As I think you are suggesting, then, confidence is both an effect and a cause of success over the glorious green felt.

Click to expand...

Great post. I was going to say that confidence is a double-edged sword, but you put it in words much better than I could have.

It is a loop!

What is with you Stu? Seems like half the great posts on the forum are coming from you lately! Not that this is a bad thing.

Something I realized in my teens, confidence, ego in my term, is a needed element to compete well. Few realize Efren has a huge ego. He keeps it well hidden in public and is much more palatable as the greatest and one of the most humble players on earth. He still knows who he is, what he can do, what he has done.

While it is ugly when put on display especially when it is not backed up with skills confidence is a key part of success. It is also one of the few areas where faking it until you can make it can work. One key to making difficult shots is to fire them like you own them. Confidence of success ups your chances of succeeding, maybe a third to a half more. Something difficult to quantify but misses are rare regardless of how hard a shot is if you picture the balls rolling sweetly around the table and dropping neatly into the pockets.

Self talk seems damned silly at first but can build confidence. that confidence can built better play, better play builds confidence, a loop! Seemed silly but after reading about building confidence I used to stop every time I was passing a mirror and say aloud a statement of huge confidence. While it has some power saying something silently, it is far more powerful to say aloud.

Confidence and skills grow together but not necessarily at the same pace. Confidence growing a little faster than skills will help build skills faster. You can build a bridge in thin air, then put the pilings, the foundation, under it. A long and a bit off topic story about confidence I'll post in NPR.

When it comes to confidence, you can fake it until you make it!

Hu

The article was a bit confusing to me as far as what their research showed. I think they were saying if one is confident in relying on their subconscious to do the task, then they can get better results doing the task without thinking. So, maybe you need to have already learned the skill, at least well enough to "be dangerous", and then you need to trust that you can do the thing without needing to think about things in the foreground. In that sense, you can be confident you know the answer, because you already have the skill.

I can relate to this. I've been working on aiming practice drills. There are some shots, which don't look right to me, but for some reason, I know I need to aim to a certain spot, because I've memorized the feel for certain angles. I don't always want to trust my intuition/memory, and so I shoot the shot based on some fresh thinking. I might miss that shot because my fresh thinking overrides the subconscious thought, which was actually correct. Now, I need to hit a bucket of balls for that shot, in order to lock in the correct feel. Based on the chalk lines I see all over my table, this seems to be happening a lot!

ShootingArts said:

You can build a bridge in thin air, then put the pilings, the foundation, under it.

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Wow, nice analogy and visual. I really like the concept of confidence/skills feedback loop.

Patrick Johnson said:

Unraveling the Potential of the Unconscious Mind
- Neuroscience News

“These striking results illustrate the incredible power of the nonconscious mind and how important our feeling of confidence may be“

Are your shots more successful when you’re confident about them? When I’m feeling confident it seems like I’m more able to “surrender control” to my unconscious, to “get out of its way” so it can do its job.

Is confidence a cause of the success or a reaction to it? Can practicing confidence increase our success?

pj
chgo

Click to expand...

I have not been hypnotized, but I believe that the same trance like feeling can be induced while playing pool, or perhaps even caused by playing pool. All static and background noise is gone. The feeling is focus and clarity, complete relaxation and execution without stress. Touch and vision seems enhanced and there is an altered state of consciousness. Is confidence just the absence of doubt?

That's when I play my best. Those who have experienced it know exactly what I'm talking about and it has nothing to do with drugs or alcohol.