A poem for the new year to come

[Harvywallbanger]

Over a period of time the voices begin to fade. You begin to smell the chalk. Your hands suddenly feel smooth. You see the lines in your mind like a picture painted perfect. You can't remember the last time you thought. In fact your not thinking at all. You see the scratches on the cueball and recognize every smudge on every ball. Everything is apart of you and you are apart of it. This is why you are here at this moment in time. This is your LIFE. You take a breath and feel nothing but yourself and your cue. The questioning yourself is over. There is a purpose for this and even though you don't know what it is you continue unconsiously. Every shot is the most criticle shot of your entire life and yet you seem at ease...like a ball rolling down a endless hill. You wonder how you got here. How did this happen? What door did I open to be granted this power? Then you miss because you just questioned yourself. You felt the zone and betrayed it. You betrayed everything you did by one single thought. Few players can find the zone. No one lives in it. Not even Efren.


Merry Christmas

 

[ShootingArts]

good description!

A good description of the zone. Nobody lives there but some spend much more time there than others. One problem for pool players is that I don't think that the structure of the game lends itself to staying in the zone for more than a game, or fourteen balls at a time if playing straight pool. The constant interuption of racking pretty much means slipping out of the zone and having to reachieve it each time you start shooting again. Sometimes slipping in and out of the zone is effortless, sometimes impossible.

Hu

Over a period of time the voices begin to fade. You begin to smell the chalk. Your hands suddenly feel smooth. You see the lines in your mind like a picture painted perfect. You can't remember the last time you thought. In fact your not thinking at all. You see the scratches on the cueball and recognize every smudge on every ball. Everything is apart of you and you are apart of it. This is why you are here at this moment in time. This is your LIFE. You take a breath and feel nothing but yourself and your cue. The questioning yourself is over. There is a purpose for this and even though you don't know what it is you continue unconsiously. Every shot is the most criticle shot of your entire life and yet you seem at ease...like a ball rolling down a endless hill. You wonder how you got here. How did this happen? What door did I open to be granted this power? Then you miss because you just questioned yourself. You felt the zone and betrayed it. You betrayed everything you did by one single thought. Few players can find the zone. No one lives in it. Not even Efren.


Merry Christmas

 

[Harvywallbanger]

I drank a little homade wine last night. It sounded alot better to me then. Maybe I should of rhymed it out. But yeah a mysterious place the zone is. Almost like once you realize your in it your not in it anymore. I can stay in the zone more than a rack though I think. The zone for me is a mental place that has no meaning. But maybe your right. Maybe we slip in and out of it between racks without realizing it.

 

[ShootingArts]

I think it can be done

I think it is possible to stay in the zone while someone else is racking, maybe even when racking yourself, that is just a very easy time to fall out of it. When in the zone, there is no interruption or real stop and restart throughout an inning at the table for me. Everything was planned before I started with the first shot and of course being in the zone the plan is rarely deviated from. However, even slight changes don't crash me out of the zone. On a few rare and memorable nights I have stayed in it for hours. Of course I never racked during that time.

I have competed at many things and found the zone, at least at times, in most things. Speaking for myself, it is possible but tough to get into the zone in rifle and pistol competition. The easiest thing to fall into the zone doing was circle track racing. The repetitive nature of each lap even with the variations made it very easy to get into the zone and it was guaranteed most nights. Pool falls somewhere between the two extremes normally. However physical changes have made it extremely difficult for me to be comfortable at the pool table in recent times and I have not been in the zone. I am too aware of many little distractions to let everything flow in and out with my attention only being taken by the things needed to achieve my objectives.

Hu

 

[Harvywallbanger]

I think it is possible to stay in the zone while someone else is racking, maybe even when racking yourself, that is just a very easy time to fall out of it. When in the zone, there is no interruption or real stop and restart throughout an inning at the table for me. Everything was planned before I started with the first shot and of course being in the zone the plan is rarely deviated from. However, even slight changes don't crash me out of the zone. On a few rare and memorable nights I have stayed in it for hours. Of course I never racked during that time.

I have competed at many things and found the zone, at least at times, in most things. Speaking for myself, it is possible but tough to get into the zone in rifle and pistol competition. The easiest thing to fall into the zone doing was circle track racing. The repetitive nature of each lap even with the variations made it very easy to get into the zone and it was guaranteed most nights. Pool falls somewhere between the two extremes normally. However physical changes have made it extremely difficult for me to be comfortable at the pool table in recent times and I have not been in the zone. I am too aware of many little distractions to let everything flow in and out with my attention only being taken by the things needed to achieve my objectives.

Hu

You just made me realize why PRE SHOT ROUTINE is so important to some people. I will definatelt start keeping this in mind and working on it. Excellent post!