Im in a slump that just wont seem to go away. I havent played what i consider good in a very very long time. I used to play good and it seemed to just all go away at once. Now everytime i go to a tournament i leave so disgusted that i dont feel like playing ever again. Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem and how i might fix it. Thanks.
Anyone ever go from playing great to playing terrible all at once?
- Thread starter DJordan816
- Start date
I am not a instructor, I don't play one on TV and I DIDN'T stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night but the first things I would have checked out are your eyes....
Vision changes are not always gradual and some changes can be directly related to blood sugar. I had a friend who used to carry 6 pairs of glasses in his case when we went to tournaments....
He was borderline diabetic and his vision changed based on what his sugar levels were... When the vision changes Parallax changes and what looks straight in today may not look straight in tomorrow......
I am not diabetic but I am constantly battling Parallax due to a condition called convergence deficiency. When my eyes behave I have managed to stay in the zone for weeks at a time. A slight change in vision center or head position and whammo... Mega slump...... Bad part is it's usually super hard to correct because everything still "looks" right......
Vision changes are not always gradual and some changes can be directly related to blood sugar. I had a friend who used to carry 6 pairs of glasses in his case when we went to tournaments....
He was borderline diabetic and his vision changed based on what his sugar levels were... When the vision changes Parallax changes and what looks straight in today may not look straight in tomorrow......
I am not diabetic but I am constantly battling Parallax due to a condition called convergence deficiency. When my eyes behave I have managed to stay in the zone for weeks at a time. A slight change in vision center or head position and whammo... Mega slump...... Bad part is it's usually super hard to correct because everything still "looks" right......
i am known as mr. inconsistent. i can run the table one day and the next day i cant make a shot with the object ball 3 inches from the pocket. hell i can go from one extreme to the other during a match.
i think its all mental on my part. i just dont know how to prevent it.
i think its all mental on my part. i just dont know how to prevent it.
I am the EXACT same way..... and it sucks!!!
I got the second part down pretty good.
after the 9 ball match sunday night, i had decided to put both cues (predator $ old mcdermott), and all related equipment on ebay the next morning! :angry: i mean, who was this guy shooting, certainly couldn't be me???? 
i wish i had the answer as to why we can go from shooting good to can't make a shot in as little as 0.6 seconds! if anyone can enlighten me i would be forever grateful.
i wish i had the answer as to why we can go from shooting good to can't make a shot in as little as 0.6 seconds! if anyone can enlighten me i would be forever grateful.
You may have developed a simple mechanical flaw. If you can, have a pro or a pro instructor watch you play. It can be very difficult to diagnosis your own problems. That`s why most pro golfers have swing instructors. It can often be a very simple thing that you are doing wrong and therefore a simple thing to fix. Good luck, we have all been there.
I have 2 suggestions. First practice with an extended look at the object ball before your last stroke, and second use some kind of aiming system. I have been much more consistent with something to look at instead of just putting the stick down and shooting.
In my early years I have gone from Buddy Hall to Monte Hall in less than a stroke.....
randyg
LOL, that is funny!
Tournaments are tough. Or just playing someone you'd REALLY like to beat can throw off your performance for a number of reasons, from physical to mental brain lock. The solution is really pretty simple: keep putting yourself in the same situation until the unusual becomes normal. Eventually, you'll walk up to the table to shoot the money ball just as relaxed as you would take a stroll through the park. A good thing to do is to understand the psychological side of playing pool and for this I recommend Dr. Faucher's "Pleasures of Small Motions."
The second part of what's going on revolves around unrealistic expectations. This boils down to simply believing that it is within your ability to make shots that you cannot. The problem for most of us is that we watch the pros in person, or on television, or perhaps on an Accu-Stats DVD, and we see the good players at our local room and they make it look so easy. They make it look *so* easy we lose sight of how crushingly difficult the game actually is and we become disappointed in ourselves when we can't do this simple thing. I recall watching Willie Mosconi run a 100 and I literally rushed to my pool hall thinking, "Well, that's so easy -- anyone should be able to do that!" Of course when I got there and couldn't run more than 10 balls...
And then in practice, in the absence of pressure or distractions, we set up our easiest and favoritest shots, on our preferred table, and fall into a selective memory trap, remembering the shots we whip in (with BIH) and forgetting how many times me missed it or blew the position. From this stems a totally unrealistic set of personal expectations. The next time you think you're "running racks," pay closer attention. Are you really breaking and running out? Or are you just spreading the balls around the table with no clusters, or balls on the rail? Are you starting with an easy BIH? Are you really doing it repeatedly. After all, think of all the shots you'd have to have mastered to do it repeatedly. It's one thing to break them, sinking a bunch of balls, having a wide open spread, and being perfect for your first shot. It's another for the balls to bunch up, with several on the rail, and a long thin cut to start off with...
Long ago I gave a lesson to a guy who was beating himself up saying, "I can't make a ball today." I had been watching him play and told him that one thing every good pool player has is good probability and risk assessment skills. Setting up a moderately difficult cut shot he had missed in a match, I asked him if he thought he should be able to make it. He said, "Of course." I told him that I guessed he was actually something like one in five for the shot AND if he tried shooting it with the position that he had attempted during the match, he was more like one in 12. He looked at me like I was nuts and I told him to go ahead and shoot it without position -- to just cinch the ball.
One in six.
The third part of the breakdown is getting into a pressure situation and just trying too hard -- unconsciously changing our pre-shot routine and stroke mechanics. In trying to be more careful and precise in our execution, we change the way we shoot -- often times, the changes are subtle, but significant enough to throw off our alignment and stroke. I believe everything from the pre-shot routine to finally pulling the trigger
is an organic whole. In other words, you can't just say I'm going to use a certain bridge, a certain grip, with a certain stance and head position. It's also the movements you employ to get into your stance and the motion you employ during your pre-shot routine that impact the final outcome. When we slow down and try to be more careful, everything gets altered. The answer here is to pay attention to the motions and rhythms that work best for you in practice and try as best you can to stick with them in actual play.Lastly, as we're mid-match and we realize "the wheels are coming off" and we watch them go spinning merrily down the road, we start to think negatively. The mind becomes filled with questions: "Man, why am I playing so bad?" "What am I doing wrong?!" "Why me?!" Of course every bad roll we get (and every good roll our opponent gets) contributes to the toxic sludge that starts coming out our ears. The real problem here is that in thinking about these things, we stop thinking about the shots and our execution. Instead of thinking, "I need to be careful about hitting this shot too hard and may have to apply a bit more english to compensate coming off the rail" we're still thinking about the last shot we blew. Think about the bad stuff after the match, not during.
So here's the thing: playing good pool is hard. Real hard. Playing good pool under pressure is even harder. To compete successfully in the arena you have to step into the arena as often as you can until it becomes your second home. And, you need to have a realistic set of expectations about yourself and your game. Playing good pool demands perfect, consistent precision -- not just once or twice, but on every shot. And to do that, you must have developed a body of knowledge and muscle memory that takes years of play to achieve. It's hard work, concentration, study, experimentation, and hitting thousands upon thousands of balls. And lastly, you have to have your head on straight and a clear thinking mind...
Lou Figueroa
Some days it takes me an hour or two to warm up, but by the end of the night I'm usually running out. The culprit is my visual alignment. When all kinds of strange things happen with your stroke, many times it is an incorrect message being sent to your brain. It is unnoticeable and causes your subconscious mind to compensate for your poor alignment.
You steer the cue ball, jump up and just feel really uncomfortable up there. It's hard to put your finger on a specific problem and sometimes it goes away for a while. Then it returns and you are dogging it again. I'm not saying the problem couldn't be mechanical and that an instructor couldn't help. But finding a visual perception problem could be the solution.
If it is the problem, it will take a lot of work to correct it. I know. It will creep back in the middle of a session to haunt you and if you're not aware of it, bad things will happen. Take a look where you are aligning the stick and your head position. When you are pocketing balls, make a note of your head and eye alignment. When you miss, freeze and note this position, also. You may find you head is in a different position over the cue.
There is nothing worse in this pool world than running out like Willie one day, being pumped to get back to the table the next day and not being able to make a ball!
Best,
Mike
It may depend on what level you play at. My game disintegrated recently, and I have started getting it back together by following along with my "Play Better Pool Vol I" DVD. It can really get your mechanics and speed control back where they should be.
C'mon Lou, no magic shortcuts?
lol, well, really, no.
I know we're all guilty of it: we want to buy something that will give us an instant jump -- doesn't matter if it's a pool cue, tip, chalk, aiming system, DVD, book, or diet pill.
But unless you are the one in a million pool savant, improvement, consistency, and success means: putting in the time; doing the roadwork and reps; competing; and paying attention. Then repeating. It sucks, but that's the way it is.
Lou Figueroa