Ok, here's a question, at home I have a 9' Gandy that's been modified
to Diamond table specs. I play decent on it and do drills here and there. I go to
the place where I play on tournament night on 8' tables with buckets for
pockets and I play like $hit. In someone's opinion, what could it be? The
fact that I don't subject myself to enough play outside my home? Over-
thinking? Or? I don't know what the hell it is but it runs me nuts! I play as a
7 at my local room, I did forget to mention that. I can run a rack here and there
at home but I never have at my local room
Maybe this isn't the question anyone was looking for but it's the one that's always
on my mind after I leave the hall and for the next 3 days lol
I think you already know the answer to this question buddy but just need to hear it from the out side and possibly from some peers which was the intension of the thread, hopefully if my dream is fulfilled some of the ones it's intended for will chime in.
But here's my go. Home Field Advantage baby, you mentioned it in your post so like i said you know the answers, at home you're in your comfort zone and untouchable then there's no pressure there so your mind is free and there's no consequences for you misses or mistakes, that brings us to the other part competition don't underestimate it, yeah you might feel good about your odds against player X but the first time you make a mistake it will haunt you for the rest of the night because we are not on that level, so when the next time comes up where you have to dip, dodge, dive, the CB you'll remember that you missed position last time and what if it happens again should i under hit it or over hit it a bit and the proverbial snow ball effects starts because of that thing i mentioned to Kevin "experience".
I mentioned there about being honest with yourself and truly accepting your ability and not taking the few times that you were in rear form (there's a reason why it's called that) and then basing our general ability on it, worst mistake ever. It wasn't until i was told this and had to reassess myself that my mind was cleared a bit. I was constantly told about "how good I was" and "you're hiding your level, you should be a X" that got into my head and made be feel better than i actually was and you know what i'm talking about too. I'm sure you have that teammate or bystander who've seen you hitting balls and asked "are you a pro?" or perhaps just was like "wow Ron you're really good" and now you were untouchable hell you'd fire at anything that you can see.
Take some time, go to that place and hit some balls just one more day other than the one your'e expected to be there for and get comfortable in the place at least because the competition side of things is somethings that is much harder to develop and varies by person greatly.
Tip: tell you what has helped me in the past, because of the type of shot or drills so to say that i like to do you find that when i'm in a match and may be off my thing just a bit i start to treat ever shot like a drill, i black out every thing that's going on and pretend like I had set the table up just like that by had so i could play this specific shot to get position for "here", and it's worked from time to time keeping in mind what i said earlier about skill level acceptance here i am i have one change cause i don't get to take the shot over and it may not be exactly and perfectly in my repertoire so although i'm going to attempt it (well because i have no choice) should i fail it's not that big of a deal cause "my level" was not such where i can pull stuff like this off on demand.
