Hi Louis. Until recently I have not heard of you before. I was wondering if you have stayed underneath the radar or if you have suddenly jumped up to the next level. If it is the latter, what do you attribute to your sudden jump in play? I'm interested to know what changed. However if you have always been an upper echolon player and I just haven't heard of you before these high finishes, disregard my questions lol! One more question, how do you deal with concentration/distractions? Thanks
Current win/high finish streak
- Thread starter ledrums
- Start date
Louis Ulrich
New member
ledrums said:
Hi ledrums,
I am 33 now and have been playing pool since the age of 13. I used to compete a lot either going to tournaments or matching up. From the age of about 16 to 24 I pretty much made my living off of pool. My tournament play throughout that time was about average since I was more concerned with matching up than winning the tournament. I quit competitive play until the IPT showed and by then my game had gone totally down hill.
In December of last year I decided to work seriously on my game. I attribute the recent jump in my game to two things. For one, I work very hard on the practice table. I identify my problem shots and shoot them over and over until I get them right. For example, today I shot one shot until I made it 100 times. That may be overkill, but I'm kind of a fanatic with stuff like that.
Secondly, I play in as many tournaments as I can. Being forced to come with your best game at a moments notice is hard to do unless you are used to it. Getting comfortable with tournament play has been a big obstacle for me to overcome.
As far as the dealing with distraction and maintaining concentration during a match, what I do (and I don't know if this will work for everybody) is during the match, I try to keep my eyes on the playing area of the table, even when I am in the chair. I feel that looking around the room will cause your mind to wander off the task at hand, as well as take your eyes out of focus. This will also help you avoid distractions. Spectators sometimes don't know how distracting they can be. I've got lots of stories about how I got sharked out of a match. I've been trying hard to learn to deal with that. It's always going to be there!
I hope this helps. Thank you for your questions.
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I had the pleasure of watching and playing against Louis when he was a teen. I was always impressed with his practice and level of focus and he was always a threat to win any tournament he entered. He was also very good at matching up and I never saw him back down. In this game, to play at a high level you need natural talent. But you must also develop that talent to become confident in your abilities and this is something that Louis grasped at a very young age.ledrums said:
Louis,
Thanks for all your insight. The greatest thing you said is that you still practice. I know several pro's...ex pros' that stopped their normal practice regiment because they feel that they have reached a level where they didn't need to practice the same way that they did that catipulted them into the pro status.
I have also noticed that many incredible players have done what you are doing..Teddy G used to practice with open books on the table for hours on end, studying shot for shot, Ginky...15 hrs a day in the pool room...Niels...and the list goes on...
With that being said...do you feel that someone with some degree of talent could bear down and practice that intensley and make it into pro status?
Christian
Thanks for all your insight. The greatest thing you said is that you still practice. I know several pro's...ex pros' that stopped their normal practice regiment because they feel that they have reached a level where they didn't need to practice the same way that they did that catipulted them into the pro status.
I have also noticed that many incredible players have done what you are doing..Teddy G used to practice with open books on the table for hours on end, studying shot for shot, Ginky...15 hrs a day in the pool room...Niels...and the list goes on...
With that being said...do you feel that someone with some degree of talent could bear down and practice that intensley and make it into pro status?
Christian
Louis Ulrich
New member
cmsmith9 said:
Absolutely!
The first thing is that the player MUST know the game. After that, it's simply a matter of mastering it. I'm not going to say that it would be easy. It not only takes a lot of hard work, but you also have to pay your dues by getting out there and becoming accustomed to playing under pressure.