Do the best players you know have OCD or perfectionistic qualities moreso than the average person??

Mensabum

Mensabum

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
The best players I've ever met all had some form of the 'spectrum' in their makeup.
I'm not speaking of mental illness, per se, like Earl's manic rants, but those people with what today they refer to as a disability, tomorrow will be called gift.
Y'all know of what I speak.
Sketchy, twitchy, personality disorders, anti social tendencies, etc...
Back in the day, substance abuse was used to mask those.
Only way some of those guys could play.
Fire away!!😂
 
This should stir some poop! There is not a normal person in the world since normal is just a theoretical condition. Hopefully a person balances out to near normal. Consider the olympics. Not one of those people standing on a podium is normal! "Normal" and "average" have very similar meanings and average isn't going to get you on a podium or make a champion pool player.

I have been well above average at everything I competed at. The first trick is choosing something I wanted to do and was suited to do, then focusing intently on that. I would never be a sprinter as a foot racer, I could herd a sprint car around a track. A javelin is similar to a pool cue but I could never throw a javelin with the same success as using a pool cue. Gotta pick reasonable goals.

Pool was unusual. I was godawful when I begin! However, it was challenging and I had the inspiration of money being made to play! First six months I bought more beer for others than I won. One thing, the places that tolerated underage drinking by a fifteen year old also had tables in horrible shape. Easier to learn on nice tables. By the end of a year or year and a half I always drank on other people's money. Often all my friends did too!

I don't know if you noticed the enhanced competition for athletes recently. Some thought records would fall left and right, in reality, I think one record was set, unofficial of course. Then again, the best athletes weren't willing to go enhanced and interfere with their ability to compete anywhere else.

Some players that are playing "enhanced" due to emotional issues would be even better had they learned to control their emotions on the natch! I think all would if they could manage to compete on the natch. I have heard of chemical players that could play for long hours and days with a perfect balance but in many years of play I have never encountered one. As long as I had deep enough pockets I was going to bust a chemical player because they couldn't hold their mix. Beat them a few games in a row and they would make a trip to the bathroom, or two or three! I was still winning, their mix must still be off! Before long I was having to watch where to put my bridge hand down, there was drool all over the table.

I have had medical issues for many years. Taken dozens of different medications for the usual issues, none emotional or mental except as side effects of medications taken for things like blood pressure. I have yet to find a medication that caused me to compete better than on the natch. Beta blockers interfered with my ability to perform. Some want them to dull their senses but you need sharp senses to compete.

Drugs can be fun for recreation if you lean thataway. They suck for performance.

Back to the original subject, I am a perfectionist, others are OCD!

Hu
 
Hail Mary Shot said:
Speaking of picking up table lint, I would blame him. I almost never do til I experienced how it affects ball roll.
Click to expand...

I played Johnny around 1990. I didn't notice any lint picking then, certainly nothing excessive. I suspect that unnoticed or ignored lint or trash on the table cost him an important win or two to start the habit.

Not as noticeable but I had a two piece get very loose. After that I always picked up my cue with two hands, one above, one below the joint. A quick check to make sure the joint was tight.

I might be mistaken but I think at this point if Johnny doesn't see lint he picks up imaginary lint, part of his preshot routine.

Hu
 
I don't know much about OCD and there is a wide spectrum of players, from the very casual to the very serious. From my experience, one MUST be a perfectionist at the very least, to have the drive and discipline to get really good. Of course, there is also the issue of natural talent (of which I have none). A person with natural talent has to work far less for better results.
 
Mensabum said:
The best players I've ever met all had some form of the 'spectrum' in their makeup.
I'm not speaking of mental illness, per se, like Earl's manic rants, but those people with what today they refer to as a disability, tomorrow will be called gift.
Y'all know of what I speak.
Sketchy, twitchy, personality disorders, anti social tendencies, etc...
Back in the day, substance abuse was used to mask those.
Only way some of those guys could play.
Fire away!!😂
Click to expand...

OCD, as in chalking their tip 10 times before each shot? One player comes to mind. Jonathan Hennessee. Johnny Archer, with his picking at invisible lent on the cloth. That might be OCD too. A lot of very strong players might have some form of OCD.
 
Mensabum said:
The best players I've ever met all had some form of the 'spectrum' in their makeup.
I'm not speaking of mental illness, per se, like Earl's manic rants, but those people with what today they refer to as a disability, tomorrow will be called gift.
Y'all know of what I speak.
Sketchy, twitchy, personality disorders, anti social tendencies, etc...
Back in the day, substance abuse was used to mask those.
Only way some of those guys could play.
Fire away!!😂
Click to expand...
It’s literally the opening line to my short film about Ronnie Wiseman chasing Billy Incadona for 25 years, called “Chasing Wincardona”

“Pool is the perfect game for those with obsessive compulsive disorders”

 
ShootingArts said:
I played Johnny around 1990. I didn't notice any lint picking then, certainly nothing excessive. I suspect that unnoticed or ignored lint or trash on the table cost him an important win or two to start the habit.

Not as noticeable but I had a two piece get very loose. After that I always picked up my cue with two hands, one above, one below the joint. A quick check to make sure the joint was tight.

I might be mistaken but I think at this point if Johnny doesn't see lint he picks up imaginary lint, part of his preshot routine.

Hu
Click to expand...
Guess he was traumatized. For me I began doing it when a few of my matches had those funny rolls. Not picking on every shot though but it did raise my awareness a lot and became quite sensitive with seeing them. Inspite of having poor eyesight now, I see the lint more frequently which I find funny.
 
Hail Mary Shot said:
Guess he was traumatized. For me I began doing it when a few of my matches had those funny rolls. Not picking on every shot though but it did raise my awareness a lot and became quite sensitive with seeing them. Inspite of having poor eyesight now, I see the lint more frequently which I find funny.
Click to expand...

Archer was seemingly picking up lint that was not even there, lol. I remember thinking, wtf is he picking at?
 
ShootingArts said:
This should stir some poop! There is not a normal person in the world since normal is just a theoretical condition. Hopefully a person balances out to near normal. Consider the olympics. Not one of those people standing on a podium is normal! "Normal" and "average" have very similar meanings and average isn't going to get you on a podium or make a champion pool player.

I have been well above average at everything I competed at. The first trick is choosing something I wanted to do and was suited to do, then focusing intently on that. I would never be a sprinter as a foot racer, I could herd a sprint car around a track. A javelin is similar to a pool cue but I could never throw a javelin with the same success as using a pool cue. Gotta pick reasonable goals.

Pool was unusual. I was godawful when I begin! However, it was challenging and I had the inspiration of money being made to play! First six months I bought more beer for others than I won. One thing, the places that tolerated underage drinking by a fifteen year old also had tables in horrible shape. Easier to learn on nice tables. By the end of a year or year and a half I always drank on other people's money. Often all my friends did too!

I don't know if you noticed the enhanced competition for athletes recently. Some thought records would fall left and right, in reality, I think one record was set, unofficial of course. Then again, the best athletes weren't willing to go enhanced and interfere with their ability to compete anywhere else.

Some players that are playing "enhanced" due to emotional issues would be even better had they learned to control their emotions on the natch! I think all would if they could manage to compete on the natch. I have heard of chemical players that could play for long hours and days with a perfect balance but in many years of play I have never encountered one. As long as I had deep enough pockets I was going to bust a chemical player because they couldn't hold their mix. Beat them a few games in a row and they would make a trip to the bathroom, or two or three! I was still winning, their mix must still be off! Before long I was having to watch where to put my bridge hand down, there was drool all over the table.

I have had medical issues for many years. Taken dozens of different medications for the usual issues, none emotional or mental except as side effects of medications taken for things like blood pressure. I have yet to find a medication that caused me to compete better than on the natch. Beta blockers interfered with my ability to perform. Some want them to dull their senses but you need sharp senses to compete.

Drugs can be fun for recreation if you lean thataway. They suck for performance.

Back to the original subject, I am a perfectionist, others are OCD!

Hu
Click to expand...
Exactly what I was hoping for!!! Thanks Hu.👊🏻
 
ShootingArts said:
I played Johnny around 1990. I didn't notice any lint picking then, certainly nothing excessive. I suspect that unnoticed or ignored lint or trash on the table cost him an important win or two to start the habit.

Not as noticeable but I had a two piece get very loose. After that I always picked up my cue with two hands, one above, one below the joint. A quick check to make sure the joint was tight.

I might be mistaken but I think at this point if Johnny doesn't see lint he picks up imaginary lint, part of his preshot routine.

Hu
Click to expand...
😆
 
Chicagoplayer said:
It’s literally the opening line to my short film about Ronnie Wiseman chasing Billy Incadona for 25 years, called “Chasing Wincardona”

“Pool is the perfect game for those with obsessive compulsive disorders”

Click to expand...
I gotta start looking at vids I guess. Missing out on a lot of good info. Forgive the plagiarism. Unintentional, I assure you.
I don't do YouTube or Facebook or any of the social networking sites except this one. Love's me some AZ.
Nuff said.
 
ShootingArts said:
I played Johnny around 1990. I didn't notice any lint picking then, certainly nothing excessive. I suspect that unnoticed or ignored lint or trash on the table cost him an important win or two to start the habit.

Not as noticeable but I had a two piece get very loose. After that I always picked up my cue with two hands, one above, one below the joint. A quick check to make sure the joint was tight.

I might be mistaken but I think at this point if Johnny doesn't see lint he picks up imaginary lint, part of his preshot routine.

Hu
Click to expand...
I use extensions and I'm always checking to see if they're tight. Unconscious habit. Incorporated it.👍🏻
 
moritz neuhausen chalks his cue and then sets the chalk down on a diamond. if the chalk doesn't sit perfectly on a diamond, he adjusts it. OCD much??

hennessee looks like a guy from one flew over the cuckoo's nest when he gets going with the chalking routine
 
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