Getting the most from your game

I always liked the thought of just playing the table,but its good to know your opponent.I play a guy that takes flyers all the time, cuts like a butcher. I let him take em, cause the shot moves a lot of balls to my side. I win more that lose..Playing to his weekness..Just one example
 
excellent thread. Thank you billy for starting it and all those that have contributed.

I think pressure is relative. Past life experiences, on and off the table condition us for the future and how we cope with things. Repetition is also a key.

I have felt extreme pressure in my lifetime. Playing pool, for me pales in comparison to some of my experiences, and I easily put it in perspective. I'll see of I can explain it.

When I was younger, I was a world class wrestler, and often competed in events in front of a few thousnad people. Glory was always at stake. Under this pressure, the butterflies always came, but at crunch time they disappeared. In the begginning, when I first started competing, my nerves sometimes got the best of me, even caused me to throw up a time or two.

Today, succumbing to pressure has no place in my life. I often negotiate big money deals in the business world. I can sit and play $500 or $1000 dollars a hand at the blackjack table. These things are all about conditioning.

Thorsten and I have discussed the pressure he felt when he played his now famous single game of pool for a quarter of a million dollars. It seems these waters had never been tested by any pool player ever before. Its interesting to hear how he felt the pressure during the racking, pre break, but immediately after play began, he no longer felt it. He was concentrating TOO HARD.

Rg
 
My hats off again to Billy. This has to be one of the most informative threads I've ever seen on AZ. Billy kicked it off with some amazing posts, touching on subjects you don't find covered in most pool instructional books or videos.

Then some other people came on here and shared their techniques for dealing with pressure. Some great stuff here. This thread should be framed!

One small thing I would like to add. I've often been told my concentration when playing is very good. I can get very intense when aiming at a tough shot. We often talk about aiming for the bulls-eye. What does that really mean? To me it means taking dead aim on a shot and really concentrating on exactly where I want to hit that object ball. I know there is a sweet spot that will achieve the result I want, so I take dead aim on that spot.

I think often times players will look at a tough shot and try to hit the ball in the direction of the pocket, and hope for the best. I say forget all that. Look down the barrel at the shot and focus completely on hitting the ball in the perfect place. Remember this, every shot WILL GO if you hit it right. You may amaze yourself if you take dead aim every time. Keep your body still and make a nice hit. THEY ALL FIT!

Once again, FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS! Focus your point of view down to the size of the period at the end of this sentence. You CAN do it and it will make you more accurate. A lot more! You just have to train your mind to concentrate.
 
jay helfert said:
My hats off again to Billy. This has to be one of the most informative threads I've ever seen on AZ. Billy kicked it off with some amazing posts, touching on subjects you don't find covered in most pool instructional books or videos.

Then some other people came on here and shared their techniques for dealing with pressure. Some great stuff here. This thread should be framed!

One small thing I would like to add. I've often been told my concentration when playing is very good. I can get very intense when aiming at a tough shot. We often talk about aiming for the bulls-eye. What does that really mean? To me it means taking dead aim on a shot and really concentrating on exactly where I want to hit that object ball. I know there is a sweet spot that will achieve the result I want, so I take dead aim on that spot.

I think often times players will look at a tough shot and try to hit the ball in the direction of the pocket, and hope for the best. I say forget all that. Look down the barrel at the shot and focus completely on hitting the ball in the perfect place. Remember this, every shot WILL GO if you hit it right. You may amaze yourself if you take dead aim every time. Keep your body still and make a nice hit. THEY ALL FIT!

Once again, FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS! Focus your point of view down to the size of the period at the end of this sentence. You CAN do it and it will make you more accurate. A lot more! You just have to train your mind to concentrate.
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I want to add one thing to this post. I have seen every player, including champions miss relatively easy shots. Why? Because they lost their concentration for a moment. They got lazy! If you concentrate on hitting every shot the absolute best you can, you will rarely, if ever, miss an easy shot. That alone will make you a better player.

And another thought for you. Quite often good players (and some not so good) miss position when shooting at an easy shot. It happens a lot more than it should. The shot is so simple. How come he (or she) got so far out of line? Yes, they make the ball, but end up bad on the next shot. Why did that happen? Now you know. They failed to concentrate on hitting the shot exactly right. THEY GOT LAZY! Never happened to you, right? :)
 
This seems like a great topic. Pressure can turn an A player into a B player in no time, in any sport. The variety in the options people have posted in regards to how to deal with pressure is an answer in itself. It seems that everyone will deal with pressure in their own way. I think what Bill is trying to say is not how to deal with it, but simply that it must be dealt with to bring your game to that next level. Some handle pressure by being confident in their ability to make a shot (my best avenue), others by being exposed to it, and others by being inwardly cocky etc. etc. The point seems simply that you must have some way to deal with the pressure.

Personally, I find 3 things that help me with pressure. 1st, the more confident I am with a shot in a pressure situation, the easier it is. You rarely see someone miss a 3 foot straight in shot on the 9 ball any more in a pressure situation, than they would at home. The shot is so easy that it is does not create much anxiety. Whereas a marginal shot for that person will often be missed more with pressure, because the shot already produces some anxiety.

Second, I simply try to play the table like Neil said. In reality, I can only play as good as my current abilities will allow, so I simply go out and try to play that table as well as I can. Of course I factor in whether or not the other player will run out if I leave the cue ball in a certain position when selecting a shot, otherwise I just play that table as well as I can. It is just me and the balls, with no change from any other time.

The other thing I do is to play off of my own psychy. I tend to have a lot of pride (although I try not to let it show outwardly), and know that if I choke, I will regret it later. I do not want anything, including pressure, to have control over me. So, when feeling pressure, I nearly get mad at myself for allowing it, and tell myself that their is no way that I am going to let something like pressure get in MY way. It puts me in a mindset to focus and rise to the occasion, treating pressure as my opponent and not my defeator.
 
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Blackjack said:
Here is a link to an excerpt from my book, The Growling Point.

Dealing With Pressure
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Thanks for the excerpt Blackjack, that's good stuff. I can't tell you how many times I've shot a ball when I wasn't mentally ready and paid for it. As I age I do it less and less but it still sneaks up on me once in a while.
 
JAM said:
I like this little pearl of wisdom. Great post! :)

JAM
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Jen, It would be special if you could talk to keith,a very unique man,and a champion player and get his methods of dealing with pressure. I know there were many times that he was confronted with many differen't types of pressure, and i'm sure there are a lot of people that would like his insight on this topic.Plus there is no one better siuited than you to put it in words.
 
jay helfert said:
I want to add one thing to this post. I have seen every player, including champions miss relatively easy shots. Why? Because they lost their concentration for a moment. They got lazy! If you concentrate on hitting every shot the absolute best you can, you will rarely, if ever, miss an easy shot. That alone will make you a better player.

And another thought for you. Quite often good players (and some not so good) miss position when shooting at an easy shot. It happens a lot more than it should. The shot is so simple. How come he (or she) got so far out of line? Yes, they make the ball, but end up bad on the next shot. Why did that happen? Now you know. They failed to concentrate on hitting the shot exactly right. THEY GOT LAZY! Never happened to you, right? :)
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I don't play enough competitive pool to be "pressurized", but I can tell you that I know I have a tendancy to dog when the pressure is on by overshooting position. It seems like I'm always in tight hill-hill matches on a run out and I overshoot the position and get out of line. So at least now I know the adrenalin does flow and makes the cueball fly a little further.

But seriously, out of the last 4 or 5 hill hill matches I've lost, it's because I let the cueball run too far.

Chris
 
TATE said:
I don't play enough competitive pool to be "pressurized", but I can tell you that I know I have a tendancy to dog when the pressure is on by overshooting position. It seems like I'm always in tight hill-hill matches on a run out and I overshoot the position and get out of line. So at least now I know the adrenalin does flow and makes the cueball fly a little further.

But seriously, out of the last 4 or 5 hill hill matches I've lost, it's because I let the cueball run too far.

Chris
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Play Efren position! Seriously, did you ever notice that Efren's cue ball always looks like it is coming up short? He just barely gets there time after time. Efren is the all time greatest short position player I ever saw. He NEVER overplays his shape! The cue ball seems to just slowly roll into perfect position every time. Short, short, short, NO, he got there again!
 
anxiety and control

When faced with a shot that may determine an important match, it is natural to feel some anxiety or pressure. After all, if it is important to you, then the possibiility of failure is anxiety producing. One reaction to this situation in a game of pool is to try to "cinch" the shot, in other words, do whatever you can to be SURE the ball goes into the pocket. I'm talking here about the nine-ball in a game of nine-ball or your game-ball in a game of one-pocket. You may say to yourself, "I've GOT to make this shot!!" This kind of self-talk will likely INCREASE your anxiety and actually make success less likely. Why? Because you are telling yourself that you HAVE to do something that you really don't have complete control over. The object ball may go off line on the way to the pocket because of a piece of dirt or chalk on the table, for example. So one way to help yourself reduce the pressure/anxiety of this situation is to tell yourself something that you DO have control over, namely the movement/position of your own body. So, when shooting a tough nine-ball shot, and if I feel I am getting nervous and about to dog the shot, I may take a couple of deep breaths and think to myself that, "Staying down and following through gives this shot the best chance to go, so I WILL stay down and follow through on this shot!"
 
Mental imaging

wincardona said:
I find this to be a very interesting topic and an area of major concern in all competive sports. If everyone would share their techniques,and methods of dealing with pressure,a lot will be learned in this thread.
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Mental imaging, seeing yourself preform the task at hand, visualizing the outcome and feeling in your mind what it will take to accomplish the goal is something I have always done in my other sport, but have never consciously transferred the technique to pool. I know I do do this on occasion and have even mentioned it to others in the past, but it has not to this point in time been a conscious part of my preshot routine. That will be changing very soon.

In my other sport (skydiving, several hundred jumps) mental imaging played a huge role in controlling the pressure, stress and nervousness just prior to the jump.

For me the mental imaging created/caused concentration and with the concentration, as others have stated the pressure is put aside and you just preform as visualized. Up to and sightly above your own skill level of course.


Thank you for starting this great thread!

Steve
 
Speaking of capabilities, it just so happens that two weeks ago a guy I played in our local 9-ball tournament commented to me, "Unlike you, I know my limitations."

He had passed up a shot on the seven ball (the seven was frozen to the long rail about a diamond and a half from the corner pocket; the cue ball was a couple feet down table at a 30 degree angle; and, the 8 and 9 were sitting near the center of the short rail at the opposite end of the table), opting instead to play me safe. I didn't have much of a shot, but I tried a bank and managed to slop in the 7 and leave myself an easy run out. We had been hill-hill, so the game gave me the match. When I went over to shake his hand, he said, "Nice shot on the seven." Not about to feel guilty, I replied, "You had a shot at it. Why didn't you take it?" That's when he gave me the "Unlike you, I know my limitations" BS. His limitations prevented him from making a relatively easy shot on the seven and sending the cb two rails around the table. With the match at stake, how can you pass up a shot like that.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
It's very simple and direct: just find something, anything about your game to focus on intently. It could be your pre-shot routine, your stance, your stroke, anything - choose something that's good for your game as well as good for shutting out the distractions. Anything that narrows your focus in a positive way will do.

For me best thing is usually the tip/cueball contact point. This is something I want to be more aware of anyway, so it helps my game in more ways than one. It's a way of "putting the blinders on" that not only shuts out the distractions around me but is also a good practice to have at all times.
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Last year I found myself slumping bdly due to nerves and, after much discussion, found a way out of the maze.

Basically I realized that I was worrying about the shot so much that I was "stearing" critical shots. I then noticed that this is what most people appeared to be doing. They were attempting to guide the shots in rather than just shoot them.

I found that if I just accepted that I had done all I could to line up and stroke the ball correctly then the pressure went away. Doing what Patrick does is part of it. You simply ask yourself "have I done all I can to make this shot and am I ready to shoot? Do I accept that I sometimes miss and that is OK? " If I can answer yes
then I just focus on the contact point and stroke and accept whatever result happens.

You have to learn to shoot without judgment. To shoot with full acceptance of the outcome and to shoot accepting that you have done all you can and all that is left to do is focus on the contact point and stroke smoothly through it.

Ed
 
Patrick Johnson's focusing on the cue tip brings up a point that I have been thinking about. Great ball players (whatever kind of ball) have this ability to focus on some point during the short time the shot is being made. The basketball player stares at the rim of the basket and uses this to tune out everything else. The golfer stares at the ball, etc.

The problem here is that one must be able to pull this highly focused concentration for a few moments. In pool we make the shot, stand up and analyze the next situation. Did we get the position we sought? Where is the third ball now? The cognitive game kicks in. The same is true of the golfer. Make the shot, walk to the next shot as you think about the situation. When the analysis is done, get focused again while the shot is being made.

So Patrick's point seems to take on all the more significance. One needs to learn the ability to instantly have a deep level of focused concentration at will. This is a form of discipline. I don't think that this is getting in the zone. That happens after one or more shots have been made. The shooter becomes comfortable with the layout, the environment and all the potential distractors.

The zone could be compared to getting lost in a good book. Most distractions are simply ignored. Significant distractions interrupt the flow. I bet, but don't know, that good players are able to quickly get to a state of highly focused concentration such as Jay Helfert writes about. At times, under the right conditions, this leads to playing in the zone.

My conclusion is that one needs to be able to move to a high state of concentration quickly and easily. That is what makes a great ball player -- any kind of ball.
 
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emccune said:
Last year I found myself slumping bdly due to nerves and, after much discussion, found a way out of the maze.

Basically I realized that I was worrying about the shot so much that I was "stearing" critical shots. I then noticed that this is what most people appeared to be doing. They were attempting to guide the shots in rather than just shoot them.

I found that if I just accepted that I had done all I could to line up and stroke the ball correctly then the pressure went away. Doing what Patrick does is part of it. You simply ask yourself "have I done all I can to make this shot and am I ready to shoot? Do I accept that I sometimes miss and that is OK? " If I can answer yes
then I just focus on the contact point and stroke and accept whatever result happens.
You have to learn to shoot without judgment. To shoot with full acceptance of the outcome and to shoot accepting that you have done all you can and all that is left to do is focus on the contact point and stroke smoothly through it.

Ed
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Good post! I think this is somewhat like what I was trying to say in my post. You focus on what you have some control over - you have lined up the shot, you are ready to shoot, and you are focused on the contact point. When you deliver a smooth stroke, you've done all you can do and then must accept whatever outcome occurs. And btw, I have that problem you mention at times; trying to steer the ball into the pocket, usually by a last second "correction" in my stroke or twisting my wrist. Boy, there are a LOT of ways to do things wrong, aren't there!
 
Billy-

Do you think that there are some players that never seem to bet their own $$ is because they can't handle the pressure? Or are they simply being 'good businessman' in having someone else take the financial risk but decreasing their own potential win level. It doesn't even have to come down to gambling, some players are always looking to get staked in tournaments as well. Does the same hold true in regards to pressure for them?

And then there are the players that are non-gamblers. They might be great tournament players but why is it that they won't gamble?? Is the pressure increased?
 
First off this thread MUST be saved for future referance and not fade away, its the best thread ever on AZ on this topic.


For me after a many year layoff, I have noticed that I lost more in my game than I have lost in my ability to perform under pressure(infact I handle pressure better now, and learned how to handle it not on a pool table), granted I havent put myself in any big action yet. But the small games($50-$100) feel the same as the practice sessions. I played a champion for nothing and played great-when I was younger I played worse against champions, now I play better-I rise to the occasion. Speaking for myself having the ability to perform under pressure is a condition that is learned by being in that spot many times and becomming familiar with it, and once you have learned to handle pressure that part of your personality becomes a permant part of who you are in action, business etc. As I have aged my ability to perform under pressure has improved in business and pool. I like pressure now, 20 years ago it was work and got in the way now its a tool to play better. Again I'm sharing my own experiences as a pool player and successful businessman. I bet Tiger Woods would take the heat as well as any top pool player if he(Tiger) was playing pool. Pressure and Pool are two seperate things that cross over in tournments and action.

Thanks Billy for starting this topic
 
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pocket billiards

Pressure is one facet of pool. Accurate aiming is another, and that one is paramount. Unfortunately, instructors
are woefully inadequate when it comes to the accurate aiming. A phone poll of instructors in the USA and CANADA admitted they had no professional aiming system. It is the blind leading the blind.
 
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