Getting tournament ready, last 3 days?

[FranCrimi]

I think I've seen you mention Loehr before. I'll add him to my Amazon wish list. You must have made quite an impression to get a job offer!

I think I've found what I click with now (a patchwork of techniques, but something from the Inner Game has been the biggest). I'd like to think that there's a theoretically perfect structure to it all, but in reality it's probably muchly what I've clicked with. Kind of sad because it suggests it's not necessarily reproducible for someone else.

What I like about Loehr is that he gets to the heart of the matter while keeping it simple. For example: imagine a plus sign as a grid. The top two boxes of the sign contain the phrases, 'positive active energy' and 'negative active energy.' The bottom two boxes contain 'positive passive energy' and 'negative passive energy.' The ideal sector to be in when competing is 'positive active energy.' But interestingly, the second best sector is negative active energy because it's easier to move from one active energy to another. Moving from passive to active is not easy. Before that, I always used to think if you got angry, you were doomed, but if you stay energized, even if you don't act out your anger, you have a better shot of transitioning back to active positive energy.

You may even see some players acting out negatively. It's not something I would want to do but for them, it may be their way of getting themselves moving towards active positive energy.

 

[chefjeff]

What I like about Loehr is that he gets to the heart of the matter while keeping it simple. For example: imagine a plus sign as a grid. The top two boxes of the sign contain the phrases, 'positive active energy' and 'negative active energy.' The bottom two boxes contain 'positive passive energy' and 'negative passive energy.' The ideal sector to be in when competing is 'positive active energy.' But interestingly, the second best sector is negative active energy because it's easier to move from one active energy to another. Moving from passive to active is not easy. Before that, I always used to think if you got angry, you were doomed, but if you stay energized, even if you don't act out your anger, you have a better shot of transitioning back to active positive energy.

You may even see some players acting out negatively. It's not something I would want to do but for them, it may be their way of getting themselves moving towards active positive energy.

Now, that's advice I can put to use today. Just what I've been looking for lately.

Thanks,


Jeff Livingston

 

[Imac007]

The bottom two boxes contain 'positive passive energy' and 'negative passive energy.' The ideal sector to be in when competing is 'positive active energy.' But interestingly, the second best sector is negative active energy because it's easier to move from one active energy to another. Moving from passive to active is not easy

Reminds me of the saying that “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
It’s not about how you feel about your current situation, it’s how you decide to respond to it.
You don’t get mad about things that aren’t important to you.
Anger reminds us we care about the situation.
It’s like pregame anxiety, is really excitement in disguise.
We need to harness and control the energy.

 

[FranCrimi]

Reminds me of the saying that “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
It’s not about how you feel about your current situation, it’s how you decide to respond to it.
You don’t get mad about things that aren’t important to you.
Anger reminds us we care about the situation.
It’s like pregame anxiety, is really excitement in disguise.
We need to harness and control the energy.

Loehr is coming strictly from a physical standpoint. The player's degree of caring or harnessing isn't the issue. It's all about energy levels. Active means a heart that's pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body. Passive means lethargic --- less oxygen.

Here's another example: He had us take our heart rates and mark them down. Then he showed us a really funny clip from a movie that had us laughing hard. Then he had us take our heart rates again. They were markedly lower. Laughter lowers your heart rate.

But it's not about wanting to make us feel happy going into competition. It's all about physical effects of laughter that put our bodies into prime condition for competition ---- thus enabling us to focus and move with ease.

 

[Imac007]

Loehr is coming strictly from a physical standpoint. The player's degree of caring or harnessing isn't the issue. It's all about energy levels. Active means a heart that's pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body. Passive means lethargic --- less oxygen.

Here's another example: He had us take our heart rates and mark them down. Then he showed us a really funny clip from a movie that had us laughing hard. Then he had us take our heart rates again. They were markedly lower. Laughter lowers your heart rate.

But it's not about wanting to make us feel happy going into competition. It's all about physical effects of laughter that put our bodies into prime condition for competition ---- thus enabling us to focus and move with ease.

Activation, arousal and energizing are terms used interchangeably to describe the level of alertness and physical state prior to, during and after execution of a physical skill.
Optimal arousal levels and performance levels are linked.

 

[Pin]

But interestingly, the second best sector is negative active energy because it's easier to move from one active energy to another. Moving from passive to active is not easy. Before that, I always used to think if you got angry, you were doomed, but if you stay energized, even if you don't act out your anger, you have a better shot of transitioning back to active positive energy.

That's a great insight.

I assume your view is it's applicable in pool too? Obviously not a physical sport in the way tennis is; feeling switched on is crucial, but you don't want your adrenaline to spike...

 

[FranCrimi]

That's a great insight.

I assume your view is it's applicable in pool too? Obviously not a physical sport in the way tennis is; feeling switched on is crucial, but you don't want your adrenaline to spike...

Yes, I try to think of it as not letting myself fall into a passive state because something negative may have happened, but rather keeping up my normal rhythm around the table and stroke timing, straightening my posture in the chair, deep breathing, things like that, even though I may be feeling negative and angry. I agree, you don't want to overdo it and turn it into a nervous adrenaline spike.

 

[boogieman]

So an update, I got put out in my first two matches. I was pretty pissed/dumbfounded that it happened. I honestly didn't play bad but was just really outmatched. I played smart or aggressive at the right times and didn't do too bad, though I was having some trouble that day with over cutting. I'd work like hell to get the table in a solved position then on trying to get out, I'd miss the second or third shot, it was pretty annoying to see it happen a few times. That's pool though.

The double goose egg lit a fire under me. Never again. That sucked.

For some reason I thought I had read The Pleasure of Small Motions. I couldn't find my copy so I ended up re-ordering it. I realized this wasn't something I read before. I had actually read the 99 critical shots of pool (both had green covers lol). Anyway, after reading it and pondering the stuff it talks about, I re-read it with highlighter in hand.

Something in it stuck. I've went to pretty much having a quiet head while playing. No second guessing, no over analyzing etc. My rhythm is better too. I basically look at the balls, make a quick path how I could get to them in numerical order (9B) (first thoughts, not super deep analyzing). I will recognize problem areas and "honey holes" where it's real easy to get several balls easily. No thinking, just a quick glance at where the CB needs to be and then into performance mode. I've found I can trust my subconscious/muscle memory to a very high degree. I instantly know when to try it and when to play safe. If for some reason I miss, the opponent is either hooked badly or has a 5% probability shot, with no real future for shape. To get shape, they must juice the CB so much that the OB misses. If I make it, I have a shot, usually a good one and I'm no longer hooking myself behind the one lone ball that could hook me. As a side note, my "slop" percentage has at least tripled. I get a hell of a laugh out of slopped in stuff. Was it slop, or did my subconscious know something I didn't? Who knows, but I'll never know if I second guess and try to micro manage the stuff my body already knows. I recognize when a rack is a "working man's rack" and then somehow the 9 ball gets in early... whoops. Oh, I kicked on the 2-9 combo and the 9 somehow caromed off the 5 into the corner? Oh, look at that, the 2 did a carom-cross bank and went also! I got lucky. Oh, it didn't go that time but somehow the CB ended up frozen behind a lone blocker with no real route to the low ball? I got lucky!

So basically:
1. Fundamentals
2. See the shot (and how to take care or shape or breakout)
3. Fundamentals
4. Shoot the shot
5. Repeat

I don't think I'm some kind of world beater, but from a week or so of playing this way I feel most (90%?) of my pool playing can be relegated to the subconscious with better results.

My buddy usually beats the piss out of me at pool. He's got me by 70 points in fargo rate. 9 ball, on a race to 5 I might get 2 with regularity. On a race to 9 I might get 4-5. We did a race to 20 and the final score was 19-20 with me losing (unfortunately). We were both playing in just dead stroke. Fargo says on a race to 20, he should beat me 93.5% of the time. While he did beat me, one game? That's amazing. Thanks Pleasure of Small Motions!

The moral of the story, trust your subconscious/muscle memory. If you can't trust them, practice and build them up until you can, then get your head out of the performance part of playing pool. The head is a terrible pool player.

The only real difference I see is that in a tournament it's easier to fall into the trap of trying to micromanage every aspect of your game. Fear of losing/under-performing. Just play pool and you'll do much better. If you still lose, but not through self sabotage, you can't really complain. It just means you need more table time to get past the level your opponent played.

If you haven't read the book and like competition, buy it and read it. It's well worth the price of 3 races to 5 for $5.