Has your game ever just stepped up overnight?

scottycoyote

scottycoyote

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
this happened to me last week.......i noticed i was just, no other way to say it, i was just better all of a sudden. Heres the timeline........last Sunday I played a guy who is a very good local player, best barbox player around (we were playing on 9 footers), and he was giving me the called 8 and the break. We ended up playing 4 sets and ended even, i was shooting pretty good.
Then about wednesday night........a pretty good local player, who plays alot of 8ball tourneys wanted to play me some 8.......wouldnt get play me 9 without what I thought was a crazy spot.......so we play 8. He gets me down about 4 games......and something just clicked on inside of me, that I could beat this guy, I just had to outthink him. Well we went back and forth for about an hour but finally I whittled it back to even and he quit. I had several break and runs, and i was just moving the ball thru the pack like a surgeon.
So anyway, last night, the same guy from the Sunday before came in, gave me the same spot (called 8 and the break)........and I just tortured him. We played 8 sets, races to 5.....and he won 2 of them 5-4. I won mine like 5-1, 5-1, 5-3, 5-4, 5-2, 5-2. And its not like i was really getting to use the 8.......i did call it once on the break and make it, i combo'd it twice.....the rest of the times i usually could have gotten to the 9 from the 8. I remember reading somewhere that buddy hall went to sleep one night and dreamed about pool and woke up the next day and was just way better. I also remember hearing about st louis louie and his hypnosis tapes. Just wondered if anyone else has had this happen.
 
Sometimes

that happens. It's when a light bulb lights up your subconscious and rises to the surface. In otherwords, what may have perplexed you before suddenly made sense to you. Sometimes it is this, but there is another thing, especially for fairly new players, called 'shooting in the clouds' for a period of time, 3 mos to 2 years even, where a player shoots better than the knowledge of Pool they possess, and when they come back down to earth, they are much closer to where they were before.

Keep in mind though - Any player can be beat IF you know how they think.
(Read 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu)
 
I've definitely had this happen to me before.

The worst thing is in a week you'll hit a slump and get so frustrated. Oy!

scottycoyote said:
this happened to me last week.......i noticed i was just, no other way to say it, i was just better all of a sudden. Heres the timeline........last Sunday I played a guy who is a very good local player, best barbox player around (we were playing on 9 footers), and he was giving me the called 8 and the break. We ended up playing 4 sets and ended even, i was shooting pretty good.
Then about wednesday night........a pretty good local player, who plays alot of 8ball tourneys wanted to play me some 8.......wouldnt get play me 9 without what I thought was a crazy spot.......so we play 8. He gets me down about 4 games......and something just clicked on inside of me, that I could beat this guy, I just had to outthink him. Well we went back and forth for about an hour but finally I whittled it back to even and he quit. I had several break and runs, and i was just moving the ball thru the pack like a surgeon.
So anyway, last night, the same guy from the Sunday before came in, gave me the same spot (called 8 and the break)........and I just tortured him. We played 8 sets, races to 5.....and he won 2 of them 5-4. I won mine like 5-1, 5-1, 5-3, 5-4, 5-2, 5-2. And its not like i was really getting to use the 8.......i did call it once on the break and make it, i combo'd it twice.....the rest of the times i usually could have gotten to the 9 from the 8. I remember reading somewhere that buddy hall went to sleep one night and dreamed about pool and woke up the next day and was just way better. I also remember hearing about st louis louie and his hypnosis tapes. Just wondered if anyone else has had this happen.
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Everytime

Everytime I come out of a slump I have something I didn't have before I went into it. It takes time for the medicine to work!!! RandyG
Purdman:cool:
 
Back when I was still learning a lot and absorbing everything I would get better as each day progressed, slowly turning from banger into pool player.

Now I hit plateaus where I will go a few months with out getting any better and have to work much much harder before I notice improvements.

I guess that pretty much goes with anything.
 
my game steps up occasionally,,,unfortunately my game steps down just as quick...lol

I'm what my team calls their 'wild card'; never know which one of me is going to show up...............
 
MINE CAME UP AT LEAST 2 BALLS, or 3

I found out my dominant eye was not working up to par.
Went to the eye DR., got a prescribe for contacts,
Got used to wearing them,
and it is like all of a sudden!!! WHAM!!!, feels like I am watching someone else play.
I am suprised it has made such a difference. (I am the points leader on Tuesday night BCA for BNR, TBR, and 9BB). I can't wait to see what happens now.
:) :) :)
 
I had a very strong player once tell me that "slumps" happen when your game is on an up-swing and you are about to improve. He said it may not be noticeable improvement, but some aspect of your game is improving, and your subconscious is adjusting to the improvement. I don't know how much stock I put in this, but it kinda makes sense sometimes.
I dunno, I just thought I'd throw in a couple of pennies.
 
Purdman said:
Everytime I come out of a slump I have something I didn't have before I went into it. It takes time for the medicine to work!!! RandyG
Purdman:cool:
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I find the very same thing. I always come out of my slumps a better player. Perhaps it is because I focus much more on my fundamentals.
 
Happy Grasshopper, you have experienced Kensho- the first awakening of the Zen Cueist within you, who may be roused further and strengthened by daily meditation upon the Four-Bank Path to Enlightenment and Correct Thinking!
 
PROG8R said:
I found out my dominant eye was not working up to par.
Went to the eye DR., got a prescribe for contacts,
Got used to wearing them,
and it is like all of a sudden!!! WHAM!!!, feels like I am watching someone else play.
I am suprised it has made such a difference. (I am the points leader on Tuesday night BCA for BNR, TBR, and 9BB). I can't wait to see what happens now.
:) :) :)
Click to expand...

What is/was your vision without the glasses? I've got 20/25 right now, I think, but I haven't yet bothered getting glasses.

IMHO, I think it's the calm-before-the-storm thing. You get into a slump for a bit while you're still learning, but after the slump is over you're much better since your shot/stroke is back and you've picked up new tricks. I've stopped being bother much by slumps, since every time I've had it happen I've always come back a stronger player. I've been in a fairly long slump lately, but I'm learning even more now that I've been reading here, so I plan on laying some serious smack down on my local competition in the not too distant future.

Just keep learning and shooting.. you'll wake up on different sides of the bed now and then, but you'll keep getting better nonetheless.
 
Wouldn't say so much overnight, as maybe over a 2 or 3 month period.

In that period, I went from playing a good local player 8 ball on a barbox, and only winning one game in ten, and that only by a three rail kick shot, to winning against the same player playing both 8 ball and 9 ball on the barbox, and 9 ball and One Pocket on the 9 footer.

This player went a league season and lost only one game. The only game he lost his opponent broke and ran out...

A back-to-the-basics approach to practice that had me working on fundamentals, and precise draw control is what did it for my game. I also practiced a lot of position techniques I learned by watching Efren in Accu-Stats matches. It wasn't overnight, tho. It came after a month of practicing for 8-12 hours a day, and playing all the tourneys I could find.

If I ever get a year off to play, I'll be a monster.

Russ
 
My game has never taken a step up, but has taken a step down to the bottom; and then the bottom fell out
 
I've seen it happen and i've experienced it.

I played in a Open tournament and after i went 2 n out, i sat down and watched matches all day long. And its amazing what you can learn just from watching people play. It also helps if you know what your doing too.

A guy i know did the same thing at Valley Forge 2 yrs ago, he watched the Open Tournament and just sat thier and looked at how guys played certain shots and played position and he came back and went on a wild streak of beating guys to a pulp, when before those same guys handed him his ass.
 
I've had a few "outtadablu" jumps in my game over the years. When I look back they all had a pretty good reason for happening. The first was when I got out of an "arcade" style pool room, and became a fixture at a real good "old school" room. The next big one happened when I started shooting at the best players in that room even up. I think they felt bad winning (not taking) all my money, so they taught me how to play, what it takes to win, and how to make good games. The last big jump happened when I got a table at home! MAN there is nothing better than having an idea, and running out to the table to work it out.

As far as slumps go, I look forward to them!:D really, because I know I'm learning something new and just havn't worked it out yet. I see them like this...

1. you see something wrong with your game, or something you want to learn.

2. you get the information you need to learn how to fix it.

3. you take the time you body/mind need to absorb the info and put it into the subconscious. this is the frustrating level for me because I know what to do, and how to do it, but its not yet 2nd nature!

4. BAMM!....just when you forget your TRYING to learn this new thing, it clicks, and you can't miss.

now go back to #1 and start over :D

have fun, Gerry
 
I think this occurs in all endeavors... back the day when I ran (not just jog like I do now) I'd often notice that my "game" would step up after an extended training period culminating in a race that was important to me. I was just a better runner after the race than before, kind of unexplainable. That obviously can't go on forever, but it is the same phenomenon. In pool I noticed it also, always after an extend period of dedicated practice, what a coincidence. I also noticed it about 4 months after taking Randy G's pool school.
On the other side of the coin I also think we degrade in leaps too. I had a friend who's theory of aging I've come to accept as I've gotten older. His theory is basically that we age in leaps. We age quickly for a while then plateau and don't seem to age at all for years or even decades then bam we age alot again and hit another plateau. As we get older the aging spurts get closer and closer together and the plateaus shorter and shorter. Think about, when you were a kid one spring school ended and the next fall you're classmates were much older, I think the same thing continues through out life in terms of aging and all things, including pool.
 
Banks said:
What is/was your vision without the glasses? I've got 20/25 right now, I think, but I haven't yet bothered getting glasses.

IMHO, I think it's the calm-before-the-storm thing. You get into a slump for a bit while you're still learning, but after the slump is over you're much better since your shot/stroke is back and you've picked up new tricks. I've stopped being bother much by slumps, since every time I've had it happen I've always come back a stronger player. I've been in a fairly long slump lately, but I'm learning even more now that I've been reading here, so I plan on laying some serious smack down on my local competition in the not too distant future.

Just keep learning and shooting.. you'll wake up on different sides of the bed now and then, but you'll keep getting better nonetheless.
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FIX THEM. It was my dominant eye was 25+, and the stigmatism, and after an hour or two of trying to pic out edges (that I could see just fine with my left eye< but that isn't the sighting eye) I was pretty much just "USING THE FORCE LUKE" to pocket balls. Now that my sighting eye is back to 20, "F"-me!! Game on!!
 
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