Help with my mental game

A

americanfighter

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hey guys pool is very much a mental game. I would really like to work on my mental game allot and I was wondering do you guys know of any books or programs that are good for helping you with your mental game in pool I have found some on the mental game for pool. if you have any experience with these please tell men what you think or if you have another suggestion please tell me.

Video or audio
Mind of steal for pool
http://www.drstankovich.com/Product_DV61MOSP.html


Books
A mind for the game
http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Pool-Master-Mental-Game/dp/0964920417

Plesures of small motions
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasures-Small-Motions-Mastering-Billiards/dp/1585745391/ref=pd_sim_b_2


Thanks

AF
 
jimmy reid no time for negativity...its a dvd,all you mentioned above are great to.anytime you can get as much information on a topic is a good thing.
 
DoubleD said:
Don't bother with Small Motions--I don't think it helps.

Read 'The Inner Game of Tennis' and 'Sports Psyching'.

dld
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I also didnt like "pleasure of small motions" found it was kind of hard to apply, I dunno it just didnt grasp well with me. I've only read some of inner game of tennis but it seems more realistic.
 
randallt6 said:
I also didnt like "pleasure of small motions" found it was kind of hard to apply, I dunno it just didnt grasp well with me. I've only read some of inner game of tennis but it seems more realistic.
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I liked "Pleasures of Small Motions" a lot. It's written by a real psychologist (Bob Fancher), so he knows what he's talking about. The main message is that we excel at things we enjoy, and pool is a game of details, so learn to enjoy the details ("small motions"). This describes my emotional state when I'm in the zone and gives me some helpful direction for how to get there.

You may not get it, but if you do it's very valuable.

pj
chgo
 
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pleasures of small motions is not that great.

The Inner game of Tennis is the best by far.

In order truly understand the mental game though, you must learn to observe. You must understand and analyze your emotions before, during and after a match. You must learn to study the reactions of the other players as well.

A friend of mine was playing in a semis of a fairly big open tournament, and he ended up losing the game 11-10 to a theoretically inferior opponent. My friend was leading 10-6 but never managed to win the last game, due to a couple of unforced errors (he missed the 7 and scratched on the 8 in another game). He played a couple of safeties as well, and his opponent managed to either get a decent resafe, and on the last game he even pocketed the ball with a nice kick to win the match. My friend was then babbling all the time that the other guy was lucky, and that he had much more pool knowledge than his opponent, (which is true) and that he was lucky to get so good kicks and he didn't deserve to win etc. etc. He was so arrogant that he forgot about the stupid mistakes he made.

Well pool is not purely a game of knowledge but a game of execution. And crying like a little baby for days after your loss is not good attitude. This particular incident has taught me to always respect my opponent, whether he can play better or worse pool than me. That's a pool mental experience. You live certain incidents but you must also learn to analyze them and get something out of them.
 
I liked the audio program by Dr. Stankovich. It's inexpensive and gives good solid practical advice that relates to pool. The pleasures of small motions and the inner game of tennis didn't seem very practical to me. There are some nuggets in both books but much of the material wasn't very easy to digest and apply to my game.
 
Read the "the art of war" by sun tsu...it help me a lot w pool and other parts of life.
 
americanfighter said:
Hey guys pool is very much a mental game. I would really like to work on my mental game allot and I was wondering do you guys know of any books or programs that are good for helping you with your mental game in pool I have found some on the mental game for pool. if you have any experience with these please tell men what you think or if you have another suggestion please tell me.

Video or audio
Mind of steal for pool
http://www.drstankovich.com/Product_DV61MOSP.html


Books
A mind for the game
http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Pool-Master-Mental-Game/dp/0964920417

Plesures of small motions
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasures-Small-Motions-Mastering-Billiards/dp/1585745391/ref=pd_sim_b_2


Thanks

AF
Click to expand...


Feel free to contact me with any questions.
 
I think I might be the only person that does NOT like the Inner Game of Tennis. I swear my game went down after I read the book. :(

These two books I highly recommend to help with the mental aspects of competing:

Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert helped me A LOT.

And also, Mental Toughness Training for Sports by James E. Loehr was also very helpful to me.
 
I've read most of the books mentioned in this thread, recognizing similar needs in bolstering my mental game. After all was said and done, much of what I gained through reading was reorganized and interpreted for my understanding by searching past threads and reading post from people who went through the learning process ahead of me. People who were in real situations, dealing with the same issues I had to deal with, and you got a cross section of responses that were easily compared. In my estimation, the most help I ever got was right here on AZ. Here's just a couple of good one's, and there are many more. http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=271093&highlight=mental http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=250897&highlight=mental
 
When I was researching mental training in sports for developing my own training regimen, I picked up several books on the subject. And I found the following books GREAT!!!! resources and the information contained adapted very well towards what I need for my own training to improve my pool skills.

The books are:

Your Performing Edge by Joann Dahlkoetter, Phd.
The Mental Athlete by Kay Porter, Phd.
The Mental Edge by Kenneth Baum

I used the material in these books to develop my own set of defined goals, Affirmation statements in different categories as a set of review cards, Power talk statements in different categories as review cards, Written visualizations of how I wish to perform at the table, breathing exercise techniques to help maintain focus. All the material I developed from reading these books, and then implementing the material regularly before each league and tournament event help to improve my game overall a great deal.
 
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