Slumps don't exist !!!
I am looking for advice on how to work through a slump. I have tried practicing more, playing in more tournaments, taking a week off from pool and everytime i play a match in league i lose. Last session I only lost once, the session before that I went undefeated. But now im losing and cant stop. any suggestions?
It's like believing in the boogie man, he can't hurt you unless you believe he's real. Slumps are like the boogie man, if you don't believe in them, you can't enter into one in the first place. The slump was created by our own fears...it can only be dismantled by understanding what causes it.
You have a choice...you can try everything under the sun, play thru it, and sooner or later...you'll just give up...quit caring so much, and that's when you'll take off and start playing great again. And wait for the next one to come along in a few months.
Or.."."....
You can understand it, deal with it for good!!!!!!!
Here is my post on the subject from another thread I answered...hope it helps...
Funks don't exist - 04-21-2013, 10:16 PM
I used to go through slumps like what you are referring to. The last slump I can remember was about 10 years ago. Now I have good months, great months, and decent months, no more slumps.
What did the trick for me, was a good friend that owned the pool hall where I played, explained to me what a slump was. How slumps were nothing more than something made up by our imaginations. How slumps dont exist in the real world, we mentally create them and foster them. He referred to a book, don't know which one, as he explained.
He explained, ...a guy gets up to the table,...
1. Forgets to chalk
2. Miscues on the shot
3. Gets nervous about the miscue..and nervous about if there's something wrong with his stroke.
4. Miscues again, due to being nervous about miscueing.
5. Starts using less English/draw due to the miscue being stuck in his head, trying not to miscue.
6. Misses shape on the shots, due to lack of confidence in the stroke
7. Starts to miss shots due to lack of confidence, cause he's losing games.
8. Starts to question himself, question his equipment, question his team-mates intentions.
9. Starts to change things...
10. Starts to speed up his game, due to nerves.
11. Starts to tell people that he is in a slump.
12. Starts to believe the words coming out of his mouth.
13. Has now completely convinced himself that he can't even hold a cue right now.
Lets examine............
No such slump ever existed...
The only mistake was not chalking the cue, simple, repairable.
This player CAUSED all of this mess, un-necessarily, himself, mentally CREATED a slump which didn't even exist...through his actions.
Had he taken that first miscue with a grain of salt...and said...damn, I gotta remember to chalk, or ...I just miscued, ..no big deal. I'm awesome, I'm gonna rock and roll when I get up. ...he would have woke up the next day in the same good mental place he was in the day before.
Now, I always remind myself, when I miss an easy shot, miscue a lot, lose, whatever, that it happens...I tell myself that if everything always worked out the way I wanted it to, that I would quit playing cause it wouldn't be fun or challenging anymore.
I remind myself that the only reason I keep playing is BECAUSE things don't always work out the way I meant them to.
After all, easy games cannot hold our attention.
THis guy that helped me see out my last slump 10 years ago, was Mr. Jerry Johnson - of CR BILLIARDS in Coon Rapids, MN ...
thanks for everything Jerry
Now...I play badly sometimes...but notice that I don't believe that it's a slump. It's just a bad night...u can't enter into a world u don't believe exists, can u???