How do YOU get ready?

I

I rack balls

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So I was on the way home the other night falling asleep at the wheel and I took a No-Doze caffeine pill. When I got home I decided to go play pool because I have no friends. I shot amazing, I was extremely focused. I now think I am going to get all strung out on caffeine when I go to a large event from now on, seems safer than other drugs I can think of :D This with the other thread about what foods are good to eat, made me wonder what some of you do before a large gambling matchup or a large tournament. From diet, to drugs, to practice routines leading up, to lucky underwear, to cue maitnence, what do you do to get ready?
 
Tea works great

I rack balls said:
So I was on the way home the other night falling asleep at the wheel and I took a No-Doze caffeine pill. When I got home I decided to go play pool because I have no friends. I shot amazing, I was extremely focused. I now think I am going to get all strung out on caffeine when I go to a large event from now on, seems safer than other drugs I can think of :D This with the other thread about what foods are good to eat, made me wonder what some of you do before a large gambling matchup or a large tournament. From diet, to drugs, to practice routines leading up, to lucky underwear, to cue maitnence, what do you do to get ready?
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Caffeine has been shown in quite a few studies to improve performance in all sorts of mental exercises, concentration being a valuable one for pool. A few years ago, I was in a rush to get to a fairly large 9-ball tournament, and on the way out the door I grabbed a couple of cans of Lipton's Iced Tea with lemon, which I drank on the way. My first match was against a guy that had been torturing me in the weekly tournaments for a couple of months, and I put a three pack on him right out of the gate. At the time I was a USPPA 60, and probably managing one break and run a month. (about 12 local tournaments)

I mentioned this to a few people, and they told me not to worry, that I would get used to the effect and it would diminish. Of course, it turned out that they were right, it never did feel quite the same again.

Tea is supposed to have other beneficial things in it besides the caffeine, but I never looked into it. A Mountain Dew might do just as well.

As far as food goes, I always play better if I have a low-fat meal a minimum of two hours before a match. It's water from there on out.

Ken
 
Tea is actually a really healthy thing to drink compared to coffee or other "energy" beverages. Real tea leaves secrete multiple substances into water when you steep them in it, such as caffeine (although there is also decaffeinated tea), and catachins, which are antioxidants, and the amino acid theanine.

Catachins can be up to 30% of the weight of a tea leaf. In layman's terms, antioxidants are chemicals floating in your bloodstream that bond with some (bad) chemicals that are produced due to respiration, so that those chemicals do not bond with anything important, such as atoms/chemicals making up a cell (thus changing the makeup of the cell and being harmful). Breathing, while most of us think of it as keeping us alive, is actually a major cause of aging and cellular degredation... drinking tea will help to keep you alive longer :)

Caffeine is good for mental alertness, but it's also a pain in the ass. The half-life for biological metabolism of caffeine is 6 hours. So if you drink a single cup of coffee every day, you're taking in about 150mg of caffeine. 24 hours later, you still have about 18.75mg of caffeine in your bloodstream--to which you're adding another 150mg when you drink your coffee. Over time you build up a lot of caffeine, which can interfere with your sleep cycle (caffeine blocks the neurotransmitter adenosine that make you feel sleepy). Since you have so much caffeine in your body, your body makes more adenosine to help make you feel tired. If you suddenly miss your caffeine dose, the adenosine is in much greater supply than it needs to be and thus makes you crash hard. Best to stay off caffeinated stuff, only once or twice a week spread at least two days apart.

Theanine is an amino acid, and seems to have the effect of helping to temporarily relax the mind and reduce mental stress and it's effects. So, that's a good thing!

FYI: Black tea is more common in the US than green or white, but that's unforunate since black tea contains much, much fewer catachins than green or white.

Bottom line: Drink decaf green or white tea five times a day :)
 
Wow! Quite a thorough and detailed response. What caused you to accumulate all this info? Part of your profession???
 
FLICKit said:
Wow! Quite a thorough and detailed response. What caused you to accumulate all this info? Part of your profession???
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Actually, I'm just a college student, and oddly enough my major is not biology or chemistry, but physics. :) I just happen to drink a lot of tea, and have reserached it's effects. I'm also a huge geek, so I study and research a lot of random information in my spare time for fun... Good for academics, but I wish it was more useful for impressing the ladies. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the insinuated compliment though!
 
Draconian said:
Actually, I'm just a college student, and oddly enough my major is not biology or chemistry, but physics. :) I just happen to drink a lot of tea, and have reserached it's effects. I'm also a huge geek, so I study and research a lot of random information in my spare time for fun... Good for academics, but I wish it was more useful for impressing the ladies. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the insinuated compliment though!
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Hmm...sounds like you might be researching the wrong things. In my experience, random trivia always impresses the ladies. The trick is show them that you know everything without sounding like a pompous *****. Intelligence and modesty is a killer combo.
 
My pre-game preparations start at home in the afternoon by cleaning the shaft & doing a little shaping of my tip. I skipped the tip-shaping this week & was rewarded with a couple of miscues! I'm sure that was down to some crappy cueing by me though, I still went on to win my 4 racks in our league game.

Of course, having a nice cold beer upon arrival at the pool hall is an important part of the pre-game build up!!:D
 
What works for me is to get myself mentally ready for my day of pool. If I'm going to play a match or tournament on a perticular day I try to flood my mind with good positive thoughts. When I first wake up in the morning and my mind is still in the droggy state, like in limbo, this is the time to to set the rhythm for the rest of the day. At this time your subconscious is very receptive to any and all suggestions. Tell yourself of all the good things that you will do today, like concentration, play relaxed, have energy all day, play to your ability, or anything good that you want out yourself today. Have you ever noticed that some days you wake up and say to yourself that today I'm just going to relax and do nothing. Well you have just set the tempo for the rest of the day and you will mope around all day. Same thing, but you want the opposite out of yourself. Try it, you've got nothing to lose.
 
Visualize

For me, I get a lot out of visualization and if the match is important I start the night before.
I enjoy visualizing drills. As I am drifting off to sleep I will visualize shooting drills until I finally doze off. I will shoot the "L" drill, straight in shots, rail shots, any shot that I have been practicing. I might shot 3, 4, or 5 balls patterns always closing with me potting the 8 (or 9 ball). The stroke is always good, the speed is always good and the shape is always excellent. Suprisingly enough, when I find yourself in a tough match I will find myself with a nice boost of self confidence when I am faced with a resonable facsimile of one of these shot situations that I have envisioned mentally before.
Obviously it does not replace putting in your time with real practice and with real competition.
For me it does add an extra dimension that, I feel, gives me an edge when I need it.
 
dabarbr said:
What works for me is to get myself mentally ready for my day of pool. If I'm going to play a match or tournament on a perticular day I try to flood my mind with good positive thoughts. When I first wake up in the morning and my mind is still in the droggy state, like in limbo, this is the time to to set the rhythm for the rest of the day. At this time your subconscious is very receptive to any and all suggestions. Tell yourself of all the good things that you will do today, like concentration, play relaxed, have energy all day, play to your ability, or anything good that you want out yourself today. Have you ever noticed that some days you wake up and say to yourself that today I'm just going to relax and do nothing. Well you have just set the tempo for the rest of the day and you will mope around all day. Same thing, but you want the opposite out of yourself. Try it, you've got nothing to lose.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a thing I could use.

Heh Draconian, I am a Biology Major, Chem Minor, I'm gradutaing next month haha. I don't like tea, I'd rather die early. Having a great stroke, the ladies love that :D
 
I never really thought about it, but I'm pretty much routine with what I do.

I try to play for at least an hour at home the night before, and as much as possible the day of (after work and before league night or a tournament).

I used use my watch as a marker, and make sure to keep it with me. It brings me luck. I think.

Right before the match, I use the potty, wash my hands (I hope you do the same after using the potty) and powder with talc the stick and balls in my pants so I can glide around the table. Oh, and I like to chew gum, so I carry with me at all times a few packs of chewing gum. If you were to watch me play, you would see me do all of this consistently. A little window into how my mind works. Strange. I never really talked about it until now.
 
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