How do you stay focused to win more consistently

Luxury said:
Actually I eat chicken and steaks but only the stuff I make at home or the deli meat I put in the sandwiches I eat at work. But no more greasy fast food or mall food or stuff like that which I used to eat a lot of. I don't juice anything but I do drink v-8 low sodium every day.

I just eat tons of veggies and fruits raw from the produce section. I drink the bragg apple cider vinegar which is way more expensive but my dad recommended it and he is a health guru. I just take a big swig of the apple cider vinegar about 3 times a day. I can afford all the produce and vitamins n stuff now that I seem to have an endless supply of money since I quit drinking every day. (I still have a glass of red wine about once a month.)

I have always been about 6feet tall and about 190 and didn't really need to lose weight but I've lost 5 lbs since I quit drinking and I really believe the extra energy is from the better diet and also since drinking makes your sleep not as deep.

Once you start excersizing you have more and more energy. Just start off real easy. I started doing pushups at work! Oh yeah I'm only 32 years old so this was all really easy.

Hope these answers all your questions. One of the top players in the state of Wa. kept beating me for the cash and mentioned that he doesn't drink and eats fruits and veggies and not the bar food. That's all I needed to hear.
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Luxury,
That's all I needed to hear. :D

Thanks for the great response. Good luck with your game. You don't need any good wishes for your health. You have turned the corner.
JoeyA
 
a thought re: losing focus mid-tournament.

saturated/slider - how long do you usually play for when you play? most tournaments will take a long time. consider practicing for up to 8 hours some days to simulate the long day. most folks i know who have this problem only play a couple of hours when they play, and it shows in the later rounds.

-s
 
Lots of good responses here. I played for years with no real plan or direction, just fast & loose. It is taking a long time to drop those habits. I use a mental reminder to stop playing fast & loose and concentrate on playing like I know I can (more consistent). The one I'm using now is to use an open bridge. I realized recently that closed/open bridge has always been arbitrary for me. I never consciously thought about it. I've found that I'm just a tad more consistent using an open bridge. I've also been watching a lot of snooker lately and when I mentally tell myself to use the open bridge, it makes me think about a great snooker player and how they are very concentrated & have very consistent form when approaching a shot. I just slip into my alter ego- Joe Snooker Champion. It just brings all the components together for me; from lining up on the shot, to focusing on the contact point, to pause at final stroke, to staying down after the stroke. Of course, having a mental mind set to kick butt and take names usually helps.
 
I already eat healthy and take vitamins, my problem is mental, thanx sixpack and russ..Great advice guys, I think I'll try it today!
 
steev said:
a thought re: losing focus mid-tournament.

saturated/slider - how long do you usually play for when you play? most tournaments will take a long time. consider practicing for up to 8 hours some days to simulate the long day. most folks i know who have this problem only play a couple of hours when they play, and it shows in the later rounds.

-s
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The weekly $10 tourneys don't take that long - maybe 4 hours if you go all the way, but most of that time we're waiting to play. That's just the nature of a DE tourney on 5 or 6 tables with about 16 to 24 players. The loss of focus thing probably kicks in somewhere between hours 2 and 3.
 
Sixpack's Got It Right!

sixpack said:
"You will only achieve to the level you see yourself at, NEVER higher."

"You already are living the life you want." => "You already play at the level you want."

Both of these quotes are from a very successful real estate coach, Mike Ferry. They guy is 60 and plays to a scratch handicap in golf. Not to mention he's worth about $200 Million. He's studied success his whole life.

Your post reveals that you have fallen into a comfort zone of mediocrity when it comes to your pool game. Simply put, you have bad nights because you expect to. It's a pattern that's programmed into your mind and if you want to change it, you have to break the programming.

Picture yourself playing great. Imagine your posture, the clarity of your vision when you're on the ball, the vision you have of the path of the CB to the position point. The feeling you have before you pull the trigger. Get that person in your mind. Close your eyes for a minute and picture you there, playing great. Are you smiling? Are you animated? How do you study the table? When it's your turn, do you get out of your chair slowly or quickly? Do you jump up and race to the table because you can't wait for the opportunity to win?

Now, picture yourself playing poorly. Is your posture different? Are your thoughts muddled? Do you look at the table the same way? When it's your turn at the table, do you get out of your chair slowly or quickly? Do you move slowly to the table dreading the possibility that you might miss? Close your eyes and picture yourself.

Now, the mind is programmed by a lot of different things, but two are very important: 1) What your self-talk is. and 2) What you are doing physically.

If you tell yourself "here we go again" resignedly when you miss a shot, you're going to go into a death spiral until all of your worst fear fantasies come true. You'll be disgusted, upset, angry, tired and go home feeling woeful, but you'll also be comfortable because that's what your used to. Your brain is programmed to respond to what you tell it. When you tell it "here we go again" it says okay, run "death spiral" program and it continues.

So how to break it:
First, you've been talking to yourself for years, probably a lot of negative thoughts related to pool (and maybe other things). In fact, probably a lot of it is so bad that if someone else were to talk to you like that, you'd punch them in the mouth. Don't take it from yourself either! So be patient with what I'm going to tell you. If you find yourself going down that path, do the following:

1) Motion can create the emotion - Remember the things you do when you're playing well. The posture, the motions, the expressions and the mannerisms around the table. These are all 'triggers' to top performance. When you start to play bad, do those things. In fact, practice them in front of a mirror if you need to. Keep a 3X5 card in your back pocket and refer to it. Jump out of your chair when your opponent misses if that's what you do. Smile. Jump. Scream. Whatever you do when you're winning. That will derail the "death spiral" programming and put you into "pool domination" program.

2) Control your thoughts - Ask better question. When you ask your brain a question, your brain supplies an answer, that is its job. So ask yourself questions that have useful, productive answers. When you miss, you might be inclined to say "why does this always happen to me?" Your brain, being a good little brain, finds an answer: "Because I suck at pool" and then it goes along making that answer consistent with reality.

Instead of asking a loser question, ask yourself a productive question like "How can I run out from here?" or "How can I make this shot?" or "How can I turn this around?"...you get the picture. Your brain, being a good little brain, will supply the answer for those questions as well and then work to make those answers reality.

As I mentioned, this takes time and considerable discipline on your part, so be vigilant. Start monitoring your self-talk and whenever you catch a loser question, immediately label it as a loser question and demand of yourself that you rephrase it. Then ask the better question of yourself OUT LOUD. When you hear something as well as think it, it's much more powerful.

Try this about everything (not just pool) the next few days and let us know how it turns out.

The above method has transformed my life over the last few years and has taken a bunch of strokes off my golf game and given me much more consistency at pool. It takes constant vigilance though, old habits can be hard to break.

Good luck with everything.

RC

Edited to fix a few typos.
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VERY NICE INFORMATION. I seldom want anyone on my one yard line, because I play better without the distractions but you, SIXPACK, would be an exception. :)
Let me know which tournaments you go to during the year. :D
 
JoeyA said:
VERY NICE INFORMATION. I seldom want anyone on my one yard line, because I play better without the distractions but you, SIXPACK, would be an exception. :)
Let me know which tournaments you go to during the year. :D
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Thanks JoeyA!

I pretty much stay in California now due to building my businesses, but I'll probably be travelling again soon. I MIGHT be in Vegas for a day or two during the BCA tournament. Would love to catch up with you at some point.

Cheers,
RC
 
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