Is Pool Too Tough For the Average Mind?
- Thread starter Island Drive
- Start date
It's not rocket science but..........
Can you imagine if your motor went out of your car and you decided you would just do it yourself?
This is what all pool players are doing everywhere.
They pick up a stick and just start pointing it and try to put the balls in the holes.
I hear players all the time say, I learned everything i know on my own.
Yah RIGHT !
Just because you saw something done and got on the table and made it work didn't really mean you learned it on your own. you learned it from monkey see, monkey do as most of us did in the early stages of the game.
This is why players get stuck at a certain level. There is only so much you can learn from monkey see, monkey do and there's not enough Shanes or Earl around to watch and try to figure things out.
In 2 hours i change the way a player plays for ever. Once I work with them for a couple of hours they sometimes wonder how they even made certain shots before. As goes for other teachers around the country.
The knowledge is there and we just have to seek it out in your area.
I got a TV stand once and just tried to put it together without the instructions. They were there but I thought I could just do it.
same with pool. We think we can just do it.:banghead:
After fiddling with the darn thing for about 1 hour i read the instructions and got it together in about 10 minutes.
Why players constantly think they can figure this all out on their own is beyond me.
Pool is allot harder than putting together a stupid TV stand but it sure is allot easier if there were easy to understand instructions with your cue stick or pool table.
Well there isn't so the next best thing is to learn from someone that is qualified to help you.
I had one person refer to Perfect Aim as pool in a box. Their assessment was spot on.
That's what I'm talking about.
Give your local professional teacher a call and find out how much easier it is to make a ball after you read the instructions.:thumbup2:
Can you imagine if your motor went out of your car and you decided you would just do it yourself?
This is what all pool players are doing everywhere.
They pick up a stick and just start pointing it and try to put the balls in the holes.
I hear players all the time say, I learned everything i know on my own.
Yah RIGHT !
Just because you saw something done and got on the table and made it work didn't really mean you learned it on your own. you learned it from monkey see, monkey do as most of us did in the early stages of the game.
This is why players get stuck at a certain level. There is only so much you can learn from monkey see, monkey do and there's not enough Shanes or Earl around to watch and try to figure things out.
In 2 hours i change the way a player plays for ever. Once I work with them for a couple of hours they sometimes wonder how they even made certain shots before. As goes for other teachers around the country.
The knowledge is there and we just have to seek it out in your area.
I got a TV stand once and just tried to put it together without the instructions. They were there but I thought I could just do it.
same with pool. We think we can just do it.:banghead:
After fiddling with the darn thing for about 1 hour i read the instructions and got it together in about 10 minutes.
Why players constantly think they can figure this all out on their own is beyond me.
Pool is allot harder than putting together a stupid TV stand but it sure is allot easier if there were easy to understand instructions with your cue stick or pool table. Well there isn't so the next best thing is to learn from someone that is qualified to help you.
I had one person refer to Perfect Aim as pool in a box. Their assessment was spot on.
That's what I'm talking about.
Give your local professional teacher a call and find out how much easier it is to make a ball after you read the instructions.:thumbup2:
What the #&*%
When I am practicing I hardly ever miss a shot. Whether it's a 60 degree cut length of table, a cross side bank, a length of table bank, everything goes like magic. I practice the shots that give me the most trouble. Piece of cake, I make them and I never ever will miss again.
So, it's league night, and I'm matched up with what I consider a lesser player. Another words, he/she doesn't posses the skills that I have. It's a race to 5 and before I know it this guy/girl has me 3 - 0. WTF, how can this be. I never miss a shot when I'm practicing. Now, I'm missing the easiest of cut shots. How can this be? I eventually lose 5 - 3.
Has this ever happened to you?
In analyzing the situation, the first mistake was sizing up your opponent. You embedded in your mind that you couldn't lose. It's very easy to find yourself behind, opponent makes the 9 on the break, you hang the 9, or your opponent makes a combo on the 9, irregardless, you find yourself down to this lesser player. You start thinking I can't let them beat me. You start missing shots that you purposely practiced. You start taking deep breaths, you take a little longer to chalk your tip. You are starting to think about everything but just playing pool in a relaxed manner. On a scale of 1-10 on a tightness factor, you probably register a 9 or a 10. What are your team mates going to think of you losing. By the way, you haven't lost yet, but you are already thinking of it.
I could go on and on. Why the hell do we do this to ourselves? I eventually lose the match. The next day, while practicing, I continue to make every shot.
Will someone please tell me how to control this type of behavior?
When I am practicing I hardly ever miss a shot. Whether it's a 60 degree cut length of table, a cross side bank, a length of table bank, everything goes like magic. I practice the shots that give me the most trouble. Piece of cake, I make them and I never ever will miss again.
So, it's league night, and I'm matched up with what I consider a lesser player. Another words, he/she doesn't posses the skills that I have. It's a race to 5 and before I know it this guy/girl has me 3 - 0. WTF, how can this be. I never miss a shot when I'm practicing. Now, I'm missing the easiest of cut shots. How can this be? I eventually lose 5 - 3.
Has this ever happened to you?
In analyzing the situation, the first mistake was sizing up your opponent. You embedded in your mind that you couldn't lose. It's very easy to find yourself behind, opponent makes the 9 on the break, you hang the 9, or your opponent makes a combo on the 9, irregardless, you find yourself down to this lesser player. You start thinking I can't let them beat me. You start missing shots that you purposely practiced. You start taking deep breaths, you take a little longer to chalk your tip. You are starting to think about everything but just playing pool in a relaxed manner. On a scale of 1-10 on a tightness factor, you probably register a 9 or a 10. What are your team mates going to think of you losing. By the way, you haven't lost yet, but you are already thinking of it.
I could go on and on. Why the hell do we do this to ourselves? I eventually lose the match. The next day, while practicing, I continue to make every shot.
Will someone please tell me how to control this type of behavior?
just last night at a tourney, after I finished a break and run, my opponent while racking mentioned how I almost missed the 7 ball....I told him, "I wish I could almost miss every ball; I'd never lose". He had no idea what I meant, and he went on to win the tournament. lol 
just last night at a tourney, after I finished a break and run, my opponent while racking mentioned how I almost missed the 7 ball....I told him, "I wish I could almost miss every ball; I'd never lose". He had no idea what I meant, and he went on to win the tournament. lol
lol that is good :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: and your answer to the op is no lol
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If you think that was funny, dig this.
A guy we all used to play One Pocket with decided he'd get a sex change operation, and become a woman. I went to visit him while he was in the hospital.
I asked him. "So what was the most painful part of the operation?"
"Well." He replied. "Most people think it was when they removed my penis, but that wasn't it. What hurt most was when they stuck a hypodermic needle into my ear and sucked out half my brains." :smile:
Kind of goes along with what we're talking about, doesn't it? 
I have been playing pool for 30 years, played exactly like you describe it, had a table last 10 years, but only last year or so i started hitting them good in matches, here is what i did:
1. I took the game seriously, and the goal for last year or so was finding why i miss.
2. With proper aim and focus you will never miss 3 and 4 diamonds shots, add perfect stroke you will never miss a shot. Since stroke is that hardest part to perfect, you have to compensate for it by perfect aiming,
Many people take aim & focus for granted, but in reality it is the hardest aspect of the game, you must think where to aim, find the pin point aim, (it takes aim to find where you need to hit, and it takes focus to get cb to contact ob at that aim) for long shots this could mean you will miss a shot if you are 1 mm off, think before you shoot, until you become perfect, aim is easy, focus is why you miss. SVB did not get there without thinking every shot at first, now he got the hang of it, a lot of teachers tell players if you think about it you will miss, i say they are dead wrong.
2. I do not practice games, i shoot all 4000 shots possibilities all the time, in another words, i set up shots and shoot them so many different ways until perfection, and apply during money games, if i failed, back to drawing board, finally i am shooting the same at practice as during games or at least getting there
3. Must play and practice combo shots, those will teach you a lot, start easy and progress, learn why you miss. (do not compensate for throw, shoot at exact aim-clean the balls)
4. Must play for money!! sorry!!
Thanks Naji, that is some good advice, especially the focus part. I just recently started paying more attention to my eye movement. I feel that when switching back and forth from the CB to the OB, I shoot to quickly when my eyes move back to the OB. I've just recently started taking just a little more time when I look at the OB just prior to shooting. I think by pulling the trigger to soon, it doesn't give your eyes a chance to focus real well. Now, I know someone that shoots speed pool, would probably not agree with this. But for us old geezers, the eyes don't work like they use to.
I do set shots up with hole reenforcements (donuts) and practice the shots that give me difficulty. There are some shots, like the ones that are 80 degrees, requiring a paper thin cut, you know, the ones that Dennis Ocullo fires down the rail with pin point accuracy, that I'll never be abble to make. Oh well, time for a safety.
I agree, one should play for money. However when you feel your knees buckling when playing for a pittance, say $2, it kind of takes the fun out of it. Also the SS checks aren't that big.
It's good to hear that I'm not the only one that this happens to. I will really concentrate on the focus part, that could be most of my problem.
Thanks again, Doug
You stated the reason this happens, but you didn't "hear" yourself say it! What you are doing in practice is a different game than when you play in competition. And, they shouldn't be.
In practice, you play the table, period. You see what you need to do, and then focus on doing that. In competition, you shift your thought process to not playing the game as you have trained, but to beating your opponent. You look at your opponent, and think "oh, I have him beat", and, now, in your mind, the game is already over. So...your mind is no longer there to actually play the table, no need to, you already won.
All you have to do is play like you practice. Forget your opponent, forget the match. Just play the table, put your focus in the same place you do when you practice.
You can not play to your abilities if you place artificial priorities on yourself. If you are thinking, "this guy is tough (or easy)", "I must win this match", then your focus in NOT on your play, but on the outcome. You are actually sabotaging yourself and the outcome by thinking those things.
You practice, or properly worded, train, to perform a certain way in actual play. Just do that. Perform the way you trained. Focus the way you trained. Only then can you "release" yourself to play to your actual abilities.
The same goes for the attitude of "I have to get out here, or make this shot, or I will look like I can't play". Artificial thoughts to sabotage yourself. Those thoughts go right to your subconscious, which is what actually performs the shot. Your conscious tells your subconscious what to do, and then your subconscious performs what it was told without any concern about the results. Results are a conscious thing.
If you have fear of missing, you just told your subconscious to miss, and it will find a way to do exactly that. If you tell yourself "this will be an easy match", you just told your subconscious that it doesn't need to apply itself very much. It can get a little lazy because it won't matter. Well, the game is actually hard enough that if you get a little lazy, you will miss. Then, you start a chain reaction. Now you are concerned because you just missed that "easy" shot, and think everything is going downhill. Guess what, you just told your subconscious to go "down hill", and it will do exactly that.
Train like you want to perform, and perform like you train.
If you tell yourself that you will never be able to make them, you will never be able to make them. OK, you have bad eyes, I do too. I can't even see the precise point on shots like that anymore. Not even with my glasses. Yet, I make them frequently. How? I use an aiming system that doesn't require me to see the dust on the balls anymore. A real thin cut is just another cut. All shots should get the same priority. If you label them hard or easy, you set yourself up to miss the hard ones, and then miss some easy ones because you gave yourself a license to get lazy on them.
If you did that at Hanks nobody would have noticed.
Exactly... not much different than a lot of other sports. I mean, I'm not a rocket scientist, well, until you put me next to Dennis Rodman, that I'm Albert Friggin Einstein !! Ok, he's got more "game" than me, and is over one foot taller, but that's about it
I find the older the person starts playing the less chance they have of ever being a top player.
I attribute this to inhibitions.
The younger we are the less we have.
The mind is more open to trying different things and failure never enters the mind. As we age we lose the willingness to take chances an experiment.
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http://tommcgonaglerightoncue.com
I attribute this to inhibitions.
The younger we are the less we have.
The mind is more open to trying different things and failure never enters the mind. As we age we lose the willingness to take chances an experiment.
_____________________________________________
http://tommcgonaglerightoncue.com
No
No. That is pretty low.
Kind of goes along with what we're talking about, doesn't it?
No. That is pretty low.
.
Neil,
I agree with what you are saying. I know I let negative thoughts ruin my game at times. When you are "training", you have no reason to think of anything other than making the shot. If you miss, keep setting it up until you make it consistently. No worries about the opponent, or having to come from behind, etc. I've been reading a lot about one's subconcious and how it takes over. How many times do you beat yourself?
Between you and Naji and the advice that you both have given me, I've got a lot of work to do. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.
I will start now by saying I will conquer this demon within me and will overcome this adverse behavior.
Thanks, Dougster
Not sure what's considered an average mind...are we going by IQ? Also, it's tough for the tough-headed, close minded and unmotivated. Lastly, almost TOO MANY people I know play IMPAIRED if you catch my drift...some play lights out in this state of mind, some you just wanna punch them in the throat.
Same here. I have a M.D. brother who is on the other end of the pole when it comes to being street smart. I dragged him a pool hall one day day and never lasted 5min. he just cant get all the jokes and relate to all the stories that we ordinary people go thru.