Leveraging your subconscious (read: don't let your conscious get in the way!)

[sfleinen]

Thanks Brian! To be honest, I think this type of mistake hurts MORE when you're deeper into a long run. When I run 20 balls and miss, or 16 and miss, or even 5 and miss, I wasn't that emotionally invested into the run. I hadn't had a chance to "bond into" the run, if that makes sense. When you get into a deep run, you tend to "bond" with it, and you become it / it becomes you. You lose all sense of your surroundings, and you're shooting purely from instinct. And that is the trick to get into these deep runs -- to block everything out and not let outside influences affect you. "Shoot from the subconscious," so-to-speak. Too often, people try to keep their conscious/analytical mind engaged into every detail, checking their fundamentals (grip/bridge/stance/head-eye-position/etc.), end-running their shot-making computer, the subconscious.

What you can't let happen, however -- as I made the mistake last night -- is to not respect every shot, that just because you're in the full rhythm of running balls, that if you just throw your stick at a ball, that the expectation will be "that it goes into the pocket like magic." B-i-i-i-g mistake. And one that I make far too often, because of my quick pace at the table. Probably one that is keeping me from joining Steve L.'s esteemed 200-club. I'd recently dusted-off my well-worn copy of Bob Fancher's Pleasures of Small Motions, and I'm going to reacquaint myself with the chapters on focus maintenance.

Thanks Joe! Actually, it's in us to hit numbers like that regularly, assuming the required solid fundamentals and practice time is in place. The question is, can you pull it out of you? The difference in excellence at our game (14.1) over other games is consistency -- over the long haul. Consistently pocketing balls, in a rhythm, without over-analyzing things.

Those that are good at rotation games can get away with keeping the conscious/analytical mind engaged all the time, because that is for a short haul -- 10 balls or less. Your mind "resets" after pocketing each rack-winning ball (i.e. the 9-/10-ball). And, if you miss, chances are that you'll get to the table again, especially in alternate-break situations. Not so in 14.1, because each rack "links into" the next. You have to carefully plan for and execute that linkage. One false move, and you can be 1 point away from match-winning point; it doesn't matter -- your opponent is liable to make you sit and watch you LOSE the match, just because you had a lapse of concentration, but he/she won't.

Once you are fundamentally sound enough to "link" two and three racks together, there's really nothing stopping you from going further. It's all in the head. For many folks, it's the problem of staying focused for that long. (When I say "focused," I'm not talking about the conscious/analytical mind. Rather, I'm talking about blocking everything out, focus on the task at hand -- pocket that ball in front of you, get shape for the next, and the next... ad-infinitum until the break ball.) And it's my problem, too. I tend to make some really BONEHEADED mistakes right after I break 100. I think it might be that I somehow "relax" a bit and think I'm over a hurdle, when in actuality, I'm not. Obviously, I need to work on a few things "upstairs," "between the ears."

Hope this is helpful!
-Sean

Folks:

I'd gotten a couple PMs about the information above, and each person recommended that I take this info and make a separate thread out of it. (And I thank those folks, because I agree that it might be a good idea.)

Those of you that know me, know I'm a big advocate of leveraging your built-in shot-making / pattern-fulfilling supercomputer, your subconscious mind. I firmly believe that most otherwise-good pool players "analyze" their way out of longer/deeper runs, and are shortchanging themselves by end-running that massive storehouse of shot-making experience we all have, the subconscious. All too often, we're told to "mind" our fundamentals, "watch" our stroke / foot placement / head-eye alignment, "look" for this, "be mindful" of that, etc. While in our initial pool-learning stages (or in the post-instructional-lesson bad-habit-breakage phase) this is a good thing, once we've established our fundamentals and more or less have them committed to muscle memory, there comes a time when we need to "stop doing that."

Continuing to engage your conscious mind 100% of the time is short-circuiting / end-running that part of your brain that was specifically designed and intended to store that information -- the subconscious mind. What we should be doing is let our muscle memories and the subconscious take over. Many folks don't realize it, but after a couple thousand hours of playing pool, we've built-up a pretty considerable storehouse of information to tap from. Every "made" shot, every "missed" shot, every perfect position, every missed position, etc. -- like the famous spaghetti sauce, "it's in there!" We just need to know how to tap into it.

The secret? LET GO. Stop letting your conscious mind get in your way. Stop analyzing and scrutinizing every shot on the table. Just let go. Shoot the shot in front of you. Without talking to yourself (this is key, for when you "talk" to yourself, you're engaging your conscious mind!), just shoot the shot. Let it happen. If you miss, stay down, let your mind absorb what you did wrong (i.e. overcut it? undercut it?). Then, get up, pick out your next shot, and shoot it. Same thing -- stay down, and "absorb" the experience. DON'T TALK TO YOURSELF. And, don't engage your emotions, either. Don't curse yourself because you missed. Just notice what went wrong, and DISCONNECT. Move on to the next shot. Trust me on this, when you're doing this correctly, you're storing information that you will use IMMEDIATELY. If you play like this for about an hour, you'll notice an amazing thing start to happen -- you're making every shot on the table, and you're not even thinking about it. After you practice like this for a couple days, you'll notice that you're also making every shot on the table and you're getting position as well!

Why does this happen? Simple. The human, like every halfway ascensional / intelligent being, learns from experiences without effort. You don't have to "think" about remembering you missed a shot and why; you just do. It's a form of pain/pleasure remembrance. If it feels good, you remember what you did so that you can recreate the experience in a similar situation later. Likewise for pain -- but this time you remember it because you want to recognize what went wrong and how to avoid it.

If you *think* about these things with your conscious mind, then only your conscious mind will remember them. And for how long can we engage our conscious mind? I don't know about you, but my attention span -- where I'm paying conscious attention to every detail -- is not long at all. I drift off / space out after a while. But when I play pool and use the steps I outline above to *experience* pool with my subconscious mind, and not consciously think about it, I find that my energy reserves and staying power to get and stay into the longer runs seems almost endless. I end up enjoying the experience a whole lot more. When I finally do miss, or hook myself / glue the cue ball inside the pack where I don't have a shot (i.e. run comes to an end), I don't go, "phew! boy, that took a lot out of me, I'm tired!" Nope, I don't feel drained or tired at all. In fact, other than "waking up" my conscious mind (which then starts cursing because I missed / goofed -- "hey conscious mind, where were you all this time, and you have such nerve to start cursing now?" ), I'm ready to "sink into" the next run. I can play for hours and hours and hours like this, and not be tired.

We all can learn this skill, and use it in competitive situations. First, in practice -- so there's no pressure -- and then later, we learn how to tap into it / leverage it in competition. (This latter form takes a bit of experience, and quite a lot of trust / faith in yourself. But as Yoda says, "do it, you must, and succeed, you will!")

<as Sean realizes he just went into his subconscious when writing this very post -- a "stream of subconsciousness" post, if you will>

Apologies for the long-ish post, but I hope there's some useful information here, and I'm eager to hear everyone's opinion -- good or bad -- about it!

Thoughts? (Conscious mind or otherwise )
-Sean

 

[Wink]

EXCELLENT post and thread Sean!

Tanks so much for putting it together. Funny thing is, when I try, I get myself hooked or stuck or just miss the harder shot I chose consciously.

When I relax, I put the rack in with out thinking.

Of course, I still have to learn patterns and all sorts of other things, but usually making the ball is the easy part for me. Not to say I am automatic, just that I play better, and make better shots when I "just do it" instead of over analyze everything.

I still need to learn the logic of what to shoot, and when and why. No doubt, I have tons to learn there. But I like what you said related to stringing together a few racks. Once we can string together a few racks, the only difference in continuing is focus. That makes perfect sense to me.

Anyhow, as a newbie (and one of the worst players on here) I truly appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks again for sharing them!

 

[jeffmohl]

Straight Pool Runs

This reminds me of "The Inner Game Of Tennis" by Timothy Gallway which I am now reading. There are two parts of our minds and the analytical portion gets in the way of the sub conscious part. Very good book on the subject by a guy who has been commissioned by lots of big important companies to help improve performance.

 

[SpiderWebComm]

Super post. That describes me perfectly. When I'm playing really well, I'm "Bonded" with the run. I know exactly what you mean. My biggest hurdle is to clear my mind and let it happen instead of TRYING to run them.

 

[Ratta]

Hats off Sean,

excellent post my friend!
Imo one of the hardest things you can show/teach to a player..-- To *JUST* play and let it go....


lg from overseas,

Ingo

 

[dmgwalsh]

Kudos to Sean

Excellent observation, Sean. I have read and re-read Pleasures of Small Motions and it makes sense to me. Fels talked about it earlier, but Fancher goes into much greater detail.

I copied your post and emailed it to both of my leagues and, based upon the replies I am getting, you have already inspired a bunch of guys. One guy said he read it, tried to play that way and ran a 52 or so that night.

Keep up the good work.:thumbup:

 

[stevekur1]

Sean,

Awesome Post !!!

I often think that sometimes you are a little lengthy on things, but this time you hit it on the head..

I have only picked up a cue once in the past month or so due to my Back Issue, but i feel after reading that article i could go out and run a million balls (Maybe i should bring the camera...LOL)


Thanks
-Steve

 

[sfleinen]

Thanks guys!

Thanks for all the great feedback, folks, good and bad!

I know I may be "verbose" at times when I post, but as an author, I take great pains to properly write long posts, paragraph-izing and de-droning to make it palatable to the reader. Those that shy away from long posts no matter how well / pains-taken written, actually prove one of my points -- there may be an inherent attention span problem that may translate to his/her game, preventing him/her from getting into or staying in those long runs! (I say this based on what you folks may've seen in another thread in the Main forum concerning Bob Fancher's Pleasures of Small Motions -- there are people that are simply INCAPABLE of an attention span long enough to read a small paperback book of 140 pages -- less than the size of today's TV Guide! These folks prove to be certainly rotation game-oriented -- quick satisfaction for a short-term attention span.)

There's another point, by the way. Using the subconscious mind to shoot pool from, many times can bypass the attention span problem in the conscious mind.

Anyway, I hope this thread can help some folks. I really appreciated Dennis' feedback that the info was beneficial to some of his fellow league'ers! That's the kind of news I love to hear!

-Sean

 

[PoolSharkAllen]

Those of you that know me, know I'm a big advocate of leveraging your built-in shot-making / pattern-fulfilling supercomputer, your subconscious mind. I firmly believe that most otherwise-good pool players "analyze" their way out of longer/deeper runs, and are shortchanging themselves by end-running that massive storehouse of shot-making experience we all have, the subconscious. All too often, we're told to "mind" our fundamentals, "watch" our stroke / foot placement / head-eye alignment, "look" for this, "be mindful" of that, etc. While in our initial pool-learning stages (or in the post-instructional-lesson bad-habit-breakage phase) this is a good thing, once we've established our fundamentals and more or less have them committed to muscle memory, there comes a time when we need to "stop doing that."

Continuing to engage your conscious mind 100% of the time is short-circuiting / end-running that part of your brain that was specifically designed and intended to store that information -- the subconscious mind. What we should be doing is let our muscle memories and the subconscious take over. Many folks don't realize it, but after a couple thousand hours of playing pool, we've built-up a pretty considerable storehouse of information to tap from.

The secret? LET GO. Stop letting your conscious mind get in your way. Stop analyzing and scrutinizing every shot on the table. Just let go. Shoot the shot in front of you. Without talking to yourself (this is key, for when you "talk" to yourself, you're engaging your conscious mind!), just shoot the shot. Let it happen. If you miss, stay down, let your mind absorb what you did wrong (i.e. overcut it? undercut it?). Then, get up, pick out your next shot, and shoot it. Same thing -- stay down, and "absorb" the experience. DON'T TALK TO YOURSELF. And, don't engage your emotions, either. Don't curse yourself because you missed. Just notice what went wrong, and DISCONNECT. Move on to the next shot. Trust me on this, when you're doing this correctly, you're storing information that you will use IMMEDIATELY. If you play like this for about an hour, you'll notice an amazing thing start to happen -- you're making every shot on the table, and you're not even thinking about it. After you practice like this for a couple days, you'll notice that you're also making every shot on the table and you're getting position as well!

If you *think* about these things with your conscious mind, then only your conscious mind will remember them. And for how long can we engage our conscious mind? I don't know about you, but my attention span -- where I'm paying conscious attention to every detail -- is not long at all. I drift off / space out after a while. But when I play pool and use the steps I outline above to *experience* pool with my subconscious mind, and not consciously think about it, I find that my energy reserves and staying power to get and stay into the longer runs seems almost endless.
We all can learn this skill, and use it in competitive situations. First, in practice -- so there's no pressure -- and then later, we learn how to tap into it / leverage it in competition. (This latter form takes a bit of experience, and quite a lot of trust / faith in yourself. But as Yoda says, "do it, you must, and succeed, you will!")

Thoughts? (Conscious mind or otherwise )
-Sean

Interesting thread Sean but I'm not clear on what you're asking us to do. Are we supposed to let go of our analytical selves and just shoot faster, more impulsively? As we spend less time analyzing and speed up our tempo, are we supposed to spend less time planning our patterns and count on our shot-making abilities to get us back in line? If there are clusters and other problems at the table, is our subconscious mind going to figure out how to resolve these problems? :grin-square:

 

[Rethunk]

Thanks! Nice post.

In my day job and as a hobby I program machines to emulate human visual and cognitive processes. When I read phrases like "unconscious" and "muscle memory" I grimace a bit. They're helpful terms, but taken too literally they can be misleading. At the risk of seeming like an ungrateful nitpicker, and since you wanted feedback, I'd like to offer some slight tweaks to the presentation.

There are many ways to describe how a pool player can achieve "flow" during practice and during competition, and I think your recommendations are good. Your information is accurate, and the presentation is partly a matter of preference.

Those of you that know me, know I'm a big advocate of leveraging your built-in shot-making / pattern-fulfilling supercomputer, your subconscious mind. I firmly believe that most otherwise-good pool players "analyze" their way out of longer/deeper runs, ...

In a recent experiment, it was demonstrated that golfers who thought about their stroke while putting performed worse than golfers who focused on words such as "smooth." I've tried that technique myself, and although it's hard to be objective about what helps one's own playing, the technique seems to help me.

Continuing to engage your conscious mind 100% of the time is short-circuiting / end-running that part of your brain that was specifically designed and intended to store that information -- the subconscious mind. What we should be doing is let our muscle memories and the subconscious take over.

I'd like to suggest that, rather than "designed", the part of the brain that handles pool playing has been "programmed."

Each of us is the programmer of his or her own brain. It's possible to mis-program one's brain, especially when learning a task for which there is no inborn ability.

We have an innate ability to recognize faces. We don't have an innate ability to read text, but reading relies on many parts of the brain that are repurposed for the task as we make the effort to learn letters and words. Although we rely on our vision and other senses to play pool, there are no ready-made structures for playing billiards as there are for facial recognition or reading. We have to learn billiards from scratch, and it's possible to learn poorly.

Although information is stored, it's not memories that we rely on, but rather learned patterns. To put it another way, we don't "store" the data itself in our brains, we store flexible sets of instructions: in situation X, do Y. Of course we retain some specific memories of great shots, bobbled 9-balls, and so on, but those are the exceptions. The pool-playing brain is a computer or a machine rather than simply a storage of memories.

One of the best bits of Fancher's book is the description of pool playing in terms of input, computation, and output. As input the pool-playing brain accepts images from our eyes, a sense of where our arms and legs are located (proprioception), the feeling of weight in the cue, and so on. The pool-playing brain "computes" an output: a set of directions to move the muscles.

That output or feedback is what some people call "instinct"--it's not verbal, but instead is a sense that the muscles should be moved a certain way. From what I remember from the Inner Game of Tennis, this feedback was referred to as coming from "Self 2". But the sensation is not an instinct; an instinct is an innate and unlearned behavioral impulse.

Further, the pool-playing part of your brain is not a second self. It computes, but it has no will or motives or general-purpose thinking ability on its own. The pool-playing machine in your brain is just one of the many specialized "programs" or "agents" you've programmed yourself. There is one self, and it is composed of many such parts.

You might think of an "agent" as a specialized machine like a meat grinder: feed it a slab of beef or venison, and out comes ground meat. Arguing with the grinder, banging on it, or trying to crank it in the wrong way not only won't help, but could actually screw things up. No burger for you.

Of course, it may be sufficient for some folks to think in terms of Self 1 and Self 2, but ultimately that can be limiting. To me it seems more direct (and accurate) to think along the lines of what Fancher and cognitive scientists describe. Even when we strive to be more accurate, any of our conceptualizations or descriptions are simplifications, and it's partly a matter of taste to decide what qualifies as an oversimplification.

Many folks don't realize it, but after a couple thousand hours of playing pool, we've built-up a pretty considerable storehouse of information to tap from. Every "made" shot, every "missed" shot, every perfect position, every missed position, etc. -- like the famous spaghetti sauce, "it's in there!" We just need to know how to tap into it.

I don't believe it's the case that every single shot is stored in memory, if that's what you meant. What remains in the pool-playing brain isn't a collection of individual memories of every three-railer, every crossover bank, every nine ball in the corner, etc., but an "agent" or machine that has been trained to respond to certain input. Nearly all of the original training data (the memories) is lost or degraded, but the trained machine remains.

Similarly, you won't remember every word you read or every letter you practiced writing while learning to read, but once you've developed facility in reading, you can read any text. The reading machine is in place.

The secret? LET GO. Stop letting your conscious mind get in your way. Stop analyzing and scrutinizing every shot on the table. ... After you practice like this for a couple days, you'll notice that you're also making every shot on the table and you're getting position as well!

Great advice!

The type of practice matters, too. We make a deliberate choice what to practice--Joe Tucker's drills, perhaps--but then need to allow the pool-playing brain to learn uninterrupted. The output of the meat grinder depends on the quality of meat fed to it, not whether we say nice or nasty things to it. ("Yeah, you'd BETTER grind well, 'cause I was looking at an Oster grinder at Target the other day. I'm just sayin'.")

Why does this happen? Simple. The human, like every halfway ascensional / intelligent being, learns from experiences without effort.

Good learning usually involves some reflection after practice or competition. I recall that Blackjack wrote about this in Lessons in 9-Ball.

If you *think* about these things with your conscious mind, then only your conscious mind will remember them.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

We have short-term memory which is limited to a few items. That memory is filled either by sensory data--"I just taw a puddy tat!"--or by long-term memories pulled out of storage. As noted above, there are the "agents" or meat grinders in the brain that are specialized to perform certain tasks; these agents are more than just stored raw data, but are something analogous to computer programs that can process new data.

When the pool-playing agent goes into action, we don't have to process memories. The sensory data is crunched by the pool-playing agent in a sort of pipeline: we see the table, the pool-playing agent provides muscle directions, we see what happens and move to the next shot, rinse, repeat. If we don't get in the way of what the pool-playing agent indicates what are muscles should do, we're not storing memories. The meat grinder just grinds meat without taking notes about it. That might explain the effortless feeling and sense of timelessness.

Sometimes another portion of the brain can act like a railbird and observe what's happening. At other times, the sense of flow takes over such that time hardly seems to pass. The longer my run at snooker, generally the less likely I am to remember the score. I'm just shooting.

Another note: if you play "Mum Pool" and avoid talking while playing, as describe in McCumber's Playing Off the Rail, then there's less interference in the process. Generally a good idea.

But when I play pool and use the steps I outline above to *experience* pool with my subconscious mind, and not consciously think about it, I find that my energy reserves and staying power to get and stay into the longer runs seems almost endless.

Thinking hard certainly burns up energy!

So there's another way to spin the lesson: relying on one's properly trained pool-playing brain is a way to conserve energy. Maybe that saves money by limiting losses at the table. Or something.

Again, thanks for your post.

 

[PoolSharkAllen]

I'd like to suggest that, rather than "designed", the part of the brain that handles pool playing has been "programmed."

Each of us is the programmer of his or her own brain. It's possible to mis-program one's brain, especially when learning a task for which there is no inborn ability.

Although information is stored, it's not memories that we rely on, but rather learned patterns. To put it another way, we don't "store" the data itself in our brains, we store flexible sets of instructions: in situation X, do Y. Of course we retain some specific memories of great shots, bobbled 9-balls, and so on, but those are the exceptions. The pool-playing brain is a computer or a machine rather than simply a storage of memories.

One of the best bits of Fancher's book is the description of pool playing in terms of input, computation, and output. As input the pool-playing brain accepts images from our eyes, a sense of where our arms and legs are located (proprioception), the feeling of weight in the cue, and so on. The pool-playing brain "computes" an output: a set of directions to move the muscles.

I don't believe it's the case that every single shot is stored in memory, if that's what you meant. What remains in the pool-playing brain isn't a collection of individual memories of every three-railer, every crossover bank, every nine ball in the corner, etc., but an "agent" or machine that has been trained to respond to certain input. Nearly all of the original training data (the memories) is lost or degraded, but the trained machine remains.

Similarly, you won't remember every word you read or every letter you practiced writing while learning to read, but once you've developed facility in reading, you can read any text. The reading machine is in place.

When the pool-playing agent goes into action, we don't have to process memories. The sensory data is crunched by the pool-playing agent in a sort of pipeline: we see the table, the pool-playing agent provides muscle directions, we see what happens and move to the next shot, rinse, repeat. If we don't get in the way of what the pool-playing agent indicates what are muscles should do, we're not storing memories. The meat grinder just grinds meat without taking notes about it. That might explain the effortless feeling and sense of timelessness.

So there's another way to spin the lesson: relying on one's properly trained pool-playing brain is a way to conserve energy.

The various games in pool do have a lot in common with playing chess, in that one does need to plan ahead regardless of whether they are playing pool or chess.

In chess, one of the differences between a highly skilled grandmaster and a lesser player is the ability to recognize patterns (pattern recognition). Having played thousands of games, a chess grandmaster recognizes certain patterns that allow them to recognize a situation that they've encountered before and know how to deal with it. A similar situation in pool might be utilizing a breakout ball to break open a cluster.

Players in either chess or pool use heuristics, a set of rules to solve problems. A more advanced player that plays faster than a slower player may do so because their set of heuristics is more refined as they may have been in a similar situation before and know how to react to it.

In the original post where Sean suggested we let ourselves go and let our subconscious brain take over, I think this statement can be interpreted too literally. Both pool and chess are games that require precision and planning ahead. Our subconscious brain may allow us to come up with creative solutions to solving problems but we still need our conscious brains to decide upon a course of action.

 

[Rethunk]

The various games in pool do have a lot in common with playing chess, in that one does need to plan ahead regardless of whether they are playing pool or chess.

In chess, one of the differences between a highly skilled grandmaster and a lesser player is the ability to recognize patterns (pattern recognition). Having played thousands of games, a chess grandmaster recognizes certain patterns that allow them to recognize a situation that they've encountered before and know how to deal with it. A similar situation in pool might be utilizing a breakout ball to break open a cluster.

This is a good analogy. Expertise in chess players has been studied fairly closely. I seem to recall that a master player can state feeling "uncomfortable" about the notion of making certain moves. Other players, if I remember correctly, feel a certain "pressure" on an space on the board according to the pieces addressing that space or that could potentially attack it.

In the original post where Sean suggested we let ourselves go and let our subconscious brain take over, I think this statement can be interpreted too literally. Both pool and chess are games that require precision and planning ahead. Our subconscious brain may allow us to come up with creative solutions to solving problems but we still need our conscious brains to decide upon a course of action.

Analyzing the rack may require deliberate focus, and there are many situations when we have to weigh options: carom or combo? go for it or play safe? make the smart play or try to impress that waitress who's about to walk by?

I believe that Sean's point was to avoid deliberating and analyzing while executing the shot: once the muscles get all fired up to move the cue, it's best to let the trained pool-playing part of the brain take over. Although planning is required in both chess and pool, it's a struggle in pool to follow the advice one AzB user has as a signature: "Don't shoot in the thinking position. Don't think in the shooting position." It's a whole 'nother art to switch seamlessly between analysis and smooth, flowing play.

In The Inner Game of Tennis, Gallwey states it well (from what I remember): think where you want the ball to be, and then let what he calls Self 2 control the body to put the ball there. Deciding to fire the ball at the opponent's feet due to a deficiency in their play is probably a conscious, tactical decision.

 

[sfleinen]

This is a good analogy. Expertise in chess players has been studied fairly closely. I seem to recall that a master player can state feeling "uncomfortable" about the notion of making certain moves. Other players, if I remember correctly, feel a certain "pressure" on an space on the board according to the pieces addressing that space or that could potentially attack it.

PoolSharkAllen and Rethunk:

First of all, thank you for the great feedback! Apologies for my belated reply; I'd taken off for a much-needed 3-day weekend away.

Concerning the points about taking the "letting go" and "use your subconscious" suggestions too literally, *of course*, I think this goes without saying, but perhaps it's helpful that it is said.

There are times when your conscious mind is involved playing pool. You can't help it -- it *is* a cerebral activity, afterall. What I was talking about was removing the deliberation and conscious-effort-focusing-on-details aspects. Patterns, you need to think about. Shooting a shot, you don't. Get down on it, envision it going into the pocket, and envision where you want the cue ball to go. Don't think about it. Do.

You'll be surprised how "desire" translates into "action." If you properly envision what you want to do, your mind/body "wants" to make it happen. And very often, when you're in the zone, happen it does.

Like Rethunk mentions above, this can even be extended to patterns themselves. After you've shot a lot of patterns, and you let yourself enter "auto pilot" mode, you'd be surprised how many of those patterns repeat. I've actually run many a rack down to the final triangle, only to have my conscious mind "wake up" and notice there's only three balls left on the table. It's almost like, "Where'd the other balls go?" (Not quite, of course, as I can remember certain shots and what I did to get to the next shot. But I am surprised that I went through those balls "so quickly" -- or at least how it appears to my conscious mind.)

The first several times you try to run entire racks like this -- shoot without deliberation/thinking -- you'll find you have no patterns. It's just a series of random shots that "appeal" to you for whatever reason. But after awhile of continuing to play like this, you'll see a rhyme behind your reason. Patterns start to be followed, and you're not consciously thinking and deliberating about them. Are they the "best" 14.1 patterns? Probably not. But are they in your realm of capability / visualization? Most likely, yes.

Analyzing the rack may require deliberate focus, and there are many situations when we have to weigh options: carom or combo? go for it or play safe? make the smart play or try to impress that waitress who's about to walk by?

I believe that Sean's point was to avoid deliberating and analyzing while executing the shot: once the muscles get all fired up to move the cue, it's best to let the trained pool-playing part of the brain take over. Although planning is required in both chess and pool, it's a struggle in pool to follow the advice one AzB user has as a signature: "Don't shoot in the thinking position. Don't think in the shooting position." It's a whole 'nother art to switch seamlessly between analysis and smooth, flowing play.

In The Inner Game of Tennis, Gallwey states it well (from what I remember): think where you want the ball to be, and then let what he calls Self 2 control the body to put the ball there. Deciding to fire the ball at the opponent's feet due to a deficiency in their play is probably a conscious, tactical decision.

That's exactly right. And the "pool playing part" of the brain encapsulates a lot more than just the physical part of delivering the cue. The subconscious mind also stores away patterns -- patterns that repeat a lot! If you just glance at, say, 4 balls "randomly" placed on the table, I'll bet you'll "instantly" see a pattern or two of how to run the balls -- again, at a moment's glance. Of course, if you deliberate, you can find many more. But are these extended patterns instinctual to you? Are they in the realm of your ability (e.g. are we talking table-length draw shots with pinpoint precision)? Most often, the first pattern or two that you first see -- at a glance -- is the correct one for you, and is in your realm of ability. You've seen it before, you've run it before, and you're comfortable with it.

Now, am I saying this is accurate 100% of the time? No, I'm not. There's always something to learn, and always something to practice to add the skill to your arsenal, so that you'll see a pattern the next time that actually leverages this new skill. That's what practice is for.

But competition (as in league, tournaments, etc.) is not practice -- that's SHOW TIME! Time to put away the practice, and "put into practice" that which is stored away and "automatic." When one has pressure applied to him/her, that's the wrong time to be deliberating. The conscious mind is vulnerable to emotions, second-guessing, etc. And this is what destroys what would otherwise come naturally without thought. I'm sure we all remember shots we missed in pressure situations that, in "practice" we'd nail 9 out of 10 times. Yet the one time we needed success the most, we pull out that 1 out of 10 miss? Sounds like something compromised the mental gearbox, there, and I'm thinking it's the conscious mind got in the subconscious' way!

Anyway, this is great stuff! Hope everyone had a great weekend!
-Sean

 

[JE54]

Bump to be in the thread..................

 

[Greg Buban]

Thanks for all the great feedback, folks, good and bad!

I know I may be "verbose" at times when I post, but as an author, I take great pains to properly write long posts, paragraph-izing and de-droning to make it palatable to the reader. Those that shy away from long posts no matter how well / pains-taken written, actually prove one of my points -- there may be an inherent attention span problem that may translate to his/her game, preventing him/her from getting into or staying in those long runs! (I say this based on what you folks may've seen in another thread in the Main forum concerning Bob Fancher's Pleasures of Small Motions -- there are people that are simply INCAPABLE of an attention span long enough to read a small paperback book of 140 pages -- less than the size of today's TV Guide! These folks prove to be certainly rotation game-oriented -- quick satisfaction for a short-term attention span.)

There's another point, by the way. Using the subconscious mind to shoot pool from, many times can bypass the attention span problem in the conscious mind.

Anyway, I hope this thread can help some folks. I really appreciated Dennis' feedback that the info was beneficial to some of his fellow league'ers! That's the kind of news I love to hear!

-Sean

Another one of Dennis' league'ers...and thanks to Dennis, who is always willing to help anyone willing to listen. Your post is just great. Aside from the importance of the mental side, the fact that this must also be practiced is the key. After getting back into the game after 30 years, and obviously a little older, learning how to stay focused takes up most of my practice time. Thanks again.

 

[One Pocket John]

A blast from the past.

A very good read.

11 years ago I quit playing to pursue other interests.

About 20 months ago I cleared all the stuff that had accumulated on the table and broke out the old Schuller and started hitting balls. Holly crap, what a disaster.

Before I quit playing I was pretty good, had no problems feeling the Qball or the shot. I could feel where the Qball was going and had no problems with getting position for the next shot.

For the last 20 months I have been trying to make things happen, I can tell you now that it doesn't work.

I recently started reading about letting go and it reminded me of times when I played that I would run racks of 9 ball and not remember doing it until my opponent would make a comment like, man, you ran 4 racks or Hey John the games over, you won. Well that would screw things up and I would try to copy my previous actions.

Needless to say, my conscious mind was trying and I wasn't letting go.

Getting back to how to keep your conscious mind out of your performance is something that needs to be practiced.

All decisions must be made in the standing position, once decisions are made on where you want the cue ball to stop bend down and shoot the shot. When you bend down to shoot the shot, believe me here your conscious mind is going to try to get in the way by saying things like...dont hit it too hard or use low left. When this happens STOP. Raise up decide what you want to do, bend over again and take the shot. I focus on the hit spot on the OB and think of nothing else and let my sub conscious do the rest.

All of our lives people have been taught that you have to make things happen, why not just "let things happen".

I read this thread and thought that it was well worth bringing back to life.

Oh by the way, I am now practicing "letting go" and it ain't easy at my age.:smile:

Scroll down to the top 10.
http://kbcnc.blogspot.com/2011/08/poolsynergy-10-ways-to-quiet-mind.html

John

 

[1ab]

Thanks sfleinin !

I came upon this post last week by happenstance. I read it carefully and decided to give every effort in following your advice, verbatim. I have read Bob Fancher's book, and for the most part, absorbed the material quite well. One area of difficulty I had was explained vividly in your post. I could easily recognize my subconscious, but had no clue how to stay in it ! My experience at this year’s state VNEA tourney was RADICALLY changed by adhering to the suggestions of resisting the urge to talk to myself, staying away from "self deprecating talk ", practicing correctly, and using those magic key words "Let Go". I thought in one respect, this whole concept to be most difficult, in believing resolve for each new puzzle must occur consciously and then transcend into your subconscious. Boy was I wrong. The more I practiced this method, the more I came to understand the success that came to me. I wasn't shooting better than I could, I was just playing better overall. Setbacks became learning experiences instead of a snowball rolling downhill. I just felt compelled to personally thank you for your valuable post. I finally cashed and I know I had a lot of coaching and a lot of practice that led to my success, but I truly believe your post was significant and I thank you.

 

[sfleinen]

I came upon this post last week by happenstance. I read it carefully and decided to give every effort in following your advice, verbatim. I have read Bob Fancher's book, and for the most part, absorbed the material quite well. One area of difficulty I had was explained vividly in your post. I could easily recognize my subconscious, but had no clue how to stay in it ! My experience at this year’s state VNEA tourney was RADICALLY changed by adhering to the suggestions of resisting the urge to talk to myself, staying away from "self deprecating talk ", practicing correctly, and using those magic key words "Let Go". I thought in one respect, this whole concept to be most difficult, in believing resolve for each new puzzle must occur consciously and then transcend into your subconscious. Boy was I wrong. The more I practiced this method, the more I came to understand the success that came to me. I wasn't shooting better than I could, I was just playing better overall. Setbacks became learning experiences instead of a snowball rolling downhill. I just felt compelled to personally thank you for your valuable post. I finally cashed and I know I had a lot of coaching and a lot of practice that led to my success, but I truly believe your post was significant and I thank you.

1ab:

Thank you for posting this testimonial. I'm *so* glad that this information has helped out to the degree it has for you. To hear that the info helped someone "get in the money" (especially ratcheting playing ability to that next level) is just, well, let's put it this way -- I feel like taking a box of Cubanos and a bottle of cognac out onto the back porch to celebrate. That's how rewarding it is to hear this kind of feedback! It was its own reward.

Here's to your continued success! <ting! of the cognac snifter>
-Sean

 

[Hector3cushion]

Excellent post!

 

[rikdee]

What Jeff Mohl said. This is one of the best books a pool player can read. Letting go of self judgement is key. I'm neither playing good nor bad but instead, allowing myself to play....