After all these yrs of mental breakdowns not being able to stay focused if and when I hit the zone it was only one distraction away from disaster weather it was a missed or bone head shot or some fox standing in the corner , it did not take much ,,
I had had some limted success with books and tapes but it would soon wear off,, I posted a thread about visiting a sports shrink and it got very little play,, I posed the guestion to a couple of good players I know that know me well where they thought my mental game was compared to my physical game both said mental game was my down fall and if I ever got proberly focused I would be a solid player,, I felt the same way,
I had got on a masters team rite at playoff time because of some circumstaces and we had won the local qualifers and we had a shot a vegas in a couple of month later Im 52 dont play league anymore so this might be my last shot
So I booked a trip to the sports shrink ,,
I give him a quick run down of my problam staying focsed and how it turns into anxity and anger soon after
First thing he points out that my breathing is probaly out of wack because of yrs of contact sports so he shows me how to proberly breath
Then he asks me what I do while I am sitting in the chair , I reply usualy I focus in on the table sometimes I get distracted at something in the room and my eyes get drawn to that.
He tells me you cant focus in on the table the whole time , you may do that a game or two but after a long period of time you will burn out because your mind burns out faster than the body and you cant replenish it near as fast,, so he says glance around not stopping more than a split second or 2 on any one thing so the brain does not have time to shift into the thinking process,, then when you get to the table your mind is clear
Next he asks me what I do when things start going array well thats a loaded guestion could be any number of snaps,,
So he says ok you need a routine for negitive quick anger before it festers
So we come up with wringing the stick like a wet towell one time and no more go back to glancing around
Then He teaches me how to focus my eyes in when my breathing so when I shoot the ball my eyes and breathing are in tune,,
He had me bring my cue and he was a player back in the day so he knew the game so we incorperated and simulated my preshot routine
A few more words of advice off I go
I saw results right away in a couple of turnys I used for practice before the masters vegas round ,, I told several poeple I know how what I did and got the usual snickers ,cracks and stares , untill 2 weeks ago when that day came when I came with the most focused pool of my life
In one match I backed up into a spectator they moved over but not far enough so he moved again but left his case my foot hit that . i stood back up for the third time set back down and drill a long rail to rail shot on the money ball,,
A good friend of mine owner of Big Daddys Rick Molinaro who knew about my vist came over to me after that macth and said he could not believe what he had just saw and that while he was playing his match watching me calmed him down,, the bad news for my next 2 opponets is my best pool was yet to come knocking off a 2nd place finisher on the action tour in our 1 side loss and coming back on Sun with a even higher level of play and winning the paid slot to vegas ,,
They laugh no more!!!!
Now what I have drawn from this and the zone,, is that the zone I was in was a controlled conscious zone after one macth I told a team mate I thought I could dial in on a nats eye ball , he said funny you mention that becasue we were talking about how well you were seeing,, every time I came to the table I was locked if I missed a shot never blinked a eye , 100% focused next trip up
This was far differant than the unconscious zone that you fall into where you dont think at all every pattern is just there and you need not even aim it just happens then when it goes its gone ,,
It will be interesting to see if I can hit that zone again but if I dont
Im glad I made the visit and learned the things I had it was by far the best $300 I ever spent on pool
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