Mental game poll

[Mensabum]

My latest successful battle with the mental game (the successes are always temporary) has been forcing myself to take two simple steps and not think about anything else. 1) Line up and get down so precisely that I feel I can close my eyes and make the ball. 2) Shoot the shot without allowing myself to look where the OB goes, i.e., maintaining permanent eye focus on the target area. No doubt players with strong fundamentals have other fixes, but this has helped me.

Just close your eyes...

I do that mostly now, unless I'm showing off, but when I first started I wanted to see how and where my arm, hand and all that jazz was coming thru my stroke. It took me a bit to realize I was throwing off some shots by doing this. Duh.

 

[Frosty]

None of the above

 

[Buckzapper]

Tournament mental focus requires a higher level of concentration for me, which is not difficult. I've taken down some well known pros in tournament matches over the years too. I always thought "I'd better shoot the balls in before this guy does." Suddenly you realize the score is 6-2 in a race to 9. All you have to do is maintain and not do anything stupid. I never see my opponent as an opponent...but rather a victim. Gerry Watson once told me "I like that."

 

[Island Drive]

Just a simple poll about how you approach the game.

Get a good coach.

 

[gregcantrall]

Late to the party but the Tin Cup like memory is my favorite.

Well the self to self as I racked for the final time. Down 6-2 going to 7. It was the point match at the twice a year White Spot big 9 ball event. Drew players from many states. The north wet bar box championship event.
[quote-self] Don't Worry about looking helpless. You have done that." [/quote] I had run to the last 3 and missed consistently. Virtually hand him on a platter.

Don't worry about looking helpless. You've done that. This is the biggest stage around. Perhaps This Guy, (a Player I didn't know) has never been on a stage this big.

Perhaps, just Perhaps if You stop handing it to him......well let's just see what might happen.

Pretty much the mental set. Perhaps all the good sports training I had as a yute. Baseball is the closest but football requires mental fortitude as well.
At that point all brain cells were dedicated to the task at hand on the table. Even the memory banks, as I only remembered, I had won at the handshake

 

[GoldCrown]

My mental strategy is not to get mentally irregular. It happens.

 

[VVP]

Worth listening to. I learned some terms I never heard before.

 

[Cleveland_Rocks]

The sensual image of the shot is home. Thoughts are secondary to seeing and executing the image. Without thoughts, distractions are minimized. In dead stroke, few thoughts go through the mind, seeing and acting occurs. Quality training gives a player more tools to use. Play with who you brought to the table, trying to figure something new out while playing invites tightness and confusion. Tightness equals a higher rate of missing. Relaxation and confidence equal more desirable outcomes. If an error occurs, forget it. Focus only on what is wanted. The moment is all that matters in competition, not anything in the past or in the future.

 

[straightline]

The sensual image of the shot is home. Thoughts are secondary to seeing and executing the image. Without thoughts, distractions are minimized. In dead stroke, few thoughts go through the mind, seeing and acting occurs. Quality training gives a player more tools to use. Play with who you brought to the table, trying to figure something new out while playing invites tightness and confusion. Tightness equals a higher rate of missing. Relaxation and confidence equal more desirable outcomes. If an error occurs, forget it. Focus only on what is wanted. The moment is all that matters in competition, not anything in the past or in the future.

Per Matchroom, Kozoom, CSI, FBI, CIA, anything you can express as an acronym... most players aren't up to those ideal scenarios. Their career consists of limping through their technical shortcomings where better than bad luck is a payoff.

 

[VVP]

There was a discussion from about timestamp 13:12 to 15:40 where they were taking about the "devil and the angel." Ricky Marshall, a multiple time All American captain, said that the devil was the subconscious that puts doubts in your mind ... and that's the way I have heard it from many top shooters. However, Dawn said that the conscious is the devil and the subconscious is the angel. Now that I think about it, I think she is right. The conscious is what puts bad things in your mind and you have to use that same conscious to put good things in your mind so that the subconscious can do what it is trained to do. Interesting!