Preparing For Competition
Below I have provided an article I wrote that deals with this subject specifically. If I have posted this article to this forum before, then I apologize for the repititiveness, however I want to ensure that the person asking the advice is able to have access to this information as well.
If you are looking for more information regarding this subject, feel free to check out my website, lots of good stuff thre for you to use - free of charge.
Blackjack David Sapolis
Good Luck & God Bless
Blackjack David Sapolis
Preparing For Competition
By
Blackjack David Sapolis
How do we prepare for competition? Fact is, that most of us do not prepare at all. This is sad, but true. Most of us merely putter around all week, wandering aimlessly until tournament day. We jump into competition unprepared with no strategy or game plan. It’s kind of like going into battle without any battle plan. We get our butt kicked and then sit around wondering what is wrong with our stroke, our cue, or the table. Somehow we have come to the realization that there is probably something wrong with our approach.
Some pool players are like boxers that get in the ring every day and get beat up. The bell rings - POW!!! Get back up - POW!!! In between rounds you come to the realization that you do not possess the skills to be in the ring, but instead of throwing in the towel, you tear off little pieces of the towel, throwing the towel in a piece at a time, yet never surrendering completely. The match usually ends with you being carried out on a stretcher with the onlookers hoping you have learned your lesson. Nevertheless, the next day, as soon as you can get there, back in the ring. POW!!!!
That might seem ridiculous, but it’s not as far off as you might think. We all know somebody like that. You know the guy. The guy that comes to the pool hall every day, loses and never gets any better. He’s hoping and praying that somehow this might make him a better player. This is complete insanity, but I’ve seen this guy in every room I’ve ever walked into. The key here is to not get back into the ring until you possess the skills necessary to compete at a competent level. This means that you need to learn from what happened and fine tune the weaker point of your game to ensure that it does not happen again. This will not take care of itself, nor will it be taken care of overnight. There should be a period of development where the player should allow for the skills to become “natural”. All skills should be looked at and developed. This way you do not become a “one punch wonder”. At first, you should never bite off more than you can chew. Challenging the local hotshot will probably still garner you a butt kicking, so you don’t learn a few punches and challenge Mike Tyson on first time out. There is no crime in taking your time. Understand that when we set goals for ourselves, we should get a timeline for completing those goals. The time frame, as well as the specified goal, should realistic and achievable. Give yourself time. The small victories add up and sooner or later build into the bigger ones. If you need to step down a few notches in competition, do so. Sometimes we need to take a few steps back so that we can see the entire picture, yet most of us are there with our nose against the mirror wondering why we cannot see our shoes.
Prepare - To make ready beforehand; to plan in advance; to get ready
Preparation - The action or PROCESS of getting something ready
Complacency - Self satisfaction accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies;
Looking at these definitions, we can see where as players, we all fit in there somewhere. Complacency kills. Preparation is essential in competition whether you are a boxer or a pool player. It doesn’t matter whether you play n tournaments, leagues, or if you are an occasional money player, preparation goes a long way. In most cases, competency just doesn’t cut it.
Physical Preparation
So how do we prepare? Do we perform endless drills and patterns until we are bored stiff? I believe that this is where the problem arises. Don’t get me wrong, drills and patterns have their place in practice. Your practice sessions should be challenging, yet they must have variety. Boring yourself into oblivion develops the wrong attitude towards practice. Practice should be fun and challenging. You should want to practice. Short term goals are achieved in practice. I don’t care if you are practicing banks shots or your break shot. The physical practice should be conducted with short term goals in mind. We also need to scout our opponents and prospective competition. This is the key to preparing for pool competition. Want to mess with someone’s head? Carry a notebook around at leagues and tournaments. Every time the guy you are scouting misses a shot, scribble something down in the book. You could be drawing cartoons in the book, but he doesn’t know that. Make sure you do it to where he notices it. I have a hundred dollar bill for the first person that tells me that this doesn’t work. It works whether you are playing him or not. He’ll wonder what you are up to, and believe me, this will carry over into the next match you have with him as well. This works well at tournaments as well as every day at the local room AND - it works with everybody, trust me. It serves a dual purpose:
A) You learn his weaknesses
B) You do this at the expense of his curiosity
When preparing for certain opponents, it is extremely important to know their strengths and weaknesses. Know what shots they make consistently, know what shots they miss consistently. This will change from week to week. Keep a notebook. Most of us go to the tournaments and BS between matches. Find out who is in the flight of your bracket and scout their matches. Take note of their expressions and mood swings, especially when they are in trouble or if they have missed a shot. Watch their eyes when they miss. Watch their eyes when they are planning their routes around the table. Try to understand how and why they make their choices at the table. Pool is a game where you must think against your opponent. Especially during a safety battle. Knowing how and why your opponent makes certain choices is extremely advantageous. Don't be shy. I wish I had a dime for every time I innocently complimented someone on a good match only to have them explain what they were thinking and why they made the choices that they made. On the other hand, you now know not to do that. A quiet player is usually the best player. It’s like huntin’ wabbits. Be vewwy vewwy quiet. Don’t let anybody in on your strategy, and don’t pass along what you are learning to anybody. Identify strengths and weakness and learn what you can capitalize on.
Play the table and make the layout your friend. Though this might seem like basic, generic advice, it is rarely adhered to. The layout of the table can either be your enemy or your friend. If you are playing 8 ball and your opponent is running his balls down to the 8, understand and realize that the balls that are still on the table are to his disadvantage. Do not let him forget that. Don’t clear the table for him unless you have a good chance to run out. Use the traffic on the table to your advantage. If you are playing 9 ball, and you are shooting the 3 ball, noticing that the 7,8,4,& 9 are tied up, and a run out is not probable, no law says that you MUST make the 3. If you do, you are then committed to making contact with the 4, and possibly opening up the table for him. I’ve been playing pool for over 30 years, and in that time I have not seen one medal awarded for heroic run outs. Not one. Let him deal with the clusters. Keep yourself in control of the table, not him. Make the shots you should make and when faced with no shot, leave him no daylight. These are the situations you should concentrate on during your practices.
Having a Game Plan
Understand that most pool players don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan. It’s not so much about having a game plan, but executing it effectively. Having a strategy and executing a strategy are two completely different things. When it is you turn at the table, understand that it is just you, the cue ball, and the object balls. The cue ball doesn’t move until you move it. The table doesn’t move, and contrary to popular belief, The pockets don’t move either. That little voice inside your head that tells you what and what not to do - needs to know what he’s talking about. How many times have we argued with that voice? That voice is our inner coach. It can either love us or hate us, but it is all we have. Make that voice your friend. If we teach that voice to say destructive things about our game, it will become our enemy. If that voice tells us that we’re not good enough to beat (insert name), we will start to believe it as true. This is what makes mental preparation just as important as physical preparation.
Visualization is a subject I have talked about before. Mental rehearsal does not have to take place while laying on a couch with your eyes closed. You can do it before each shot. See the ball going into the pocket. See yourself winning the game or match, then get out there and make it an accomplished fact. It will be fuzzy at first, but as time goes by, the images get clearer and the process will be easier. Make every victory and accomplished fact before the match starts. Most players have more mental deficiencies with their game than physical ones. The mental affects the physical and vice versa. Prepare yourself mentally every day as well as physically and you will see a definite change in your win/loss ratio.
Prepare for Success As well As Failure
It is one thing to prepare for the pitfalls, but prepare for the successes as well. The more you move up the ladder in a tournament, the more your preparation comes into play. Winning the match in the first round leads you to round two, round three and so on. Many players get nervous playing in the finals of the tournament, or are scared of the moment. This is a very natural thing. Just tell yourself that this is what you have prepared for all along. If you’ve done your homework and practiced hard and diligently, then you BELONG there. Act like it. don’t enter the match with that deer in the headlights look on your face. If your opponent is worth his weight in BS he’ll pick up on it and use your fear against you. Fear, anxiety and guilt have no place inside your head during competition. Win and win quickly. Leave nothing behind, and give it your all. Leave the mistakes and bad shots at the table. Mentally rehearse what you are going to do when you get back at the table. If the other guys runs the rack, learn from what you just witnessed, which was obviously good shooting.
What I Have learned
Having a pool table in your home can turn you into a hermit if you are not careful. What happens is that you never get out anymore. You need competition and opposition so that you can get to that next level. If you have the luxury of a home table, do not underestimate the importance of getting out of the house every so often. All tables play and react differently. Get to know as many tables as you can. Take notes on tables as well as you opponents. Playing well on your home table under no pressure is different than going into a pool hall and playing on a commercial table under pressure. Learn how the pockets react, learn the speed, and know how the rails react on different tables.
Play everybody and anybody. Familiarize yourself with different players and their styles. Educate yourself on the do’s and don’ts with different opponents. Learn how to identify when you are out of your league. Know that in pool, anything can happen. You can squeak out victories from people that should beat you. I know, I’ve done it and you probably have too. The one thing predictable about pool, is that it is unpredictable.
(Must be all that wine I drank right before Thanksgiving dinner....)
