Mika's demeanor vs SVB in Final

Good evening all,

To me, sportsmanship and demeanor are two different things. If Mika gets mad at himself for hanging a shot or being off an inch or two on shape..shrug your shoulders...throw your arms up. He's angry at himself and no one else. Everyone is their own worst critic. I'm NO where near the level of these guys...hell, I'm NO where near the level of 90% of the folks in here, however, I consider myself a very respectful individual. If I'm trying to play my best and let "me" down...I get frustrated and let others know...If I'm on the other side of it I'd do my best to capitalize on my opponents situation.

If, and until, Mika starts denigrating his opponent I don't see anything wrong with it.

Someone mentioned Ralf's demeanor at the table and I completely respect that. Not everyone handles adversity the same.

I don't think that being upset with our own performance is whining. To me it shows a desire for perfection and the inability to accept anything less.

That's the beauty of a forum, it allows all of us to share our opinion. This is just mine and I can completely see the other views.
 
Let's put this into perspective. He is flipping his hand and muttering, throwing in an occassional shoulder shrug.

By contrast I'm watching tennis right now, and one of the players is screaming after a miss shot and smashing his racquet.

I've seen plenty of temper tantrums in sports, and Mika does not compare in the slightest to Marat Safin, Andy Roddick or even Tiger Woods.

In the gentlemanly world of snooker, I've watched Mark Williams slam the but of his cue on the floor, Jimmy White toss his cue across the arena and John Higgins scream after a bad shot. Sometimes the pressure gets to you. This of course doesn't compare to Alex Higgins headbutting referee's and throwing his cue at the crowd.
 
I have watched Mika Immonen a lot over the last couple of years. He tends to be very serious and takes things hard.
Raj Hundal once said that he has to remind Mika to take it easy once in a while and relax a bit.
I have seen him scratch on the 9 in a match against Jonny Archer.
He could have been up 4-0 but instead it was 3-1 and he fell apart.
The only thing that he said to his opponent was ‘marry christmas’.
Yet, it was Johnny who managed to smash his cue against the floor and so what.
Jeremy Jones had a fight with Mika at World championships over a comment,
would love to find out more about that as I have seen the interview with both players just after it happened.
I think a lot of people take Mika’s quietness as arrogance too.
Personally, I think he is one of the nicer players, not Pagulayan or Bustamante nice but nice.
Corey Deuel’s behaviour is worse and as far as I know Mika has not beat the crap out of anybody either.
Corey’s comments about Tony Drago after his loss at 2007 Mosconi and crying were more than what Mika ever does.
Earls’ behavior is so much worse it cannot be compared to anybody else. Still, here is a funny comment by Earl.
After making a very nice carom he gets some but sparse applause. Earl – ‘ pure luck, the way Ralph played yesterday that’s beautiful’, the guy is a ……….’.
Still, cannot help but watch him…………
 
Mika is a fierce competitor. He trains for pool like an athlete. In person he is one of the nicest guys in the world. I think he is catching too much flak here for wearing his heart on his sleeve.
 
I can't stand players who expect to have all the rolls go their way - all the time. Rolls will even out over the years.
The most humble player I've ever met was Steve "cookie monster" Cook.
 
cuetechasaurus said:
Mika is a fierce competitor. He trains for pool like an athlete. In person he is one of the nicest guys in the world. I think he is catching too much flak here for wearing his heart on his sleeve.
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I agree that he is a fierce competitor and I think he is an amazing player but I've heard from people who have met him that he's smug. I myself have never met him nor seen him play a match live and I also can't say I've seen him act all that bad on tv/streamed matches.
 
gdog said:
Iv'e watched the last few encounters with mika and svb. It's phycological warfare. Mika knows that Shane is his equal. He has never wanted to acknowlegde that. And it's obvious Shane is now relishing this. This puts Mika in a situation he's been unfamiliar with. An unnerving spot, now knowing the Kids has NO fear of him. The throwing of the white towel last night, after Shane was on the 10, was Mika's way of acknowledging, without acting, I'm no longer the undisputed.
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Gdog, this helps explain why Mika rolled out/hooked himself, he'd given up but I didn't know why. When Ditoro was commenting on the correct 3 rail path to hit the ball that he self inflicted, Mika never even took a good look at that shot which surprised me. I too though the 3 railer/natural was the higher percentage shot in that situation, when you got somebodys number they hate it and you play calmer and better and your opponent is going in the mental opposite direction. I've seen this same demeanor before in other players from my generation so its got a common deritive, now Earl's antics, I've never seen duplicated in another top player but knowing Earl pretty well, I understand why.
 
I said the exact same thing during the aforementioned stream:

"You guys whine and cry more about Mika than he does"

I'll leave it at that....

(I'm just teasing you guys. Clearly I have a biased opinion on this one)
 
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inside_english said:
Mika seemed agitated with rolls and leaves.

I would like to add that the commentator has three favorite words: awesome, perfect and excellent. Sometimes he might double them up, as in, "That was an awesome, awesome break!"

Gets a little annoying for me. I don't know who he is, but I have watched matches he has commented on before, and he does this all the time. He totally overuses those adjectives, thereby diluting the emphatic nature of them.
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You would think that after all this time of him playing that he would be past that. When it comes to bad rolls and the such they equal out in the end. Some matches your on the good end of them. To me it's nothing more than theatrics when someone shows frustration, and I use their demeanor against them. ;)
 
Mika has always been this way. I've even seen him lose a friendly match to a decent local player and then refuse to shake his hand afterwards.
 
C'mon now

I watched the match live. I don't feel Mika was disrespectful in showing his emotions, nor do I think they effected Shane's game.

I think throwing in the towel at the end was the right thing to do, Shane was the man that weekend. I feel his doing that was a sign of respect for Shane's game.

If your not emotional about your passion, you may as well be a stone.
 
I think the biggest issue with ANY player focusing on any one bad shot, roll, etc is they are expending precious energy in the wrong direction. To win at the Pro level I feel you need to focus on the task at hand. Too much dwelling on a bad shot uses up your energy for your next turn at the table.

The ability to learn quickly from a situation, file it in your brain, and move on is what I think separates good pros from great champions. Watch Efren play, sure he reacts to bad shots, but quickly with a more joking positive manner, then it's back to business with a stone face. Come to think of it, most of the Phillipino players have a similar way of reacting......go figure.


G.
 
I don`t want you guys to be in the jury box if I were charged and tried for Murder.Majority of you guys are reaching erroneous conclusions because of your irrational beliefs and faulty resoning.
 
Gatz said:
I've seen Mika play quite a lot (only on DVD's/T.V) and I have found that now, since he has won so much and is a world class player he acts like a baby to everything.

A perfect example of his crappy demeanor would be the finals between him and Ronnie Alcano at the US Open. During this whole match, hes leading in the match by quite a lot, every shot that goes alittle out of line or an inch to much he raises his hands, shrugs his shoulders, whines like a baby. During this Ronnie Alcano never flinched at a bad roll or bad position being down the whole match. Not only that, but this was Ronnie's 2nd time in the finals and he never whined, complained or moved a muscle.

During the live stream I saw Mika smash his cue more times on the table than I have ever seen any top player of his calibre do. Im surprised he never broke his ferrule or tip.

This is why Ralf Souquet is my favorite player. Not only is he a monster at the table, but he is so professional, doesn't let his emotions get to him and this is why I think he dominates almost every tournament he is in.
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Maybe this is only the beginning. Maybe Mika is Europe's Earl Strickalnd in trianing! :grin-square:

Let's see where he s in 15 years.
 
I was standing right behind Mika at this match. What I think is lost on the live feed is the utter concentration and drive that comes through when being right there. This guy, to me, was completely enveloped in the task at hand. Concentration and energy pour off of him. When he mutters, raises a shoulder or grabs a cue ball it's out of frustration with himself at not being perfect. He never directed that energy to Shane or the audience. It was almost like he was burning that bad leave, or shot or safety into his brain to remember where to practice so that it never happens again. In short, I felt like I was witnessing a champion who is his own worst critic (and became one because of this drive). I, personally, was never offended at any time during this match. Just the opposite, I was damn happy at being able to be there live to watch the two best players in the world go at it.
 
Requesting this thread be deleted. It went way outta context. I didn't say he directed ANYTHING at Shane. All I've ever seen from the guy (in person and online) is that he acts, just like Glendale said, like all the rolls should go his way. I've seen it so much to the point that I get annoyed whenever I have to watch one of his matches and I just wondered if anyone else felt the same way. That is all.
 
Dropping the cue ball onto the table, from about a foot, and rifling the cue ball into the pocket, after fouling, is not competitive, it's XXXXxxx rude. And then to make em shoot two 10" stop shots. wowa
 
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