Last weekI played pool every single day for at least 2.5 hours. I thought I was doing good by bringing a notebook and doing practice drills on my weak shots. During the week I played lots of different people in games and beat them all. I felt on top of the world with my new cue and seemingly new game.
Then came my Sunday league match. We only had 3 more games before end of session and my team was seated on top, but not by much. We needed to shut down the next 3 teams to clinch 1st. The team we played was a new team to the bar, but they had some pretty solid players... who liked to laugh and joke and drink the entire time. I knew I could beat them just because I was so focused on my game. But as the games went on it became obviously clear that I didn't have it together. I missed run after run... easy shot after ridiculously easy shot. I didn't know what happened, because I wasn't scared of the competition by any means, but I was having a meltdown. The other team played almost as bad as I did, and I could've run the table so many times. If I was capable of crying, I would've right then and there. But all I could do was hang my head in shame. I won only 2 of my 6 games that night. I couldn't even look my teammates int he eye because even THEY had no words of encouragement for me. To them, its, "We know you can play well so do your job. If you lose, you don't belong with us.". When the game was over I packed up my stuff, put on my jacket and walked out without saying goodbye to anyone. I haven't been back to the poolhall since. I don't know how I'm gonna play or how I'm gonna recover. All I can say is that I'm shaken... I feel drained of all skill and natural feel of the table. It used to be so simple: I'd look at the table and I'd immediately know what i was gonna do, my hands would do it and the ball would hit pocket. Now I feel nothing. Worse off is I don't even know what caused it.
How do I recover from this?
Then came my Sunday league match. We only had 3 more games before end of session and my team was seated on top, but not by much. We needed to shut down the next 3 teams to clinch 1st. The team we played was a new team to the bar, but they had some pretty solid players... who liked to laugh and joke and drink the entire time. I knew I could beat them just because I was so focused on my game. But as the games went on it became obviously clear that I didn't have it together. I missed run after run... easy shot after ridiculously easy shot. I didn't know what happened, because I wasn't scared of the competition by any means, but I was having a meltdown. The other team played almost as bad as I did, and I could've run the table so many times. If I was capable of crying, I would've right then and there. But all I could do was hang my head in shame. I won only 2 of my 6 games that night. I couldn't even look my teammates int he eye because even THEY had no words of encouragement for me. To them, its, "We know you can play well so do your job. If you lose, you don't belong with us.". When the game was over I packed up my stuff, put on my jacket and walked out without saying goodbye to anyone. I haven't been back to the poolhall since. I don't know how I'm gonna play or how I'm gonna recover. All I can say is that I'm shaken... I feel drained of all skill and natural feel of the table. It used to be so simple: I'd look at the table and I'd immediately know what i was gonna do, my hands would do it and the ball would hit pocket. Now I feel nothing. Worse off is I don't even know what caused it.
How do I recover from this?
Last edited:
! Would that make ya feel better?
