opposite of nervous question

[CueJunkiee]

so i get the jitters now and then too and sometimes it takes me off stroke.. and it's not always when i play someone with better speed than me... it just seems that day ain't right... or my mind is off pool... lack of sleep kills me too...
BUT
on the other hand, there are certain days i'm driving to a tourney or league or a match and i just get this feeling.
Can't describe it.... but when i'm driving there i KNOW i've won already. I have this 'can't be beat, can't miss' feeling of focus... and it doesn't necessarily get to be like that cause i've been shooting well or anything....Heck- i get it sometimes when i haven't shot for 3 days <a long time for me>
man if i could find that feeling everytime i play... My league team even can tell when i walk in that i'm in that 'Zone' .... "throw him up- "look at him, check the 'look' in his eyes" he's got the win.... Last week on one of my league nights i had that focus... sun and the moon and the stars aligned.... they threw me up, i let my opponent get me a game- blew a safe and he ran out. Then after that, he shot like 3 times in a race to 5... my teammate i could hear in the background talking to the captain - 'look at that look on his face, he's gonna kill this guy....' i musta been grimacing or something... LOL

Does anyone else get this 'focused kick a#$ feeling'
do you associate it with anything?

 

[gopi-1]

If all the stars, Sun and moon were aligned, then you must be born on the
year of the pig! Kung Hei Fat Choy!

 

[Fatboy]

on my mothers grave I have never done this once but when I played in the 80's I saw guys who were good players become World Beaters using blow, problem was if they didnt have it they couldnt play or if you were in a match against them eventually if you could out last them you could win, i was never in that kind of action however I sat on the rail and did won plenty watching this rubbish, Some guys all geeked up cant miss but its only tempoary.

 

[mworkman]

I get this feeling sometimes that I cant be beat. It doesnt happen near enough tho' and I can't control it. I'm telling myself that if he misses I'm out, or there's no way I'm losing today, and I ussually win when I feel like this. These are the times when I'm playing at my highest level. I'ts like I'm angry at someone or something, not sure what it is.

 

[CueJunkiee]

glad i'm not the only one.......
it's like this zen thing... it usually starts when i'm about half way to my destination in the car.... man if i could bottle it and save some for later....LOL- it's funny but when it happens i reflect on how much i slept, what i ate, what i had to drink etc..... then try to repeat..... never works but......happens in my bike racing too......

 

[Slider]

on my mothers grave I have never done this once but when I played in the 80's I saw guys who were good players become World Beaters using blow, problem was if they didnt have it they couldnt play or if you were in a match against them eventually if you could out last them you could win, i was never in that kind of action however I sat on the rail and did won plenty watching this rubbish, Some guys all geeked up cant miss but its only tempoary.

Caffeine can do the same thing. I was running late one morning to a pretty big regional NPL tournament, grabbed two cans of lemon iced tea, and drank both of them during the 45 minute drive. (I'm not a regular caffeine user, so it affects me a little more strongly than it would a coffee drinker.) I opened with a three-pack on my first opponent, beat the second guy pretty badly too, and finally got knocked out when my third opponent broke 2 9's in at 3-3.

I'm not a rack-stringing kind of player, either. I've been playing pool for many years, so I know more than I can actually do. When the "feeling" and the stroke catch up to the experience, it's like magic.

Upbeat, powerful, aggressive music on the way to tournaments can help too. Sometimes when I'm running late I play better because the traffic has me all keyed up. I guess it's a matter of having just enough of the right kind of adrenaline.

Oh yeah... I practiced a couple of hours the night before, and the only table available was a 6 x 12 snooker table. I'm sure that had something to do with it, too.

Ken